CRASH

So it wasn’t this huge 10 car pile-up or anything, but yes I crashed. Oops. At the time I was pretty surprised that I made it as far as I did without crashing considering the conditions…night, bad light, old motorcycle, sand, 2 people riding, and a belly full of chicken and beer. Adding that all up it makes me think that my decision making at the time was a little off! Before I go further, I should probably clarify that by crash I mean swirving a little in the sand, coming almost to a complete stop, and tipping over.

I’ll just go back to the beginning. Briefly, a former monk of Agbang invited Blaise and I to visit his house and his garden (5 times bigger than ours, but he has land next to the river). I made some time for it thinking it wouldn’t take long and I could profit from it at the same time by saying goodbye. As it turns out, he killed his biggest rooster to say thank you to me for visiting and also to keep me in good spirits hoping that I might be able to help him out one day. Later that night, Blaise and I snuck out during prayer to go meet him at a bar owned by Blaise’s parents in Agbebou. Thinking I could get away with drinking a coke, I toke the bike.

We got there just after nightfall and were greeted with a bowl full of a very deliciously prepared coq. Trying to be courteous I offered to buy some Tchuc, but the waitress said she couldn’t find any and brought us back a flask of wine (which is the equivalent of grape flavored vodka). Now that I think about it, that’s what did me in. Afterwards, the rounds of beer started coming in along with a phone call to the monk in charge of supper saying that I was visiting with friends and wouldn’t make it. Upon the second 1.5 liter bottle, I politely declined and was rewarded with only HAVING to drink half of it. Afterwards, I was offered a free bottle by the owner of the bar and had to defer the request to the following day (which never actually happened ). That was my trying to be responsible me. I knew my limits, but that darned vodka, ugh slipped my mind.

Blaise and I hit the gravel road cruising through the villagers who had yet to disperse from the evening market. En route, I felt pretty comfortable up until I heard Blaise start laughing his head off after telling me that I missed the turn. No worries, we went up to the Agbang market and hung a very w-i-d-e left. I was a little generous on the gas. Everything was going fine up until the school, at which point I became slightly worried having remembered the sand pits that litter and at points overtake the path. I made my way through the first few to realize that I ended up on the wrong end of a divide and was going to nail the big one instead of skim along side of it. Not wanting to overcorrect after the swerving started, I tried to keep ‘er straight, which worked! For the first half. Once I straightened out I celebrated a little too soon as almost instantly I swerved again and crashed.

Blaise was laughing the entire way down. So was I. I want to think that it was the beer that prevented me from feeling anything, but I am certain that part of it was the luck of landing directly in the middle of the sand pit. I escaped with nothing more than a 2 inch 2nd degree burn on my right ankle from landing on the exhaust pipe. Blaise was unharmed and still laughing as I told him that it was the beer driving and not I. We rolled into the monastery just after meal time and parted ways like nothing had happened. I returned to my room to find a timely received care package. What a night!