Day 78 (saturday)

The big tree.

Me and "the big tree".

A sturdy bridge to the tree.

Maureen and her twin sister.

Today I slept in and it felt nice. I had breakfast (coffee and fruit) that Maureen had prepared for me and then relaxed for a few hours. I got up and ready and had some more food (rice and stew), Maureen insisted that I keep eating. We all got ready and set off for Oda which is a couple hours away for a funeral. It ended up being a pretty long ride and took a while longer because of the traffic. On our way, just about a half hour away from our final destination, we stopped at the big tree. This tree is said to be the biggest tree in West Africa. We paid our entrance fee and walked down a poorly maintained path to the tree. There were people leaving as we were approaching and two gentlemen available to answer questions and tell us about the history. They told us that if we wanted to take pictures of it that we should donate “from our heart” but we (Maureen) said that we've already paid the fee and there was no disclaimer about an extra fee so we should be allowed to snap photos. We learned about the tree and took some pictures. It was pretty cool. We went back to the entrance and waited for some time to get picked back up to go to the house. We had a good conversation and the driver finally got to us. He was with another aunt of Maureen's and they decided to go look at the tree so we sat in the truck. We headed out eventually and got to town and visited the house where Maureen is from. I very well received and felt completely comfortable. We set our bags down in the house and visited with several people and I met a lot of her family, including her twin sister as well as her biological mother and father. We went back into the house and ate some more food. It started getting late and I was thoroughly exhausted, her biological dad took us to their home in a village called Ayerebi. Not surprisingly the roads were horrible and it took us nearly twice as long as it should have. The house was nice and the beds were comfortable. I turned the fan on and fell asleep quickly.