Sand and water

Thursday 1 March 2012

I (Jim) drank a gallon of water today.  I helped a young Congolese man move almost 3-4 tons of sand from the front yard to the back in preparation for making the concrete blocks.  We worked for almost four hours, and even though we were in the shade, it was still very hot.  Drinking lots of water prevented me from having to quit before the job was done.  Initially, the lad was carrying the sand in a bucket on his head around the house and I was shoveling.  We then got mechanized when his Mom, Georgette, who is the housekeeper and cook for Jacques, sent word around the immediate neighborhood that a wheelbarrow was needed before the white man collapsed.  One showed up, tied to the back rack of a bike, and we were in business.  I think the block makers will be working while we are up country, but hope to observe and maybe learn a new skill.

 

Water from the roof tank

 

 

Water from the cistern



 

Every few days the water in the large water barrels in the guest house bathrooms has to be refilled.  Today they were refilled from both the tank on the top of Akasa’s roof and from the cistern in their yard.  We both helped Victor, but he did most of the work.



Water delivery to the guesthouse



 

Simon and Jim

Simon left today for Tshombe, flying away in his Wings of Hope plane, to the Catholic Mission where he is based.  We may see him again, we don’t know.

The moon is really bright here tonight and it is only half full.  There are no city lights to interfere and very few lanterns or other lights.  It is also very quiet at night or at least until the men's choir at the UMC Church across the street starts practicing at around 0400 most days of the week.

There is a marked absence of dogs barking or other animals, at least until Jacques' chickens let out their morning calls, but even these seem somewhat subdued compared to the Zim rosters and chickens.

 

Our chariot to the missions



We fly up country early Saturday morning and will not be back until Tuesday afternoon.  We will be visiting the three UMC hospitals and attending church at the largest UMC Mission in the Central Conference of the DRC. 

Interior of the Cessna



Leap year day

Wednesday 29 February 2012

Leap year!!  An extra day in the Congo.

Overcast morning.  Cistern hole digging continues, usually with two in the hole digging

and two or three resting and watching.

Sand for the cistern brick making was delivered today to the front of the Akasa’s house.

Down the block from the compound

In the afternoon we walked with Simon down the street by the compound to the money changer.  He sits at the head of the street, at a table under an umbrella, with a huge wad of Congolese Francs and US Dollars.  We changed $50 and received 48,500 FC.  The exchange is done in packets of 12,500 FC plus the extra.  All bills exchanged are 500 FC denomination.

We took a glance in Kananga II Methodist clinic, but will go back for a tour another day.  Alongside the clinic is a maternity clinic.  We peeked in the window of a store with canned goods and personal care items.  You order at the window from what you see on the shelves facing you. 

Lastly we stopped at the boulangerie (bakery).  The cabinets and shelves are only partially filled at this time of day. 

Some fresh this morning bread and a few items on the shelves, biscuits, Laughing Cow cheese and some canned goods.  We are fed so well at the Akasa’s we may not need to buy any supplies.

We have the sun showers warming in the sun, tonight nice warm showers.

Petrol, planes and more

Tuesday 28 February 2012



Petrol containers to fill



Today we headed in to town with Francois, the staff member for Methodist Aviation Ministries and Jacques’ partner (Jacques does not call him one of his employees, but more of a partner in the total efforts.)  Francois does not speak English so the trip was going to be an adventure since we were looking for petrol to run the generator.  We went to one of the three filling stations in town.  They did have petrol.  There were maybe 100 plus people lined up with every imaginable container, from one liter (one liter!) jars to 20 liter (five gallon) containers.  There were no cars at the station… just a long line of people with containers and maybe 25 motorcycles.  No cars – it was just hard to believe as this station clearly had a precious commodity to sell.  We did not realize how precious until Francois made multiple attempts to tell us that the 20 liters or 5 gallons we wanted to purchase was going to cost FC 49,000 or just over $53 dollars!!!  That’s over $10 per gallon or about $2.85 per liter.  We simply could not believe the cost, not to mention the sparseness of the fuel.  We had paid almost $1.40 per liter in Zimbabwe and thought that was outrageous.  I can now better understand why there are so few cars in this major city and why you see so many motorbikes and people walking.



Simon's Wings of Hope plane



Jacque's Wings of Caring plane







We then went out to the airfield with Jacques, Simon, and Francois to look at Simon’s plane’s electrical problem and fix a brake problem.  Sue took a lot of pictures and Jim observed all the repair efforts that Jacques was doing.  Francois washed the UMC plane.  We found that Jacques’ plane battery was dead so that had to be changed out.  We did not get back to the house until after 1400 and had a late lunch – fried plantains and two small pieces of beef (less than 2 ozs) for each person eating.

The UN has a large presence in Kananga, with a helicopter and planes at the airport and a headquarters in the city.  We see the helicopter and planes taking off from the airport.  They fly low over the compound as it is near the end of the runway.  The white UN Toyota SUVs are frequently seen about town.



Rewards after hard digging



We got back to the compound to find that three young men contracted by Jacques in the morning had completed almost ¾ of the digging of the cistern.  If we had tried to do this we would have been knackered within a half hour in the heat and humidity.  It starts out fairly cool in the mornings with a good breeze, then turns very hot and muggy around 1000, gets even hotter by mid afternoon and finally starts to cool off again before sunset.  We had rain again this afternoon and that’s why the young men stopped digging or I suspect they would have finished.  The cistern is a BIG hole and was not easy to dig. 

Victor with a rain barrel

Rain is really important here as that is the source of the drinking, cooking and flushing water.  The water is caught by gutters and piped into the current cistern which is at Jacques house.  We haul water in buckets to the guest house and use it for flushing.  We have also gotten some rain water collected before it goes into the cistern and this I have been filtering for our drinking water at the house.  Jacques’ cook, Georgette, boils water for their house and then they filter it to take out some of the taste of the gutters and then put it in the freezer which provides really cool water for the meals.  What a pleasure.

Not sure what tomorrow will bring, but the pace is set by Jacques priorities, the weather and the availability of whatever we might need for the project at hand.  There is a lot of down time, but have been reading the book Sue brought called King Leopold’s Ghost.  It tells the horror story of how Belgium, particularly the King, simply used and abused the Congolese peoples and conservatively committed a holocaust of over 10 million deaths from all causes, or about half the population of the Congo at the turn of the 19^th/20^th Century.  When the Belgian government took over from the King’s private companies, things did not get better and Belgium probably has the worst track record of turning over former colonies which were equipped to govern themselves.  All that background, added to the numerous wars and conflict since independence in 1960 have set the stage for the existence of the poorest country in the world.  Amazing. 

Shopping, cooking, ironing, washing, eating

Monday 27 February 2012

Kananga near the air freight office

We went into Kananga this morning, Jacques, Francois driving, Jim and Sue.  The 6 mattresses, flat wear, dishes and glasses have arrived by air freight from Kinshasa.  The freezer, 1000 liter (about 350 gallons)water tank, toilet, water pump and the gutters are still on the way. 

At a wood shop run by the Catholic Church we stop and order 6 wood bed frames, then buy 18 bags of cement, paint, and paint brushes for the guest house project.  Jacques and Francois do the shopping while we wait in the car, so the price doesn’t go up with our presence. 



Hand cart traffic, Kananga

 

  

The cement and mattresses won’t fit in the Toyota 4Runner, so hand cart delivery is arranged.  Five cements go into the Toyota and the rest into the hand cart.  Three men push the cart to the freight office and pile the 6 mattresses on top. 

The cart traverses the 4 kilometers, about 2 miles, and is soon at the compound delivering the goods. 





Laundry day is generally Monday.  The Maytag, two tub wringer washer sits on the patio where people gather to talk, wash, iron and cook meals over charcoal fires.  Soak, wash, wring, and a quick air dry does the trick. 

Victor ironing with the charcoal iron

Ironing is done with a charcoal iron on a low table with a cloth spread over the table. 





All cooking is in a small room off the patio, no electricity for the stove in the kitchen. 

Georgette feeding future meals

The meals are very good.  Breakfast, about 8 am, varies from ricemeal – very tasty and sweet, scrambled eggs and ham, bread and jam, papaya or pineapple.  Lunch is about 1 pm and is the main meal of the day.  Chicken, or beef, or spaghetti or a tuna salad, usually rice, sometimes fu fu, the local maize grits like food, and cassava or other green vegetables from the Akasa’s garden.  Dinner, at about 7:30 pm is smaller and is the same type of food served at lunch.  The pineapple here is the sweetest we have ever tasted.  It melts in your mouth.



Cassava shrub at the compound



Cassava is grown in the compound all over the property.  It grows in large clumps taller than a person. 



Carrying cassava home to cook





As we go about town we also see it being transported home in huge bowls, carried on women’s heads.







Sunday doings

26 February 2012

Juicing up, power's on

The one thing for certain here is the uncertainty of things when you are trying to plan an event, like trying to communicate on a regular basis.  Power is, as we knew, the limiting factor to communications.  The town actually does get some electricity, but it is rationed to about two hours every other night and that is not on a solid schedule.  When the power is not “scheduled to be on”, Jacques runs his small generator IF he has been able to find petrol available in the town.  And we thought it was bad or tough in Zimbabwe – Not!   Of course it was tough conditions there, but it is far worse here in everyday living conditions.



Dining room petrol



Jacques say we might be going “up country” by the end of next week with a trip to the three main UMC Missions, each of which has a UMC hospital.  The first leg of the trip will be a 90 minutes flight with a landing on a grass field.  Not unusual as most of the fields Jacques flies into and out of are grass.  We will visit one of the Missions, and then fly over to another one where we will spend two nights.  The second day will be spent going to Church and then touring the second facility.  The third day will be another flight and visit at the last facility and probably a return flight to Kananga.  Our main purpose for making the trips is to provide UMC Global Health with another set of eyes on potential projects and needs  Travel times and distances, absolutely requiring the use of the small planes, is drastically impacted by the price and availability of aviation fuel for the small planes.  We have three, 55 gallon drums of the stuff sitting in the dining room of the cottage we are staying in right now.  This is Jacques’ emergency supply in case he needs to either leave the area for whatever reason or make an emergency trip to pick up a patient for a special trip to one of the hospitals or ferry the Bishop to some important meeting or gathering.   At almost $1100 per drum, the stuff is like gold.



One of several church music groups



This morning we attended the local UMC church which is located directly across the street from the cottage and compound where we are staying.  Actually, we got a preview of the hymns, with African drum accompaniment, last night as we lay in our beds listening to the groups practicing until well after midnight.  Even with ear plugs, you are lulled to sleep by drums and familiar tunes, sung in youthful French.  The service is primarily for youth and young adults, several of which attend the university here or are in law school.  Jacques adopted daughter, Virginie, is going to law school after finishing her college.



Kananga street



One interesting fact about Kananga – well, actually a series of facts.  The city is the third largest, has almost 1 million people and only has 3 gas stations… Jacques estimates there are only around 150 to 200 workable cars, with more trucks and lots of motorbikes.  The UN has a fairly large contingent here and their vehicles do not count in Jacques total.  Amazing… lots of people walking as there are not many buses.

We do not have power tonight.  Jacques was not able to find any petrol as all three stations had run out and the tanker trucks had not gotten through from Kinshasa.  Maybe tomorrow.

Congo settling in

21 – 25 February 2012



Shopping for the guest house in Kinshasa

Tuesday, what a day… OMG, we went shopping with Jacques and I believe all six million residents of Kinshasa were out on the streets and alleyways we crossed picking out mattresses, a freezer (electric/gas powered), water pump, storage tank, guttering for catching the water to be stored in the cistern we will be constructing.  As we proceeded along we gathered local, impromptu advisors and sidewalk superintendent’s who each had an opinion on what to buy  The city was really crowded and it took almost an hour to get through very slow moving traffic… lots of car smoke, dust and the ever present smell of garbage alongside the roads.  I had transferred $5K of the $6.8K for the project to Jacques in the privacy of my hotel room and he blew through most of that in five short hours of shopping.  Everywhere we went, we were the only white folks in the sea of African faces and even though we were in locations the guide book would certainly not recommend you go by yourself, we felt safe.  Jacques lead the way and another UMC member followed up closely behind us just to keep our progress covered.  We saw some interesting sights, but Jacques advised us not to use our cameras out in the open so the only pictures we took were from the car as we transited to and home from the city.

Wednesday we met with Dr. Pierre Manya, the doctor in charge of medical affairs in the UMC Congo Central Conference.  We will look at some Methodist hospitals & clinics to gather information for the Methodist  global health agency in New York about current conditions and scout out some possible future sites for teams and an infusion of money.  This will be done over the period of our stay in country. 

We checked in our luggage this afternoon for tomorrow’s flight and on the way, again got stopped and this time it was a $7.00 equivalent payment to the police party fund that finally let the church vehicle pass.  The UMC official said it was because they saw “rich white folks” in the rear seats.  Bummer, but they explained that this was just “normal.”  When we got to the airline luggage check in, the customs lady wanted $20 “for her mother” but Jacques said no way and we got through the throng of people who were just seemingly standing around the check-in building.



Guest house, Kananga

 Thursday 23 February we flew to Kananga, a 1.5 hour flight from Kinshasa.  We were one of the last to board.  We had assigned seats, but apparently this is a mere suggestion.  All the seat were taken except three at the very back.  Some of our carryon luggage ended up stored in the kitchen area.  We are staying in a two house compound with high walls all around that are topped with jagged pieces of bottles.  Jacques, his wife and family live in the main house.  We will be staying in the guest house that will be renovated.



Simon

 Staying with us in the guest house is Simon, a young Brit pilot who is working for a US non-governmental organization (NGO), Wings of Hope out of Missouri.  He flies people to meetings or mercy missions, when he has enough money to buy aviation fuel for the trip.  Our host, Jacques, does the same type of things for United Methodists.  Aviation fuel is very expensive here and difficult to transport to where it is needed.



Rainy Friday

 Friday it rained all morning into the afternoon.  We settled in, then late in the day went for a drive around Kananga with Jacques and Virginie, his daughter.  Again, short patches of paved road remains, with the rest dust roads.  Colonial era buildings remain, but are shabby and often empty. 




Shopping in Kananga

 

The stores are in old colonial buildings and in low concrete block buildings with 4-5 stores spaces.  There are often extensions to the stores in front, where wares are displayed and shopkeepers sit. 



Getting about in Kananga

 The streets are crowded with people shopping, walking, bicycling, motor biking, and in a few instances driving cars.  Goods are transported on the head, on bikes, in handcarts, and on motor bikes. 

After driving about, we parked in the shopping area to buy a few items and some groceries.  This is when Sue ran afoul of a local con artist.  I opened my door ever so gently into the street, lightly tapping a young man who appeared out of nowhere ever so gently on the leg.  He immediately grabbed his leg and professed pain.  Then the relentless begging began.  “Mama, Mama ...” and a volley of French asking for money.  I said no repeatedly, but he stood behind us at each stall intoning “Mama, Mama…”.  Several shop keepers chased him away, as apparently he was known to them.  When he would walk away he walked upright and perfectly fine.  But then he would return.  It ended when we left that street.  I’ll be very cautious opening car  doors from now on.



Sue and the seamstresses

 Saturday 25 February, we met the District Superintendent, several pastors and lay people, and the project manager for the Conference.  While visiting we met these two women who were sewing clothes for sale.  There are four sewing machines in the room.









In the Congo

Kinshasa street

We left Zimbabwe on 19 February 2012 after some tearful goodbyes with some of the close friends we have made there over several trips.  Our overnight in Johannesburg, where we rejoined a couple of bags we had left at the hotel when we first flew over, was uneventful.  However, once again we seemed to have a mad rush to the airport and then a hassle in paying the excess baggage fees levied by South Africa Airlines (SAA) on our Joburg to Kinshasa flight.  We were surprised by the number of non-Africans who were on the flight as we had heard that not too many people were traveling to the DRC these days.

In the DRC we will renovate a guest house at Kananga for volunteer teams to use as a base for future volunteer trips.  We will also visit three United Methodist Church (UMC) Missions, where we will gather information about the hospital at each mission to send back to the UMC global health agency.  Congo-Kinshasa is three times the size of Texas, with only about 1800 miles of navigable roads.  We will be flying to every place we go, with the UM Aviation Ministry, Wings of Caring, which is based here in Kananga.  The pilot Jacques Umembudi Akasa and his wife Valentine are our hosts in Kananga.

The start to the Congo portion of our volunteer activities was a pleasant surprise.  We were advised to expect multiple questions and inspections when we first arrived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  Quite the contrary, we walked through the immigration formalities without having to consult our French/English dictionary, collected our bags and passed through customs with a smile and wave from multiple customs officials.  We see lots of uniformed personal, some without guns and many with weapons.  The international airport field is resplendent with carcasses of broken and abandoned aircraft of all types.  The SAA jet we arrived in is the most modern airplane on the field, a Boeing 737-800.  We are met by Pilot Jacques.  He has a vehicle borrowed from the UMC office in Kinshasa and after standing in the very hot sun for a few minutes while the UMC driver returns to the vehicle, we are off… 

Crossing a crowded Kinshasa street

Well, we do not get very far on the crowded, dusty, smelly highway leading away from the airport and towards the largest city in the DRC.  We are stopped by about six traffic officers who proceed to give the UMC driver a hard time about the vehicle, his license, and whatever other infractions could be manufactured to produce a fine.  Our driver calls some “commandant” on his mobile and there is an exchange of more pleasantries, none of which we can understand as they are in loud and rapid fire French.  Two of the female officers try to engage Sue in conversation and it turns out they want money to buy some water since it is so hot out.  Sue doesn’t bite.  After about 15 minutes, whatever difficulties were being discussed were resolved and with a small contribution to the police water fund being tendered, we were on our way once again.  

We are in the Congo…