We will be soon off to Bangladesh (Marc) and Singapore (Shuwen). Internet connection has been very spotty so hopefully things will improve once we are in our new locations.

Taxis are often shared here, so long as the passengers are headed in the same general direction. So yesterday we got into one on our way to meet up with Aminata, Amadou and Assa for dinner. Within a minute or so of the ride, we started hearing some strange noises coming from behind us… at first I thought it was a bunch of guys in the motorbikes behind us, but then it became clear that that wasn’t the case. Marc & I then realized that there must be some animal in the trunk! After a while, we speculated that there must be 2 or 3 goats back there, and boy were they unhappy being in there! They were wailing up a storm (especially when we hit bump roads), and it was rather painful to sit through, knowing that there were animals right behind you suffering in a dark, uncomfortable space, and probably headed to a not so good end in the near future. We arrived at the destination of the first passenger, which turned out to be a market full of other goats, and out of the trunk came not 2 or 3 goats, but 10! We have no idea how 10 poor goats were squeezed into that trunk, and they sure looked upset when they came out… poor things.

We managed a run this morning around the small golf course surrounding our hotel. It wasn’t too bad—only problem is that it requires an early start. This afternoon we will go to the sewage treatment center named after Marc that now has been converted into an aquaculture venture. More pictures will follow after I get to Singapore and have more reliable internet connection.

Fish-rearing season is over, but these will be full of tilapia (and maybe other types) in a few months. Marc was surprised to find that in general the structures were holding up after 5 years.