As for myself, I made preparations for travel across Africa
- the boldest part of my adventure yet. A previous 3 week stay in Liberia
during a school break to assist in establishing the new Peace Corps program
there helped me assess the difficulty of what I wanted to do. Also my travels
around Nigeria had given me some experience in traveling alone through constantly
changing cultures and languages. My plan was to head east across the Cameroons,
The Central African Republic, the Congo, Uganda, and to Kenya in East Africa.
Then north through Ethiopia over to the Sudan, up the Nile to Cairo, and across
north Africa through Libya to Tunisia. From there, I'd go through Europe
to London to fly home. To do all this I bought a motorcycle with the money
given us by the Peace Corps for air fare home. The motorcycle I purchased
was a Triumph 350cc, the standard of the Nigerian police force. Besides its
extraordinary reliability and durability this choice later proved of great
value to me in the Congo. It was very popular with my fellow teachers as well
as others from the village. Here, it's tried out by two other Peace Corps
volunteers, Jim Crawley and his wife. Dubbed the Road Runner, I painted the
symbol on my helmet and headlamp and a Lagos to London destination on the
fender.
My departure from Awo Omamma was delayed briefly as news of the assassination of John Kennedy arrived on the very day that my assignment to CGS was completed and I was preparing to leave. In spite of this tragic event I decided to go ahead as planned and loaded up with about 150 miles worth of gas, canned food for several days, a machete (my only weapon), folding cot, mosquito netting, and a few other necessities.
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