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Boat races on the Oubangui River
On the 1st of December (which is the Independence day for CAR), we packed our picnic lunch, bathing suits, and sunscreen and headed down along the shores of the Oubangui River. It's very simple to get to, we just catch a taxi not to far from where we live on center, for approximately 1 1/2 miles to the center of city of Bangui. The Oubangui River is just a short stroll from the center of the Bangui. We joined a few friends at a swim club along the river, to enjoy our picnic lunch, a refreshing swim and to watch the every famous boat races on the Oubangui River. In this race, there were about 25 of these long dug out wooden canoes (one of these pictured above). Within one of these canoes, there were anywhere from 35 to 60 men that feverishly paddled their way down river a distance than they had to go around a point, turn around and come back up river to the finish line! WOW, what excitement!! Everyone cheering and yelling to shout a team to victory!
