‘I paga you’ (It fits my eye), some history on Paga:
Our morning started with a thunderstorm spoiling our hopes to go to Paga to see the crocodile pond and the slave camp, just 45 km north of Sumbrungu. We had planned to leave at 830, but the thunderstorm delayed our departure. Our plans included taking the motorcycles and by 1030 I thought the trip might have to be postponed. Darius, the librarian at Sumbrungu, picked us up in his moto by 11, it was still drizzling so we put our raincoats and off we went to pick up at Lucas. He decided it was a good idea for me to learn how to drive a moto. So I took off, with some basic courses taught to me by my Colombian cousins during my upbringing -surprisingly just enough-, and handled the moto pretty well. It was nice driving through the plains that Africa portrays.
Arriving at the crocodile pond where 200 crocodiles lived, according to our guide, I couldn’t stop feeling nothing but excitement. Seeing these creatures in their natural habitat is something different, although having these crocodiles acclimatized to human encounter, does make it possible for you to come so close to one as to sit on it. Coming of our motos we saw a box full of baby chickens ready to be handed as an appetizer to the crocodiles, as a way to lure them out of the pond. Just with the sound the baby chicken produces, the crocodiles can sense it from beneath the water. But as our guide explained, the bad weather makes the crocodiles lazy, and we had to be lucky to get to see one come out of the pond. Patiently we spotted one hiding in the bushes, about 2 meters long, so we came closer to it but unfortunately it decided he could wait for his lunch. A wait of about 10 minutes, with the baby chicken crying out and the men trying to move the crocodile towards us, let us to another crocodile coming out of the water behind us. This time the father, a 2.5 meter, crocodile wanted to be fed. This one moved much faster out of the water but soon stopped as the men approached it. Being able to sit on a crocodile requires the help of at least 2 men, one to keep the baby chicken in front of the crocodile, as to keep its attention, while the other man goes behind the crocodile –thanks to evolution’s retrograde in crocodile’s peripheral vision- and grabbed his tale. Once the man grabbing the crocodile’s tale had analyzed the situation –whatever that was escaped me- calls you to come behind it. You first touch his slimy but tough tale and then are told to sit on it. Because we were mentally prepared and told beforehand we didn’t hesitate, I gathered courage and sat on it trying to look courageous and in control, but the look of awe and deference overwhelmed me. You can sense the power and strength of the animal you are on top of, giving in to total submissiveness.
Our next stop was the slave camps, a site where in colonial times served as a surplus of slaves’ station before being sold to their owners. Walking through the slave camp site we were shown rocks with man-made carved bowls from which the slaves ate their food, a natural water crate 6ft deep in between the rocks, 3 huge rocks from where the slaves could dance and drum and the punishment rock where slaves were tortured and buried write next to the punishment rock. It was quite impactful to think those times were not long ago, where men were merely monetary exchanges and there human nature was belittled.
Having returned from our field trip we went to town to buy some basic necessities. At the grocery store in New York neighborhood after having walked to the mechanic shop where Lucas had left his bike to get a check-up, we stopped at a stand where they had some good looking bananas, an oddity here in Sumbrungu. While negotiating our price with the lady, 4 bananas for 1 cedi vs. 5 for 1 cedi -the price we had normally paid-, the lady explained the reason why prices had gone up. The cause was Ramadan one of the five Muslim pillars where they fast for 30 days –don’t eat until 6pm- making the price of some commodities to go up just enough to take notice. I love how you can see the laws of supply and demand and how they explain behavior and seasons. The reason why we noticed it in the street stand and not in the supermarket can be explained by the concept of ‘menu costs’. A concept that tells us that changing prices for a short period at a business can be more expensive than the change itself, while the street stand lady doesn’t incur in ‘menu costs’ and thus being able to make the change makes it.
Our road trip back to the library included three people on a ‘pupu’ (motorcycle), a box plus a plastic bag full of groceries; I have to say it was quite the adventure a day to be certainly remembered.
