11 Feb: The Road to Magulilwa

We woke up early, and apparently Brayn is doing much better, though certainly not well. He is currently on a steady diet of water and dry Cheerios. I understand why its difficult to adjust to a new sleeping schedule. In college I even studied the hormone patterns that make it easier to adjust your time forward than backward. But for the life of me I can't figure out why I can't sleep when I'm this tired. Perhaps is has something to do with the beds in this hotel. The mattress conforms to your position and stays that way making it nearly impossible to change positions. It was infuriating. In any case, we hitched a ride to Magulilwa with Todi and Ayobu in a Land Rover. Todi says its a better idea because the road will be even worse due to the large amount of rain last night (it is the rainy season). About an hour and a half or so into the ride, we finally get stuck in the mud, something that seemed like a bit of an inevitability. We got out of the car to help push along with some villagers, and the driver continues blasting through the muddy road. When the road dries up, the guy decides to just keep going. I realize the ride has taken awhile and he wants to get back, but we paid for this ride. Either way, we get to walk the remaining ten kilometers or so. I'm rally not sure Brayn can handle this as dehydrated as he probably is, but hes willing to give it a try. When we finally arrive (with the cab driver just hanging out by the car) people take our bags for us and carry them into our place, and bring us some food and tea. The treatment is so good its enough to make us uncomfortable, a theme that would be recurrent throughout the trip. Another thing making me feel uncomfortable is the idea that I have absolutely no idea what I am going to be doing 1 minute, 1 hour, 1 day, 1 week, or 1 month from now. Its also exciting, though I'm becoming increasingly aware of my need for structure. We were first greeted by Mr. Kisiki, the village elder. He speaks English very well which is a relief (while our friends up to this point speak enough to get us around, there has certainly been a large language barrier). We took a rest before dinner (which was terrific, though I hadnt been there long enough to appreciate it yet), and the rest of the night we spent unpacking and talking about what in the world we were supposed to do tomorrow.

Inset: The front of the house in which we stayed.

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