What Is Poor? (Cycling Idanre)

Different people will define poor in any variety of ways. Economists will define it as anyone living under a certain income deemed the poverty line. Religious folks may define it as someone living a life without faith and no hope in an eternal life. Others may define it as a life without hope in general, such as those imprisoned or isolated from the world. Others maybe living a life alone, without any friends or family to keep them company. I've also heard it referred to before as those caught in and endless circle of everyday life doing work they're not the least passionate about - the poor in spirit. Whatever definition one may use to determine what they deem "poor," it became quite clear to me after this past weekend that I will never define it as what I perceive to be one's "standard of living." I now know that this is completely relative. 

I had the amazing opportunity to spend the three days last weekend in the town of Idanre in the state of Ondo, Nigeria. This was a mountain biking trip put on by the Nigerian Field Society about once a year. This trip we had six of us from Chevron and three others, but only five of us were there to do the cycling; the others were there to hike. The journey to and from Idanre was far from pleasant, as it took us between 5-6 hours each way to travel less than 200 km. This is a testament to how truly bad the roads are here. Piled onto a bus, we took a combination of back roads and one major expressway riddled with potholes and broken asphalt. Probably the least comfortable road trip I've ever been on. The mountain biking itself was the hardest cycling trip I've ever done in my life and possibly even the most strenuous physical activity. I've never been much of a biker, but consider myself pretty athletic and in good shape, and this pushed me to my limits. In all, the bike trip totaled 51 km and took us almost 6 hours. Granted, only about 4 hours of that was actual riding time as there were many stops along the way. The terrain was rocky, muddy, steep, and exhausting. By the time we returned to our hotel six hours later, I had to just lay down motionless for a good two hours before wanting to move again. I think it's safe to say this was the greatest feeling of accomplishment I've ever had after a workout.

However, the reason I write this post with the title I chose is not because of the ride itself, but because of the interactions we had along the way. Leaving the town of Idanre early Saturday morning we quickly made it off the road and back into the jungle. As we weaved farther and farther back into the thickness, we encountered one village after another full of bright and smiling faces. At each encounter the villagers could not have been more happy to see us and welcome us, children especially. As we rode through, the most shocking thing to me was the apparent living situations. All the homes appeared to be structures thrown together out of clay and mud of sorts that looked to be deteriorating and uncomfortable from my point of view. We never entered any of the buildings, but I can only assume what the insides were like. Most of these communities have no running water or facilities to go to the bathroom. We encountered people who looked like they probably hadn’t showered in months and children just running around naked and barefoot everywhere. Despite all this, they all appeared to be having the time of their lives. The sense of community was astounding, as well as the pure and constant joy they all showed; it truly moved me. A Danish man who was cycling with us commented to me at one point how these people, by any western standard, should have no reason to be this happy, and yet they’re all completely satisfied and content. And I couldn’t agree with his statement more. We both continued to admire and appreciate their happiness town after town. 

I don't think it a coincidence that I didn't manage to get this post up until Thanksgiving Day. I meant to get this up every day this week, but kept being delayed until finally having the time today. I find it quite fitting to post this today, where even though I'm far away from friends and family for the first time on this holiday I find myself with so much more to be thankful for than ever before. I am so blessed to have been afforded all these unique opportunities and experiences so early in my life. It's moments like this past weekend that just remind me of that ever more. I truly thank God for these opportunities I've been given to broaden my horizons and help me grow through traveling. I am especially thankful for the luxuries I've been afforded my entire life and completely taken for granted. What better time to stop and reflect on this than Thanksgiving Day. 

I’ll try and portray our journey below with some pictures and descriptions to help illustrate the experience.

When we first got off the main road and about 10 minutes into the bush, we ran into some young children that were out harvesting some cocoa pods. Cocoa is the main crop of this region that most these smaller villages rely on for their main source of income. Here is a picture of a single cocoa pod hanging from a tree, along with the kids I mentioned. You can also see the long scythe they use to get the pod out of the trees made from bamboo and a curved knife at the end. Notice some more of the pods hanging in the background as well. 

In this next picture you can see all the cocoa beans laying out across the ground in front of some of the village homes. Pretty much every house we saw had these concrete slabs laid out in front, which are used to spread out the beans for drying. Often times we saw these chickens or roosters playing around in the beans as well. 

Here is the first village we actually stopped at. The lady you'll see in the middle of the first picture was a dancing machine. For about five minutes she just kept dancing around and singing. Pretty hysterical. The man you see a close-up of actually came up to me and asked me to take his picture. I just thought he really wanted his picture taken, but turns out he actually just wanted something from me in return. Afterwards he asked me, "So what do you have for me? That's how it works: I let you take my picture, you give me something." Clever, clever man. I didn't actually give him anything though (considering he asked me to take his picture in the first place), just laughed and rode away. He didn't seem to mind. It was all in good fun. 

Here's more of the cocoa beans spread out all over the ground.

Now, our next stop was one of the cooler ones. I mentioned how cocoa production is huge in this region, but the other main product is palm oil. Palm nuts are the next biggest crop in this region of Africa, and we ran across a little make-shift mill in the middle of our trail. There was one man, a woman, and some children all tending this area, and actually gave us a brief tour by even cranking up the machine for us to see how it all works. It was really neat. Here is a picture of the grinder they use to crack the nuts, a barrel used to store the palm oil, and you can somewhat make out the machine behind the barrel which they use to mix the oil. You can also see the Danish guy from our group, Jakob. 

And here is one of our police offers taking (stealing) a cocoa pod and some palm nuts for souvenirs. Palm nuts are on the left, cocoa pod on the right. Also, a gun. Now these people we actually did give a little money to since they were so willing to show us everything and explain the process. It was really neat. 

Here is just a quick snapshot of the next town we stopped in for a picture and snack. One of the men offered us a whole bundle of bananas and was incredibly friendly. We each took a couple and gave him some money, which he was incredibly humbled by. I don't think he expected anything in return. This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip. Eventually, the shy women and children in the background came in for a picture too. 

This next village was the coolest one we stopped in. When I first rolled up, second in our group, I saw a huge crowd of the villagers huddled around something in the distance. Honestly, I was a little nervous at first because it looked like I was interrupting a town hall or something. Turns out, it was just the guy in our group ahead of me relaxing in the shade, mingling with the entire village that had surrounded him. It was quite the site. They had brought out the chief elder to meet us and we conversed with them for awhile, surrounded by all the children. This was also one of my favorite backdrops. 

Finally, this was one of the last villages we came to where we stopped for a rest. The kids here were my favorite and loved getting photographed. I took a couple pictures of them and then turned to show them the pictures on my digital camera. They all freaked out and went crazy at the sight of themselves on a camera and loved it. I think it was quite likely the first time they'd ever seen themselves on a camera. Also, there was this one crazy guy who loved my bike for some reason and kept wanting to get pictures with it. He had some brand new boots that he was very proud of. Unfortunately, it sounded like he was speaking jibberish the whole time and I couldn't understand a word he said :/. I just smiled and laughed the whole time. He wanted me to send him the pictures and I said okay, although I have no clue how on earth that would be possible haha. 

And that pretty much sums up the cycling journey in a nutshell. I truly believe when it's all said and done for me here in Africa, this past weekend will go down as one of the best, if not the best, experiences I had during my time here. We also went for a Sunday morning hike the following day, which somehow my legs had recovered enough to allow me to do. I'll include below just a few of the better pictures from that part as well. I only shared a fraction of the pictures, so if you have a desire to look through any more and are friends with me on Facebook, you can find them here: https://www.facebook.com/nickbalser12/media_set?set=a.10200945531149926.1073741827.1515360584&type=3

Happy Thanksgiving!