3 weeks until the end of my mission in the DRC. I can hardly believe my year is almost at an end. Looking back it seems to have flown by. So much has happened since my last blog. I have been on holiday with my family to Tanzania, settled into life in Lubumbashi, said some sad farewells to friends who have moved on and you find me now back in Manono having just had a donor compliance visit facing huge budget cuts (the two are not related!) and with a UNDP auditor about to turn up.
If you have never been on a Safari book immediately. Mum, Philip and I began our Tanzanian holiday with a week living in a tent in Selous national park. A tent may give the wrong idea of the luxury that surrounded our accommodation. This tent came with is own porcelain bathroom! The park was fantastic through a mixture of jeep rides, boat trips and hikes we managed to see a whole host of animals, birds and fauna. My Swahili came on treat as I expanded my knowledge of animals from not only those that appear as types of beer (Tembo; Elephant and Simba; Lion) to others that really need their own product lines Twega; Giraffe would make a great popsical stick or Keeboko; Hippo perhaps a washing powder line.
The safaris allowed us to see animals incredibly close up. In fact at times I think we would happily have taken a step or two back. Being sandwiched in a little boat between a hungry looking alligator and a hippo you are not sure which one to keep a closer eye on.
My favorite animal has to be the lion. In the park there were a number of female lions and a male. The King of the Beasts appeared the least shy of the photographers prey. A lioness happily lies by the side of the road fast asleep legs in the air while safari jeeps queue up to watch her dream. Little cubs crawl over their dozing mothers who are far too deep in their afternoon snoozes within the shade of a tree to take notice of the clicks and flashes around them. In Manono there is a little tom cat called Olie who is useless at catching mice. During the day he sits on the couch and dozes away meowing if he thinks there is a chance somebody may feed him. It was very easy to see the resemblance between Olie and his big cousins. Both seem completely lazy although you probably stand a better chance of living in a mouse free home if the cousin came to stay (of course you may not want to stick around for such a house guest).
My two most memorable experiences from the Safari will be breakfast with elephants and a brief toilet stop next to lions. If you take up the safari suggestion, have a look at what is behind the tree before squatting!
After the Safari we caught a small plane to Zanzibar. A friendly relaxing beach break was just what the doctor ordered with a couple of days at the end to explore the spice farms and the famous old stone town.
Mum won the prize for knowing your spices picked fresh from a tree rather than in a jar nicely labeled from Tesco. It is amazing how items taken out of context completely skip your mind. Vanilla pods smell vanillary but can you put a name to it. The same for the bark of a cinnamon tree – how could that ever go near a cake?
Roaming the streets of Stone Town was far simpler. No spices to identify, those on sale all came with little tags attached. The rabbit warren of alleyways, were a pleasure to explore, taking care to jump between shady spots to keep out of the sunshine. On the first night we sampled the street food market where you can try out the catch of the day directly from your local fisherman. King Solomon and Fisherman George saw us coming a mile off and treated us to the best seats in the house (a little wooden bench behind their stand right next to the bins). The fish was apparently excellent. I can only vouch for the fabulous chocolate pancakes.
And so our holiday came to an end. Mum and Phil headed back to the UK while I packed my bags and tried to renegotiate entry back into the DRC.
Having been in the Congo for 8 months I thought I had got used to boarder crossings. I quickly learnt that the Goma boarder was a soft touch when compared to that at Ndohla (Zambia). I left the boarder $10 lighter and with a stamp in my vaccination card telling me I had received a booster injection.
The short sharp introduction back into DRC living was not made any easier by the three hour ride back to Lubumbashi down one of the bumpiest roads I have ever encountered (remember by this point my knowledge of bumpy roads has improved immensely. A little lava flow hardly counts as bumpy any more!). The Boarder - Lubumbashi road used to be beautifully tarmaced (forty years ago) but now we have a potholed nightmare. Every now and again you came across 100m of good road. This normally coincided to where one or other ministry had been awarded a grant for fixing up the road. But rather than taking the trouble to actually fixing how much simpler to fix 100m, take a snap shot and pocket the difference (Okay! It may be that the Congo has just turned me cynical but how else do you explain perfect 100m stretches of road in the middle of nowhere?) Progress was slow and made even slower by broken down vehicles on route. I arrived back to Lubumbashi hot tired and ready for a holiday!
We have now been in Lubumbashi for about three months. We have moved into the team house and the office is up and running. For the house I’ve stopped asking when the oven will work or why we have no hot water. The toilet flushes at funny hours and the electricity comes on and off as it feels like it. I can’t wait to come home to running water and electricity 24 hours a day.
I have found time to do nearly all of the Lubumbashi tourist attractions. My top three would be the city zoo, then the cathedral and finally a trip to a mine.
- The city centre zoo attached to the president’s house was recommended to me by Daniel, our store manager. He took his children the other weekend and they loved it. They had never seen a tiger before. I am afraid I am a little less enthused. The zoo is home to some of the saddest animals I have ever seen. I am not sure animal rights have reached the DRC yet.
- The Cathedral, is situated right in the middle of town. The building is stunning inside boasting a copper roof and decorations. The music is fantastic to listen to although very traditional and not at all what I expected. The sermons leave a little to be desired generally involving a lot of shouting in French. I have now been to two services. The first of these on ascension Sunday I almost understood, but during the second I completely lost the plot. My friend Loyse translated some of the service afterwards and I’m not sure I agreed with the underlying doctrinal message so it is probably better to live in ignorance.
- A must see is a trip round one of the mines. Lubumbashi has a number of mines including copper and diamonds. We asked the driver if we could go and see one from the outside to get an idea. What we had not appreciated is that in the DRC private property is not really so private. If you smile at the guard and ask to take a peek inside you are free to drive round the mines under the excuse that you are ‘turning the car round’. The inside view gets you a little closer to the slag heap and a couple of surprised glances.
Not making it into the top three is the lake, the all you can eat Sunday buffet at bush camp, shots at the Chinese restaurant, the very bad singer at the Greek on a Friday night, Copper Lounge (one of the worst night clubs I have ever been to) or the Indian restaurant that doubles as our bank (No really you get served by the bank manager!). If the top three were based on amusement rather than culture these would have been higher up the list.
Lubumbashi has become home. It is a little harder to settle in than Goma. The Expat community is a lot more spread out and mixed. I think there is also a little of the fact that I know I am going home thrown into the mix. Finding the energy to make new friends again just does not come as easily.
Just before heading off back home Loyse has beat me to the finish. Loyse started a month before me and has been a great friend for the last eleven months. Having a French speaker to hand has got me out of some sticky situations and made everything a lot more understandable. I have now been left to my own devices and need to try to keep out of trouble for a month. I am not sure if this had any relevance to the fact that I am now spending 2 of my last 4 weeks in Manono.
So I am now back in Manono for my third visit. This time I am here to give some budget management training and to cut our annual budget by 1/3rd (Don’t ask! If anyone has any rich relatives who would like to fund a Watsan project now would be the time to dig them up).
The budget management training was going very well. We set up the projector in the tookle at the back of the office and had managed to get a picture projected onto a bed sheet which, thanks to lots of plastic sheeting, you could actually see rather than it being obliterated by sunlight. Everything was going well and the snores through the spreadsheets were at least quiet ones. Then the chickens turned up………. I’m not sure why the chickens decided budget training was for them. Perhaps they had just heard how great the training was and wanted to get in on the act. But in they came clucking away and pecking around……. And then the picture disappeared. Budget training was obviously not what the chickens had expected and so as a form of protest they decided to turn the projector off. How do you take heckling from a chicken?
My final visit to Manono has probably been the best so far. Louise’s donor compliance visit allowed me to tag along and see some of the projects in action. Finally I understand what I have been helping to put into place during the last year.
In Manono town I visited a Peer Education group which was discussing HIV/AIDs. The group of 40, 13 to 17 year olds worked together to put on a selection of sketches each which tackled a different aspect of the HIV/AIDS debate. Covering topics such as sex, breast feeding and cuts. I am not sure I understood much of the Swahili or French but the acting and sign language was pretty self explanatory.
I visited a nutrition centre which gives out plumpynut to malnourished children under five and allows them to be cared for in the community rather than making them stay in a hospital. Then there have been a number of clinics all in various stages of repair to ruin.
I have seen a lot of goats and seeds given to community groups as part of our livelihoods program. Some of the groups are really enthusiastic and have great plans for how the three goats today will make a huge difference to their village. One group we talked to received 4 goats two years ago. To date these have increased to 22. Of these they sold 10 to buy fish at a town several 10’s of km away which they then sold in the local area increasing their profits even further. They are now saving to make a fish farm which will allow them to cultivate fish locally and which will also improve their access to water (the area suffers from draught 3 months a year).
I sat in on a womens’ adult literacy group which promotes female education in outlying areas. The specific circle I visited started a year ago. It has helped 30 women who were previously illiterate to read and right. At the same time they discuss topics such as hygiene, health and household skills. The day we visited they were discussing household budgets (strangely appropriate). The women priced up how much it cost to feed their families for a day and then grumbled that their husbands did not give them enough money! The REFLECT program has been a huge success in the area the circle we visited was one of 25 now running in the region and plans are to grow the project further next year. It was heartening to hear the women tell their stories but also some of the husbands who funnily enough like their new empowered wives telling them to take a shower.
I’ve waved at a lot of smiley children and taken lost of photos which I promise to bore everyone with when I come home.
The final countdown is running. Three weeks till departure. So much to do and so little time. I started writing handover notes today trying to outline what I have done for the last year. I think I could sum it up in one word - Lots! I’m just not sure this will be sufficient for the person coming in!
Hope to see you all soon.
Julia
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