Goodbye Irrua

We left Irrua yesterday for the five hour drive back to Ibadan - the west bound road is much better paved than the east bound road, so the trip is a bit quicker. Of course, this also means there aren't so many street vendors and fruit stands. On the east bound road, dozens cluster around every big crater in the road and hawk their wares to the drivers slowing down to gingerly navigate past. Kristian and I still wonder - which comes first, the pothole or the market stands?

We went for dinner the night before with the adminstrative staff from the hospital at a beautiful outdoor restaurant. Eric, Kristian and I took it upon ourselves to entertain the crowds, by diligently spraying ourselves with bug repellant - apparently, this is a novel concept! We tasted palm wine - a low alcohol, fermented beverage which must be an aquired taste. We didn't aquire it. The food - fresh cooked fish - was absolutely delicious and quite spicy - except that a mysterious mixup resulted in two fish being cooked for a crowd of about thirty, so we all left a bit hungry. We went back to the hotel afterward and feasted on pineapple and powerbars.

We said our goodbyes to the lab staff yesterday morning and got all the samples and equipment packed into our jeep. After a final, farewell photograph (see below) we hit the road!