I took my first overnight trip to the village of Kampan from July 17-18th! We left the hospital at 6:30am and drove for about an hour to the Grande Riviere. The truck dropped Yva and me off by the river where the truck (or any other vehicle for that matter) could no longer go any further. We then waded up to our thighs through the river to the other side before starting the trek up the mountain. The hike took us 4 hours but was absolutely beautiful. Everyone we passed along the way took the time to say hello and a few people even stopped to chat.
(Picture: view of the river we crossed)
(Picture: Yva enjoying a flat part of the hike)
Kampan is literally at the top of a mountain. The last little bit up to the top was intense, but when we got there we were right in the middle of the vibrant kampan market. The nutrition program was being held right by the market so we were able to go check out the goods being sold. I bought couple of straw hats which ultimately came in handy for the hike down!
(Picture: kids eating the hearth meal)
When the nutrition program was over we were lead to a little house behind the church on the other side of the mountain where we would spend the night. While they were preparing the 2pm meal I fell fast asleep, most likely from utter exhaustion (I don’t remember the last time I hiked 4 hours up a mountain). Dinner consisted of rice and beans, vegetables, boiled plantains, boiled breadfruit, and lemonade. After dinner we just hung out, chatted, and read a bit. The house was really cute. It was a wooden house with mud floors and a tin roof. There were 4 rooms; the dining room, the kitchen, the bedroom (with 2 beds), and another bedroom/storage room. The main cooking area was in a little hut in the back of the house and the outhouse was up higher on the hill. Surrounding the house and down the mountainside were fields of corn. The family also had a few chickens and raised pigeons that made the most horrible scratching sounds with their claws on the tin roof.
(Picture: Kampan house that we stayed in)
(Picture: dining room)
(Picture: outdoor kitchen)
(Picture: Kampan)
There is no electricity in any of the mountain villages and so we went to bed when it got dark around 6:30pm. Yva and I squished into a little bed that was about 12 inches too short for me. Because we were high up it was actually quite cold and I had to sleep under a warm blanket. The coldness also helped keep away the mosquitoes which was nice because we had no mosquito net.
I didn’t sleep well at all and although I would love to blame it on the fact that I was sleeping on a non-existent mattress, I unfortunately think it was because my muscles were just too sore. We were up with the sun and had a breakfast of spaghetti with a slight tint of red sauce and some strong, super sweet black coffee. After saying by to the lovely family that had hosted us, we were on our way back down the mountain by 7:30am.
After about an hour of hiking down we arrived at the village of La Tournelle. The was also a nutrition program being held here so we took a little detour to go visit them. We played with the kids and observed the cooking for a while. The monitrice also taught the moms how to make “serum la kay” (oral rehydration solution) for when the kids get diarrhea. We were served some amazing hot chocolate. They didn’t know I was vegan and so I felt bad not drinking it since they went through the trouble of making it for us. It was so good. It would have been better if made with soy milk though. =)
The hike back down was a killer – almost harder than going up. We made it down in a total of 3 hours because it’s practically straight downhill. I fell about 4 times - twice in muddy spots (it rained the night before) and twice in really dry spots with slippery dirt and rocks. It was quite the scene because I was hiking in a mini skirt (pretty common thing to do here actually), but luckily there was nobody around.
We got back to the hospital at 2pm and I immediately took a shower and went straight to bed.
