Danane,  Ivory Coast - Tuesday 30 October 2007 - Mamoudou  is working under cover

Its actually nothing new to report regarding the adoption of the gearbox, as far as I know the mechanics are working overtime to fulfil the task (hopefully). Tomorrow (Wednesday) my friend Hanssen will be leaving Liberia without as much seeing Betsy's tail and I am sorry for that, but very little I can do about it right now. My messenger told me he will be joining me on a later stage.

When people write to me they tell me about how hopeless it is in Africa (without as much as setting foot on the continent), but let me reveal to you a story from my sponsor Byggern. They owns a Range Rover and had a breakdown in Sweden during a hunting weekend one month ago. His car (Doris) is still hospitalized and it has taken more than four weeks to get the parts and to fix it. So please dont complain too much about this continents incompetence and difficulties. Its not all that bad.

I also want to thank Stein Jensen from Norway, who has been a great help for me almost since the beginning of my journey. He told me that there are a team of mechanics ready to heal Betsy as soon as we get into Monrovia. Thanks a lot Stein, you are an important part of my support team at home.