Hard Labor and Caves

We were awoken yesterday morning at the crack of dawn by Joanna, our gracious hostess at the Bongolo hospital, and made to work in the fields in exchange for our room and board. At first I thought it was no big deal until we saw the enormous bags of banana trees we were forced to plant! See captor in above photo :-) All the holes were dug with machetes and the ripe roots will bear fruit in about a year. If you're in Bongolo, Gabon in December 2010 have a banana on us. After a delicious lunch of Combos and Pringles we headed out to explore some enormous caves under the hospital complex. These things were dark, slippery and extensive. There were three of us whiteys and we hired two flashlightless guides to take us in and back out. We thought the caves would be a short break from the heat and humidity of the jungle, but we were soaked in sweat after fifteen minutes. By the time we got out, the one hundred percent humidity felt refreshing.