bikestravaganza

Ew. I am extremely gross right now. A hazard of bush taxi travel and really greasy bike chains that come off the gears. I smell like sweat and petrol and my hands are black. Good thing this keyboard is too!
I'm in Tenkodogo after having accidentally done a couple days of the bike tour. I had been planning on doing part of it, and then for a while I wasn't sure I would want to leave site this month, but then things calmed down in Bagré just as the bike tour happened to come through Tenkodogo. Sooo... I came up here on Tuesday, rode with everyone to Koupela (~50km) on Wednesday, then got talked into riding to Fada N'Gourma ("Fada") on Thursday, which was another 80-some km. It was surprisingly not that painful, and the weather was lovely, and I got to eat more chicken than I have in probably the past year. I had a great time and I'm kind of sad I'm not doing more of the tour, but I'm also kind of glad I don't have to get up at 4:30 tomorrow morning. No, really glad. But if you want to follow what my hard-core friends are doing, Rachel is updating the bike tour blog every day! (The link should be a couple of posts down.)
Today I'm planning to do some grocery shopping (eggs, lentils, tuna, bread... the luxuries of my life) and then head back to Bagré to celebrate the end of Ramadan. Happily, this will involve copious amounts of food, since everyone's been fasting for the past month. Bonne fete!!