Josh's Life

Still Alive!

2009-04-15T22:21:00.002-05:00

Well, it has been quite a while since the last post. Well, the first week was excused as I was in Kenya without access to internet, and the last week has more or less just been me being lazy and busy all at the same time.

I got back stateside last Tuesday and after the Easter holidays, things are finally falling into a routine. I am planning for writing on this blog being part of that routine. I also have some pictures that should show up online soon. I want to use the next couple weeks to write about different things I saw in Africa and different things about the way of life, and then also transition to life in general.

The Saga of the invalid VISA

2009-03-29T10:02:00.002-05:00

This story starts, not with me, but with 5 Americans who got arrested after I arrived for going into the mining province illegally and taking pictures illegally. That kind of set the stage for the border patrol to say everyone must have a VISA before coming to Congo, made possible by the very new Congo embassy in America. Now you have to go to contact the embassy to get your VISA and they will no longer give you a VISA at the border, even the 8 day VISA that before was so easy to get. As I was leaving today, two Americans were turned away and walked back into Rwanda, not sure what they were going to do. Given this situation, it was all the worse that the VISA I got in Beni was no good.

I was in Beni with my 8 day VISA like always, and then someone from the school converted it for me. I wanted to leave Congo two weeks later so I said if I can get two more 8 day ones, that would be cheaper than the one month VISA, but I don't know if you can or not. They checked and the guys at the OFFICIAL office in Beni gave me a 15 day VISA, costing the price of two 8 day VISAs, or 70 dollars. Everything is fine, and I leave Beni, the 15 day VISA passing through the hands of no less than 4 immigration officials at the airport who all say nothing about it being a problem.

I arrive at the airport in Goma, the last 10 minutes of the ride being pretty bumpy as only a small airplane can be, and my stomach was a little startled. It wasn't feeling too bad, but it definitely wasn't right. Oh well, no need to worry as I was almost back to Maji Matulivu and I could grab some food and relax a bit. It was just about 1pm.

I waited in line for immigration at the airport and when it was my turn, it didn't take more than two minutes before they took the passport of the last muzungu behind me and put mine aside. Sure I thought, hold back the young kid in hopes we can get some money out of him. I have been asked for money before, and it looked like another time I arrived in the airport.

They finish with the other guy and there are three people behind the desk and they begin asking where my visa is. I show them the paper I have that says 15 days on it and they keep looking in my passport. Beyond a week visa, it is stamped in the passport. I showed them the paper and the four people (a woman came now too) were all talking about different things. The one person kept talking about not having a visa, another talked about the list of places on the paper that I could go, and another guy was talking about something completely different. It was hard to follow them all, and they would periodically turn and ask me things.

At one point I got them all to listen to what had happened, how I went to the OFFICIAL OFFICE in Beni for immigration and that was what they gave me and they could call there and see. Finally an older officer came over too and he recognized me (as he should since I had to give him 10 dollars to write "Beni" on my original visa because it only said "Goma") and it sounded like he was arguing for me, taking on two of the guys at once, and more or less winning, but then just agreeing with the third guy.

I get shuffled into the side office, and they begin to ask me things like "do I know it's illegal to not have a VISA in Congo?" I kept saying yes, but I have one. Turns out, two week VISAs don't exist, and given the Perfect Storm of other events happening since I went to Beni, it really was a big deal.

I called the logistics people at HEAL Africa and the immigration people ended up taking me to the official office in the city. There I talked to the head guy (who did not know Swahili so they translated his French to Swahili for me) who again acted like I had done this on purpose. They called Beni and got my official record there, showing that they gave me a two week VISA and even how much I paid for it. Oh well. They put me in another office where an official filled out a formal report, three handwritten pages, carbon copied, and I had to sign them all. It was in French too so the logistics guy from HEAL translated for me, again into Swahili. I signed them, handed over (well, it was actually under) 150 dollars and everything seemed like it would be okay. By this time it was after 4pm when the office was supposed to be closed, and they kept my passport saying we could get it the next day.

Well, we never got it the next day because they wanted another 100 dollars before they gave it back. Saturday I came to HEAL with the money and the logistics guy went to the office and got my passport. I was looking at it and there still was no VISA! I asked and he said they would have my name at the border and it won't be a problem. Well, to me that sounds kind of like a problem.

I went to the border with a friend and the two Americans were just turned away before me. They looked at my passport, turning each page looking for the VISA. They went into a back office and came out looking confused. My friend went and talked to the guy and then they called me back too. Turns out, they wanted 50 more dollars, which my friend said no way to, and I told him what had happened and he said "Okay, hakuna shida" (no problem). 10 minutes later, my passport was stamped (on like the second page, and I'm on page 6 or so) and I was on my way.

I hopped on a bus on the Rwandan side, and three hours later I was in Kigali. Kind of a crappy situation, but nothing else I could do. There was no higher authority to appeal to and now I know next time to get my VISA in America before I get here.

The Beginning of the End

2009-03-25T05:06:00.003-05:00

Today is my last day in Beni :( I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. I'm excited to go to Goma and see what has happened there since I left, but also don't really want to leave. The problem with Beni is it feels like home. It just feels comfortable and the people are nice and it is quiet (well, except the kids yelling “muzungu”, “good morning”, and “give me my money” (interestingly, they usually say “give me my money” like it is already theirs and you are only holding on to it for them)). But tomorrow I head to Goma (where everything is in shades of gray from the lava rocks and dust) and either Saturday or Sunday I'll head to Kigali. Monday is to Nairobi where I'll spend a week doing who knows what (well, I hope someone knows because I don't know what I'll be doing).

Looking back, it's easy to see all the things that I didn't do, or that didn't go so well. The tiller tire has caused numerous problems, the weather, the students weren't very involved with what I was doing this time, only half the rabbit's houses were built, I did not do any teaching outside of Delphin and Isengo, etc...

But that would put a huge damper on all that was accomplished. There is a field where there previously was none. Isengo and Delphin know how to use the tiller (when it works) and do a pretty good job with it. They are beginning to notice while operating the tiller if there is a problem, and know to shut the tiller off before untangling the weeds from the tines. Isengo especially seems really comfortable with it and as they take care of the crops that are there now and have extra time, they will be able to expand the field with the tillers in a more responsible way than had I not come. The problem with machines in Congo is they are often abused and not taken care of, and hopefully the tillers will be taken care of.

We have three rabbit houses, and most of the materials for three more. Last time I was here, I tried to get materials to build rabbit houses for three days and then we got some wood for something and then the tools didn't work and that was already the last day I was here, so the fact that we have three houses built is awesome. They are neither plumb nor square, but they are not going anywhere. They are built solidly and look halfway decent too. Even though the university doesn't have the rabbits yet, I'm confident that with the houses built, they will get some soon.

I didn't work a lot with the students, but I did get to talk to many of them, some for the first time, and some I had met last year. I had some very good conversations about Congolese life and what the students saw as some of the problems of Congo and potential ways of fixing them. It was very encouraging to me to see the hope of the students and hear their talk about changing Congo for the better. Quite often though I just tried to get to know the students as much as possible, asking about their families, what they are studying, why, etc...

I didn't get to speak or teach to a lot of people, but I did encourage many. Just being here is great and I tried to help wherever I could and to talk with the family members at the house and use my Swahili as much as possible. I'm really surprised by how much Swahili I remembered, and it really helped me to work with Isengo and Delphin since neither guy knew English. Some times were frustrating, but I would work out some way of saying what I wanted in Swahili. Congolese people were always so excited to hear that a muzungu knew Swahili and especially when I would talk to them in Swahili.

Now that I'm getting ready to leave the question people ask the most is "when are you coming back?" It is a question I don't know the answer to, but I do know if God says "go back to Beni," I would not think twice about it. The only thing is, when I come back, I won't be traveling alone, as I believe my fiance (and by the time I would come back, my wife) will not let me go anywhere again without her. Don't worry Mupenzi (my Love), I miss you too.

Unalamuka?

2009-03-23T06:32:00.004-05:00

Yesterday as I was playing cards with some of the other muzungus here (most of whom are sick), we started wondering why people say certain expressions. Like “I'm head over heels for you”. I could be wrong, but isn't your head supposed to be over your heels? If it were something special, shouldn't it be heels over head?

This morning it hit me what people say when they see you in the morning. “Unalamuka?” They say it as a question although the exact translation would be “You are awake?” Well, if you see me to ask me if I'm awake, wouldn't it be obvious that yes, nililamuka (I awoke)? The correct response is “ndio” (yes). What is so funny though is sometimes the Congolese ask it in such a way that they sound really surprised. Even if it's when you normally wake up, every day “unalamuka?” in a very surprised voice.

In a place where doing something as simple as buying simple hand tools for agriculture can take a couple days, I'm taking the progress we're making as a good sign. Today we are actually building the rabbit houses (after much talk) and last week we were in the fields. This afternoon after the sun's intensity abates, we will water the cabbages in the fields (which are finally starting to hold their own and not look dead in the afternoon when they previously wilted every day) and then we will plant carrot seeds. I brought four seed varieties from UW-Madison to plant here and workers here will fill out a small report to help the plant breeders back home (of which I will be one in September:) ). I'm planting them at the university and the house I'm staying at so I hope to get two reports, but I'm spreading the risk and at least looking for one.
Saturday should have been a work day except I went to the market with the mama of the house, and then when I got back I took another muzungu to the hospital (doctor). I was the only muzungu left (out of 6) who could drive and was not sick. Turns out, it was pretty bad and since Saturday she has stayed in her bed, only to make short forays to the bathroom and outside for a bit. Two others have malaria, and one is just recovering from Typhoid.

I leave Beni on Thursday, so the next three days will be very busy as we try to do as much as possible during the day and I work on instructions to leave here when I go, written in my best Swahili (and probably a little (or a lot) of help) for the guy who will be taking care of the fields when I leave. He is an extremely hard worker, but I want to leave some agriculture instructions. Things like crop rotations and please don't let weeds take over the fields after harvesting a crop, and cutting the weeds around the field when they are in flower so they do not go to seed. Simple things that are often overlooked here (although people do talk about them).

The warm room I'm in right now is usually quiet, and it's a good place to eat lunch (rice and beans) and write e-mails or blog posts. I usually chat with the students, but when the choir practices, it's so loud I can't hear what's being said anyway. New this year for lunch is a chest freezer where they keep and sell soda. The freezer is great because when the generator comes on in the morning, the soda is cool by lunch time. Now I'm enjoying a Mirinda. I believe it is a black currant flavor, and it is honestly my favorite soda ever. It was one of the things I was looking forward to about coming back. Not one of the main reasons for coming, but a very nice side bonus. If only I could find Mirinda in Wisconsin...

Two gifts from God

2009-03-18T05:07:00.003-05:00

Among the many gifts and ways UCBC has seen God work in the last couple years, I have seen two awesome ones myself the last two days.

The first is the cooperation of the weather and the expansion of the field. The tiller went out yesterday and we used it until we ran out of gas (we had 10 liters, put 3 in the machine, and the other 7 disappeared). We got the field ready to plant, which we did this morning. Now, as I speak, we have more gas and the two guys working with me are out there now, tilling up the rest of the land that was broken with the hoes. There are way more cabbages ready in the nursery than we have space for now (and more than I think we will even know what to do with) and the tiller is doing a wonderful job of getting the space ready for planting. It is so exciting to see these two guys working with the tillers, unclogging the tines when they have to, and in general, just doing a really good job. It's also interesting to see the people who walk past the school to get water from a spring stop and stare at the machine like they usually stop and stare at the muzungu working in the field. Maybe red is the new white?

In other agriculture news, yesterday we bought all the materials we will need for the rabbit houses so that is exciting. Now if the weather doesn't cooperate, we can work on those.

The other tremendous gift from God was the dedication of the UCBC bus this morning. There is no public transport in Beni (except motorcycles which are more expensive than busses) so the university has been praying for and waiting for a bus for a long time. Last year, one of the students was severely injured in an accident while she was walking home, and there have been several less severe accidents as well. Provided for by many small donations, and one large one, the bus arrived in Beni a couple weeks ago and as exams finished up last Friday and we head into the new semester, they commissioned the bus this morning. To pay for it's operation, the students will pay round trip fare every day, enough to cover the gas, driver, and put some aside for repairs. For students that cannot pay, that might be something that will come under a student sponsorship program soon. Either way though, it was a wonderful dedication.

They had all the students assemble for chapel outside today, on the large "porch" of the building and the singing was louder and there were more shouts than I have ever seen at chapel at UCBC. The director's brother, a retired and well respected pastor, gave a message of hope and joy and thanks to God, and then the staff and students surrounded the bus and prayed for it. Then started about 10 minutes of picture taking. First with everyone, then with the staff, then just the teachers, then just the administration, then the director and his wife, then the drivers, etc... Everyone was so excited! There was also renewed hope as well since God provided one bus, He will faithfully provide for the building materials and money needed, and as the director put it, 7 more busses so they will have a fleet of busses and they will need them because of the students that will be at UCBC in the future. Praise God for providing good weather, and also for providing for this huge need of UCBC, a bus, so the students will be safer, and have more time to work on homework instead of walking an hour and a half to and from school every day (that is what these fine young men and women will be doing with their time now right?).

And the land still isn't tilled...

2009-03-13T06:23:00.002-05:00

On the plus side of the tillers still not seeing much action, the Congolese guys are beginning to believe me when I told them that the machines are good, but not perfect. When they first came, everyone thought they would just open up all the space in the whole city of Beni for planting, and as we have struggled to get one of them up and running, I think people are finally seeing the truth.

I talked to the director about bringing both machines to the school today and he didn't think it was a good idea. It would be better if only one machine was there and the other stayed in storage. That way, it would force the workers to really take care of that one machine and really learn how to use it vs. till as much land as possible as quickly as possible. I actually like that idea, so now we are trying to fix the tire of the one at the school.

We tried to pump the tire at the house and it didn't work. Then we tried again today and the valve just popped off! Now there is a hole the size of the valve in the tire. No wonder it didn't want to pump up. Anyway, I just sent it into town with someone and hopefully we can fix it. If it works, I'm thinking that should be the last problem, outside of the weather.

It rained again last night, so even had the tiller been working, we wouldn't have been able to use it. We have cabbages that need to be transplanted though so the two guys working with me were using the hoes to break up the soil better and removing all the weeds and roots to make good planting beds the old fashioned way. I raked a large area we cut before so the rotor tiller won't struggle so much and if we have to use the hoes, that will be easier too.

I am beginning to think maybe God is saying don't use the machines, or is trying to teach us a lesson. Machines are good, but they have their own problems. I hope the workers here will be able to respect the machines and use them when it is a lot better to use the machine, and not when it is just easier to use them.

I should have known...

2009-03-10T07:38:00.002-05:00

I don't know what I was thinking when I thought that it would be a simple matter of taking the tiller to the field and giving it a go in the Congo soil. I should have known nothing goes according to plan in Congo...

At first, everything seemed to be working fine. I turned the machine on, and picking up the rear, engaged the wheels so it would propel itself forward. It only had a couple yards to go to the field, which it covered with ease, and then I put the back down to start tilling.

It was going forward and then it stopped - the tines stop pretty easily on this model. I let go of the throttle, putting it in neutral, and let the machine idle a bit as I checked out the back. Two things were "wrong." First, the depth was set really shallow so it was really just tilling the top root zone which would be the hardest part. I deepened the depth gauge hoping to till more soil and less roots with each pass, and maybe slow the tiller down. Alas, the wheels are locked to the tines, so you really can't slow the tiller down that much. The second problem was the hiller/furrower attachment that was bogging the machine down by being caught in the soil and the machine didn't have enough strength to pull it through. I could take care of that later though with a wrench. So I stood up to go again.

"What's that?" one of the students asked as he picked up a screw. "It's hot, I think it's from the machine." Oh great. Just what we ned, although not a problem. We have screw drivers and Allen wrenches, I'm sure we'll be able to figure something out. I look at it and my heart sank. Where the heck are we going to find a six-pronged star driver/wrench/thing in Congo?

The screw had come from part of the engine, and we knew it where it was supposed to go because there was another one still in the engine and a gaping hole on the other side of the part where the missing screw needed to go.

I was ready to call it a day and we took the tiller up to the Depot (the workshop) and talked to different people about what to do. We had just decided to send someone into town with the screw and either find a driver for it or come back with a screw exactly the same, but with a different head, when we started playing around with the tiller. We ended up getting it on with an Allen wrench (I left to look for something while we were working on getting the hiller/furrower part off and when I came back it was miraculously on, tight, and the Allen wrench was sitting next to it - I hope we don't have to get it off, because it probably won't come off with the stripped top). The hiller attachment bold was really, really difficult and I'm thinking it must have been knocked during transport and bent because it was loose in the hole, but the bold was extremely difficult to get off. We ended up breaking the bolt off, so that attachment came off too. Now the only thing is a slightly flat tire, but we wanted to give it a shot anyway - To the field!

We get it to the field and a small group gathers as we turn it on and start tilling. It goes into the soil marvellously, but didn't go anywhere. Oh yeah, I had to lock wheels into place. That done, we go!

The tiller went in and I thought it was going great, except the tines stopped moving. Whenever it gets the least bit difficult, the tines just stop, which is slightly disappointing because it would be good if the tines could keep working without the wheels going. Oh well. It skidded across the top. Then I reversed it and did it again. A little deeper, but still across the top. 4 passes later it looks pretty good, but there is only 3-4 inches of till depth and the weed stems (cut, but still there) and roots had also begun to wrap around the tines. And this was only in the part that was planted just last year without anything major growing in it.

So now we will have to use the big jembe (hoe) first and break the soil, remove as many weeds as is feasible, and then use the tillers. We'll give that a shot tomorrow and see what happens. Hopefully it works. I would like to get the other tiller to UCBC tomorrow too so I will see if I can get David to take it. Tomorrow we start with the jembe, then try again with the tillers. Wish us luck!

Tillers

2009-03-10T04:58:00.002-05:00

One of the two tillers arrived at UCBC this morning and is running well! We haven't tried it in the field yet (because it rained last night) but after I write this, that's where I'm going. They look like heavy duty machines, but it will be interesting to see how it handles the Congo soil and the weeds and grasses that were growing there.

Once we till the ground, we have cabbages that are ready to be transplanted, and then we have many other seeds we want to plant. The area to be cultivated is pretty big, but we're starting where we can. Whatever I can do while I'm here will be a good start and then they can continue the work (I hope).

Yesterday was an interesting day, but the story starts on Sunday. Sunday night Congo defeated Ghana to win an African soccer cup. It was the first time since 1974 and there was shouting in the streets as it happened. We woke up on Monday all ready to go to school and work only to find out President Kabila had declared it a holiday to celebrate the victory. When we finally did get to the school around 10:30, to do some internet, it turns out the two guys I'm working with were ready to work anyway. I should have taken a moto earlier, but I thought they wouldn't have been there. We just cut some more grasses and it was really too hot to do much. Today though I started early and got a couple hours of good, cool work in and cut a substantial amount of grass (from the muzungu perspective). I'm getting the hang of it more and more and when my blisters go away, I should be able to do even more. They don't really bother me, and I just work through them, but I still feel output will increase when they are gone.

Time to Till!

Time to test the tillers!

Women's Day Parade

2009-03-10T04:33:00.002-05:00

After a false Women's Day on Saturday, the real Women's Day was celebrated on Sunday, March 8. I guess the women were petitioning for a day other than Sunday because that is already a holiday, and in the end they got outvoted. I don't know who did the voting, or who made the decision, but everyone was supposed to go to church in the morning and then assemble at 10am at a church in the business district.

For any kind of gathering where many different groups will be represented, the people of Congo (or Goma and Beni at least because that is where I have been) like to dress in coordinated fabric. Every group picks out their own fabric and then have clothes made on their own, but from the same fabric. In that way, the women of Beni marched down the streets. Oh did they march. I don't know how long the distance was, but there were women who had been out there for 4 hours when the UCBC group finished, and an hour later, they were still marching. Thousands of women.

The muzungus of UCBC marched with some of the students and they got there a little late. We didn't know exactly when the marching was going to start so the students called when it was underway and then they got dressed and went to walk. The three muzungu guys then sat in the shade and watched the women of Beni march past. Each group had a banner in front, either of cloth or wood that said where they were from. There were school and church groups as well as company groups and organizations. Anyone who wanted to march I think just had to have a banner and a fabric picked out.

As they got to the end there was a covered pavilion, and sitting under it were all the important people of Beni. The mayor for instance was sitting on a couch in front. As the women would come by they would sing and dance and yell like they had not done before (even though the whole way before some had been singing and dancing in step as well). An MC would shout out the group of the women and everyone would cheer and shout. They even had a band to welcome them! It was pretty cool, except the women were still outside for 4+ hours start to finish!

One other cool thing about the march was the medics who were patrolling on the edges. Dressed in tan, they carried first aid kits and stretchers in case a need arose. Right before one group got to where we were sitting, a little girl fainted and they came running and quickly took her to the shade. It was good to see the medics there as that is something easily forgotten here in Congo.

It started already

2009-03-06T06:36:00.002-06:00

I started working in the shamba (field) today. It was sunny, hot, and my winterized body from Wisconsin was really not appreciating it. I have probably drank a litre and a half of water since leaving the house this morning and just keep drinking water and taking it easy. I'm done with work for the day though because it's just too hot now, and I'm probably already sunburned anyway. I was trying to limit my exposure, but really should have asked for some sun-screen as I forgot mine at home. It's hard to tell though because I was walking through some tall grass (6ft+) and the edges are kind of sharp, so I know I got some minor scrapes and I could just be feeling those. Only time will tell.

Because agriculture things take a while to get going, I started cutting some grass this morning and gathering it to make compost. I have two guy working with me, and it was going pretty good. Now we are clearing land that was a field last year so the ground is not too bad. Some of the grasses here form clumps and the roots are like tree stumps, so next week when we cultivate new land, it will be difficult. We are probably going to have to cultivate the land a little with hoes and then go back with the tiller.

When I was done working because I was radiating enough heat to boil the sweat pouring off my body, I left the two guys to finish the work. In classic Congolese fashion, they worked for about 5 minutes and then I haven't seen them out there since. I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt though that it was just too hot and they will do it later. They actually might too because they are hard working guys with the university. Only time will tell...

I'm hot

2009-03-06T05:47:00.002-06:00

I arrived in Beni yesterday on a two propeller, 15 seat plane. It was a pretty good ride considering it was cloudy and overcast. A bit bumpy at the end, and visibility was poor, but I slept for about half the 50 minute ride. In classic Congo fashion, everyone on the plane applauded and clapped when we touched down. Let's just say there is a reason people pay a lot more to fly TMK than the other airlines in Congo.

My other travels were uneventful, except that God is awesome. The day before I left I met some people from church who work with a Rwandan organization with a guest house, so when I got to Kigali, they picked me up and I stayed there for the night. It's always good knowing someone is looking out for you. Goma was good too, although I was only there for a day. I saw a couple friends and there were two people at the guesthouse who come and go every year, and they are there now so it was cool to see them again. Everyone else there was new, and Joe and Lyn were gone, so it was different, but it was cool to be back. The flowers were beautiful and the lake was refreshing after two days of travelling.

The only other really interesting thing about my travels was the immigration official in the Goma airport who charged me $10 to write Beni on my VISA along with Goma. Apparently the officials at the boarder should have wrote it in, but I didn't know that, and apparently it's a new rule after the first of the year. I'm not sure how true that is though because I argued that last year I didn't need it and he never told me when the rule came into effect until after I told him I was there last year. Oh well. On the plus side, I understood everything he was telling me in Swahili, and even though I didn't like it, I still followed it all and was arguing for a long time. I actually wouldn't have given up except I heard them call my flight on the PA so paid him the money and got going.

Arriving at the Kasali's house was like coming home. The family there does such a good job of making you feel like family. Everyone was excited to see me, and whether I thought I accomplished a lot last time or not, everyone thanked me for my time before and thanked me for coming again. Everyone also asks about my fiance and where she is, and wonder when she is coming back to Congo too.

It is good to be back, and there is much to write about, but no time to write it. For now, it's 2:15 and lunch just arrived, so I'm off to eat.

Here we go again!

2009-03-01T23:04:00.002-06:00

Hello again to the few (or many for all I know) who may read these random ramblings. I promise though they are all real and while random, actually happened (although maybe not in the order presented).

So it's been a while since the last posting, and to that, I apologize. My fiance came to visit in my last days in Congo and honestly, I lost all motivation to write while she was there, and didn't think about it when I was back. I've been thinking though I'll just keep writing this time about things even after I return.

Return from what? Well, Congo of course! I'm going back (tomorrow) to the University in Beni. It'll take like 4 days to get there, and I'll spend about 3 weeks there, and then a couple days in Goma and a week in Kenya and then I'll be back. All told, 5 weeks will have passed and I'm hoping to have seen God work in marvelous ways and that my relationship with him will be strengthened during that time.

So why the return trip? The last time I was in Beni, the leadership of UCBC (University Christian Bilingual of Congo) and I met to establish some agricultural goals for the many acres of land that are unused now. Not many (if any) of the things we discussed were acted upon since I left for many reasons. Also, two tillers arrived in a shipping container since I left (that dad and I ironically loaded before I left for Congo the first time!). This time will be a great time to see friends and hopefully learn a lot more about Congo. I do not know what God is calling my fiance and I to do in the future, but if He wants us to work overseas somewhere (maybe in Congo) we want to be ready. Learning as much as possible about international work is part of preparing for that.

I don't know how often I will be able to update the blog while in Congo but I'll do my best, and will for sure post more after my trip as well. Also, feel free to contact me with any comments or questions either on the comments on the blog, or at jdparsons86@gmail.com.

In other news, God is working in other ways besides international travel as I have just received a position at UW-Madison in the Plant breeding and Plant Genetics program starting this fall. I will be working with a professor on Carrots and don't know a lot about the specifics of my project, but know God is working! Madison is the best university for plant breeding and many people apply for only a few positions every year. Thank God for this incredible blessing!

UCBC - Round 2

2008-04-28T04:21:00.004-05:00

Avid readers might have noticed a post a couple days ago where I pretty much vented lots of frustrations without giving the rest of the story and trying to explain things better. I apologize for this super-biased post and have deleted it and will re-insert parts of it into the coming posts hopefully explaining a bit more of the situation. There were many reasons for my frustration, but not a lot of background to the situation. Now I'm going to write about things the university and the students are trying to do, maybe highlight a student's story or two (with permission), and show what the students are giving up to come to the University. It'll probably take a couple posts, and I hope you enjoy the awesome things that are going on at the University more than my frustrations. I think the main reason I was so frustrated was because good education is something that I care dearly about. It's something I value incredibly and I feel God is calling me to education in some capacity in the future. I have lots of ideas about education and have studied education a litle, and where UCBC wants to go is awesome and I get excited just thinking about it.

First we'll talk a little bit about the educational background of many of the students, and for this I'm going to talk in general about the background of the history of Congo, and things I've learned in Goma as well. The first thing that comes to my mind when thinking of the education system of the Congo is a lack of government support. The government is unable to provide finances to schools and organization across the whole country is extremely difficult because of the large, untamed country. It is impossibly to travel by car from Goma to the capital for instance. You must fly because the land in between has no connecting roads. There is very little coordination and support from the government.

This means the schools that are supposed to be free for students charge fees on the side. Besides that, corruption and greed at every level mean people at the schools get varying amounts of money. One way many teachers make up for their lack of money from the government and the system is to charge students for grades. Maybe not implicitly stated, but implied is the fact that grades are often bought and not earned here in Congo. If you are on the wrong side of a teacher, and can't pay, you might be as smart as Albert Einstein and fail every year. The other, horrible thing is that for women, the accepted payment for grades is often sex. If a student is unwilling to offer her body to a teacher, they might not make it to the next year. I don't know if there are any studies about that, but I have heard many people state these things as fact, Congolese as well as aid workers. That was also one of the things UCBC stood on saying payments of money or sex will not be accepted for grades and standing in the schol. Because of this and a very poor standard of education in general, most of the students have not been to a school with academic integrity standards and is something UCBC is totally trying to change.

The other thing that has heavily influenced, no, dominated most of the student's lives, is the war. For years Eastern Congo (and much of the whole region) has been in active conflict. Many of the students have fled from villages and small towns to larger towns, other countries, or remotely into the bush, hiding from the fighting and the ravages of war. Many of the students have been moving from place to place for a long time. When the fighting first broke out years ago, most of the students were living in this area where the fighting was bad. One student's father was captured and killed and they never found his body. Another student hid in a ceiling for a week when the rebels came to his town and then escaped. These students have had fractured education for their whole lives, insecurity their whole lives, and many are just now beginning to have something that is fairly stable that represents some sort of security as peace slowly comes to Congo.

Finally, I want to say how much the students have given up to come to UCBC, and how much they care about being there (as evident by how much they have given up). Some of the students are living with extended family members because they come from areas outside of Beni. These students live with them, not seeing their families very often, and often have to do many housekeeping chores on top of their school work. Besides that, most of the students walk 1-2 hours, BOTH WAYS. Some students walk a total of 4 hours a day just to get to school and back. If I walked two hours to school, went to school for 6-8 hours, and then walk two hours home, then had to get water for the house, cook, clean, etc... I wouldn't want to (or probably would not be able to) study at all. Especially when you consider there is no electricity in most of Beni and by the time they sit down to do homework, maybe it's 10 or 11pm and they have to leave at 6am, probably after doing some more chores of some kind in the morning.

The school fees is something that is being worked on. To be self-sustaining in any way, and really to be practical at all, there has to be some sort of school fees for the operational expenses of the university. However, UCBC does not want the school fees to be the limiting factor in student's attendance. They don't want it to be a school for the economic elite, they want it to be a school that creates leaders of integrity, values, and sound education irregardless of economic status. To help this they are trying to work out a scholarship program somehow, but it's still in the early planning stages. Back to the students though...

A very few students were able to pay the student fees right away. It has been a tremendous help to have the 250 dollar fee per student per year from those who have paid it going to operational expenses - staff salary, gas for the generator, etc... Let's throw this $250 into perspective. The average worker for a labor position makes between 30 and 50 dollars a month. There are positions that offer more, and some people have them, but any labor position without a lot of skill and experience is usually between 30-50 dollars. That's 5 - 8 months wages with no other expenses just to pay for school. And there are other expenses. People pay for housing, clothing, food, siblings' school fees, etc... and this is often for a family of many people. 6-8 person families are often the norm (and sometimes on the small side). Many families have other relatives staying at the house as well to be cared for. Some of the students could afford to pay some, but not all of the school fees because of these limitations. Some have not been able to pay any, and UCBC has accepted them with open arms.

Finally, things like going to college are not just a single family affair here in Congo (and many places of the world). As an example, a student went to Butembo yesterday to ask his cousin for school fees. The extended family is often asked to help support students with opportunities, and thus provide for the student as well as add to the number of people that are interested in seeing the student succeed - if you fail class, maybe they won't continue to support you. Often the whole extended family knows what is going on and looks to that student to succeed for many reasons. In a diploma, a family sees future security, and they will suffer, give, and support a student who might be able to help them in the future. That in turn puts pressure on the student to succeed and do well. Often the student that gets money for a family is the only one in the family (at that time) because the financial burden is too much to send multiple students to school at once.

There is finally another category of students. These are older students who are coming back to school. There are not very many of them, but they are incredible people to talk to and learn from. They remember Congo before the war and have seen a peaceful Congo. Most of these students are men, and one guy especially has an awesome story. He worked really, really hard to put his wife through nursing school before, and now she is a successful nurse. Now, she is helping support him as he is going to school, but these older students are surviving on only one income, with children to take care of and pay school fees for. How are they supposed to do that? The before mentioned student can afford to live on his wife's income by giving up many things, but he cannot pay his school fees on top of that.

Many of the students at UCBC have given up incredible amounts of things to go to school - time, money, resources, jobs, etc... They want to be here. They are working hard to be here. Given the background of many of the students, it's incredible that they are even at the school, trying to succeed in academics when they look at a country that is just crying out from past wrongs. The students heard about UCBC. They heard about the goals of the university, not to provide a Congo standard of education, but to provide a higher standard. A university that not only teaches students academics, but helps them glorify God with their actions and integrity as future leaders of their fields, communities, cities, provinces, and all of Congo. The vision for UCBC is huge, awesome, and daunting - although not impossible. Not only is it not impossible, the foundation is being laid in a way that not only helps success from a human standpoint, but with prayer and listening to God, steps are taken that UCBC is in complete line with God's will. I can think of no better place to be than in line with the will of God.

Two things

2008-04-25T15:17:00.000-05:00

Today was an awesome day. UCBC had a basketball match against the UN
Indian Battalion and we won! The Indian team we were playing was not
very good because many of them were just learning how to play (but then
again, so were many of our guys) but more importantly, our team had an
awesome first half where things were going right and the guys were able
to see (and be a part of) a good team. The passing was good, defense
was awesome, and in the second quarter it seemed like every shot went
in. It was great.

I was playing below the basket and commanded the paint. I imagine I
looked kind of funny at times with my arms in the air running around,
knees bent slightly to respond better. It was a blast though. I also
blocked some shots, intercepted some passes, and scored 10 of our 32
points or so (something like 32) including 2 three point shots. It was
great because the students were really excited and while it was a low
scoring game (the second half seemed to have every shot miss) the
defense was pretty good for UCBC which is an improvement over what I've
seen before. At the end the Indian Battalion invited all the students
for tea and some crackers and snacks. It was really cool. As another
bonus, I was also invited to come and play with them in the evening some
day as they play every day at 6:30, so I might have to take them up on
that and if I'm lucky (maybe I'm pushing my luck here!) get invited to
have some awesome Indian food!

The second thing is even more exciting than the basketball (well to me
anyways, and I'm pretty sure most people will agree). I have a return
flight now. I am coming back with Megan on June 6 in time for Sarah's
graduation on the 7th. What?! Yeah, that's right. I said June 6, as
in less than two months away. Actually, like a month and a half. I
just realized that now. That's pretty sweet. Why the early return when
I was originally planning on being here until December?

Originally I was thinking December, but my departure was already moved up to at least September because of applying to grad school (as many people know). Why then did it get pushed forward again to June?

A number of reasons really. First off is things aren't going incredibly
well in Goma. There is still fighting in the surrounding area so I
can't work in community development (one of the things I was really
looking forward to working with HEAL Africa because they do lots of work
in the village communities) and Mawe Hai isn't doing all that much
either because of the fighting as well. It's supposed to be a teaching
place and no one wants to come and learn about agriculture if they can't
do it at home because an army will just come and destroy/steal whatever
they do. War sucks. Besides that, I've had a couple ideas and they just
haven't taken hold. It seems the people working at Mawe Hai are very
happy with their (in my opinion) fairly easy jobs and don't want to do
anything more than they already are. Who would want to do more for the
same money? They are not going to become rich, but for the field work
they do, 55 dollars a month is a pretty darn good wage that many other
people would love to have.

That said, another possibility was to work in Beni for the rest of my
time at UCBC, but I don't really feel that that is a great option
either. I think Beni is a place I could come back to, but I really just
feel my time here in Congo is done. It's time to do something else.
What that something else is I'm not entirely sure because it's looking
like my chances to get into grad school are less and less as the days
pass, but I'm excited to see what God has planed for me.

Of course, there is also the missing my girlfriend and family and things
in Wisconsin, but I firmly believe that if things were going better and
there was more purpose in my time here that it would not be a big deal
at all. As it is, I'm super excited to go home in June and live with my
brother and one of my best friends for a summer (at least) and possibly
longer (depending on school).

That said, if you know of any job openings for something you think I
might be good at, let me know via jdparsons86@gmail.com Otherwise, I'll
be chilling in Milwaukee this summer so you'll have to drop me a line
and hang out sometime anyways because I'm pretty sure the Parsons'
Fortress is the sweetest compound (yes, anyone who has seen the
retaining walls we built in our front yards would agree it's a compound)
in all of south eastern Wisconsin. See you soon (if you're reading this
from Wisconsin)!

The Evil Muzungu

2008-04-16T07:45:00.000-05:00

Well, I arrived safe in Beni on Sunday and will be here for a month
working with the UCBC university. I'm helping the university start some
agriculture projects on their 90 acres of land. They have a work
program with lots of labor from the students and agriculture projects
seem like a good idea to the board and I agree. I'm not going to be
doing lots of teaching or anything too cool, I'm just trying to set up
some basic agricultural guidelines for UCBC to follow in the years to
come as the university gets larger, expands programs, and teaches
Congolese students how to be leaders with morals and integrity. I
firmly believe in what UCBC is doing and am happy to be here supporting
them and their goals.

Yesterday I walked around some of the land where we want to start the
projects. Because there is so much land and UCBC has not used much of
it yet, they have let community members farm the land, for free, with
the understanding that when UCBC wants the land, their squatter fields
are forfeit. We have the support of the law (it's our land and we have
the title) and the chief and mayor of Beni, as well as many community
members who see UCBC as an awesome opportunity for Congo development.
Unfortunately though, the squatters have put in tremendous amounts of
time and labor working these fields and I'm pretty sure we do not have
their support as we will call the land into use for UCBC both in
agriculture projects and building projects in the future. They have
used much of the land already and so yesterday I walked around with
Kutembo to look for places that had not been cultivated yet to tread on
as few toes as possible. Or at least that's what I thought we were
doing.

After arriving at UCBC I talked to Kutembo and he said he would come and
find me when he was ready and able ot head into the field to look. I
thought that was a good plan and so got to work planning some other
things. He came and found me and we headed out.

I know I explained that I wanted to see the land on this side of the
spring and I wanted especially to see the land that no one is using
right now (this was on Tuesday). He said okay and lead the way off,
making a bee line to the first squatting farmers we could see. He
approaches them happily saying how are you and how is the work. They
reply happily that it is good. It's still early enough in the morning
that they did not tell the Muzungu that they were hungry. Maybe they
should have because Kutembo then started talking again. I didn't fully
understand everything that he said but I heard enough. He basically
told them that on Thursday UCBC would need all the land. They responded
and he said again, all the land, implying their fields that they were
working in at the time!

And here is the white guy, three paces behind him, cowering in his wake,
trying to take up as little space as possible in the hopes that they
don't see me. I really don't want to be on this trip anymore. Why does
it have to be with the Muzungu that he goes and takes away their land?
Well, maybe he just misunderstood me, so as we leave those workers
looking a bit confused and dejected, I explain again that I want to see
the land that no one is using. Okay he says and we walk on.

Must not have got the message because we did it again too. I tried one
more time to shrink away into nothingness as these people have enjoyed
these fields, until this Muzungu came and took them from us (at least
that's how I imagine they felt - I could be completely wrong, but the
first time a Muzungu walks the land, their fields are forfeit). I tried
one more time to explain to Kutembo my intentions of looking for unused
land and he finally said that there really wasn't any, except for very
small pieces here and there. By this time I was pretty distressed, not
wanting to cause problems and was done with the trip, but we continued
and gave a couple more farmers a hard time. Finally as we were walking
back to the building where they keep classes there was a sizable piece
of land. It looked like it had for sure been planted at one time,
possibly harvested and planted again, but it was overgrown enough that I
was comfortable saying we could use that land. The cassava growing
there was irregularly spaced and it looked like no one was using it. It
was also pretty close to the building so that's good too for security
purposes. On Thursday, the students will begin to clear and cultivate
that land. We will hopefully plant next week Tuesday or Thursday. I'm
not sure what we will plant, but I"m happy that we found a piece of land
we can use without kicking people off right away.

As it is, as people finish harvesting their fields now they will be
reminded that when they started they were told they would lose their
fields eventually and the time is here. UCBC will expand it's
agriculture program, a soccer field, and building projects in the next
months and years. On the one hand I know it's UCBC property and it's
awesome that they let the farmers use it, for free, but I still feel
like a jerk going around taking the land back from them.

As a side note, the official UCBC policy on this is the fields will be
forfeit after a harvest or the farmers will be compensated for their
expected harvest. We are not an evil empire who just takes people's
fields and hard work right before it's harvested.

The roads are (were) fixed!

2008-04-11T03:39:00.002-05:00

There has been major road work in Goma. They have a huge grader, a front end loader, and a steam roller. They truck in gravel and pour it on the roads, level it with the grader and flatten it tight with the roller. Some places they are even attacking the lava that is sticking up with hammers and metal rods. They have made tremendous progress and...

Now it's all gone. For the last week we haven't had any rain and the roads have been great. Yesterday we had a pretty good storm, lots of water, and it came fast, and the roads are already trashed. Granted the roads are still a lot better than they were, but every time it rains, they get just as bad as they were before. These large scale efforts are encouraging to see and applaudable in their ambitions, but it's hard to see what the point is. In my mind, there are really only three reasonable options.

The first option is to build new, paved roads. By not wasting resources on week (sometime hour) long fixes until the next rain, save that money and invest in GOOD road building. Use good materials and you won't have to fix it as much. Pave the road and it will last.

The second option would be to do very small scale fixes. I think every residency and business should be responsible for fixing the road in front of their house. Once a week the government could dump trucks of gravel at strategic, periodic places along the road. Then the residents are responsible for carrying a bucket of gravel to the holes in front of their property, putting the gravel in the pot holes, and tamping it down with a stick. The city has a clean-up day where everyone burns all the garbage around the streets so why can't they also have a road fix-it day? The government could even forgo the large scale, doomed projects they are doing now and fund people to go around with wheel barrels and shovels patching up the roads. This small scale would probably have to be weekly, but the money saved from the large scale projects would probably be enough and would be a longer term fix.

The final option is to do nothing. I think it's pointless to spend all this money on fixes that are good for maybe a week, and back to a previous state of car-destroying, inverted mogul hills in less than a month. The large scale efforts to provide dirt roads just don't seem to make sense to me.

The way things are supposed to work

2008-04-11T02:44:00.003-05:00

Here in Congo, rape is unfortunately an every day occurrence. Here in Eastern Congo, HEAL Africa is fortunately there to help when it does occur.

A couple days ago a perfect example of how HEAL Africa helps came up. A woman in a village was raped and she was identified by members of the Nehemiah Committee in her village. The Nehemiah Committees are composed of community leaders from all faith and leadership positions in villages and they work together in community development. The Nehemiah members were able to get the woman in contact with a councilor in the village who is supported and trained by HEAL Africa. Through the councilor she received immediate emergency first aid treatment and they went and contacted a partner organization that works closely with HEAL Africa. The partner organization was able to arrange transport for the woman to come to Goma where she was received with open arms by another councilor who knew she was arriving. She was then able to receive further medical treatment and help in Goma.

In Africa things often go wrong, and sometimes it's really encouraging when things work just like they are supposed to.

Picinic at the beach

2008-04-06T11:54:00.002-05:00

Some things in this world were righted today after way too many wrongs. I tossed a Frisbee for instance. Ah, the glorious white disc. Revolving swiftly, hurtling through the air, slicing one might even say. The back hand, the fore hand, behind the back, under the leg, risers, curvers, off balanced tosses, and some that did not resemble normal throws at all. The only two keys to tossing a disc are to keep the Frisbee as flat as possible (except for special applications) and to give it some rotation. If you keep these two things in mind you can toss a Frisbee with one finger, in all sorts of weird ways, and even when shackled upside down by your ankles (in the last case, throwing a Frisbee well would probably be the least of my worries though - one might wonder what the heck he was doing upside down in the first place, as well as why he were shackled).

This slight ode leaves out one of the special application throws though, where you not only are not trying to keep the Frisbee flat, but are throwing it, in fact, upside down. The Tomahawk throw, in all it's glory, has a special place in the world of circular flying objects. Thrown upside down, it's flight is different than a normal throw, a bit more unpredictable, but valid. Today, since I didn't have to throw over anybodies head, I used the Tomahawk throw to toss the disc up the 20 foot drop off we were playing next to. Normally thrown, a Frisbee at that angle will rise to substantial height, see it's prey, which is in fact the person who threw it, and will hone in at greater velocities than most people appreciate while climbing up a large pile of rocks. The Tomahawk overcomes this particular, potentially painful, obstacle because of it's different flight. I was happy to re-make it's acquaintance today.

I haven't even mentioned the various methods for catching yet. The pancake will always have it's place as the fail safe, but it lacks flair for sure. The one handed grab, especially via an outstreached hand, is a good step. The dive (defined by the body leaving the ground, acquiring the Frisbee, and only after that particular obstacle has been overcome, crashing to the ground via a body part other than the feet - finally, a dive is only valid if upon standing up one realizes he cannot because of a hurt limb (preferably a break over a sprain) or has drawn blood that is dripping from the body (mere scrapes do not count)) was unfortunately not implemented today. While I'm all about natural injuries, diving with jagged lava rocks everywhere did not seem appealing. I mean it could have been very substantial injuries had I dove, more resembling a bid for suicide than a glamorous catch. The glamor did not stop though with one handed catches. I ran through thick grass, jumped, and even caught the only one I tried to behind my back. I was waiting with baited breath for an opportunity to propel myself into the air, perform a half turn, and snatch the Frisbee out of the air between my legs, but unfortunately the opportunity never arose. I had to settle with juggling the disc with my feet before apprehending it in my hand.

Today 6 people from Maji, two from the hospital, a wife, a sister in law, and two kids and a driver went to Mawe Hai for a picnic. After a short tour we headed down to the lake to eat and drink and be merry. A half hour and lots of food later, I brought out my disc. The guys weren't too bad considering it was their first time to play ever. We were just standing in a circle tossing it around and the best part was after 15 minutes of playing Frisbee when Bizi (after missing one) goes "it was the wind!" How he already knew the best excuse to the unprofessional discer I have no clue, but that was the phrase of the day. I think I'm going to bring it back tomorrow too. Anything that happens is being blamed on the wind. Sounds like a good excuse to me!

Standing Water

2008-04-01T14:50:00.001-05:00

This saga begins last night. It had been sort of a rough day. Lots of
waiting, frustrations, and a sense that nothing had been accomplished in
the 11 hours I had thus far been awake. Feeling rather grimy, sweaty,
and in general ready for a shower, I hopped in. Now in the states, when
I'm at home, I'm all about quick showers. You just waste so much time
in the shower. Here, I'm all about wasting as much time in teh shower
as is possible. I massage the shampoo into my hair, take a long time
soaping up, scrubbing everything judiciously (including my back) and in
general, sitting in a hot tub while standing up.

Finally deciding I was late enough for dinner as it was, I turned off
both the hot and cold taps. The only problem was after I turned off the
hot water tap, I was holding it in my hand. That's right. The nob that
shuts off the hot water had broken off and was in my hand. It took me a
second to realize what that meant, and then I observed the water
streaming from the hole where the tap should be as well as streaming out
of the shower head. It seemed the water could not escape sufficiently
fast enough just through the tap and the shower wanted to douse me with
scalding water too. I'm all about hot showers (if the water is
available - otherwise, I'll do a cold one no problem); however, this one
was out to get me.

I flipped the little lever that routed the water to the faucet instead
of the shower head and now there was just a steaming pool of water in
the shower that was constantly replacing itself as it flowed down the
drain. I looked at the handle in my hand and noticed there were some
treads on it. "Good" I thought as I tried to screw the handle back into
place, hoping that it would work, ignoring the areas of broken metal I
had observed making it apparent it wasn't going to work anyways. All I
succeeded in doing was screwing the nob into the hole (it screwed onto
something) but it wouldn't shut anything off. In fact, it turned the
water from the steady stream of a fire hose into a veritable shotgun,
spraying a hefty radius with steaming pellets of water.

About this time I begin to realize that my feet really hurt because I'm
standing in the super hot water just flowing from the shower. Realizing
the screw approach wasn't working at all, I just pushed the handle in
and what do you know? It stopped the flow. Only problem was I really
had to push it in, and it was going against the build up pressure of
water coming from the water heater next door. I tried tying it with a
bit of string a couple times, avoiding the faucet as the hot water had
turned the metal fittings into a maze of hot steel. It wasn't very long
before I realized that wasn't going to work. I only succeeded in mildly
burning myself a couple times and then decided I should probably desist
that action since it was going no where.

I dried off a bit, tossed on some shorts and a shirt and went outside.
Finding the one worker that stays the night (along with 3 guards) I told
him I had a big problem in my room and I would show him. I said the
water wouldn't stop in my bathroom and he looked skeptical. He was
probably expecting a bit of a leaky faucet. Oh was he surprised when he
looked in the bathroom and froze. I was trying to communicate that we
should probably shut off the water when he said "I'll shut off the water
and we'll fix it tomorrow." Eh, that's fine with me. I go down to
dinner, go to sleep, and am chilling at Maji today, trying to forget
about yesterday.

I was doing a really good job of forgetting yesterday via lots of
reading and other random stuff and the plumber was doing his thing. He
left to get something and I eventually went and ate some lunch. After
eating some granola with a bit of Nutella (a chocolate spread that is
absolutely delicious) I settled into the living room down stairs and did
some reading. I was thoroughly enjoying my book when I wanted something
in my room. Deciding I could read there too, and also watch the plumber
if he came back to make sure he didn't take anything (I wasn't worried
at all, but people keep warning me about the possibilities of my stuff
just randomly disappearing) I head back to my room.

Approaching the room I know progress is being made because I can hear
running water and I think "oh good, he's testing it out before
leaving." Oh was I wrong as I opened the door and observed water
flowing from my bathroom and into my room. At least half my room was
covered with water, and not just a little bit either. Because the floor
is uneven, there was quite a lot of water in some places, and it was
spreading rapidly.

Grabbing my computer cord from the floor and checking what the problem
is, cold water is now spraying from the cold tap that is open because
the plumber was going to replace the whole thing, and it's just flowing
all over the place.

Once again I'm out in the yard looking for someone to turn off the
water. I quick find someone and tell them we must stop the water and
show him my room. "I'm going to turn off the water" he says. Duh,
that's what I asked you to do. The same worker that helped me out last
night came and checked out what was going on too and he was like "what
happened?" Mama Ngeleza came and together we cleaned it up. Most of it
she squeegied out the door and there was a lot of water coming out. It
was much too much to soak up with towels.

The water had got on some of my shoes, which were laying sideways, under
a bin, and my table, so I moved that stuff outside and set it in the
sun. Only problem was 10 minutes after we start ridding my room of the
water I'm in the bathroom and hear a pitter patter on the roof. Crap.
Not only is my room flooded, but now it's raining too? Right after I
stuck all my stuff that was wet into the SUN 10 minutes ago?

It was a pretty bad two hours. The highlight of it by far was when the
plumber came back and saw the huge mess and looked utterly astonished
and Mama Ngeleza is there yelling at him and yelling at him and yelling
at him. I didn't understand most of it but I did understand that she
was convinced it was his fault (as am I) and that she was not happy
because she had been tired all day and now she had to come and clean up
(I volunteered to do it myself but she wouldn't hear it) and all my
stuff was wet and I had some good stuff that's wet now and he should
feel bad. It was great. It almost made it worth it... Almost.

Congolese Construction - Brick Walls

2008-03-27T05:33:00.001-05:00

There are three kinds of bricks here in Goma. There are the lava rock
bricks that people make using hammers - 12 bricks a day yields a worker
50 dollars a month here at Maji. Then there are the concrete bricks
which are never made using enough cement and so some of them can just be
rubbed away with your fingers, and others you actually have to try a bit
harder or use a finger nail. Not exactly what I'd want to build a
prison out of for sure. Then there are the red clay bricks that are all
shipped in to Goma (because we don't have any clay - just lava). It is
these bricks that we will discuss today.

The new house at Maji is being built with a combination of bricks, but
the red bricks make up a lot of it. When they build the walls the
bricks are too far apart with lots of mortar in between the bricks.
Also because the bricks are not made very well, handled poorly, and just
poor quality in general, the edges are always chipped, usually more
round than an edge, and there are often dents and cracks on the brick
face as well. It doesn't look too bad from a distance, but it's not
what most people would choose to have their living room walls made
with. Joe is no different; even though the walls in the living room and
bedroom both are made of these bricks, it's not good enough.

So begins the process. First the workers take the broken bricks and
brick pieces and collect them from all over the site. Then they smash
them with a hammer until they are small enough to fit in the mortar and
pestles they use here. You guessed it, then they grind them in the
mortar and pestle until they are a fine powder. To make sure they are
fine enough they rub the powder through a screen. They then have the
colorant for the walls. They mix this with a little bit of cement and
they fix the walls.

I'm not talking about patching up the cracks on the faces of the bricks,
or even finishing some of the edges so they are actually edges. They
redo the whole wall. They bring the whole wall our a half inch or so as
they make a new brick over each previous brick. Using trowels they make
the face flat and smooth and then using trowels again they make the
edges sharp. They do each brick. It's painstaking work and I asked the
guy how much he did in a day and he highlighted an area of wall about
two and a half feet square. That's all that guy is going to be doing
for weeks!

There is one section of wall that is more gray than others and it was
the first section, so I think they added too much cement to the mix to
cover up the red from the bricks. Also I don't know what they are going
to do for mortar because now there is a good inch and a half depth from
the brick face to the existing mortar and it doesn't look very good.
I'm sure they will do something with that later. I also noticed on the
second wall they started on, they ignored the under layer of bricks
completely and are just spacing the new bricks where there is a good gap
and making the rows completely straight, which makes it look a lot
better, but then why did they use the red bricks on the wall in the
first place? Kind of crazy, but I must admit the end product does look
pretty nice.

Josh's Future

2008-03-15T06:33:00.000-05:00

If you're going to read any post on my blog this year, this is the one
to read. Why is that? Well, here all things will be revealed and
understanding will flood your mind, the heavens will part, the angels
will sing, and Josh will hopefully get accepted to grad school in the Fall.

That's right. There have been rumors going around for a while, so I
figured I might as well get a jump on it and quell them now. Different
people know different amounts of what follows and I'll try and do my
best to relay all important information.

About four weeks ago now I decided to apply for grad school. I told
some people I was applying for January or next Fall - people that might
talk to Megan because I didn't tell her right away. Maybe I should have
told her sooner, but since I wasn't sure if I would be able to apply, if
I would get accepted, or even if it would work out for me to go in the
Fall, I didn't want to get her hopes up. Well, since I told her about a
week ago, and I'm sending in my application today, I figured I'd let
everyone know so they can pray for me.

I'm applying for a M.S. in Plant Breeding and Plant Genetics. I am
studying with the full intent of possibly working abroad when I'm done.
I've seen a huge need in this area here and I feel it's a great way to
use the academic ability God has given me and the technical mind to
really help people in a way not many people are doing right now. Many
people could do what I am doing now, but breeding requires more
training. I've taken a course on it too and loved it. I like that
plant breeding can work with so many things - increased yield, increased
nutrient content, disease resistance, local adaptability, etc... It's
also no limited to food crops and I think agriculture and plant breeding
as a part of that push, could really help some countries in Africa.
Right now I'm thinking about the Congo and using that in my mind as the
example because it's what I know most, but I hear other places are in
similar situations.

A degree in plant breeding will also give me a good background for
further study, or give me the background to get a good job in the states
as well. Basically, I see it as a great option. It's also the only
thing I've considered studying seriously for more than a week. I've
thought about it before, and think it's great. All the people I've
talked to agree as well, so that's encouraging.

The application deadline for Plant Breeding is July 31, but somewhere I
saw that most appointments were made by April 15 with the people
applying by January having the best shots. I missed the January bit for
sure, but am hoping my application is good enough to get in by the April
15 deadline. I hope to know by then if I'm in, but I don't know when
I'll know. Maybe I'll get an e-mail when I send in my application
today. I also saw somewhere that about 10 percent of the applicants get
accepted usually, so it's definitely not a given.

If I get accepted I'll be in Madison for two to three years working on
that. I'll come back from Congo in August and have at least one weekend
to go camping and fishing before starting at Madison again. I'm excited
because Megan will finish in December, so we'll have another semester
together in Madison, and I'm excited to get involved with the Navigators
Christian fellowship again as well.

So that's my future as I see it laid before me right now. My family and
Megan are both all about it so I'm really hoping it works out. If it
doesn't work out, I'm not sure what I'll do yet, but will probably stick
around here a bit and come back in time for deer hunting. That's right,
I have priorities in life. Okay, maybe I wouldn't come back for deer
hunting, but I'd consider it. Hopefully I won't have to think about it.

So, here's my request: please pray for my acceptance to Madison this
fall and that I find out soon. After I send in my application the
people writing my letters of recommendation will be notified and given
instructions as to what to do, so you can pray for good letters as well
and that they will be sent in quickly. Thanks for the prayers, and I'll
keep you posted on any progress.

Congolese Construction - Finishing walls

2008-03-15T06:32:00.001-05:00

Using clay bricks to construct walls is a great idea, but when care is
not made in keeping the bricks edges straight and unbroken, and not a
lot of care is used when putting up the bricks, a rather horrible
looking wall is the result with too much concrete mortar between the
joints and too far to the middle of the brick to look good. The thing
is, for construction here, it never ends at that stage. It's always
covered up with a layer of cement and sand to make a smooth finish. I
had the pleasure of watching this process in Beni and I'll describe the
situation.

A rather short guy was the one finishing the wall. He was working on
the top part of the wall and was standing on two boards placed across
the top of a 55 gallon drum creating his OSHA approved scaffold. The
cement mixture was brought to him periodically as the cardboard he was
using to keep it on couldn't hold much and he was going through it
pretty quickly. The cardboard was sitting on the floor boards of the
scaffold and the corners were propped up using chunks of broken bricks.
This basin is where he would scoop the mix from using a trowel. With
some unnecessary hand movements (okay, maybe they were necessary, but
they looked a bit weird) the trowel would reach the spot he was working
on (about head high at this point) and he would throw the mix into the
joint on the wall. After slapping more mix on the wall with the trowel,
he used a wooden float to smooth it out. This was a piece of wood about
8 inches square and it had a simple handle on the back (two small strips
of wood running parallel to each other with one more strip of wood
bridging the gap making a handle) and he would go over the wall in a
circular motion (these are also the kinds of floats they use to smooth
out the floors).

If it is an important wall, strings will be set across the wall in a big
"X" to show how far out the mix should come. If it's not an important
wall (this one wasn't), the eye is fine. It will be uneven, but then
again, the rest of the house is probably uneven too so it doesn't really
matter much does it?

Beni

2008-03-15T06:31:00.000-05:00

So I realize this is a week late, but I've been really lazy this last
week, so that's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it.

On the tail end of my travels, I ended up in Beni, Congo. Beni is about
an hour plane flight north of Goma and in my opinion, way better than
Goma. Maybe I'm a little biased because Goma is lava and difficult to
grow things in, but Beni was awesome. No lava. No fighting. Not as
much traffic. Life was slower and simpler (so that's pretty darn simple
compared to the states). I actually pictured the Shire from Lord of the
Rings more than once, and was very impressed with the University I was
working at there (a couple posts ago I talked a bit about UCBC).

I was working with agriculture on their 90 acres of land, mapping out
possibilities and working with them to come up with a plan for
agriculture at UCBC. It was a blast and they were excited about
everything we talked about and willing and interested in doing all sorts
of stuff. Things were going great the first of my two weeks there and I
really felt progress was being made and was excited to start putting
into practice some of the stuff I was talking about.

Then a building team came from Elmbrook Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
and messed everything up. Okay, it was cool to talk with fellow
Wisconsinites again, and they were great people to talk to and I'm glad
they came, and they do pretty cool stuff for the university, but they
screwed with my work. As soon as they came, all of the workers and
logistical people came and helped them out and I'm not the kind of
person that insists upon doing what I want to do. I helped out a bit,
talked with students, did stuff on the computer, etc... Needless to
say, my two weeks felt a bit feeble compared to the recommendations I
had made in the first week and the lack of any showing the next week. I
tried to write things out as clearly as possible, but I don't know if
anything will happen from it. I plan on going back though (because I
loved Beni) and will see if anything has happened. I hope something
happens agriculturally, but only time will tell.

Brett

2008-03-05T05:04:00.002-06:00

It's a sad day for all of Wisconsin (and apparently the world). Yesterday Justin got a phone call from his best friend, breaking the news of the Packer's quarterback's retiring. There is a team from Elmbrook church at the Kasali's house right now working with UCBC, and a cloud fell over many of them. It was actually depressing that here in Africa, news like that, about sports, can cause depression. Isn't it enough to depress the majority of the US at a time? (Only one team's fans can ever be truly happy. Those people that talk about "building years" and "it was a good season" are only trying to appease their souls).

I also thought it was interesting a couple hours later when, on CNN's global broadcast, they mentioned Brett's retiring and talked about it for a good 2 minutes at least. In this land of football (soccer) I wonder what think when they see these crazy guys who wear helmets and huge pads and claim to play "football". Either way, Brett will be missed, and his retirement made international news. Congrats to an outstanding career.

Congolese construction - mixing concrete

2008-02-28T06:27:00.001-06:00

In America, working with concrete is no problem. When we want some on a
job site, we call the concrete company and say "I want 18 yards" and
they ask about kinds, additives, and figure out a delivery schedule.
When you want concrete in Congo, you mix it by hand, on the ground, with
a shovel.

It all starts with a pile of sand on a fairly "flat" surface. This pile
of sand could be a bucket, or a truck. At David's house, it's probably
a pile equivalent to 5 wheel barrows full of sand (the quality
contractor wheel barrows, not the garden ones). Then you need cement.
The cement comes in 50 kg bags and they never use enough (but that's
another blog post all together). The fairly cone like pile gets a spot
hollowed out and a bag is dumped in the hollow. They go to another spot
and fill in another hollow with cement. This continues until the pile
is sand with cement in pockets on the surface. Now, fun part number one
begins.

With shovels and lots of labor, they mix the cement and sand. They turn
the pile, flip it over, move it from side to side, and in general, act
like kids playing in the dirt until it's all a uniform color. depending
on the size of the pile, this is a lengthy operation, and is quite fun
to watch (although the workers don't always appreciate that). Once it
is a uniform color they know it's mixed well and they make it into a
circle shape about a foot or a foot and a half high.

Then they bring on the gravel. They bring this from the gravel pile
usually in small buckets (probably 2 gallons or so) and dump it, bucket
by bucket, onto the mix. They just dump it on top until they feel it's
enough gravel (the gravel is usually bigger than anything I've ever seen
in the states as well). Once all the gravel is on the pile, that begins
fun part number two.

I see what you're thinking, but you're wrong. They do not mix this like
they did the sand and cement. They get a hose of water (or lots of
jerry cans) and pour some water onto one small part of the mix. They
then mix the cement/sand/rock mixture only until that water is used and
then they use that part of the concrete. They then move next to that
section, adding more water and using shovels to mix the whole shebang.

They are complete with the concrete pouring when all the concrete is
used. It's not like the states where the truck empties the extra
concrete somewhere and cleans out. There is always something that can
use concrete. Something else standing by that is just waiting for
concrete. Something with it's hand in the air saying "pick me, pick
me." Any "left over" concrete goes here, and if it's not enough for the
extra job, oh well, it'll be finished another day. Hermoine Granger
would be proud of the walkway by the lake at Maji Matulivu which has
shot it's hand into the air more times than she has in all her classes
at Hogwarts.

UCBC

2008-02-28T06:27:00.000-06:00

It's been a while, and for that, I partially apologize. I've been in
Beni, Congo and where I'm at, we don't have internet every day like I do
in Goma. It's really exciting being here though and very happy to be a
part of UCBC and what is going on here.

Beni is a city with about a quarter of a million people (rough, rough
estimate not done by me) north of Goma (on the other side of the
equator) and I love it. There are some, very short paved roads in town
and the rest are all dirt and rock roads. Better than the dirt roads in
Goma, but not by much. The improved speed of travel (because the road
is better) makes each pothole you hit (okay, the road is really just a
series of potholes that vary only in size and depth) more significant.
Along with the roads though, I love Beni and I love UCBC.

The Universite Chretienne Bilingue du Congo is a new university started
by David Kasali and his wife and will focus on creating strong leaders
with moral values and a purpose in life. The staff is Christian and
they teach Christian values. They are not exclusive and will accept
anyone who wants to come, but everyone will know that they are
Christians. They take classes not only in English, French, math,
science, etc... but also classes like Congo Realities where they learn
about the Congo and what some of the problems are. David said his
purpose with that class was to get the students angry and upset over
what is happening in the Congo and then to talk about ways to change the
system and fix what is happening. They are just taking exams for their
first term now and this term focused on English, to get the students a
foundation in the English language (almost all of them already know
French) and some basic courses (science and the Congo Realities). Their
dream is to have a university that can have people come from the states
and Europe to teach classes at the university level and their students
will not only understand, but be changed by their time at the university
and stay in Congo and help change the Congo.

They have humble beginnings right now. The Congo Initiative
(www.congoinitiative.org) is the fund raising and logistical
organization in the states, and through them this university is being
built. But it would be very wrong to say that's the whole picture.

Right now there is a "Depot" (a shop or mechanic's place) and one
building on the land. That one building has offices (with no lights or
internet), classrooms (2 finished rooms with tables and chairs enough
for each student only so they carry their chair with them if they have
to switch rooms), a library (with no shelves, books, tables, or chairs
yet), a computer lab (with no computers, tables, or chairs) and
unfinished bathrooms and one other room (unfinished means a dirt floor
yet). They have computers and books coming in a container from the
states. It hasn't left Phoenix yet (yes dad, that is the one we packed
in Wisconsin back in September - they had more stuff that was made
available so they were waiting for that stuff to get there before
sending it off) but when that gets here, there are lots of books and
quite a few computers (I know because I packed them) in there and it
will be the best library in Beni. The idea isn't just to be the best in
Beni, but to be the best possible, to have high standards in a country
where educational standards are dropping and paying people or offering
your body to teachers means good grades.

They have 80-90 students and most of them walk to school. They walk one
to two hours to get to school, and then walk back. Some of the students
approached David and asked if they could stay in some rooms in the
Depot, so there are a couple students staying there instead of walking
every day. They are hoping and praying for a 29 seater bus that would
make two trips to pick everyone up, but it's about 25000 dollars for a
decent one and gas is expensive. The only form of transport available
right now is motos and there is no public taxi or bus system.

A lot of the money for the buildings and things at the university come
from the states, but not all of it. At one time they were stalled in
building because of no money and it was close to being completed. As
the local people realize that the university is really for them and that
incredible things will happen there, they started making small donations
of money and supplies. Stores would donate a bag of cement and people
would volunteer to work. It's a very cool story and I hope someone
documents it for the future students of the university to read and
understand what the school is about.

One last thing. As the university is being built and a bus is being
looked for, the current students decided that next year (or when they
have a bus) the new students will have to walk to school for one month
before being allowed to take advantage of the bus. This "character
building" experience is seen as an integral part of the overall
education by the students who want to share this with their "descendants."

Thoughts on Jinja

2008-02-22T06:45:00.003-06:00

When I first got to Jinja, it hit me how untypical it is of any place I've seen so far in Africa. It reminded me of a small American town, the likes of which you can still see on the Andy Griffin show. The streets are wide with little traffic. Jinja is neither a huge metropolis, nor a one road town. The buildings are mostly single story buildings with small alley-ways between them. There are some trees and green spaces and the people are friendly and walk most of the time. It is a pretty cool place, and I'm happy I went and didn't do anything "touristy" but just hung out with Patrick and his friends.

There were some differences though too. I think the market (which was very similar to every other market I've been in) would not be found in America, and all the buildings are made of concrete and the windows of every building had bars across them; while Jinja is safe (we often walked at night with no problems) the people are not stupid.

I ate with Patrick and his friend Phillip most of the time and they went to cheap places that were great. These places served buffets of African food, and by the thrid one I could already tell you what was on the menu. Guaranteed it was rice, irish potatoes, posho (ground corn boiled together into a mass), matoke (green bananas, again cooked to a mash), and cassava of some kind (either in the familiar mash form, random shaped chunks, or french fry like pieces), beans, one kind of meat (rarely there were two), a vegetable (usually greens or eggplant), and a peanut sauce (which I really liked). For drinks it was either a pop (yeah, I'm from Wisconsin, I can say pop) or fruit juice. If they had it, I'd always opt for that. The pineapple juice at one place was particularly delicious and I kind of wanted to take a keg of it back to Goma, but don't think they'd let me take it on the plane to Beni.

They drink "African tea" in Uganda most of the time. English tea requires seeping the tea leaves in water and then adding milk and sugar as you wish. African tea is seeping the tea leaves in milk and adding sugar as you wish. There is no water, and it tasted kind of good. I though it could have used a bit of cinnamon for flavor, and I'd stick with the juice if that is an option, but I will drink African tea like the Ugandan sitting next to me if that's all they have (well, almost like the Ugandan sitting next to me).

One thing that really surprised me was the incredible number of Indian people in Jinja. They were very nice people (at least the one's I talked to) and seemed to own every store I walked into (okay, maybe 30%). An African looking place would all of a sudden have an Indian guy walk out of a door at the back, and the Indian music was a dead give-away. Nothing against that though, especially because the supermarket (which usually had 2 young Indian guys there) next to the internet cafe had juices like apple, grape, and pear which I have not had in a very long time, and I gave them lots of business for that.

I also got a bag of Doritos at that supermarket and they were good until I remembered Doritos are inherintely covered in too much flavor.

One last thing about Jinja. There was a theater but it didn't look very attractive and I didn't recognize any of the things showing (either African or Indian). I thought the only things needed to make Jinja part of small town USA was a rennovated theater with a Western every now and then, and a bowling alley. Given those two things, I would want to live in Jinja.

Thoughts on Kampala

2008-02-20T03:57:00.002-06:00

Kampala reminded me a lot more of China than the Philippines, Kigali, or Goma. There are lots of tall buildings that look really good on the outside, and then you go inside and realize the tender love and care the outside of the building received died at the door. The insides of the buildings were usually dirty and cheaply done with cheap materials that showed the wear. Almost every stair on the way down from the 8th floor of the building my test was in for instance was broke off on the edge. The lobby itself was really small, dark, and dingy. Some other buildings that looked very nice and new on the outside looked 30 years old on the inside, and also looked like not one maintenance person even looked at the building in 30 years. Also, the niceness of some of the buildings was set in sharp contrast to the people selling things outside the buildings. These people would sell books, news papers, shoes, and anything else they might be able to make a shilling on. They spread a piece of card board, or a blanket down on the sidewalk and then set their wares on top of them. That is their spot and it feels like a huge flea market wherever you walk.

Walking is probably the fastest way to get somewhere in one piece. The motos would be faster, but possibly deadly. The sidewalks are crowded with people, and are even more crowded because of the sidewalk sales everywhere, but they are not nearly as crowded as the streets at times. The traffic in Kampala usually averages speeds seen in Milwaukee only when there has been an accident and people are stopping to look at it, like the little kids are stopping to look at me right now outside the internet cafe's door. When traffic is at a stand still, that is your best bet for crossing the street. Weaving in and out of the cars, you really only have to watch out for the motos who are doing the same thing, trying to get to the front of the traffic column. Usually they are going slow enough to stop instantly if you step out in front of them, but I wouldn't put my life in their hands if I could avoid it. I'll just be more careful while crossing the street and not leave it up to some possessed moto driver to decide if I live or die. And that is only the danger while walking across the street, and then you try and take a moto?

I took one Sunday when I arrived in Kampala and it wasn't too bad because it was Sunday and there wasn't much traffic. The rest of my time I decided I was done with motos. They are crazy and I really think they should have you sign a will before you ride them during the week. They are much more crazy than the drivers in Goma or Kigali and really, I'm staying away from them if possible.

One good thing about Kampala is there are guards everywhere. Because every building, and sometimes even every floor of a building has guards, there are enough people with authority and with guns that it feels pretty safe, and really is safe. Especially on the main roads, it's no problem to walk around at 11pm (that's the latest I was ever out at least). When you're walking down the road at night, about every 100 feet there is a guard or two.

Kampala also has a place called Steers that had decent burgers. I ate there the first night I was in Kampala and actually went back the next two days I was there too. Three days of decent burgers was greatly appreciated by my burger deprived self. The bun wasn't amazing, but the burger itself and the other things on the burger were actually really good, and the fries were good too. They had a bit more flavor than most do here and it was a good change of pace since burgers and fries are some of my favorite foods ever.

I'm done

2008-02-20T02:55:00.002-06:00

I took the GRE yesterday, and it wasn't too bad. The hotel I was staying at was about a 10 minute walk from the GRE testing place and I only had to cross two crazy roads, so my life was only partially in danger. The official check-out time of the hotel was 10am and my test was at 12:30pm, so that would have left a lot of time for me to do nothing. I talked to the desk and got them to put the check-out time at 11 and then I actually left around 11:30. I went to the testing place and they said no problems, and started signing me in. Then the lady says "ok, follow me and bring your things and you may begin." I was kind of hoping I would get to start early and not just have to wait doing nothing for an hour, but was still a bit surprised when she said that. We went down the hall a little ways and then registered at the master computer where they took my picture via a web cam. It was a really bad picture, but she said it was good enough. I don't know how they even figured it was me, but hopefully it will be good enough.

The actual testing room had three computers against the far wall from the door. They were separated by wood frames to provide a private work space and there was a camera at the back of the room which showed all three stations. I was on the end and there was all ready someone taking a test at the middle station. While he is taking his test, the lady leads me in and starts explaining things to me, and this guy is in the middle of his test. Maybe it wasn't distracting, but I thought it was a bit weird. I'm glad we didn't wait till he was done though because he either wasn't taking the GRE or he started really late because he didn't finish until an hour or so before I did. I thought he would have been done by 12:30 but was wrong, so kudos to the rude lady for getting me started while he was still testing.

The room had some windows on one side and some of them were open, but most of them could not open because they were just solid glass. There was a fan too, but it was still really hot. I should have worn shorts, but I didn't.

The exam itself is all computer based and wasn't too bad. The English part was not very nice to me, but it was what I was expecting. The only real bad part of the experience was when the power went out. They had a battery back-up system for the computers so I didn't lose where I was, but the testing lady had to turn my computer off until the generator kicked in. It took about 5 minutes, and in that 5 minutes, it got really hot really fast because the fan wasn't on. the other downside of it was I only had 2 more questions left on the whole exam, so it was like "you couldn't wait another 10 minutes for me to finish and tell the computer which school to send my scores to?" but oh well. We can't really control when the power goes out.

Oh, I lied. there was another bad part too, and that was on the bus ride from Kampala to Jinja when I realized I did one of the math problems wrong. That was disappointing since I was just sitting there and it popped into my head saying "you idiot, what were you thinking?"

Josh takes a test

2008-02-16T10:33:00.000-06:00

I'm in Kigali, Rwanda right now, but I'm only staying overnight before
heading on to Kampala, Uganda where I will be taking my GRE. That's
right, it's taking me two days to travel to the place where I can take
my GRE. Not only do I have to pay for the test, I also have to pay to
get there, on not so nice modes of transportation (well, I'm not flying)
and then I have to sit through 4 hours of an exam I don't really want to
take. Oh well, I guess it's for a good cause.

What cause is that? I think I'm going to go back to school and get a
masters in Plant Breeding and Plant Genetics. I'm hoping to start
either next spring or the following fall and by taking my GRE now, when
it's a pain in the butt, I'll be better able to prepare applications and
things like that. I'm not too worried about the test itself. It won't
be very fun, but I think I'll do all right. I will do good enough to
get into school for sure (I hope), but I'm hoping to do pretty well to
get a better chance at a Research Assistantship. Besides being a great
experience, the benefits are pretty nice as well.

I've been looking over the math stuff most and reviewing for that. I
pretty much see the English side of the exam as a lost cause. I've been
using too simple of English and not reading enough for my vocab to be
where it could be. I should do all right though.

My travel plans are a bit complicated though. I'm in Kigali now and I'm
taking the bus to Kampala, Uganda tomorrow. It's about 8-10 hours by
bus. Sunday and Monday nights I'll spend in Kampala and my test is on
Tuesday at 12:30. After the test I'll take an hour and a half bus to
Jinja, Uganda. I have a friend there and it should be good to see him
again. He came to the guest house and has been trying to get me to
Jinja since November, so it's about time. Then next Saturday, I'm
taking a 2 hour bus to Kampala and beyond to Entebbe where the airport
is and am flying to Beni, Congo. I'll be in Beni working with the Congo
Initiative (www.congoinitiative.org) for a week to ten days and will
then fly back to Goma.

Wish me luck, both for the test and for the travel. I'll post how it's
going/went sometime soon.

Mawe Hai

2008-02-14T10:33:00.003-06:00

I went out to Mawe hai a couple mornings this week and it's looking pretty good. Things are going well, the second batch of moringa seeds are planted and most have sprouted, and there aren't any major problems. Compost is being made and used on a regular basis now. The workers make compost every two weeks and use it after two weeks, then make some more. Two days ago I started a small field for artemisia. Artemisia is a plant that can be used to fight malaria. You can make a tea from the leaves if you are sick and it is pretty effective at fighting the malaria. It is actually processed in a drug as well, but you get the same effect just by drinking a tea. Not too bad if you ask me.

I had an idea too about starting a small garden behind the house that is being built out there. Now Mawe Hai has lots of fields but those fields show production on a large scale. We're going to tone it down and have just a small household sized garden with all the vegetables, medicinals, and fruits we can have in a small space. The coolest part is I think it should have a wall, partly to protect the small garden, and partly because I want to help build it. It'll be dry laid lava rocks so it should be kind of fun. We'll get started with that soon and I'm hoping that can really be an effective part of Mawe Hai.

Besides that, Dick Anderson, Wilfrieda, and I met again today to discuss where Mawe Hai is going and what the objectives of Mawe Hai should be and how best to achieve those objectives. One of the cooler things though is in our talks, and in my wanderings around Goma, I'm beginning to understand people a little better in Swahili. I can tell people what I've been doing and can often understand parts of what they are saying. I get a little confused if they talk about me or my things. I'm so used to talking about me in Swahili and what I'm doing (because that's what I learned first) that when people talk about me, and use "you" in Swahili, I think "hm, I wonder who they are talking about." Things are going all right here in Goma.

I'm back

2008-02-03T13:28:00.000-06:00

Goma is back under my feet, and it was a lazy day today. The ride back from Kigali was much more enjoyable than the ride into Kigali because I got a ride. One of the guys, Achille, I met at the meeting I went into Kigali for wanted to talk to me and we decided we were going to talk on Saturday. Friday night I texted him and he said we'd have to meet in the morning because he was going to Gisenyi at 9. I texted back and said ok, we can meet at the cafe in the morning, and then I'll go with you to Gisenyi (that's the town on the other side of the boarder from Goma).

I show up at the cafe at 10 to 8 and then get a text. Actually, two texts came to my phone at the same time. The second one asked if I got Achille's message from last night and the first said Achille canceled our meeting because he was up really late and we could just talk in the car. It wasn't a big deal though because it was a cool cafe and I paid way too much for way too little coffee (Kigali is becoming a modern city) and had an omelet which was pretty good.

We rode with a couple women from World Vision who were going to see one of the projects of Achille's organization, Project Rwanda. We got in plenty of talk though, and I must say Achille was shamelessly trying to steal me from HEAL Africa. Project Rwanda is considering expanding into more direct agriculture work and he liked how I have so many crazy (yet usually practical) ideas. I kept telling him I couldn't commit to anything until we got to the hotel he was staying in that night. There was a jeep in the parking lot that was absolutely amazing. I told him if he got me a jeep just like that, I'd come work for Project Rwanda, and he said deal and shook on it, so we'll see what comes of that. Unfortunately, I don't think he was serious.

And for those who are avid readers and know I had some issues crossing the boarder into Rwanda, this time going out was no problem.

First impressions of Kigali

2008-01-30T09:58:00.000-06:00

After almost 4 hours on a paved road with potholes (mostly filled in so it's rough gravel/rocks) and road construction (yeah, they have that here too) you come down a hill and into a valley. Then you go back the same direction you came to get to the heart of Kigali. My first impression was it was a lot like Baguio in the Philippines. It is in the mountains with more cars than the average roads and taller buildings (like 6-10 stories some of them). There are a lot of people everywhere and I arrived around 5pm which is probably when people are getting off of work and flooding the streets. There are some really modern things here though, like some of the buildings with curved glass fronts and a round about with huge fountain and a digital bill board. It's so far an interesting mix and I'm excited to explore it a bit more. I'll probably stick around a couple days, or depending on what else there is to do or what develops, I could go back tomorrow.

So what am I even doing here? Well, Sam was at Maji over New Years and we talked about a lot of stuff, and he knows I'm interested in renewable energy. Tonight there is a dinner/meeting at 8 somewhere and it's going to be about Jathropa, which is a tree that has the potential to produce a heck of a lot of oil for bio-diesel. I'll stay overnight at Sam's house and come up with a game plan for tomorrow then. I don't know anything about Kigali, but I could just walk around the city a bit too. I think that would be kind of fun.

Unexpected Journey

2008-01-30T09:43:00.000-06:00

Last night the guests of the guest house were celebrating Christine's birthday at a restaurant and Harper goes "Oh Josh, I remember what I wanted to tell you before. Sam wants to talk to you, something about a meeting in Kigali tomorrow." So I call Sam and instead of going to Beni like I was planning on, I took a bus to Kigali today. (I was actually going to go to Beni. In fact, I gave the money for the plane ticket to Judy to take into the logistic staff yesterday and she forgot to give them the money so they never booked my ticket. Thank you God.)

I almost didn't make it on the bus (really a van) that I took. I got a ticket for a bus to leave at 12:30 and because my phone had the wrong time, completely thought it was way earlier than it was. I went to the market with the girls and then realized after like a half hour that it was already 12:20 and I had to go. I went to the bus stop in Goma and the bus already left. I quick hopped on a moto to the boarder and got there no problem. The people in the immigration office on the Congolese side couldn't have been in less of a hurry and took their time looking at my stuff. As I approached the Rwandan boarder I saw the bus. At the boarder, it stops and the people walk across on foot and then get back on the bus before going to the stop on the Rwandan side. Well, the Rwandan people weren't in any hurry either and everyone likes talking to the white guy, even if they get lots of them a day. I went into a building so a security lady could search my bags and the bus was gone when I got out. I walked over to the immigration office with my immigration card all filled out and hand it through the bars to the guy at the desk. He looks at it and starts asking questions about how long I've been here and what I've been doing (in English). Then, he looks at the passport and looks at me and he goes "this isn't you."

Ok, so what if I've been to the Philippines and back and then to Africa and through plenty of airports with that passport and no one else has said anything at all? I pull off my hat and he's like "nope." I'm thinking "come on! I've got to go catch this bus" and he's just holding me up. I don't know why he thought that because I only insisted that I was the person like 3 times and then said "you are welcomed in our country" and I considered it over. Just kidding, he comes back again saying "are you sure this is you?" and I told him I had an American drivers license too but it wasn't any use. Finally he just let me go, so I don't really know what the deal was. Really, I thought it was stupid to ask all those questions and then not even do anything about it, but oh well. I made it through immigration.

I got on a moto on that side of the boarder and asked him to take me to the bus stop as best I could. He took me to the wrong place, but thankfully they knew exactly what I was talking about and told the moto to take me to the right place. The bus was still there and after showing them my ticket and explaining (one Swahili sentence) that I missed the bus in Goma, it was no problems. We only sat there for about a half hour then waiting for one more person to make a full bus. All that hurrying for nothing...

What I've been up to (work wise)

2008-01-25T14:56:00.001-06:00

Sometimes I find myself talking about stuff I think many people don't know, so here's what I've been up to a bit.

Wilfrieda, Mawe Hai, and I are beginning to take agriculture to some of the programs of HEAL around Goma. Right now this is Ndosho (which is a transit house I believe and they also have programs for kids) and Grounds for Hope, and will soon be a school (Jethrope or something like that). We are bringing in soil to get things started and will teach raising vegetables and composting and things like that. We are also using rabbits to provide protein, fertilizer (manure), and a rather tasty end product. The rabbit houses is what I've been working on mainly. I have a design in my head that uses almost entirely bamboo, but I decided I wasn't going to say "this is how it should be done" because first off, that would be dumb since i have no experience in building rabbit hutches in the Congo, and second because I am very interested in what the workers are doing and trying to figure out why they are doing it.

Besides this, Wilfrieda and I are going to meet Sunday afternoon to talk about the objectives and purpose of Mawe Hai and to hopefully get some guidance for where we are going in the years to come. I'm really hoping for a great meeting where Wilfrieda will be challenged to stop following what other people tell her to do only and start having ideas of her own (that are realistic) and to start taking ownership in Mawe Hai and really being a leader for it. Now there isn't a clear leader for Mawe Hai and it lacks vision, which makes a lot of things more difficult.

We also got 6kg of moringa seeds from Bunia, Congo which is north of here. We're hoping these seeds grow a lot better than the previous ones we planted from Kigali, and we will also plant these soon to capitalize on their viability (which doesn't last that long in moringa, about a year tops).

Finally, I've been roped in to helping oversee and brainstorm some of the building projects going on at HEAL. Basically what I do is talk to Dick Anderson (who is here until March) and he runs all his ideas past me. I also keep in contact with an engineer from Canada who came with the team from Wisconsin and tell him what's going on and he gives me feed back. The biggest thing we're doing is rearranging the semi containers at the Jubilee Center that are used for storage. There are 7 of them and we are designing it so there is storage, office space, and a covered work area. Dick is heading all the logistical stuff with that, but we talk about it a lot and it's pretty fun.

One more thing is sometime soon (within a couple weeks) I'm going to go to Beni, Congo (north of here) and work with David Kasali and the Congo Initiative (www.congoinitiative.org) to help plan and throw out ideas for agriculture on their 90 acre plot of land. I'm really excited about that and am sure you'll hear more about that if I actually go (and I'm planning on it). So, all in all, I'm not very busy.

Wilfrieda teaches compost

2008-01-25T14:40:00.000-06:00

Yesterday Wilfrieda and I go to Grounds for Hope to check out the feasibility of putting rabbits out there, and we decide it's possible, but while we are there, something interesting happens. There is an unused field next to Grounds for Hope and the women plant things there. They had harvested something or weeded something and one of the women had a pile of stuff she was going to burn. I looked at it and thought "what a waste, it should be composted." About two minutes later, Wilfrieda starts talking to her and in 2 minutes has her convinced. Wilfrieda asked something about having good soil and the other woman said no. Then Wilfrieda gave a blurb about compost and a minute explanation about it and the woman very quickly was putting dirt on top of the smoldering pile of organic matter making a compost pile instead of burning it.

The pile survived because this picture was taken today. Or I should say, the pile almost survived. About two hours after this picture was taken I saw a women (I don't know if it was the same one or not) pull off the dirt, and about 5 minutes later, the delightfully sickening smell of smoldering organic matter that is not dry at all fills the air. It almost worked, but kudos to Wilfrieda for her excellent description and guide to compost, and negative kudos to the woman who took something apart that had potential just to get rid of it and ignore the long term benefits compost represents.

Random stuff

2008-01-25T13:38:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I saw a little boy with a shirt that was too big for him that read "Canadian Girls Drinking Team."

Today was another day to show the benefits of compost. After a hot day with lots of sun, the cabbage plants in the compost/fertilizer/control experiment set up at Mawe Hai showed the benefits of compost. While the cabbage plants in the fertilized and compost trial look similar on a normal day, today the lower leaves of the fertilized cabbages were drooping to the ground falling flat. The leaves of the compost cabbages were still upright and looked great. Why is that? Well, besides being a great fertilizer, compost has tons of organic matter and the humus really helps hold water in the soil. Another point for compost (did I mention it's free for the making?). Check out the Mawe Hai album on the right for the pictures (I think they are at the end).

Today Wilfrieda was going to pick me up at 8 and then we were going to go to Ndosho to check on the progress of some rabbit hutches they are building, and then on to Mawe Hai. She arrived around 8:45 and needed to talk to Harper for something. Harper was talking to Lyn and even though Wilfrieda just needed a quick signature, she wouldn't interrupt the talking. We finally left Maji around 9:30 and were on our way. Where to? The hardware store because we needed more nails. We show up and we need 8 packages of different sizes and amounts of nails according to which project they are for. I've never seen anyone weigh nails slower in my life. I wasn't really paying attention at first, but when it rounded 10 I started getting a bit bored and antsy. We were done with the nails around 10:15 but Wilfrieda paid with a 100 dollar bill and we waited another 10 minutes for change. Then we needed some wire mesh. There goes another 25 minutes. We are finally on our way to Ndosho again and then we stop for 5 liters of gas for Mawe Hai (which was 1.7 a liter or 6.50 a gallon). We finally arrived at Ndosho after 11 when Wilfrieda said yesterday she would pick me up at 8. Good thing I'm a patient person and used to African time, or it would have frustrated me a lot more than it did.

I noticed a while ago that you can buy boards that are cut, but not cut quite all the way through. Like there are 5 or 6 boards that are completely cut except the last 3 or 4 inches, so it's like a section of log that's been cut, but they are still together for easy transport and also it keeps the wood flat as they cut it. I've noticed the last couple days there are a couple places past Mawe Hai where two people will roll a log onto a platform and one guy standing on top, and one on the bottom, will saw logs to make boards with a saw maybe 6 feet long. I can't imagine that it's a very fun job, but the boards are usually pretty even, so kudos to them. I actually think it's kind of cool though.

I've been on the ground in a couple places I'm not usually at and there have been a lot of kids around. They flock together saying "muzungu" like mad and any other English words they know (usually "morning!" or "give me money"). Today I decided I was going to have some fun so after I was bored and tired from a day wasted doing pretty much nothing (except playing with pieces of bark), one girl was walking behind me and said "muzungu" kind of quietly, but loud enough for me to hear. I turned around and said "Minajuwa niko muzungu, hunapashua kunisema" (I know I'm a white person, you don't have to tell me) while smiling, to which she said something about me having long hair. It's true, I really need a hair cut. I decided though as people say English words to me, I'm just going to say what they said in Swahili, so the next kid that says "morning" is getting an "asubuii" coming at him.

I can't really believe it, but the generator just went of to (drum roll please)... city power. We haven't had city power in about a week and a half. It's about time, but I wonder how long it will last?

Peace?

2008-01-24T10:52:00.000-06:00

For the last two weeks or so (I know, I'm a horrible reporter) there has been a peace conference going on in Goma. This is the first such conference in North Kivu Province ever and has been attended by everyone except the FDLR (Rwandan Hutus responsible for the genocide) and there has been a lot of talking, a lot of politicking, and some hints of progress. It was only supposed to last a couple of days to a week, and I wasn't very optimistic about it and so was planning on writing about it when it failed. It has been extended many times and it might actually be going on to three weeks now, but last night all the groups that were present actually signed a peace agreement to stop fighting and work towards peace.

I don't know what the terms are, and I think some of them are still being worked out as to how they will be done, but there is hope because now, if nothing else, all the groups have signed this document so if they break the peace agreement, then international attention might be drawn because this is an official agreement. The meeting has been overseen by the United Nations, the African Union, and some American representatives as well. The groups were to receive compensation of some kind and that might have played a rather large part of the agreement, but either way, this is a huge step forward. Even if peace does not come, all the groups were together and talking, so it was great. If it fails, there is a document saying there should be peace, so finger pointing can come back to the document and say "hey, you signed for peace, what's up now?"

So what does this mean for Eastern DRC? Well, a meeting has been set up to start immediately to work out how the terms will be accomplished. There is a glimmer of hope in many people (I'm beginning to be a bit hopeful myself, in spite of my pessimistic view of peace in the area), and that is so sorely needed right now. Some people say the only thing to happen now is there needs to be international intervention to get rid of the FDLR in the area. If that happens, it is just a Congo conflict and Nkunda has no other excuse to fight. If the FDLR is gone and he continues fighting, then it's just ridiculous and there should be more of an international push to take him out. If the general fighting stops, then the Mai Mai militias have no reason to keep fighting.

Some say this will work. Some are less optimistic. This will show a bit about Nkunda's motives especially. Supposedly he is to protect the Congolese Tutsi minority (which isn't a minority at all in the Congo) and if he no longer has to "protect" them, will he keep fighting for economic and power reasons? It will be interesting times ahead and a candle is glimmering light into the darkness. Please pray that nothing blows the candle out.

For general news on Central Africa and recently some news on the peace conference (especially the last couple days) check out: http://www.mg.co.za/articleList.aspx?area=central_africa

Play ground

2008-01-21T14:18:00.000-06:00

There was a container shipped to HEAL Africa about a month or two ago (okay, it was shipped like 6 months ago, but that's when it got here). In that container were lots of medical supplies (as always), a boat (inflatable and a motor) for Maji Matulivu as a get-away boat, and a play ground set. It was a prefabricated, all components in 7 boxes play set with swings, monkey bars, a slide, rope ladder, stairs and a ladder, a rock wall, and a platform with a canopy. It was a pretty cool thing made of cedar. Whoever sent the play set was thinking ahead because they also sent all the tools we would need to put it together. After Lyn decided it should go over by the church and the women's homes, Chris and I (he was on the Wisconsin team) started setting it up.

The only real problem was Lyn first told us it should go by the Jubilee Center. Or she told Chris where it should go and he just got it wrong. After spending half a day watching surgeries (a cleft lip and a rather messy abdominal one) and looking for all of the boxes, we were finally able to start putting it together around 1 or 2 in the afternoon. That night we worked until dark and everything was going fine. We got the ladder/step on one side, and the rock wall on the other to connect to the platform and it was a pretty solid set up. Only problem was it was in the wrong spot as we found out on the way home with Lyn that night.

Next day we spend an hour making it into three parts and then carrying those three parts to where it should go and building it again. Onward to the center of the earth!

We proceeded and set up the whole thing by that 2pm, including a bit of a drink break. It was so cool to build it though. Everyone wanted to know what it was and what it was for. No one here has ever seen a play ground. The adults didn't know what it was, the kids didn't know what it was, and very few people guessed what it was. After we told them they started smiling and thinking it was a great idea.

Jean Claude has a program with kids at HEAL and as we finished he was in one of his programs with the kids. I went up to him and told him we were done and that it was for the kids and he should feel free to use it if he wanted to. We went to get something to drink and came back. All the kids were lined up at the step/ladder end and going up one at a time to go down the slide one at a time and Jean Claude had everything organized and the kids were having a blast. Then Chris goes up to one of the kids in line, taps him on the shoulder, and puts him on a swing a pushed him. Chaos ensued as all the kids made a scramble for the two remaining swings, and once those were no more they just abandoned the line all together and did what kids are supposed to do. The chaotic jubilee was awesome to watch and all the women at the transit house were cheering and laughing watching the children. Everyone was so happy and thanked us many times. Building that swing set was so instantly gratifying that it almost made me want to stop doing agriculture and start an organization to just put of playgrounds for kids who have never seen one before.

For another bonus, I inherited the tools that came with the play ground and will keep them until I leave for upkeep of the playground if needed, and basically to make sure they don't walk off as is likely to happen if they are just left around the HEAL compound.

Again

2008-01-21T14:00:00.000-06:00

After many days of trying to write something on my blog, my internet finally cooperated on an interesting story.

So I'm driving to Mawe Hai this morning, and I won't be caught again with my doors unlocked or windows open (read the bribe post below if you're confused) that are not occupied by people, so this time when I was stopped, no one could get into the car.

I'm on the main road this time, but at the same intersection as before. I get stopped in the middle of the road to let people cross the street. This has happened many times and I've thought before that this would be a good time for one of the police to decide to stop me, but so far I've been lucky. Today after letting the kids and women carrying 5 gallons of water on their heads for miles on end cross the street, the yellow clad police man motions for me to pull over. Being the upstanding citizen I am, I do and roll up my window a good two thirds of the way. Now he can't reach in here, and all the other windows are up and doors locked.

He comes to the window and I immediately say "why did you stop me?" and he asks for my license. Just then who shows up? The guy in blue I talked to before. "Again!" I demand and he smiles and sticks his hand in the window for a shake saying "hello." By this point I'm frustrated at being pulled over for nothing, yet am also laughing at this guy who ripped me off 10 dollars all of a sudden being my buddy. The first guy asks for my license again and I said "why? He saw it last week," indicating the other guy, but I got it out anyways. I opened it up and showed it to him from well inside the window so he could see it but not take it.

The blue guy said something about driving lessons at this point and I said no, I'm going to the field to work and I didn't do anything wrong, why did you stop me? At this point the yellow guy indicated he was done with the license and I took that as my leave to go so I said thank you and drove off without looking back. It was a bit interesting, and I was laughing about it as I drove away, but also my heart was pumping a bit too. Nothing like getting pulled over for no reason to elevate the blood pressure.

4 Surgeries

2008-01-16T13:16:00.000-06:00

Here lies my rather lengthy tale of the surgeries I observed today. I focus a lot on the actual procedures as I thought it was fascinating. I liked the opportunity to write it down to help me think about it and the amazing bodies God has given us as well as the ability to operate on them. I'm going to try and report this as accurately as it happened, but given the fact that I'm not a doctor and am human, I'm sure mistakes will occur. Here is the gist of it anyways.

I entered the OR with Marc and Chris; they like working together. The first case was a (rather large) woman and she had a tumor on her right cheek. It wasn't complicated or big, so we think she was a paying patient (also judged by her rather largeness - if she could afford that much food, she could afford surgery). I was watching as they prepped her and was doing all right. Chris cut an incision over the tumor with the scalpel and then used a tool called a Bovie (ever heard of it?) to cut deeper into the tissue and to create a skin flap under the incision to get room to work with. The skin actually separates rather nicely from the other tissues and so this gives a large area to work with even though the incision is small.

It was somewhere around here where I started feeling really hot and soon after started having blackness crowd into my vision. I got a bit dizzy and said "I'm not doing so good" and made my way towards the door but another Chris got a chair and gave me some things to put in a plastic bag just as a stupid thing to keep me busy and occupied. What surprised me was the dizziness came on fairly quickly and I wasn't really thinking about it. I didn't think "wow this is disgusting' or anything like that, I was watching pretty interested because I love learning stuff and seeing stuff, and then I was gone. I didn't faint, but it was pretty darn close.

I got up after a bit and then watched maybe 20 seconds before deciding to call it quits for a while. I drank lots of water and walked around the hospital a bit looking for people for different things. When I came back I felt a lot better and waited for the next one. The surgeries actually went pretty quick today, but the time between the surgeries was at least an hour.

The next one I watched was of a baby, I think I heard 18 months. I think the condition is called hydrosephalis or something like that but basically there is fluid in the brain. Chris did most of this surgery too and after the baby was prepped and I well hydrated and taking deep, steady breaths, Chris made a "C" shaped incision on the right side of the baby's head. After making the incision he used the Bovie to separate the skin and tissue from the skull so when he peeled the skin back the bare skull was exposed.

As Chris did that, Marc was checking out the shunt and figuring out how this particular one worked and operated. He also filled it with a saleen solution and checked the pump on the shunt and got it ready to be inserted.

After the Skull was exposed Chris made an incision at the base of the shoulder and neck and another in the abdomen. Once these incisions were made and ready for later, Chris drilled a hole in the skull. It was maybe a quarter inch in diameter. I wasn't really looking at it for a size comparison, but I think that's about what it was. The first drill bit was really dull so he changed it and tried again. It was no time at all and he was through the skull.

This next part was so cool. The shunt itself was about the length of a pen but much thinner. There were little perforations along it's length and a tube opening at the top to attach to the pump and tube already strung through the baby's body. Lining up the shunt from the hole in the baby's right side of the skull to the left eye, Chris simply pushed it into the brain. After a couple centimeters, fluid started coming out of the top and I think he went another centimeter beyond that and the shunt was in place. There was a metal rod inside the shunt and he pulled that out and fluid poured out like a hose. Marc was clamping it shut a bit to slow the flow of the fluid so it wasn't too drastic of a change for the baby's body. The shunt was cut to size so it was a little past level of the skull, a 90 degree elbow was put on top of it, and the pump tube attached to the elbow. The pump tube is what made use of the other two incisions to get the tube from the baby's brain to the abdomen. This was really cool because as soon as the pump was attached, they tried it and pushing the pump caused fluid to come out of the end of the tube, so it worked.

Using a guide sort of like people sometimes use to guide feet into shoes (bad example of what it looked like but half way decent for how it worked), he started from the skull incision and worked the tube and guiding tool under the skin layer and down to the incision at the shoulder. That was pretty weird watching this thing push under the baby's skin from his skull to his neck. After the shunt was pulled that far they situated the pump for the shunt against a bone and got ready to make the next pass. Chris then made his way from the shoulder incision to the abdomen incision. After pulling the shunt tight from the skull, there was about two feet of tubing left. They conveniently just shoved the tube into the abdomen cavity of the baby so it would be there when he grows.

After that it was pretty basic as they closed the wounds up. The stitching is actually pretty simple and I was surprised at how much they could pull on it and get it tight. The human skin is pretty tough and can take a lot. I also noticed none of the incisions tore or anything like that, again showing how tough the skin tissue can be because at times they would move and pull on it quite a bit. To drain the fluid in the baby's head someone just needs to push the little bulb pump under his skin by his ear and the fluid should drain into his abdominal cavity where the body clears it out. It was a pretty spectacular surgery.

I'm not entirely sure if it happened in that order of shunt, pump, threading through the body, but that's the gist of it. That was surgery two of four.

I saw an X-Ray for the third surgery when we first got to the hospital in the morning. It was a chest X-Ray and you could see the esophagus and as it went to the stomach it was almost completely closed due to muscle tissue and scaring around the esophagus. The esophagus was a white tube maybe an inch in diameter coming up to a hazy looking circular shape (the stomach) and before it got to the stomach the white looking esophagus came almost to a complete point showing it was blocked off. I watched as Marc explained what was going on to the doctor in a book and got a pretty good understanding of what would happen.

The surgery started with us walking in on a young man (teenager maybe) naked on the table. They prepped him with sterilizer stuff and covered every part of him not being operated on with robes. This surgery started with an abdominal incision 6-8 inches long right in the middle of the stomach where there isn't any muscle to cut through. This surgery reminded me the most of deer hunting as I could see some of the organs and thought "hey, I know what that one is." Working within this incision Marc was looking for the esophagus and soon enough they found it. They were using these "L" shaped tools to hold the organs and skin back and also pieces of sterile cloth to get a better grip on the skin and organs. Once they found the esophagus they got around it and put a rubber hose underneath it. This they clamped to the cloths covering the boy and this kept the esophagus from falling down again.

From here they used the Bovie to cut the tissues and muscle around the esophagus starting all the way at the stomach and extending about 6-8 centimeters up the esophagus. Marc said the biggest failure rate on this operation was not clearing close enough to the stomach. Marc actually worked a bit on the stomach making sure there wasn't any muscle tissue in the way that would grow again and cause more problems. What surprised me here was how much Marc was showing with this guys stomach cut open. He was moving around organs and at one point actually had the stomach out of the body completely to show things and it was cool. When they sewed up this guy they first sewed the tissue under the skin and then sewed the skin shut so it was a double stitching (I think). Marc let the doctor from HEAL finish up the stitching and he's pretty confident it will be a successful surgery and this boy who hasn't been able to eat for a long time will be able to have fluids for a week, soft food for a week, and then real food for the rest of his life. Having just come from dinner, I think that's pretty darn incredible.

The fourth surgery was a long time in coming. The surgeries take less time than the turn-over between patients here and really we waited well over an hour, and possibly two for this last surgery to get under way. This final surgery was on another boy who had some lumps on his neck. Marc found out right before the surgery that he was being treated for TB so the lumps were probably expanded lymph nodes (which they were) and that at least answered one question. For this surgery, Doctor Luke (a doctor here) was doing it and Marc was assisting. This was a good one to watch because there weren't a lot of people and I could see everything great, but was much less dramatic than the last two.

An incision was made and the hunting with the Bovie began. As lymph nodes were identified Luke would cut the tissues around them and Marc would position it for a good cut until the whole node was free. This surgery was a bit cautious because of nerves in the area but they determined there weren't any in the immediate area and went along fine. They removed 4 nodes and there were more smaller ones, but they were too difficult to get at or were too small to worry about. They might shrink a bit as the TB gets better, or stay that size, but it shouldn't matter.

The coolest part about this surgery was watching them stitch the wound back up. Marc was showing Luke how to make a hidden stitch and once it was done, there was no stitches showing and it was a pretty smooth wound. The boy is young enough that he will have a scar, but it won't be that bad at all.

Overall, I was surprised at a couple things. I always knew they had to do something to stop the bleeding as they operate and the Bovie does a great job of that. The Bovie is an electrical instrument that has different settings for cutting tissue and coagulating blood. A metal plate with some sort of jell is placed under the patient to create a circuit and this is how all work inside the body was done today.

I was also surprised about how little blood there was overall. When they made an incision it was usually in a safe place to do so and not a lot of blood was there.

I was again surprised at how hard they would pull when they were stitching the wounds shut and how hard they could be on the skin and tissue. Looking at a deer I can kind of understand it, but I thought our skin would be a bit weaker than that, and it might be, but it didn't really look like it. They were always clamping and puling on it and it was fine.

All in all, it was pretty cool. I might try and catch a couple more, but the next couple days might be busy for me too so I'll wait and see what happens. I could always watch Joe too when he operates, I just have to remember to breath and drink lots of fluids.

Surgery

2008-01-12T06:21:00.000-06:00

Next week I'm going to witness something cool. I haven't decided which surgeries I'm going to watch, but the surgeons are more than happy to show off and explain things to an ignorant young person who probably won't be able to watch surgeries anywhere else (well, at least not in the states). I'm going to ask around and find out which surgeries will be the best to watch, and then go watch those. The only thing is I have to get better before going into the OR.

Yesterday morning I woke up and felt stuff draining down the back of my throat and it didn't get any better as the day went on. Last night it wasn't too bad, and this morning it felt fine, but now it stopped draining down the back of my throat and started draining down my nose, and I haven't decided which I dislike more. So far it's just the nose though and I'm going to go swimming as soon as I get back to Maji and loose a couple pounds of snot in the water and should be good to go. I love swimming when I have a cold and always have. It makes me feel so good. Granted, my body might be in a weaker state and less able to fight stuff off, but I feel better for a little while, which is always a bonus to me.

So far things are going really well with the team. They are in a zone and they come to the hospital, do their surgeries, lecture, and swim/shower in the lake. Eating takes a while, but we're eating at 7pm vs. 8 or 8:30 so there is also time to watch a movie if we want. Last night was Mr. and Mrs. Smith. I never get tired of watching that movie. It's so poetic at the end when they annihilate everyone. My favorite part is when they dodge the RPGs. It's like dancing.

I haven't heard anything too bad that the team has faced yet, but there are a couple stories where things didn't go as planned and they fixed it. They are doing a lot of teaching in the OR and the report is today went better than yesterday. Right now is the biggest conflict so far. A routine surgery was being done and they opened up a woman (I think) and it was cancer and nothing routine. They are working on that right now.

And now I'm off to Maji, to swim, and possibly to sleep.

I almost cried

2008-01-10T14:15:00.000-06:00

Going to Mawe Hai today was so awesome. After a lazy morning talking with the Wisconsin team at breakfast, I headed out to Mawe Hai around 9 and it was great. I walked around a bit and they made some more raised beds (well, they outlined them in rocks to be filled with soil when it is available) and are looking towards expansion. I talked to one of the workers a bit and then walked over to the nursery. Then I headed down towards the lake to check out the sights. One sight that hit my eye that I was not expecting was about a dozen compost piles that were made yesterday. I wasn't there yesterday and didn't say I was coming today, so there was no fear of being reprimanded in any way (a couple times they quick start to do things Wilfrieda suggested they do on her last visit as soon as the car comes in sight). It was good, honest acceptance of compost as they made each pile. They continued to make it today, and it will be three weeks or so before it is ready to put in the afore mentioned new fields.

The other day too we were weeding soy beans and there was one part where there was a huge contrast between the beans grown in soil and the beans grown on rocks. They planted soybeans in these fields because nothing else would grow there and in a place where there was some soil, the plants were doing well, were dark green, and looked great. Two feet away it was all rocks and the plants were severely stunted, yellow and even brown from death. It was a great visual of the power of soil. I mentioned this to the workers and said we needed more compost because compost is good soil. One of the workers then said "yes, compost is the best soil." It's pretty exciting to see things that I've been doing for a couple months now finally taken hold of. It goes to show though how much work sometimes needs to go into acceptance of something new. I spent a lot of days making compost alone and now they are doing it. I almost wanted to cry as I walked towards the small brown mounds of freshly made compost piles.

Christmas!

2008-01-10T13:26:00.000-06:00

For those avid readers of Josh's Life, you will know I already talked about Christmas. We've had one yes, but what about second Christmas? Well, unlike Aragorn in the Fellowship of the Ring who ignores Pippin's longing, I was blessed with a second Christmas.

Yesterday, a team of doctors arrived from Wisconsin (I knew Wisconsin was amazing). This is their 6th year coming here. They started coming before the volcano erupted, and were actually here for the eruption. Only one of the 8 person team has not been here before, and many have been here multiple times. When they come, they bring bins of medical supplies and some things (sutures and some drugs) they bring enough of to last all year. HEAL Africa knows that January is the month for Wisconsin so they plan on it every year. They have training and they line up tough cases that can be used to teach people as well as getting tough surgeries done by doctors with lots of training and experience. The hospital has been gathering these cases for weeks and getting lecture ideas and in general, getting ready for this annual event.

Maji has been getting ready too. There are lots of bottled drinks here (coke, fanta, and beer) and the mamas have been baking bread and making granola. This Wisconsin team is so special that they actually have a lunch option. Like the mamas prepare lunch for them. That's unheard of. I've been here for almost 4 months and my lunch option is peanut butter and jelly or a bag of granola. These docs are getting all sorts of portable fare.

Because many of them have been here so many times, they see Goma, the hospital, and Maji change with real interest. Joe downplayed the new house that's being build for Lyn and him and the team insisted on getting a tour. You can tell the team is loved by Goma and that they love to be here.

You can also tell that the team loves me (or some other way was convinced to be my personal UPS) as they brought some stuff for me from home. I sent a list of some stuff that would be nice to have and I got everything on the list and then some. Most prominent of which is a pair of Wisconsin Badger shorts that I'm wearing right now over my Badger lounge pants (along with my red badger t-shirt over my white badger long sleeved t-shirt and badger hat). I figured since it's second Christmas I might as well celebrate in style. They also brought Megan's Christmas present for me, which I greatly like and will enjoy for years to come. Most prominent besides that was my WATER POLO BALL and tennis racket. I'm so excited, especially about the ball. Now I just have to find an air pump and Mikasa is my Wilson.

Josh pays a bribe

2008-01-07T10:34:00.001-06:00

I'll start off saying that I know I broke the law and was at fault. Following is the chronicle of the event for your perusal and enjoyment.

I was tired this morning so I slept in a bit. A little too much "bit" as I realized it was after 8, the time which I usually eat breakfast. I wasn't worried about missing breakfast, I just like getting to Mawe Hai fairly early in the morning so it's not so hot. After eating breakfast and getting ready to go, I saw two of the guests getting ready to go to the peace conference and it's on the way to Mawe Hai so I offered to give them a ride (or they would resort to motos). We're in the car about to go and the one remembers his press pass is in his room. We finally pull out of Maji, windows down (except the guy in the back never opened his) and we're cruising along.

The peace conference is at a university and it's off the side road a bit, but soon enough they are on their way to the conference and I'm on my way to Mawe Hai. I remember looking at the gas gauge and lamenting the fact that I forgot to replace the last 20 I spent and therefore only had 10 dollars. Man was I lucky to have forgotten! I'm chugging along the side road that links to the main road out of town and everything is fine.

I approach the main road and am met with a dilemma. Looking back, it was quite a stupid decision (hind sight's 20/20) and it was so obvious what I should have done. Then again, everyone makes mistakes, and this was one of those times.

As the road I'm on approaches the main road there is a divider in it. Now coming to the main road you are supposed to stay on the right side of the divider, and I clearly saw the divider and was trying to decide what to do. It wouldn't even have been an issue and I would have known which way to take except the divider was very much not a square but a triangle and it appeared that the right side of it might have been just for turning right because that's the way the triangle pushed you. The left side of the barrier was straight, which made it seem like that would be a better option for turning left. I was still trying to figure out what to do (while in the back of my mind tossing in the positions of the yellow-clad police men) when I realized there was no one on the main road and there were a lot of people on the right part of the road where I should have went. In a bout of pure stupidity I decided to defy the law (by this time I had decided I probably should be on the right side of the barrier and even remember passing on the right side of the barrier heading to Mawe Hai with someone else driving) and just go on the left because it would have been so much easier.

It would have been except for the yellow-clad police man who I didn't see and hadn't taken into consideration because he was behind a sign until it was way too late. He also did the only thing which would have caused me to stop by standing in front of the car. He didn't even talk to me but motioned for a guy in blue to come and talk to me. He knew a bit of English and they would have their fun. Before the blue guy got to the car I had locked the doors, deeming that a good precaution against possible vehicle entry. The guy comes over and I ask "Shida iko nini?" (a justly asked "what is the problem?") and he starts talking in French. "Sijue French" (I don't know French). The conversation followed in various volumes and quantities of Swahili, English, and drawings as each person (the blue guy, various yellow people, and I) saw fit.

"Papers." he demands and I hand him my license (as a side note, the license is a manly pink). "Registration papers" and I point to the stickers on the windshield. Only problem is that's not what he was looking for. I tell him it's a DOCS/HEAL Africa car and he knows it has the registration when I remembered something. I flipped down the visor having seen one of the HEAL staff put something there once and it was only a log book. Crap. But wait, the papers were in there. The yellow clad man who stopped me first enters the conversation a bit and says I should be on the other side of the road and I plead a case for the people, the road, etc... While he does this, the blue guy (with my papers) goes around the car and tries to get in. Haha, it's locked.

Crap, the window is open. I forgot about the window and since I had taken the people to the peace conference, it was open with all of it's "reach in and unlocking" potential. He unlocks the door and I quickly push it down telling him he doesn't have to enter my car and we can talk here. He keeps talking about what I'm going to do and I keep telling him I work for HEAL Africa and I work in the field and that's where I'm going to go. He meant what was I going to do about my situation, and I decided to play stupid. Unfortunately, on his fourth try to unlock the door and get in he succeeds, but I had sort of stopped trying. He wasn't armed and we were only going to get out of the wrong side of the road and I couldn't really drive away because there were people everywhere around the car, so there was no use trying to stop him because he would have succeeded eventually. I had made my point by defying him thrice.

We turn onto the main road and pull over as soon as there was an open spot and almost instantly a crowd is outside my window. I pull out a pen and start drawing the intersection and he right away grabs it from me showing me what I should do. I grab it back showing him the triangle and telling him it's hard to turn left from the right side, but it wasn't flying. He started talking about going to the bureau and here was my dilemma. I almost wanted to go and see what would happen, but also knew that I might possibly be screwed if I went - there would be no promise of justice and even less chance of escape than here. I asked him why and he said to pay the money.

"What money?"
"Do you know how to drive?"
"I'm not going anywhere but to Mawe Hai to go to work."
"We go to the bureau."
"Why?"
"To pay the money."
"Ok, we go to the bureau. How much is the fine."
"What?"
"Ok, we will go to the bureau, I want to know how much the fine is."
"The bureau is in the city."
"I know, we will go and I will pay the fine. I know I did it wrong."
"We don't have to go to the bureau" and then to the crowd outside my window " Toka!" (go away). It had no effect. Here enters the moral fight inside my head and I decided to opt out of the unknown at the bureau and make the best with the corruption at hand.
"Ok, if we don't have to go to the bureau, how much is the fine?"
"500 dollars." Not lying, this was his response. Now I really wanted to go to the bureau because there is no way the fine could possibly be 500 dollars. That's 10 months wages for the average Congolese. My outrage followed and I was done being polite. I deemed it necessary to make it known that I was not going to be pushed over with this stupidity.
"500 dollars!? Are you kidding me? That's ridiculous! Do you know how much 500 dollars is? Do you know what you can buy with 500 dollars? The normal person doesn't make that much in a year (ok, I over-exaggerated here, but he had no clue what I was saying anymore. I kept my tone elevated and outraged, but not mad. I made sure it didn't sound hostile, and I talked fast and I knew he had no clue what I was saying). You've got to be kidding me."
"it's 500 dollars"
"bull shit. If it was 500 dollars no one would be able to pay it. Get out of here with that. You're being dumb."
"ok" and he reaches for the paper and writes out 50 dollars.
"No way. Even if I had 50 dollars, there is no way the fine at the bureau is that much. (I calm down and speak in Swahili so he can finally understand me) I don't have 50 dollars. I might have 10." There was a yellow clad lady at the window and he looked at her and she shook her head. "Fine, then we go to the bureau." He writes 20. I open my wallet and pull out ten "I have 10 dollars. That's it. See?" and I showed them the wallet.
"ok" and he hands the 10 to the woman. He makes one last attempt to tell me what I should have done as he exits the vehicle and I tell him (not very kindly) I know what I should have done and drive away rather quickly.

I so wanted to go to the bureau and see what would have happened. Would it have been more corruption and trying to get as much as possible? Is there even an orderly, normal fine for traffic violations? How would I find out to know if I was getting screwed? I can't imagine it was 500 dollars, and even 50 dollars to me doesn't make sense. I wanted to record the whole conversation and take it to the bureau and say "this is what your officers are doing out there." I so wanted to ask for a receipt as he got out of the car but decided to not push my luck. I figure I'm going to be here for a year and I shouldn't really go around making enemies of the police people.
I knew I was wrong and messed up with the driving on the left of the barrier, and would have faced the just punishment for that mistake. As it was, I was not assured of that in any of the possible situations, so I paid a bribe.

The Dry Season

2008-01-04T06:41:00.000-06:00

I do believe the dry season is upon us. I hear it starts about now and we haven't had rain in a while, maybe even a good rain in about a week. The vegetables at Mawe Hai are looking a bit limp as the sun bears down upon them in full force and the thin soil is suffering for want of water. What does this mean? Watering the plants is another job added to the list for the Mawe staff. Also, there is dirt and dust everywhere. I worked yesterday and wore jeans and a t-shirt and shoes. My legs were covered in dirt. I never took them off, and I didn't stuff dirt down them for fun. The only two possibilities I can come up with are it's so dusty that it came up from the bottom, or it just went right through the pants. I haven't decided which is more likely since to me, neither one makes sense. My left eye is also bothering me a bit and I think it has to do with the dust. It's not bad, it's just annoying every once in a while. Maybe if I got someone to hit me really hard I would cry and clean it out.

Oh, and when I got back to Maji yesteray, I had the blackest nasal effluent I've ever seen. It wasn't a bit dirty or gray, spotted, or anything like that. My boogers were completely black.

I was talking to Wilfrieda today and figured out the work schedule of the workers at Mawe Hai. Mawe has 11 workers. Two guards, a head worker, and two teams of 4 workers each. The head worker is there most days unless he has other business. This is Moese (Moses) and he's either at Mawe or on other business for HEAL Africa. The two teams then each get one week off a month. The first week of the month team 1 works. Then both teams work for two weeks, and then team 2 works the fourth week. I'm not sure how they do the rest of the month, or if they just start over after that. After each month Wilfrieda assesses the workers and decides if they get to stay or not (I'm sure Moese helps too). The workers get paid 55 dollars a month with one week off a month.

A Congolese New Year

2008-01-02T01:17:00.000-06:00

New Year's Eve passed rather uneventfully for me. All of the young people went to a party at the Ole Cultural Center, but I stayed back. It would have been cool except I'm not a huge party person where I don't know the language and the party is going to last all night and I was already tired when they left at 9. I spent my New Year's Eve e-mailing Megan while she was at work doing nothing.

New Year's day came and was a pretty relaxed morning. I started playing Age of Empires III on my computer and then Charles came to pick me up. Charles is the teacher for the school at HEAL Africa. He deserves a post just for him and his school some day. We drove to his house and it was pretty cool. We drive off the main road and into a compound after maybe 3 or 4 minutes. The compound is fairly large with a nice house in the middle. At the back of the nice house are "normal" houses made of wood almost put together tightly (the wood is warped and not cut even so the boards don't line up well) and covered with simple tin roofs. We hung out first though in the shade of some trees in front of the main house. Charles had a bunch of his friends there who knew varying degrees of English and it was really cool. We talked about all sorts of things about getting married and living in the Congo and US as well as what I liked about the Congo and some of the problems of the people gathered there. It was really cool. Oh, and this was all done over Primus beer. It's not bad at all, but it's also usually not cold, so that works against it.

After maybe an hour and a half the food was ready. We sat around a table with a pagoda set up over it and the food was brought out. There was cabbage with mayonnaise and onions (a simple cole slaw), fries, goat meat, corn fufu (basically a mass of cooked starch - cassava, maize, wheat), and the specialty. When the plate was brought to the table I knew it wasn't normal stuff. There were two goat hearts cut in half and maybe 8 pieces of lung wrapped in intestine. I tried asking Charles' friends to see which one was the best and each person had a different answer and finally they said I had to choose. I opted for the intestine wrapped lung. The lung itself was a cylinder shaped piece maybe 4 inches long and 3/4 thick. It was grayish in appearance and had a texture similar to a sponge, but after biting into it, was more chewy and rubbery than a sponge might be. The intestine was a beige colored hose wrapped around the lung and had a texture similar to a balloon. It didn't taste that bad. It had a slight aftertaste like liver, but not nearly as strong. I ate it with a lot of fufu and it was fine. It added something to the plain corn flavor and didn't overpower it too much. I also just ate pieces of it too. The first bite I just picked it up and had at it. I'll leave it at it wasn't bad, but I'm going to stick to regular vs. organ meats if I'm cooking.

After eating (with our hands - they had forks but hands are so much more fun and economical) I saw Charles' room. It was pretty small, but he was the only person staying there. It was actually two rooms, a sitting room and a bed room, and it was nice. He had the wall covered in posters and pieces of cloth and it really didn't look bad. Maybe my standards are completely falling, but I could see myself living in a place like that and being fine with it.

We tried going to a club to take another drink, but they were really crowded, so we just went to a simple bar. A bar might be a strong classification, but it was a place where you came and got drinks. There really wasn't a bar though, so that's where the classification problem lies. Unfortunately I forgot to get my camera from Harper (she was borrowing it) so I don't have any pictures, but I plan on going back to his house, so I'll have some of them some time.

Happy New Year!

Christmas at Maji

2007-12-27T06:33:00.000-06:00

Our Christmas here was pretty nice indeed. A couple days before Christmas Harper and I made cookies to hand out to various people at the hospital, and it was almost like home except we could only do one pan of cookies at a time so the process was twice as slow. That and we didn't have cookie cutters, so they were just balls of cookies, but they still tasted delicious.

Christmas Eve there was a fair bit of cooking going on again, and it was stuff that could be made in advance, like little hot dogs rolled in dough and mince pies. The turkey that was walking around Maji for a couple days also met it's fate and was sitting in a pot ready to be cooked the next day.

Christmas dawned and we went to the early service at Arche Chruch. It was in Swahili and I understood about 4% of the words which was a bit disappointing. Lyn was sitting next to me though and she summarized very well what was going on. There were a lot of singing groups and various choirs (I think 6 in all) and a guest speaker who was "the best we've heard in the Congo" (claimed by a couple people) who was succinct and to the point and did not repeat himself or beat around the bush.

Breakfast was on the table after church but the people were scattered, so I grabbed a bowl of granola like stuff and walked around the garden thinking and enjoying God's beautiful creation. Throughout the day help was offered in the kitchen and the cooking came in spurts. Lunch was down by the lake and featured a potato salad with canned crab meat (which was delicious) and potato chips. There's a new store in town that might deserve a post to itself later, but we got some potato chips there and they tasted particularly delightful with the potato/crab concoction.

I was going to go swimming when I found out lunch was ready, and by the time we had finished eating, it was cloudy so I decided to put it off. Spending an afternoon relaxing and doing nothing in particular was a great Christmas day. Finally I just gave in and went swimming even though it was cloudy. The water was really warm and now I can say I've swam at Christmas time. When I was in the Philippines it was warm enough, but the opportunity didn't present itself.

Christmas dinner came around and there was another muzungu present as well as her Congolese husband. Besides them, it was Joe, Lyn, Harper, and I and lots of delicious food. There was the turkey, stuffing inside the turkey, some prune stuffing, and some apple stuffing (instead of making lots of one kind we opted to just make a little of a couple kinds), mashed potatoes, green beans and carrots and cauliflower, rice, a peanut sauce for the rice, a bread sauce for the turkey, sausages cooked with the turkey, gravy, wine, passion fruit juice, and water. Other liquids were available as well, but we never called into use the beer or sodas. After that mass of food was gratefully picked over by all inhabitants of the table, we moved inside for tea and desert. Sweet mince pies, a stellon (I don't know how to spell it, but grandma Schowalter makes them every year and they are delicious), various kinds of chocolate, tea, hot chocolate, and the little hot dog things wrapped in pastry. It was a rather good second course eating, drinking, and talking.

The night ended with a huge lineup of dishes in the kitchen for the mamas the next day (I might have felt bad, but some of the cookies Harper and I made went to them, so I figured we were even) and 6 rather full people heading off to various stages of bed readiness. I was awake for a while talking to Megan online and listening to some Mannheim Steamroller Christmas music Matt sent me in an e-mail. All in all, it was a pretty darn good Christmas given the circumstances of being away from home.

HEAL Africa's support system

2007-12-20T09:41:00.000-06:00

HEAL Africa has a network of councellors in the villages in North Kivu and the other areas where HEAL works. These councellors are well known in their communities and supported by churches and mosques and other public authorities so when rapes occur, people know where to go to get help. The councellors know what to do, provide psychological help, and also are able to refer victims of rape to HEAL for treatment. It is through these councellors that they also obtain PEP drugs for the victims to prevent the spread of AIDS to the victims. It is really to the credit of HEAL and the progress they have made that these victims have any resources at all.

It is through these councellors that we learned two nights ago 38 people, including nine boys were raped in a single village on the other side of the volcano in one night. The FDLR was responsible, and because of the councellors, HEAL is able to provide PEP drugs to these victims within the 72 hours necessary for the drug to be effective in the prevention of HIV. In this land of horrors where 38 people are raped in a single village in a single night, there is resistance to the evil.

Ben

2007-12-18T13:31:00.000-06:00

Living in a backwards, underdeveloped city in a war-zone does have it's perks. Lyn and her daughter Nadine went to Botembo today to visit Joe who is doing surgery there for a couple weeks. Nadine came after he left and will leave before he's back so they went to visit him. The only other native English speaker at HEAL then is Harper who would be the obvious choice, but since she was in the hospital with malaria (she'll be all right but it was pretty serious and could use your prayers for healing), I volunteered to tag along with Ben Affleck as he visited the hospital and saw what HEAL was doing to make sure he would understand everything that was happening.

It turns out I really wouldn't have been necessary because there was a representative from UNICEF as well as Virgine from HEAL who is the director of the hospital and her English is really well. Then again, it's Ben Affleck - why would I not want to tag along?

It was actually really cool. He seemed genuinely interested in what HEAL was doing as well as the situation in Goma and the surrounding areas as relating to the war. Granted he was an actor and would be the person to make me think that and then just not care at all, but I'd like to think he was really interested. He also talked to two Congolese soldiers who talked about their experience in the army, their wounds, and what they would do when they were better. They said the rebels aren't that strong, but organization and morale in the Congolese army is even lower. They haven't been paid in forever, and the government isn't doing anything for them now that they are hurt. Basically, it's not a very good situation.

The one guy was shot in the chest and the bullet entered on the right side of his body and punctured a lung and exited sort of the middle of his chest. His wallet was in his shirt pocket and the bullet went through one layer of the two-fold wallet and lodged in the other side of it. The bullet was completely in tact and just lost enough momentum that it was stopped on it's way out. It was crazy. He was from the complete other side of the country, and his platoon marched across the country during the rainy season to join the fighting here. It was a very interesting conversation.

After touring the hospital (where Ben stopped in and said hi to Harper) we went over to where the women stay in the transit housing by the Jubilee center and went into the Healing Arts part of the house. This is where women staying at the house learn to sew, knit, or make other hand crafts. Ben got a couple things and was looking for some Congolese money that wasn't in too bad of shape. HA. Like such a thing exists. The one bill I showed him was worth 10 cents and was taped in two different places. He was in luck though because I just so happened to have a rather new looking 200 frank note. He was looking at it, and asked how much it was worth. It's worth 40 cents and he was looking for something to give me in return and he and his personal assistant didn't have any single dollars. He pulls out this Kenyan bill for 200 Kenyan shillings. That was the best part of the day as he and his assistant tried to figure out how much it was worth. Eventually he just said "I don't know what it's worth, but I know it's more that this, so you're coming out ahead." I thought it was cool anyways, and turns out it's worth about $3.20, so for sure I came out ahead. Thanks Ben.

He had to go then as his assistant pointed out very discretely (really, she was a good assistant). We left Healing Arts and talked for a bit. He was wondering what a guy like myself was doing here, and was wondering what I thought of things in Goma since I'd been here for a couple months now. I took this opportunity to get a picture with him since it wasn't super awkward because we had a legit conversation. His assistant took it and then they had to go (and now the picture is in the HEAL Africa album as proof). I believe I'm the only one to get a picture with him in it except for the two soldiers, and I got Ben Affleck's 200 shilling bill from Kenya. What more could one really ask for? Autographs are so overrated (unless he would have signed the bill he gave me, but oh well).

Making porridge

2007-12-18T13:20:00.000-06:00

The hospital uses a porridge product that is a combination of corn, sorghum, and soybeans as an energy food. It is fairly healthy and tastes sort of like oatmeal. Or at least, it should have corn, sorghum, and soybeans. Sometimes they make substitutions depending on availability. They used to buy all of the porridge, but decided recently to start producing their own. Their is a program at HEAL to provide grants to women at the hospital and in HEAL programs to start businesses. A field is being purchased now and some of the women's money will go towards working in the field and buying tools and things if they decide they want to do that for their project. The mill we visited on Friday was another option in this operation. Here the grains are brought to be ground (much like a small animal feed mill) and packaged. I uploaded some pictures of the bags of porridge mix (it looks like flower and you cook it like oatmeal) in the HEAL Africa album.

The whole goal of the program is to produce locally things that would normally have to be bought and imported or donated by other organizations. The field is not ready quite yet, but the milling operation got a jump start due to a very interesting happening. The women at the hospital get food from different organizations, and one organization that has been giving food for a long time has always gave beans which is fine. The last shipment of food had lentils in it instead and many of the women at the hospital can't eat them because they bother their stomach. After talking to the organization providing the food it was realized that they were not interested in changing back to the original formula but would continue to provide the lentils because that's what they could get easiest. So there is food available, it's just that people can't eat it and the organization doesn't care. So HEAL stepped up and got the milling facility up and running as soon as possible to provide alternate nutrition for people who can't handle the lentils and provide income generating opportunities to women in HEAL programs.

Chickens in Goma's Past

2007-12-14T05:07:00.000-06:00

Two days ago while at Mawe Hai I saw something that I thought was a perfect statement about Goma and the surrounding areas. I asked Wilfrieda where the workers were cutting the leguminous plants from that we were using to help make compost, and it was in the property next to Mawe Hai. We kept walking after seeing the leguminous plants (Leucena just growing all over in one spot) and I saw something I could hardly believe.

There were three buildings with metal roofs, concrete foundations and partial sides, and the rest was at one point chicken wire. These large buildings were used to house chickens before the first war in this area (in recent history) sometime after 1994. There were hundreds of chickens in each of these houses and during the war, the army came and took everything. Now there are pigs in one half of one building. I thought that was pretty cool and was happy Wilfrieda showed me that, but then we kept going.

Down a road a bit and through basically a jungle, we came upon more houses. There were probably 10 of them descending the hill along with the road on the left and on the right side of the road at the bottom. Some of the buildings at the bottom were housing chickens once again and in the distance I could see some more buildings that looked like quarters for workers to live (but I could be dead wrong). I didn't get many pictures because there were workers around and most people here don't like pictures very much, but I got some and put them in the Mawe Hai album.

To me this is a perfect illustration of what the Congo was and could be before the war. Now it's devastated and is reduced to 20 percent (or less) of what it used to be all because the army wasn't being paid at the time. I was really happy to have seen it, but it also made me think about the lost potential in this area and the incredible harm that has been done.

Goma is safe, nowhere else is

2007-12-12T22:57:00.000-06:00

After what appeared to be be some rather major Congolese army victories against Nkunda, all ground gained has been lost. The rebels have overtaken all previous positions, sent more civilians fleeing the areas, and left the Congolese army in complete disarray.

Sake is about 30km west of Goma (Mawe Hai is on the way) and that is where the UN says the rebels stop. They have 4,500 blue helmets defending Sake and Goma alone and this is their position:

"The situation is unchanged in Sake. Monuc is controlling the town," said Major Prem Tiwari, the UN mission's military spokesperson in Nord-Kivu province."We have reinforced our positions. We won't let this town fall into the hands of Nkunda's troops."

Since Sake is before Goma, and they have been quoted saying Goma is even more important than Sake, Goma is safe. Other places though are completely in chaos almost. The road to Mawe Hai was croweded with people walking into the city with whatever they could carry or could walk on it's own (goats). It actually took a lot of concentration to drive and was kind of frustrating, not to mention completely horrible that these people are displaced in their own country. We met a worker coming into Mawe as we were leaving and he was from Sake. He said the Congolese army was urging people to leave the city as shelling the surrounding areas with artillery is an option, and that might cause Nkunda to return fire. It's not good.

But given some of the reports I've heard recently, I'm surprised the Congolese army could unify enough to tell the civilians that. Mushake (I think that's the city that was talked about) is a city and was one of Nkunda's key positions. It was taken by the Congolese army last week, and the rebels took it back. There was a foreign journalist there who later visited HEAL Africa and said when the rebels came over the hills the Congolese army soldiers fled, often dropping their weapons and running. They were all young soldiers with no training and there were no officers anywhere.

Yesterday on the way back from Mawe Hai into the city there were still people everywhere on the roads walking into Goma. About every minute or two a motorcycle would drive by with a driver and a soldier or two heading towards Sake. Sometimes there would be a soldier or a couple soldiers walking towards Sake. It seems that it is their responsibility to get to the fighting and there appears to be no organization. If it wasn't for the UN, I strongly believer the Congolese army wouldn't have a chance.

So far though I have not heard of the UN actively fighting in any of the offensives of the government, so the Congolese army might not have a chance anyways. Things change in a couple hours here sometimes, but now it doesn't look very good. The Congo needs prayers for peace.

The Riot I almost drove into

2007-12-07T06:29:00.000-06:00

Monday I went into the hospital and talked to Dr. Vindu and did some computer stuff and I got my car. Well, I should say Harper Got my car and I've been driving the Suzuki. I'm waiting to go to Mawe Hai with someone the first time with the stick shift just in case something happens. I'm pretty confident, especially since I've only ever stopped like 3 times on the way there, but just in case I've been driving the Suzuki. If I ever go into the hospital in the morning again I might drive there too, but I'll worry about that later.

Tuesday Melisa left with her parents and they used the car right away in the morning so I headed to Mawe Hai around 10 am or so. I'm driving along and having a grand old time avoiding the pot holes (it's kind of like a video game) and I get onto the main street and I'm a driving for maybe 4 minutes and something happens that has never happened to me before (and may or may not be coincidence) - every other car on the road except for me pulled off the road.

It was the middle of the morning so there wasn't that much traffic, but there was enough that when I was the only one on the road I began to think "oh crap, what's up?" I thought maybe a military convoy was coming and I somehow missed the signal, or someone important, or I didn't know what. I was looking side to side, and behind me, and was watching for cars ahead.

Then I saw what made me turn around. People were running on the side of the road towards Mawe Hai (the same way I was going) and maybe 500 meters ahead of me the street was full of people and more people were running there every minute. It took about 15 seconds of curiosity before I decided I should probably turn around, and by this time I'm still the only car on the road and now a lot of people are running past me. I turned around in an intersection and the police there were on walkie talkies and looking and shouting at the huge crowd. The thing the was interesting though was the soldiers also on the corner doing nothing, but until night when they pillage the houses themselves, they don't usually do anything in the city.

I finally made it out to Mawe Hai on Wednesday and this time Wilfrieda was with me. I started telling her what happened and we stopped at a shop along the way that was a friend of hers. Here's what happened.

The night before there were some robbers in the houses off the main road and they ended up killing a woman. I was fortunate enough to be driving down the road shortly after the people found the robber and were going to administer a bit of justice of the people. I'm not sure how they were planning on doing it, but he was going to die. The police showed up sometime and tried to take him into custody but the people refused. They ended up shooting into the air to try and get rid of the crowd. I'm not sure what happened to the robber and I don't know what part I was lucky enough to chance upon this, but I'm pretty darn glad I turned around. Coincidentally or not, I saw one other car on the road while I was driving back to the turn off from the main road to Maji. That was probably worse on my mind even than the people in the middle of the road.

Interesting things

2007-12-01T13:27:00.000-06:00

Well, we recently got done eating dinner where I found out HEAL Africa is going to be the official hospital for US citizens as supported by the embassy in Kinshasa and the consulate office that will be in Goma sometime soon. There is a guy who has been in the Congo for like 13 years in medical missions and the US embassy sent him to assess the various hospitals in Goma and except for the UN hospital which refused to be accepted, HEAL won hands down.

The UN hospital is only for UN staff and soldiers. They have specialists galore and more equipment than they know what to do with. Whenever anyone goes there no patients are there and the people are usually watching cricket (I believe it's staffed mainly by Indians). They sometimes come over to HEAL and do surgeries because they get bored, and now once a week specialists from the UN hospital will be lecturing at HEAL and anyone from hospitals in the surrounding area can come.

That was one interesting piece of news, the other is a doctor in Uganda. He is a graduate from Harvard medical school and while there wrote a paper about doing shunts with lasers. At Harvard he was kind of neglected and the FDA said no. He came to Africa with a laser used to remove tattoo scars or something like that, and has done almost 400 surgeries with it and over 90% successful. I heard this from the same guy checking out the local hospitals and he said he sent a kid there from where he was working at the time and the post operation measures were to make sure the ace bandage around his head was tight and that was it. It's not approved in the US but here it's working great and Joe is excited about maybe doing it at HEAL.

The one major problem with it is the equipment. HEAL would need a laser and an MRI. Well, half of that is solved as because HEAL is now the official hospital of the US Embassy, they will be provided with an MRI machine, or it is more of a priority, or something. The guy just said that problem was being taken care of.

Work sort of continues...

2007-11-27T02:26:00.000-06:00

After a very restful weekend filled with all together too much food (Thanksgiving was really the part that said "hey, you're eating too much all the time") and reading and relaxing again, Monday brought work. I had spent part of the weekend translating a document on the internet Lyn left me about a study using Spirulina to help HIV patients. Spirulina is a blue-green algae with lots of toted health benefits, but I was supposed to read it and then pass it on to Dr. Vindu and discuss it with her and do something similar with Moringa. Yesterday I gave her the study and talked for a bit and I'm going back today at 2 to talk about it since she was supposed to read it last night. This will give us some guidelines on the moringa research with the HIV children, but I still don't know how it's going to work. I think moringa is a good plant, but as the only thing added to a child's diet, I'm not sure how much good it will actually do. That's what the study is to find out.

The major downside I see with the study is our lack of moringa powder. We only have 20kg and the dose recommendation by most people is 25g a day and that works out to 800 days worth of powder for children. Even using a fairly small sample size of 40 children that's only 20 days, which probably isn't enough time to notice a change. The moringa at Mawe Hai isn't producing yet either, so I'm not entirely sure what's going to happen. It is possible to maybe get some more moringa from Rwanda but will have to see what Dr. Vindu says. That dose though does provide a number of nutrients to the children when compared to the recommended daily requirements:

Protein – 20%
Calcium – 60-100%
Iron – 70%
Magnesium – 40-60%
Selenium – 75-100 %
Vitamin A – 100%
Vitamin E – 100%

With the ranges of nutrients, the younger kids have the higher percent and the older kids (like 6) have the lower percent. There are also other vitamins and minerals in smaller quantities but these are the major ones. Any reduction in dose will decrease these nutrients. There might be other health benefits though too. Moringa has been used for centuries as traditional medicine for many ailments and when children first start eating moringa many report expelling intestinal worms, so that is a benefit too. I'll have to wait and see what the value of moringa is.

We also need to plant the rest of the moringa seeds and since I'm meeting with Dr. Vindu we haven't done that yet. Maybe tomorrow or Thursday I can make it out there. I'm also in active discussion with Joe about getting transport more for me. I'm either going to be getting a car and I'll have to pay gas for it or a bicycle and can bike the back road to Mawe. Hopefully that'll all be figured out by the end of the week. Even though I live at his house it's often hard to find Joe as he's always busy and often doesn't get back until late, but we'll get it figured out.

Other than that, Dr. Christina left this morning. Eve left Sunday evening to meet her parents in Rwanda and will be back Thursday for a couple days before heading out for good. Christina is leaving on Thursday but will be back for Christmas. Melisa is leaving on the 5th or 6th of December. The ranks of young people are thinning and we need replacements... any takers?

Facebook also decided it likes my computer again so I added some pics around Maji to the Maji album (fancy that) and there are some flowers on there that I have no clue what they are and wouldn't mind someone helping me out with what they are.

Thanksgiving

2007-11-23T01:27:00.000-06:00

Some people have been asking what's happened at Maji for Thanksgiving, and unfortunately we did not have a turkey. I've seen them around, heading to Mawe Hai and other places, but they aren't really in the market. Lyn said she saw a man carrying one the other day, but before she could get to him the traffic started moving and he was gone. Oh well, there's always Christmas.

We have been looking for a pumpkin too without much luck. They are growing at Mawe Hai but there aren't any fruits yet. Thanksgiving day the girls came into the hospital, and there was Wilfrieda with a pumpkin. She had been out somewhere and got this pumpkin and they convinced her to give it to them, so we had pie (made by Christina) and pumpkin seeds.

A trip to the import store brought us apple sauce, apples, and canned corn. The apple sauce was done with just a little cinnamon and the canned corn was simple enough. The apples were expertly turned into a delicous apple crisp by Melisa.

The mamas made the chicken. It tasted delicous with the apple sauce. The stuffing was a combined effort and turned out pretty well considering we didn't have all the ingredients and were making one and a half the recipe and converting things like mad between metric and english units. I think it was a fair success.

The beans were sort of stir fried with almonds and some herbs and they were delicous too. Then we come to the mashed potatoes. When the mamas make mashed potatoes, it is like a lump of potatoes and that's it. It's really little more than cooked potatoes put together into one huge potato volcano. We made garlic mashed potatoes with a mixer found in the back room and they were delicous. Harper kept getting the one mama to taste everything and she had a wide range of expressions that I didn't fully get, but it was rather funny.

Dinner was upstairs in the girl's apartment and it was candlelight, and wine, and flowers, and food, and talk. It was great. We did the traditional Thanksgiving thing saying what we were thankful for, and sat for a long time talking. It was a really good night.

It took a bit longer too because none of the girls wanted to go to bed. Lyn is heading to Germany today and 4 of the ladies will be gone when she gets back. It's just going to be Harper and I for long term guests for a while. I hope everyone else's Thanksgiving was well and you had a lot to be thankful for.

Surgery Backlog

2007-11-21T01:54:00.000-06:00

There used to be a huge fistula surgery backlog, but that was before Dr. Christina came. Dr. Christina is a Dutch woman who's been working in Africa for 25 years and has been doing fistula surgeries almost exclusively since 2002. She is based in Kampala, Uganda, but travels in a circuit to different hospitals doing surgeries wherever they need her. She's been at HEAL for at least 3 weeks, maybe more (time kind of has a tendency to jumble together considering I don't even know what the date is without looking) and has been getting rid of our backlog.

She does 4 surgeries a day and she does the cases that have failed before, sometimes again and again. Some of the women she's treated have been at HEAL for over two years and have had 4 or 5 surgeries. One woman told one of the girls yesterday that she just had her 8th surgery. Some of these surgeries have been done at HEAL and others at other institutions, and all of varying quality. Some fistulas take a couple surgeries to fix, but there is a lot of makeshift surgery going on as well. Supposedly now all of the women at HEAL have either been operated on or are healing as I type. She's been doing 4 a day, and another surgeon here has been doing 2 a day along with other surgeries and then Dr. Christina checks if it is a hard operation or he isn't sure of something. So they've been doing 6 a day for at least 3 weeks, so that's a lot of women.

HEAL is blessed with Dr. Christina not only in the operating room, but at Maji as well. She's a bit quiet at first, but she opened up after a couple weeks, and since Lyn's been back there have been meals where she's been the center of attention. She has 25 years of experience to tap into and a sense of humor that sets us all laughing for minutes at a time. It's great to be working here when she is here and she'll be leaving soon, but should be coming back before I leave, and possibly might be here twice yet, so I'm looking forward to that.

The Dog

2007-11-20T02:20:00.000-06:00

There's a dog at the guest house named Kallie. I'm not sure how it's supposed to be spelled, but it means "fierce" in Swahili, and it's a guy. All the Western guests who come always talk about what a nice dog she is. They are wrong on two accounts. First, it's a guy, and not a girl. Second, he's hardly nice. An example...

Nigel was here for a couple days this weekend. He went swimming as it was getting dark and after it was quite dark already comes knocking on my door.

"Josh, would you mind helping me with something?"
"Sure, what is it?"
"Well, I was swimming and I had. Do you have a good flashlight?"
"Yeah, I got two" (as I grab them and follow him out the door)
"I was swimming and I put my glasses on a rock where I thought Kallie couldn't get them, but she did and now they're gone. They might have just fell a bit, but I don't think they could have went into the lake, and I have these glasses (pointing to his face) but they aren't the right prescription and give me headaches." I knew that feeling, so I helped him look. After 5 minutes we got more people and Lyn found the glasses about 15 feet away from where he put them down, scratched and completely out of alignment as the dog ate the plastic ear caps and put sizeable dents into parts of the frames.

Memo to self to not put my glasses down on the steps on top of my sandels like I usually do.

Cell Phones

2007-11-14T05:15:00.000-06:00

While cell phone companies in the states brag about having less dropped calls than their compettitors, we dont' really hear much about that here. Why? Well, given time every call here is dropped. If you keep your call to about a minute, you're usually pretty safe. This is in a culture though where people often get right to business, and no one really says good bye. People have a tendency just to hang up when they feel they've accomplished something. The quality of the conversations is usually very poor and people often don't talk into the phone or talk while distracted by something else, causing low quality input to an already low quality system. Needless to say it's no wonder plans go amiss sometimes.

This is compounded by my phones inability to text message people. I get them all right, but of the 7 I've sent so far, only 1 got through, and that was a text to Eve that said "I'M JUST SEEING IF THIS WORKS" (I usually text in all capitals out of habit and laziness). I don't really know what's up and I don't want to keep texting people if they aren't going to get them. The only problem is it's only half my phone's fault. Often text messages show up late, sometimes the next day, or just disappear all together. Oh well, I'll just have to stick to calling people until I figure out what's going on and rely on that 100% reliable process (if you actually believe this, read the previous paragraph).

Well, ranting aside, I put up some more pics on facebook. There's another album at http://wisc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2310533&l=4449d&id=8626644 that is going to be just for Mawe Hai pics and here you can see the compost piles we've made so far. I also added mroe pictures to Album 2 at the side and those were mainly pics of the Jubilee Center and a couple of last night's sunset.

Another Job

2007-11-14T04:41:00.000-06:00

This morning as I was waiting for the car to come into the hospital, Joe walked up from the main guest house and asked how I was doing before giving me another job. He wants me to spearhead the beautification of the Jubilee Center's grounds. Now it is lava rock gravel, concrete, and fairly harsh. He also says that whatever I say will happen. He puts a lot of authority on me for good or bad. I don't think I mind, it's just not something I'm really used to. I'm still learning what's going on and definitely asking way more questions than anything else. At times it feels that I only ask questions, and I'm okay with that. My best days are when I'm doing something physical or learning a lot.

Joe and Lyn also got bicycles. Lyn said something about me being able to ride Joe's bike. I might take them up on that offer and head to Mawe Hai someday on bike. It is largely believed to be about 10km away (6 miles) and wouldn't be that bad of a ride. I could take a back way part of it which would avoid most of the heavy traffic, and people are so used to people on the sides of the roads, I think I'd be all right. I'll have to try it and see. I had thought biking might be a bit dangerous, but Joe and Lyn were planning on biking to Mawe Hai on Sundays, so if they can do it, I for sure could. That would be great though because then I could go more often because I could go on my own time. Now I have to wait until the car goes into the hospital and then take the car from there and we don't go to the hospital till 9. If I were biking and wanted to actually get work done at Mawe I could leave at 6 or 7 and get a couple hours of work in before I'd normally even get there. I think biking too would take as long or shorter than driving from the hospital. I don't know if I'll get brave enough to try, but I'm thinking it might be a really good option.

The next couple days should be good, interesting days. The funders for Mawe Hai are going to be staying at the guest house (I think 4 representatives are coming from the Netherlands) and it should be good to meet them. They are involved other places as well, so I'm hoping to be able to learn from them too.

Compost

2007-11-10T14:57:00.000-06:00

The first ever compost pile at Mawe Hai was constructed yesterday (and possibly the first one in Goma, but probably not). We stacked grasses and plant matter in layers with rabbit manure and some dried grass and some compost from a pile of things that had been rotting for months and will let it ferment for a while. The plan is to turn it every three days and hopefully after three weeks or so there will be a nice pile of compost. If it works, everything at Mawe should be composted and I'm hoping the workers will see the value of it.

Other than that, the moringa project took another turn a couple days ago too. I think it was Tuesday night as I was talking to Lyn that she told me HEAL already had moringa powder.

What? That's right, at the same time they got the seeds they got a couple sacks of the powder as well. Ok, that would have been really nice to know a month and a half ago because we could have set up trials using the powder to increase nutrition then instead of waiting for 8 months for the moringa to mature like I was planning on doing. We could have been half way done because a lot fo the stuff I read say changes can be seen in less than two months. Running it for three months would be a for sure if there is going to be a difference. Now Dr. Vindu is gone until the end of the month so we won't get started until December, but it's still earlier than what I was originally thinking. I think I must know everything about the moringa and the resources HEAL has because I really can't think of anything else that could possibly have been left out.

I still dont' know what's up with any of the other projects I've thought of yet. Lyn hasn't looked at the budget yet for Mawe Hai so that's holding up a couple things, and the moringa project will probably get going with the planting of more seeds (planting thousands to account for the low germination rate) and doing other small things at Mawe Hai, specifically directing all organic wastes to the compost piles. I think I'll become the organic matter master as we gather it into areas and make compost. We also really want compost at Mawe Hai to make compost tea to fertilize seedlings. There are thousands of tree seedlings for a reforestation project that need fertilizer as they are getting big and using all the nutrients in their pots, but can't be planted yet because they are destined for the areas with the fighting and it's unsafe to travel there.

House sitting

2007-11-10T03:32:00.000-06:00

On Monday when Joe and I went to the house for second breakfast, they asked me if I wanted to house sit for them for 3 weeks while they were gone. I said why not? I moved in yesterday, and I might be moving out this afternoon...

Monday was the last I heard about it, but the guy said everything would be taken care of. On the plus side, it is only a 5 minute walk from the hospital, so it would be pretty easy to go back and forth. It sounds great. Yesterday I stopped by during the day to see if they were expecting me and they showed me around, where I was going to be staying, and everything. The papa there was really nice, and so was the guard at night.

Dinner yesterday was potatoes and fish and it was pretty good. I'm not sure what the fish was cooked in, but it kind of tasted like a tomato curry sauce of some kind. I studied a bit of Swahili read some, talked to Megan a bit on AIM, and in general had a good night.

I went to bed around 11:30 and woke up around 12:30 wide awake because I was really hot. I was covered up with the sheet over my head because I knew there were mosquitoes and there wasn't a mosquito net. I don't really care about malaria that much (maybe not the right attitude) but I can't sleep if I hear them buzzing. I got up and tried to figure out what I was going to do. I looked in the other rooms and the only mosquito net I saw was on a baby crib. I grabbed it and wedged the rod holding it up in between the mattress and the bed frame and that almost worked. My head was out and I was cooler, but kind of uncomfortable. I took a pillow and used it to prop the net up next to me so I had more space under the net and went back to bed.

Except I could still hear them! They were buzzing outside of the net and I knew they couldn't get in, but they were still annoying me. I finally kind of covered my ears with my arms and went back to sleep. That is a solvable problem though. I'll just go get my mosquito net from Maji and it'll all be good.

I woke up this morning and felt all right (although now I'm kind of tired) and after reading some Bible, went to study Swahili. The papa came out and told me there was no more food except for bread. That's no problem, that's what I usually have for breakfast and it was good. A guy named Patrick who works with the guy came and he knew English pretty well and I was talking to him for a while and he's pretty cool. I'll probably hang out with him sometimes as he's my age and is all right. The papa came back out and said there was no more food at all, and asked me what I was going to do. Hmmm... That's not cool at all.

So my house sitting stint is over I think. I'm probably going to go back to Maji because there is no food and it doesn't sound like they were going to get any more. I'm at the hospital now and will probably go back with someone to get my stuff and move out. On the plus side, I met Patrick and that might make it all worthwhile, so I'm not too disappointed.

Random stuff

2007-11-06T03:09:00.000-06:00

The team from Minnesota is going to be leaving tomorrow morning. I must say overall it was pretty cool. There were some great people (some of them from Wisconsin, making them even better), we played cards, talked a bunch, and it's fun having other people around. We've been playing Uecker a lot, which is for sure a Wisconsin card game (I don't know how to spell it so I guessed), and it's been great. Saturday morning I canoed part of the lake with one of the ladies, and it was cool. It's been great laughing with (and at) them.

Joe and Lyn got back Sunday and that was cool. It finally feels like we're not intruding anymore, so that's good. While they were gone it was kind of like something wasn't up. They talked a bit about their trip, and it sounds like they had a good, restful time.

Yesterday I went to Mawe Hai with Joe and I can honestly say that the man is mental. Total and completely mental. So we are walking around and I'm showing him the moringa and what we have been doing, and we end up by the lake. There were people playing with the rocks near the shore, and Joe explained to me what was going on.

He had rocks brought in from the size of soft balls to the size of volleyballs and poured them on the shore. Then these guys were flattening it as much as possible taking high spots away and filling in low spots with more rocks. Why is this happening? Well, Joe wants a beach. Not just a place to hang out, a full-fledged, sand beach. He wants 15 meters of sand all along part of the shore at Mawe, then a pagoda kind of thing for eating, and bathrooms and stuff. In Goma, Joe is going to put a beach.

I was rather confused and wondering why all of this money would be going towards a beach and he says it will be a great place to come Sunday after church. It will be for young people to come and play, hang out, go swimming, and lay on the beach. Then while they are at Mawe, we can also show them the moringa and it will all be worth it. I sure hope he's right and that the beach will bring in people who might not normally come to Mawe Hai and that we would be able to use the opportunities to teach. Joe was serious too because the rocks were already there, they were filling in the holes, and maybe before the new year, there will be a beach. I'm not sure when it's supposed to be done, but someday there will be a beach at Mawe Hai.

On the plus side, it should be fun when it's done. Can you say "Frisbee?"

Something else cool happened yesterday too. Joe and I went to visit the house we ate at on Sunday with the embassy representative, and in the midst of their French talking they ask me "where are you staying?" Of course I replied "at Maji." "Would you like to stay here for the next three weeks?" Apparently they are going out of town and starting on Friday they want me to house sit for them, and I think I will. Joe thought it was a good idea and I will have a car, a guard, and a cook/maid, so that sounds pretty darn good to me. As long as Lyn agrees, that's where I'll be this weekend and the next 3 weeks. It should be fun.

The US embassy representative

2007-11-06T02:34:00.000-06:00

Sunday was a rather interesting day. After going to church we all headed over to the house of someone from the church for a barbeque. It is close to the hospital and almost on the lake (there is a road right next to the lake here) and right next door to the governor's house. We talked for a while and there was the team from Minnesota, the people staying at Maji, and a couple other Americans there, and then the food came out. Oh the food. It was so delicious and so varied. There were multiple kinds of meat and vegetables, rice, potatoes, and bananas, fish, salad, it was great.

About 10 minutes into everyone being at the table with their food two more people arrived. One was a young guy and the other an older guy with a "presence" about him. Before he sat down he said "Hey, my name is _____ and after we're done eating, I'll be introduced to all of you when it's time to mingle."

Um... ok. Someone else had come late too, but they hadn't felt the urge to say anything. Anyways, the food was good, I was talking with some people, and life is good.

Dinner's over and the dessert comes out and the guy with the "presence" says "how bout we all gather around a little bit closer as I want to hear who you are and what you're doing here." Um... ok. We gather around and then he goes "well first I should maybe introduce myself a bit more. I'm ______ from the US embassy in Kinshasa and I've been in the area for a bit with my partner here and we've been assessing the situation and in a little while I'll let you know what's been going on." Sweet, it's someone from the embassy and the US is doing something in North Kivu province and I couldn't wait to hear what it was.

We went around introducing ourselves, and I became more and more convinced that I really didn't want to be there, and I really didn't want to know what was going on. Well, I take that back, I wouldn't mind knowing what was going to be happening, just maybe not from him. After every person who introduced themselves, he had something to say, something "important" and "relevant" to what we were doing there, except it really wasn't helpful at all. We came to the conclusion that given the situation, he would be perfectly content in solitary confinement just talking to himself and hearing his own voice. Maybe we were a bit harsh on him, but it was pretty interesting. By the time we got to me and he had done agriculture in the peace corps and studied agriculture development, I had pretty much decided I really didn't want to talk to him any further than introducing myself, but I'll get more to that later.

So after we are introduced, he talks even more than he usually was and told what he had been doing, traveling around and seeing the area. He had been to different remote places under UN guard and talked to different people, and one of his favorite phrases was "but I really shouldn't tell you about that" and "I could tell you a name, but it wouldn't mean anything to you." He liked his secrets.

The gist of at least a half hour of inflated talk came down to "The US is going to have a presence in North Kivu stationed at Goma."

So for well over an hour he had been building up to this secret, this huge revelation, the answer to all the problems and it boiled down to someone was going to be staying at a hotel in Goma as a US representative. He could have said that in 3 minutes with all the explanation necessary.

After people were breaking up I decided to swallow my pride and talk to the guy. After all, he would probably have some really good advice. Nope, just kidding. He talked about a banana virus that he didn't know about, said he had researched the cassava mosaic virus but never told me anything about it, talked about what people usually ate in the villages which I knew, but didn't really have any suggestions on improving their diets, and it pretty much boiled down to him not really telling me anything of value even though he talked for a long time. It was an interesting day.

The mob

2007-11-06T02:20:00.000-06:00

Wow, it's been almost a week. I think what will follow are some short posts about various things that have happened in the last week.

Today on the way into the hospital the team and the rest of the young people stopped by a wood shop. They sell all sorts of wood carving kind of things, and the team was having a field day. The people in the shops were really happy, and so was the pick pocket. Or so he thought.

The one lady on the team had her purse open because she was going to pay for the stuff, and then her husband paid for it, and just then she felt a guy brush her shoulder. She quick looked and saw her wallet gone, but she had lots of stuff in her hands. Christina noticed she was distressed and started chasing the guy.

Soon a mob of 15-20 people formed, attacked the guy, and got the wallet back. Cars were stopping, and a police officer showed up. Out of the fray comes Christina with the wallet. 10 dollars to the mob satisfied them (well, they kept asking for more, but if you gave them 1000 dollars it wouldn't be enough) and all was well. We don't know what happened to the guy.

I didn't see any of this happen, I just heard about it as they were coming back from the mob. I was watching the guys in the back do the carving.

Stuart's house

2007-10-31T14:22:00.000-05:00

Stuart ni miye tulienda ku nyumba ya Stuart hii asubui.

Yeah, I wrote that without looking. I'm actaully picking up quite a bit of Swahili and can begin to express myself with the language. I usually can't understand what people are saying at all, but I'm working on it. Usually when I say anything beyond "Jambo" the response is "Oh, you know Swahili. ksdnfengzlkgaointoiwengasildhgklabgalkhfionzadgqehgthnsg" and they start speaking like they are seeing a friend they haven't seen in 12 years and are only going to get to talk to them for 3 and a half minutes. I wanted to have a grasp of the Swahili language by the end of October, and since it's the end I was thinking about how I've been doing.

I'd say it's going pretty well. There was about a week and a half where my learning was pretty slow, but now it's taken off again. I made flash cards and have been taking 4-6 of them and looking at them throughout the day. If I'm reading, after every page I'll go over those 4. While getting ready in the morning, I'll glance at them all the time. That intensive studying is really working and I'm encouraged by my progress. Today I figured out how to make plurals of words after looking at two words I knew displaying the two main rules for plural making. Stuart was kind of impressed. It was a good day.

So what did I do today? Well, Stuart and I had my lesson at his house this morning (that's what the sentence at the top says) and that was really cool. We tlaked on the way there and it was a good opportunity to see a different part of Goma and was a great learning opportunity as we looked at things in his house and talked about them.

So we went from teh hospital and his house was only 10 minutes away or so. It was along a drainage ditch, so we were walking on top of the 1 meter deep pit and winding through the back parts of the city for about 2 minutes. We entered a small gate and a wooden fenced compound and there was a small courtyard of dirt/lava and a long townhouse on each side of the courtyard. Stuart lived in the back most appartment in the row, and his house was kind of cool. He is the only one living there and he is pretty educated and fairly well off, but the apartment was made of wood, and had a metal roof, and electricity (whenever the city had it) and it was a great experience. If I go back, maybe I'll ask to take some pictures, but I didn't feel comfortable doing that yet.

I also saw a chicken next to the building. It wasn't Stuarts, but it's so cool to me how developing countries just have food production all over. Every piece of dirt is used and there are goats and chickens all over too. We need more goats and chickens in the cities of the states. It would be so much cooler that way.

Wilfrieda's back

2007-10-29T04:42:00.001-05:00

Well, it's about time I think, but she and her husband are back. They had a great trip and learned a bit while they were gone too about various things. We headed out to Mawe Hai this morning and I talked to her husband a lot while we were there about different thing's I've researched while they were gone and their feasibilities.

As we looked at the moringa seedlings I noted again the poor germination rate. Tomorrow we are going to replant the seeds in the pots that didn't germinate and I'm taking the seeds to Maji tonight and I will soak some and take some and do a germination test. If the test shows poor germination, then there is nothing we can do. If it shows high germination rates, then we have a problem and need to change something.

While we were at Mawe I heard him yelling to someone about compost. While they were gone they learned about compost with turning the piles and many different techniques. Where they learned toted 18 day compost which is very reasonable, so that's what they want to try. I was super excited about that because like at Maji, Mawe Hai wastes a lot of matter. They often just leave the matter in piles to rot slowly and under the rain and slow decomposition, a lot of the nutrients are washed away from the finished product anyways. One day while they were gone I actually designed an experiment for different composting methods, so I think we will probably go ahead with that very soon.

He was very interested in ethanol production from the sugar cane. That came about because they didn't have gas for the water pump so they were carrying the water up from the lake by hand. It didn't look very fun to me. I asked about what happens to the sugar cane and it is all just for human consumption. They do not make sugar or molasses from it here in North Kivu (where Goma and the fighting is). It would be very possible to get some sugar cane and start doing experiments on distillations, but we still wouldn't have anything to run it in. I need to find out how to convert water pumps or generators to run on ethanol and then maybe we can go forward with that. Me researching that is limited by my non-mechanical background, but I'm pretty sure if I try I can figure it out, or at least figure out if it is possible or not.

We talked about different legume trees as well and there are three for sure at Mawe Hai. The one they forgot what it was but one of the workers knew. Tomorrow I'll have them write it down so I can research them. The legumes fix nitrogen from the air into the soil and are also high in protein so they are good animal feeds.

Cooking oil was another thing we talked about. All the oil is imported here and while it would take 3 or 4 years for the oil palm trees to bear fruit, that is an option to consider. He was very interested in the process and the design of simple presses so I think I have my work cut out for me. I'm going to try and summarize a lot of the stuff I've been thinking about and bring them up over the next couple days to Wilfrieda and her husband and when Lyn gets back we can all talk about it.

It was also a good day because I am trying to use as much Swahili as possible and going to Mawe Hai is a great place for that. I know that if they mis understand me, it's not too bad (unlike if I go to buy something and get misunderstood and I end up with a bus, a chicken and a hammer when I really wanted a shirt) and they are always trying to help me. It is cool to finally be able to start saying things in Swahili, although understanding people is still hard. My vocabulary isn't big enough to catch all the different ways people say things, but that will come with time.

In case you haven't noticed, I'm slightly excited to be doing something again. As we replant tomorrow I'll enjoy actually working again (and maybe if I'm lucky, I can help with building the shed at Mawe too (check out the pics in album 2)).

Moving day

2007-10-29T04:19:00.000-05:00

I moved on Saturday. My room was too big and had three beds for only one person to be staying in. There is another team coming from Minnesota tomorrow (Tuesday) so I moved into a smaller room. I think it's going to be all right.

My window now faces the new house they are building for Joe and Lyn. I like the view and I think there might be a possibility for me to use the space outside my window to plant stuff in. It is out of the way that it wouldn't interfere with the flower gardens of the main guest house and I might be able to have a small garden there. Or if not a garden, I can maybe compost there. So much stuff is thrown away here and tossed in the lake. Besides vegetable wastes from the kitchen, there is a lot of other plant waste because of the grooming of the flower beds. They take wheel barrows full of stuff and dump them into the lake and then bring in cow manure to fertilize the garden with. Sounds like a waste to me that can be stopped. Maybe I can make my own soil via composting and plant in it to show the benefits of it to the house staff. Sounds like a plan to me.

The room is shaped in a weird sort of L that makes it a little interesting. I think what I'm going to try and do is put my bed on the small part of the L and use the longer side as my desk space, a sitting place, and maybe have some potted plants inside too. The walls are white, the ceiling is white, and the floor is bare concrete, so it could use a little pick me up. The only thing that really stands out is the pink mosquito net over the bed. I'll maybe get some pics up on facebook soon, but not until tomorrow at least.

I want to build a shelf to go over my desk. Besides adding something to the room (the desk is white too) of another color, it will vastly increase my shelving space and hopefully release the desk from the clutches of clutter. Now with my computer on the desk the rest is filled with all sorts of stuff that could all have a place on a shelf. I also want to build a shelf for my clothes. That can go in the small side of the L with the bed. Now my clothes are spread out on another bed in the room which I will hopefully flip up against the wall (I need to make sure, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to be the only one in the room for a long time).

The plants are going to go by the window and in the corner opposite the door will go a sitting area. I am looking for a comfortable chair (I like the one's that are in the living room of the main house, but don't want to take one without asking) and I figured I'm going to be here for over a year yet, so it's worth it. A small table or mini stand to hold a book, my computer, or my feet would complete that part.

I need something to go on the walls too. It looks so plain right now. If I find any good African pictures, I might get them. I can always bring them back with me too if I roll them up.

The ultimate plan then is to close off the small part of the L with a curtain or sheet hung from the ceiling to make a separate sleeping place from the working place. If I get a cool curtain, it will add to the room, and I refuse to get a white one - that would add to what I'm trying to get away from. Anyways, I'm pretty happy with the move and am excited to see what happens. I think it will work well and as an ultimate bonus, the bed is nicer in the new room.

Flash cards

2007-10-25T04:31:00.000-05:00

I've come to the conclusion that I really need some flash cards. I'm learning Swahili and I understand the sentence structure and how to describe things, and my computer is great; I have a dictionary, a verb guide, practice sentences and "words I want to know" documents that are really helping me. I made the dictionary and verb guide and they really seem to be great. Only problem is all my stuff is on my computer now so it's impractical to carry around with me. I'm pretty sure the computer is the easiest way to organize the things I'm learning right now because you don't have to allow a certain amount of space on a notebook page for expansion. All one has to do is click "enter" and a new line appears. But it's not enough. I need to practice raw vocabulary and I think flash cards will be the way forward, so I need some index cards or something like that. I was going to use regular printer paper if I had to but I couldn't find any in my room so I'm going to try and find index cards, cut them down to size, and see what happens.

There is a doctor here now doing fistula repairs. She is originally Dutch and now lives in Uganda, and has been doing fistulas almost exclusively since 2000. There is a backlog of almost 100 patients here at the hospital and when she showed up they flocked to her singing and thanking her. She is a very interesting person to talk to because she's been in Africa for a very long time. Oh, and she was also the one who as soon as I pulled over for the flat got out of the car and went with whoever was giving her a ride.

We were talking last night at dinner and she was talking about the nature of the fistulas. She said only 3 or 4 out of a hundred were because of the most brutal rapes where bamboo, knives, or gun barrels are used and the rest are of a different result. What happens when the soldiers rape young or unhealthy women is they get pregnant. That then brings shame to the families and the families try to hide the young victims. When they are too young or unhealthy to give birth naturally and really need a Cesarean Section, the families don't even try going to the hospitals because of the shame, so they have the child anyways, resulting in the fistula. I thought maybe this would only happen to the young women though and all the older women must have had the damage done in the actual act, but that was explained too as some of the women have had their fistulas for 20 or 30 years. I'm not trying to downplay all the media from this region, because the most brutal rapes are the ones that get all the attention, but it is not like that all the time. Most of the time the fistula still comes from rapes, but are the result of the pregnancy from the rapes.

I thought Wilfrieda was coming back this week, but I heard a rumor that she ran out of money and couldn't get back. Someone was trying to get her money but the gist is she's not here yet and I'm still chilling. I don't mind too much, but I'm really at a standstill now having run out of ideas to research and needing to know more information about the local situations before I go any further. That said, now it's the rainy season, but I think I might re-look at solar cookers again. I checked them out a lot when I was in the Philippines and I think I might do some more research on that.

I also just found out some of the girls are going to Salt and Pepper for Indian food in a half hour for lunch. I've never been there so I'm probably going along. I hope it's good.

Moringa update

2007-10-22T03:31:00.000-05:00

My internet has been excessively bad all weekend and posting pictures hasn't been an option. Now though there are pics up from Mawe Hai from Friday.

I went out to Mawe in the morning by myself and was rather surprised by the road. It is fascinating how much the roads change here. It's more like a river than a road, always changing and never the same. The potholes were all in different spots and the side of the road (where a lot of the driving occurs) was different too. Sometimes we go off the road onto the side to avoid potholes but then the side of the road gets its own potholes, so you are always on your toes. At one point though I was going almost 70 km/hour and that was pretty much the fastest I've ever gone here so that was fun.

The moringa is growing fairly well I think. It's been almost a month and the plants that are growing are doing all right, but I'm pretty disappointed at the germination rate. Something really cool though is the branches of Moringa we planted are growing now too. They have sprouts and I'm really excited about that. If those would grow well and might even be better than the seeds (you can plant them from 2 feet to 4 feet long so that's a pretty big head start over the seeds) we could use that for short distance, short transition time plantings.

They are also expanding a lot at Mawe. They have beds formed and are waiting for soil to put in them. It's cool to go too because it is always changing with different things being planted and harvested and is cool to see function. I'm really excited to see how it will change over the year I'm here.

I'm hoping Wilfrieda will be back this week and we can talk and start doing some stuff again. I'm running out of ideas and feel like actually doing some work. There are pics of the Moringa under the second album on the right hand side of the site. Check it out, and they should be the last pictures now.

Flat

2007-10-22T02:47:00.000-05:00

When in a country where you don't know the language and there are people everywhere and police and militias are all over, you don't often want to stop on the side of the road if you aren't going to quick go into a shop and quickly get out. So when there was a weird sound coming from the car whenever I accelerated I didn't really want to stop. A surgeon from Holland who now lives in Uganda didn't notice anything, or if she did she didn't say anything anyways. Finally though there was a space on the side of the road I was comfortable pulling over into. There weren't too many people and I had to check it out. Something wasn't right.

As I had thought the back tire on the passenger side was flat. I was pretty disappointed because I thought I was doing a really good job of avoiding potholes and couldn't think of one pothole that was worse than any other I did and was trying to figure out when it would have happened. Either way though, the tire was definitely flat.

I put in a call to Harper as a guy came to the window and started chatting with the surgeon. Soon she was leaving with this guy to go to the hospital and left me, who had no clue what any of the 6 people around the car were saying, by myself. Harper was calling the hospital and they would send someone, but I didn't really want to wait. Getting out and fixing it myself was much more comforting than having every Congolese person who walked by try and talk to me through the window. I opened the trunk and was looking for the tire jack... couldn't find one. There was a tire iron under the driver's seat so I got that out.

There was one guy who said he would help me. If I could only find the jack I wouldn't need his help and I could do it myself. Oh well, I gave in knowing what would happen. Someone had the tire iron and was taking the spare off the back and someone else went to get a "crank." Soon the spare was off and the flat tire loosened. The crank was brought and in no time at all two people had the tire fixed, but there were also 4 watching. As it got closer to being done the guy who was helping me said something about "see we are finished, now we just wait for a gift from DOCS*" I knew that was coming.

They finished and I grabbed the tire iron and the spare tire and trunked them. Then I got in the car and shut the door with the window only open a bit and looked for some money I pulled out a couple dollars and the guy laughed. I was thinking 5 maybe, but you can't start like that.

"Maybe 10" he said indicating all the people who had helped.
"Whatever" I told him "two people helped and the rest watched."
"Come on, we need 10"
"No way. 5 at the most."
"5? no."
"Fine" I said as I gave him a dollar and 200 franks (like 40 cents) and closed my wallet.
"Ok, 5. And 1 for crank. I need gift for man with crank."
"all right" I said as I handed him the 5 as well. I drove off after saying thanks thinking we really need a tire jack in the car. I wonder if there is one and I just didn't see it. Anyways, I knew it was going to cost me and besides not minding the 5 dollars, it was a great cultural experience and happened remarkably like I thought it was going to.

* DOCS is what HEAL Africa used to be called and around Goma it is still often called DOCS HEAL Africa or just DOCS

Security Antennas

2007-10-18T09:55:00.000-05:00

A lot of organizations and some people around here drive with these
huge black antennas sticking off the front of their cars. HEAL doesn't
have any, but a lot of the other organizations do. I thought it was
some sort of radio thing, but what it actually is is a security
antenna. I'm not sure how it works, but if something happens to the car
there is a company that will be alerted and they will know where you are
by GPS and stuff like that. It is kind of like Onstar or something like
that in the states, or an alarm system for houses where they call you
and see what's up. There's probably a button too that you can press and
send some sort of an SOS signal. I just thought that was kind of
interesting.

Sorry if some of the posts recently have been hard to read. I can
send in posts via e-mail which is a lot faster than logging into the
blogger website (sometimes it doesn't load at all) and it hasn't been
picking up my paragraph breaks so I'm trying to indent now. If you
don't see any indentations, that hasn't worked either.

I put up some more pictures under the second album, including a
couple of the very security antennas I was just talking about, and other
pictures that Don took when he was here just driving around Goma.

Now it's back to work. I'm designing an experiment to be done at
Mawe Hai to try different ways of composting things to see which way is
the best and also show the workers that a good compost pile is better
than just leaving the stuff out in huge piles to dry out and maybe
decompose in a couple years. I sure hope it works.

Heal My People - Maniema

2007-10-18T02:31:00.000-05:00

One of the girls from Maji left yesterday for Maniema province with a
rather large group of people from HEAL. She will be there for a month
studying microeconomic enterprises for her schooling. The team however
will be doing a lot of different things and will be there for more than
a month. About 20 people have been at HEAL from the province doing
training and attending a conference about various things and they are
being accompanied back to Maniema by about 5 HEAL staff from the Heal My
People program.

Heal My People was started at HEAL Africa because after the women who
were repaired from fistula surgery and sexual violence counseling were
going back to their communities, there was nothing for them to really go
back to and the situation was unsafe. Heal My People works in a
holistic capacity and I'll highlight some of the things that they are doing.

They work with training counselors to identify and counsel women who
have been sexually abused. These field workers are trained in what to
say, how to help encourage women, and help them move on with their
lives. They also help identify women who need to come to HEAL for surgery.

Microeconomic projects are started in the communities and evaluated.
The projects focus mainly on widows and victims of sexual violence and
they are designed to help them re-enter society. Often widows and
victims of sexual violence are outcasts in society and they live on the
margins of a village scraping together a subsistence. The microeconomic
projects help the women and also the community at large by providing
services and goods. Many of the women who come to HEAL for surgery or
further healing learn how to read, write, sew, or do crafts and these
are sometimes used in the projects as well as any other ideas the women
might have.

Mawe Hai also plays a part in the holistic approach of Heal My People.
People come to Mawe Hai for training and some of the widows are trained
in vegetable production and they can take that back to their communities
with them. Mawe Hai tests seed varieties and production practices to
see which ones are the best and then takes those technologies into the
communities, and Heal My People is one way that happens both with just
training and with microeconomic projects started with knowledge and
skills from Mawe.

They sometimes also do things such as family mediation (making peace in
families) and trying to educate communities on everything from AIDS to
nutrition to agriculture. They often work through faith organizations
(usually churches and mosques) and they use natural or indigenous
organization structures to reach people.

It is kind of hard for me to see where one project at HEAL ends and
where another begins and that is because there is no end and beginning.
Instead of a flow chart sort of thing showing all the different projects
of HEAL and their different aspects, I needed a web diagram to show how
things interrelate. Once I started making the diagram in my head, it
just got huge and pretty much every aspect had a line drawn to every
other aspect somehow. HEAL does a good job of using all the resources
available to holistically develop communities. Please pray for the
Maniema team: for their safety, their health, their effectiveness in the
communities, and their effectiveness on people's lives.

And then I woke up at 5am...

2007-10-17T08:20:00.000-05:00

I woke up this morning around 5 with an pain and incredible churning
sensation in my stomach. I was in bed for a bit, then decided maybe I
should go to the bathroom. It sort of felt like I had to throw up so I
grabbed a bucket and went back to bed. But laying down was actually
worse than standing or sitting up, so I kind of sat on the edge of my
bed and really felt like something was going to come up. I went to the
bathroom thinking I had to throw up, and then decided it was coming out
the other end.

Needless to say, I was up for a while and I didn't take meds right away
because I was feeling nauseous as well as the diarrhea. Eventually the
nausea went away and I popped some meds and a little after 8 I was back
in bed (after telling the girls I wasn't going in today).

I was awoken at 10 by the sight of Mama Ngezela and the sound of her
speaking to me in (I think) Swahili (could have been French too, I was
kind of out of it). Her arms were out at her side in posture and tone
that said "hey, what's up?" Since I have no clue how to say I was sick
(I was feeling pretty good now) and I didn't want to try and act it out
for fear she would get the wrong idea (that happened once in Switzerland
with Uehli's mother in law, but that's a story in and of itself) so I
just said "minachoka" (I'm tired). It was the first thing that came
into my head and worked effectively to make her go away - sort of. She
came back with breakfast and hot water, tea, and coffee. It was pretty
nice. I ate a bit and an hour later was still feeling pretty good, so I
ate some more and have felt pretty good since 11:30 or so.

I might have tried to go into the hospital this afternoon, except we are
under what we like to call Presidential Power right now. It actually
has nothing to do with political dealings or increased security or
anything like that. All that means is President Kabila is in town so
the power is on all day with very few interruptions to show that
everything is running smoothly. That's Presidential Power, and I like
it, so I can do all my computing and research at Maji Matulivu (the
guest house). Kabila is in town again about the rebel situation.
Nkunda has been around for 3 years on and off and Kabila made one of his
platforms for the elections late last year that he would bring peace to
the country, and I think he's about had enough. Nkunda was supposedly
talking peace and negotiations, but the government is hunting them
down. Kabila has now given the army orders of disarming Nkunda by force
after Nkunda wanted to talk and Kabila said disarm first. Nkunda
refused sighting safety reasons so Kabila gave the order today. It is
not clear when the Congolese army will begin its offensive, but it
should be soon
(http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=322254&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/)

Day in and day out

2007-10-11T05:09:00.000-05:00

With Lyn gone, and Wilfrieda on vacation, both my bosses are gone, so
I'm on a vacation. Well, maybe not a vacation so to say, but for sure
I'm not doing a lot of field work. I've recently been spending lots of
time in the computer lab not for their connection (I usually connect
through my cell phone because it is more constant and doesn't cut out)
but for the generator power. What I really need is a solar panel and a
battery, and then I wouldn't even have to come into town.
Unfortunately, my laptop battery only lasts about an hour, so without a
power source I'm soon grounded. I've been looking up lots of different
possibilities, everything from medicinal plants to local tropical animal
feeds to industries suitable for coops of farmers to pursue. There is a
slight glimmer of peace floating around as Nkunda appears to be on the
defensive now, but there will be violence and instability for a while.
It is a catch 22 where economic development might really help stop the
rampaging bandits and people could get jobs and support themselves, but
without stability it is hard to stabilize an economy. Things like palm
oil and ethanol production on a small, sustainable way and managed and
marketed through coops might be an option. Just throwing that out there
in case someone has a lot of knowledge and wants to contact me with some
info :)

I'm working now on a rabbit production guide. There is a possibility to
increase production because rabbits are small, breed "like rabbits" and
can eat grasses and leaves of plants to survive. They might be a really
good way to introduce more protein to people's diets as well as
providing them with live rabbits, meat, and furs to sell (not sure what
the furs would be used for, but I'm confident the Congolese will think
of something). The really cool thing about what rabbits eat is here it
is available year round so no supplemental feed is needed. That said,
there are also local feedstuffs that can be used to feed rabbits too
such as sweet potato, cassava, and bananas. I'm working on researching
diets that use these materials for maximum production and limited
costs. Research isn't bad, but I'm really just waiting to get started
on more projects.

But all those projects need to wait until Lyn or Wilfrieda get back, and
the moringa is growing. I went to Mawe Hai two days ago and some of the
plants were just coming up. They are hard to spot but they shot their
stems up without leaves for a couple inches, and so it looked like a
circular blade of grass or something. I think it is still too early to
obtain any data about the germination rates, but so far I'm kind of
disappointed. In the pots that were planted before I got here the
germination might only be 60% or so, but I'll actually have to count to
see for sure. That's pretty low to me and sounds like a waste of seeds
and pots. I'll probably run out to Mawe Hai Early next week, and then
again at the end, and will post any changes.

I added a couple links on the right hand side of the site. There is a
link with news from Central Africa. This covers the DRC and the
surrounding areas, but now with the active war, most of it is on the
DRC. There are also two picture albums on facebook, and I found I can
share them with everyone and you don't have to be a member so check
those out. I tried to semi-organize them by grouping like pictures
together, but I make no promises. All the pictures are labeled with a
description though, and if you have any questions, just drop me a line.
I have plenty of time to answer e-mails.

Violence in the Congo

2007-10-09T07:04:00.000-05:00

To most of the world, Rwanda has gotten a lot more publicity and sympathy for its genocide problems. In 1994, 800,000 Rwandan Tutsis and supportive Hutus were systematically exterminated in a bout of ethnic cleansing from extremist Hutus. Many of those casualties were thrown into the very lake I swim in every day, Lake Kivu. Many people stop the history though when the Rwandan Tutsis pushed the Rwandan Hutus from the country, and set up a tolerable government to everyone who was not part of the Hutu killers.

There are a couple things to notice from this opening paragraph. The first is that I keep saying Rwandan Tutsis and Hutus. That’s right, but there are also Congolese Hutus and Tutsis as well. As many people know, when countries were formed, someone sitting in a chair in Europe dipped his pen in the ink and with a 3 inch line on a map changed the political climate of Africa. These political climates ignored where the original groups of people were, often separating tribes and people groups in different countries and also lumping tribes and people groups in one country and all of a sudden not being many tribes or people groups, but one “unified” people under a country’s flag.

The second thing to notice is that the Rwandan Tutsis pushed the Hutus out of the country. Where did they push them? Well into the Congo of course. Long columns of Hutus marched into the Congo, right through Goma, fearing the backlash from the new Tutsi government. Their fears are well founded as the Rwandan government is still seeking Hutu participants in the genocide and is bringing them to justice.

The third thing is that Rwanda gets a lot of publicity with 800,000 people killed. They probably get a lot of publicity because it was a systematic genocide. This is in contrast to the 4 million people killed in the last 10 years or so in the Congo, after the genocide in Rwanda. 4 million people. Many, if not most of the casualties were civilians, who like the Rwandan Tutsis that were massacred, had no say in the matter, and no power to stop it. 800,000 vs. 4 million, and until I was coming to the Congo, I knew very little about it. That conflict supposedly ended in 2002. That was the “official” end of the civil war of the Congo, but that’s not where the story stops. From that conflict, and from the tribal conflicts of the Hutus and the Tutsis, today violence is still erupting, and increasing again, and the citizens are the ones who bear the burden.

After the Hutus arrived in the Congo, Rwanda knew they were there. So did other neighboring countries with indigenous Tutsi populations. To “protect” their populations from further atrocities, the Congo civil war began as the Tutsis were now trying to wipe out the Hutu extremists so they could not act again. At its height the conflict actively involved 8 African nations and numerous militias and militant groups. Fighting was for many reasons, but the civilians suffered. Millions displaced and many that died were from disease and malnutrition that would have been prevented without war. The armies are not paid in the Congo. They have to steal food and otherwise acquire payment from the people. They are supposed to get paid, but they usually don’t. And somehow, in all of this, there was a massive attack in women, to terrorize the population and utterly destroy anything that existed before. This war sees abuse on women and rape not comprehendible to the human mind (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/07/world/africa/07congo.html?hp).

The conflict was supposed to be over in 2002, but it continues today. It is a more localized conflict now with a lot of the western half of the country fairly stable and struggling with its own problems of resource mismanagement and extreme corruption (http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=321036&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/), but the battle still rages in the eastern half. Today’s problems involve a rebel general, Laurent Nkunda, and the problems are linked to the Rwandan crisis yet again.

Nkunda is a Congolese Tutsi and he accuses the government of allying with the Hutus. He has been around for a long time, but various measures to make peace and try new things have moderated or increased his violence throughout the years. Earlier this year, or late last year, he tried to make a march on Goma and the UN intervened, attacking with helicopter gun-ships, stopping him and killing hundreds of rebels. I actually met one of the pilots who claimed to be part of the mission and if they try and do it again “we’ll kick em again and show them their place.” (I’m skeptical of his actual involvement in the conflict, but it was a good quote none the less. He seemed to have no problem inflating what he actually did to impress the ladies I was with, but his sentiment is largely held, that if they come to Goma again, the UN will get actively involved). The UN will protect the provincial capital Goma, but it is powerless to stop the conflict at large both due to non-involvement issues and because the conflict is so widespread even the largest UN peacekeeping force in the world is vastly undermanned.

The government of the Congo has repeatedly denied siding with the Hutus, and the government of Rwanda denies supporting Nkunda. No one really knows for sure though. Rwanda has repeatedly made statements saying they would not be opposed to entering the Congo in force to stop Hutus they think could endanger Rwandans. While I’ve heard nothing officially one way or the other for Rwandan involvement, it appears the Congolese government might be siding with Hutus to put down Nkunda (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7023708.stm). Nkunda attacks because the government supports the Hutus and the government uses the Hutus to help beat back Nkunda because they can’t handle him on their own. It’s a vicious cycle of which came first, but either way, the fighting still exists today.

The fighting continues along Hutu and Tutsi lines. The conflict is not over and continues to get worse. Civilians are still fleeing the areas, flocking to refugee camps in Goma and nearby cities. All the while, HEAL Africa continues to get more and more women who need vaginal fistula repairs because of the epidemic of brutal rape. There was a very tentative peace treaty signed on September 5, and since the end of the month it has been non-existent. Yesterday Nkunda said he had enough of negotiations and was going to continue active fighting on many fronts (http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=321394&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/). It’s hard to tell what’s going on here because there is very little media in Goma, but this is my understanding of the conflict now.

What is needed is for the kingdom of God to reign in the Congo instead of the different warlords and cruel militias. Please pray for the Congo.

Driving to Mawe Hai

2007-10-09T07:00:00.000-05:00

The drive from the Hospital to Mawe His is about a half hour or 40 minutes, and the only disappointing thing is you almost drive right past Maji Matulivu, so you just wasted 20 minutes. I actually really enjoy the drive. People always ask and apologize if they have to stop somewhere and I always tell them not to worry. It’s actually my favorite part, getting out somewhere and experiencing part of life in Goma. It is so easy to ignore everything, and not pay attention to anything in the car except how uncomfortable and bumpy it is, but I never do that. I’m always looking, always trying to understand.

Here stores clump together. I saw it in the Philippines too, and it works the same way. Someone has a good business idea. Maybe it’s a hardware store. His neighbor sees him doing well, or maybe even he’s not doing well; the neighbor just thinks it is a good idea to start a hardware store too. Soon there are 6 on one side of the road and 3 on the other, and they all sell the exact same stuff (give or take maybe 10% of the merchandise). One part of the ride has 4 pharmacies in a row. How can each one make it if they are all the same? Some of them look fairly nice, indicating that maybe they do make it. They have nice signs that you don’t see in other places, but they are all the same.

There are a lot of places that do carpentry on the side of the road. All the boards are pretty much the same when they are bought and sold, and from there they plane and shape them into beds, benches, and tables. Beds are by far the most popular thing on the side of the road, and given that everyone uses the same boards, they all end up looking somewhat the same. Watching them work driving past I don’t think does them justice. One of these days once I’ve polished up my Swahili a bit (or even acquired enough to maybe start thinking about trying it out) I want to stop and talk to some of the workers. I think it would be cool, and it would be a great opportunity to learn about what an average person in Goma does.

There is a lot of sugar cane here. The kids especially chew it and it’s really sweet. After all, it is called “sugar” cane and they make sugar from it. It is pure sugar in juicy, plant form and isn’t good for them, but it is cheap and available. They bring in huge semi-like trucks filled with sugar cane and toss them off the back. They look kind of like bamboo staves, maybe like 5 or 6 feet long, and people crowd around to buy the sugar cane, not to eat usually, but to resell for others to eat. They take it from the truck and carry it on their heads somewhere, and cut pieces of it to sell. Some people sell sugar cane all day, and it is so cheap, I can’t imagine its all that profitable of a job.

We also pass a refugee camp on the way to Mawe. Huts made of sticks and branches house thousands of people as relief organizations try and register people and take care of their basic needs. From afar it almost looks like muskrat houses before a big winter. They are big for muskrats, but really small for people. Some are bigger than others, so I don’t know what dictates the size, but there are just so many people there, and they are always sitting around the camp because they have nothing else to do.

I like driving in Goma. It takes a fair bit of concentration, but there are times when you can see some really cool stuff. Granted, I could see really, really cool stuff if I walked to Mawe Hai, but that would hinge on me getting there in one piece.

Pictures!

2007-10-05T06:18:00.001-05:00

I've had pics up on Facebook for a couple days and tried getting some on the blog with no success. Then I noticed a little public link at the bottom of the page to share my photos with everyone. Definitely a look to see where Josh is staying, what he's doing, and what the heck Mawe Hai and Moringa even look like. Click on this:

http://wisc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2288187&l=f481c&id=8626644

Life continues in Goma

2007-10-05T05:44:00.000-05:00

There are four of us at the guest house. Its me and three ladies. There was a bit of commotion with Joe and Lyn gone. The mamas (the maids, cooks, etc...) see no point in staying there late into the night for four twenty somethings, so they have been leaving around 5 or so. There are supposed to be three guards at night. They all have police jobs during the day and then guard us at night because only the police are allowed to have guns, which is a bonus as a guard. There has been one guard the last couple days. There are supposed to be three every night. And they are the same ones.

Christina was pretty unhappy because given the situation in Goma with the army not being paid and everything, she went out with one of the other girls a couple nights ago and was going to take a guard with them. They couldn't because there was only one. Before he left, Joe said if we went out at night, even in the car, to take a guard, and now they aren't even here.

So here is what happened. The guards get paid something like 35 dollars a month from HEAL to guard at night. But they also get fed. They get to eat whatever is left over from dinner. Well, with the mamas not staying late, they have not given the guards any food since Joe and Lyn left so two of the guards stopped showing up. Why show up to work to get paid 35 dollars a month when you were told 35 and food? Well we solved that problem. We are going to put all the left over food in the outside kitchen and leave it unlocked until 10 when the power goes out and we all head to our own rooms to sleep. The stupid thing about it is because there are only four of us, we have had so much food left over there was almost not enough space in the fridge the one day.

Its always interesting to see what the systems are in other places and how they interact and how easily they can be thrown off balance.

Oh, and I got my driver's license the other day. All it took was 15 dollars and some info, but I feel I'm getting the hang of it. I drove home from the hospital that day and I didn't think it was that bad. Basically driving here is just a function of time and comfort. The more time it takes, the more comfortable the ride. The faster you go, the less comfortable the ride. I probably ride a little on the faster side/less comfortable side because then you just get over the discomfort faster since you are going to experience a bit no matter how carefully and slowly one drives. Stupid almost roads (that's what I call them since there are so many pot holes and rocks sticking up every

Army Bandits

2007-10-01T05:30:00.001-05:00

While Goma is safe from major conflict between the Congolese army and those of the renegade general, Goma is not completely safe. The Congolese army isn't paid and they get hungry and have families to take care of. That's when the army that is supposed to be protecting becomes an object of terror.

Saturday night there were two women from HEAL Africa who went to visit a Christian sister who had lost two family members in the last week. It was getting late so they had two of their sons come and meet them at the sister's house and walk them home. About 7pm (it gets dark just after 6) about 10 men attacked them, pushing them to the ground, and threatening them with guns and machettes. They tore the earings out of the women's ears and demanded cell phones and money. All four complied, but for good measure they shot the one lady anyways. Thank God it was only in the arm and it didn't even hit any bones! She should be operated on today to take the bullet out and repair the damage and she will be all right. Her and her friend were both pretty shook up, and its no wonder why.

All the time more and more troops come to Goma to aid the fight against the general, and every day there are more men running around with weapons, power, and no food.

My Birthday in Goma

2007-10-01T04:30:00.000-05:00

I woke up on Saturday the 29th with a meeting planned for that morning. It never happened. The guy I was supposed to meet with was asked by Lyn that morning to do something before they left (and they are gone now) and so we rescheduled the meeting and I had nothing to do. I jumped in the lake and ate breakfast. Louise was leaving and she was going to go to the border and I decided why not go along and see it? We went to the hospital for an hour or so and then to the border. It was kind of cool, but nothing special. Then back to the hospital because one of the girls was giving a talk.

I was in the computer lab just messing around and Christina asked if I wanted to join her and some other people for Indian food. I figured sure, why not? We get in the car and go from the computer lab to the hospital. There outside the hospital was a UN truk with two Indian guys in it and 3 people Christina knew. We followed them to the airport and after a little negotiation with the guards (we had to park outside and couldn't drive into the Indian UN part... the congolese guard wouldn't let us) we went in to the helicopter division of the Indian Army.

The officers club had couches, soft chairs, a nice cable TV (Australia was trouncing India in Cricket), and... A/C. It was cool (finally in more ways than one) and we just talked to these pilots for a while. The food was still being cooked, and I had little in common with them, but we talked about each other's lives and what we did.

Then the food was served in the mess hall, which was also A/C'd. It was amazing. The food was so good and as we were eating it, one guy kept walking around with two dishes at a time (there were five and rice all together) asking if we wanted more. Needless to say, I ate too much.

Then it was time for dessert. He brought out Chocolate ice cream and we scooped that onto our plates. Nuts were brought to the table along with little cake like bar things, and then he came around with vanilla ice cream. And then he came around again with the ice cream. needless to say, I ate too much of that too. It was so good, and I don't think I'll have ice cream again for a very long time.

I thought we were done, but then it was picture time. We all formed for a group picture and there were 6 normal people and these 2 UN pilots. It was sweet. Then we walked around a bit. They have a tennis court, a volleyball court, a basketball court, a screen where they project movies, and we saw the helicopters. He showed us (very simply and matter of factly) that when you fly, if you push forward on the control stick you go forward, pull back and go backwards, left you go left, and you get it if you go right. He made it sound like that was it, definitely showing off, but it was pretty fun. We got some pics in the helicopters too so that was nice. They also said to come back for a movie or to play some sports or something, so I have a feeling I might meet them again someday.

Back at the house I was chilling, reading, and doing nothing. I was really full when dinner came around but I sat down and socialized a bit. The girls were going to a party, but I wasn't going to go. It was a suitcase party where you bring a change of clothes in a bag and then switch with someone. I was just going to enjoy writing about the day and sending some e-mails.

Well, someone knocks on my door and here its Christina and 3 people I don't know summoning me to the party. There was no way I was going to spend my 21 birthday alone in my room. I would have protested, but the one guy was really big, so I grabbed a bag of badger clothing (thanks mom!) and headed out.

It was a very interesting group of people, many of them pilots for an organization here, and other foreigners from all over. Maybe there were 20 people or so and when the bags were passed out, it was definitely a gender switch. I ended up with a black skirt and tank top and some white beads and some sort of headwrap thing. I figured it out eventually.

The UN pilots showed up too and we had Indian music and they were dancing Indian style and we were sort of copying them and creating some sort of jumbled up confusion. I didn't dance much but it was all right anyways. As with all cross dressing events though, someone goes too far, so I just ignored those people. I don't think I'll go to all the parties that go on, but I'll probably catch a couple. There was lots of Coke and Fanta anyways, so it was a bonus.

All in all, it was a pretty sweet day thanks to the Man upstairs looking out for me and making sure I was fed well.

The Team is leaving...

2007-09-27T07:32:00.000-05:00

Life continues in Goma as the Eastbrook team prepares to head back to Milwaukee. My roommate left yesterday and there is another person leaving on Saturday. I'm staying down here for at least a year, and then there are two people staying till around December, one staying a couple more months, and a couple people coming back that were gone in the states for a while. It is an ever changing landscape and there is always someone interesting to talk to.

The moringa planting has started. We are doing some trials of different things at Mawe Hai and will see what works the best. We have one trial that soaked the seeds overnight to speed germination, and the other trial just used dry seeds. Then we have each of those trials in soil and in pots to see which one grows best. All together there are close to 800 Moringa seeds planted. We also planted branches of Moringa to see what happens. The cuttings of the Moringa tree (from the guesthouse) are 50 cm long and we just stuck them into the ground and they are supposed to grow. I guess its called the Miracle Tree for a reason. That sounds pretty amazing to me.

Jo and Lyn will be leaving for the month of October, so while they're gone I'll be working on the Moringa project, the two other medicinal plants, and working on proposals for other projects, so it will be a good month I think. This next month might set up what I do for the rest of my time here, so I'm excited to see what happens.

Goma driving

2007-09-26T15:30:00.000-05:00

Driving here is pretty interesting. The very few paved roads that exist
are ridden with not only pot holes, but also the occasional speed bump,
some of which rival those of the Philippines. And the road is used for
carts, motorcycles, people, bicycles, cars, and huge semi-like flatbed
trucks. There are times when there is barely a way through a huge
stretch of road because there are so many people, and when there are
cars going in opposite directions... well the people usually move after
beeping a few times but its still close. Some of the people here are
kind of crazy drivers, and the motorcyclists have a mind of their own.
And that is on the paved roads.

The majority of the roads are just paths over the lava with occasional
gravel filling in the low spots. They not only have potholes but also
odd shaped pieces of lava and softball sized rocks just laying in the
road. they are always there. I don't know if they are natural or
people just put them there because the road was too smooth before, but
they are pretty annoying. And the lava isn't smooth at all. There are
drop offs and all sorts of juts and holes. Needless to say driving is a
little different here than in the US, but not impossible.

I was getting kind of intimidated at the thought of driving here until
we rode with a taxi driver over the weekend. Unlike his New York
counterparts, this guy drove a van and was a safe driver. Not slow or
obnoxious, just safe, and I thought "hey, I could drive here if this guy
can." We had a lot in common (well, really not much at all that I know
about because he only spoke Swahili) at least when it came to driving,
and I was getting at ease a bit about driving. Although the stick shift
(all but one of the cars at HEAL) is still a bit intimidating given the
circumstances.

And I was fine driving. I knew I could handle it. I drove the other
day, but that was the only time so far, and then something happened to
boost my confidence even more.

Yesterday and today we rode to Mawe Hai with the same guy. I should
have known something was up when we were driving the automatic and we
were parked in front of a brick wall and instead of backing up he
lurches forward. Okay, the signs are in English and he's used to
French... yeah, I buy that. We're driving and the steering wheel is on
the right of the car, and we are driving more on the left side of the
road than the middle or the right like you are supposed to. I don't
understand that one. He drives really slow at unnecessary times, beeps
constantly, and when it comes to potholes and paths through the lava, he
misses all the little ones and just hits the big ones head on.

And then today... joy. We're leaving Mawe Hai and it is a steep,
coarse rock road (notice I said rock and not gravel). The tires are
balder than Dopey the dwarf, and we're going up (in a stick shift today)
and then we stop about two thirds of the way up. Instead of backing
down the hill and trying again from a better angle, he puts it into gear
on a hill and the car was moaning, but he got it into gear, we bumped
around not going anywhere and the tires were spinning like it was on
ice, and the car stalls. He puts his foot on the clutch and doesn't
break and I don't know if he was trying to back up and just wasn't used
to it or what, but the story ends with one tire off a 2 foot rock drop
off and we're not going anywhere.

We got out all right with pushing from me and like 6 guys, but with his
slaughtering of the car and the people inside, I decided I wouldn't mind
driving here, just not like him.

Moringa

2007-09-24T08:44:00.000-05:00

So how does one plant on rock? Well, in pots of course. At least to start with. Today I went to Mawe Hai to make a planting bed for the Moringa. The lava rocks are used as a boarder around the planting area (a very good use of the rocks) and then we constructed the shade. The workers there had already done the posts (I'm not really sure how they managed to do that) and then Wilfrida and I made the shade. Wilfrida is going to be "in charge" of me, or will be my mentor as I learn what's going on.
To make shade mats you use small bamboo and two lines of twine about two and a half feet apart. The sticks for the bamboo are about three and a half feet long. The process involves tying a knot in the rope after each piece of bamboo is put down and it makes a rather nice shade cloth.
I made the mistake of looking at my hands (they didn't hurt, but I hadn't done work in a long time so I just changed how I was doing things) and then Wilfreda wanted to change jobs. She didn't say anything, but I knew she was doing it because she thought my hands were sore.
Once the posts and shade were made, and the area enclosed, the soil was brought in. We are going to try planting the moringa on the soil and in pots and see which one does better.
Oh, and I drove today. It was only for like 15 minutes, but it was all right. It was a gravel road for a while and then a dirt/lava road for a while and then a paved road (with pot holes). It was actually kind of fun. There were a gazillion more people than cars and the steering wheel was on the right (but we drive on the right too, there are just about a 50/50 mix left and right steering wheeled cars). I don't have my license yet, but It wasn't far and their weren't any police so it was all right. Pretty soon I'll be driving like the natives, weaving in and out of people and carts and being in general, crazy.

The Weekend

2007-09-24T08:06:00.000-05:00

So pretty much the guest house looks like a resort the way it is. During the weekend though, when nobody has anything to do and we just hang around, it definitely looks like a resort. Saturday (because the team was here) we went around town a bit and saw a green volcanic lake (nothing cool, its just green because of algae) and then went to the market and a wood carving shop. Those last two were pretty cool and I can't wait till I learn some Swahili and I can talk to the people. And that was pretty much it. I know I went swimming like 3 different times and just relaxed, did some reading, and just had a very relaxing time. Almost too much so since I don't feel pressured during the week either. I almost felt like I was wasting time... almost.

Sunday was very cool. We went to the French service at the church and that was cool. The sermon was pretty good (translated) and I think once I learn a language here it will be very beneficial to go. After church everyone at the guest house went to a hotel where they had a buffet lunch. It was Mexican and very good. The stuffed peppers and grilled goat were particularly delicious. And after the buffet they served dinner at the guest house anyways. Granted it was like 5 hours later, but no one was hungry.

Once I know what's going on more and fall into a routine, I think the weekends will be great. I can go shopping, relax, sleep, swim, read, walk around, do nothing, etc... Everything is just slower here and I really like it.

What Josh is up to...

2007-09-24T08:01:00.000-05:00

I know what I’ll be doing at least for part of my stay here. Lyn got a lot of Moringa seeds from a friend in Rwanda and she wants me to spearhead the Moringa production at Mawe Hai. The Moringa will be grown in pots with soil bought from either the banana plantation or the brewery (because Goma is built entirely on lava rock), and then they will be distributed to five communities. The communities are part of the Nehemiah projects that HEAL does (the Nehemiah projects are their community outreach programs that I don’t fully understand yet, but I’m working on it) and there are 10 core families in each area. The first run of the Moringa will be a trial run of 500 plants, half under shade cover and half not and then we can start planting more on a larger scale as soon as we see which is working best. Then the members of the five communities will be called to Mawe Hai and they will be trained in the uses, production, multiplication, and benefits of Moringa. A week or so after that (when they have had time to prepare for it, but not enough time to loose excitement) we will then take the plants into the communities and distribute them to the 10 families at each place.

And that will be the start of my work. After that, there are two other medicinal plants (Neem and Artemisia) that I’m supposed to look into and I’ll see where it goes from there. Lyn gave me a booklet to read called “Project Cycle Management” and it has to do with project management, starting projects, and planning stages that need to happen before projects are started. It also talks about logical frameworks and project proposals and summaries and so on. So when I get bored because the Moringa is just growing and nothing else is really going on, I can work on proposing another project that will be considered and if it is well thought out, probably approved. It’s pretty exciting to finally be using all the knowledge that I have been gaining for the last 3 years in college and years before that in readings.

So besides figuring out what I’ll be doing, how is life in Goma? Well, I’m staying at a walled compound and it is on a lake. The water is a little cool when you first jump in but you get used to it very quickly and swimming is a major part of the program. I would say at least every other day I jump in. When we eat we eat right next to the water. They have a sort of patio there and some shade and that is where most meals are. If its raining or really windy, then we move inside, but otherwise its outside in the fresh air perfumed by the huge flower garden (either with great smelling flowers, or fermenting crap that is used for fertilizer).

The generator goes off at 10 pm so unless I want to use lots of batteries or are good at doing stuff via candle light, or are blessed with sporadic city power, I pretty much go to bed around 10 every night. This is conducive to waking up early, like at 6 or 6:30am. Breakfast is at 8 which leaves plenty of time for Bible study and general laziness in the morning (they also play tennis at a hotel down the road from 6:30-7:30. I haven’t played yet, but I think my time will come). I usually catch a vehicle around 9 to go wherever I have to go, and then am on my way back around 4:30 or 5 at the latest. It’s not too bad at all.

So far during the day I’ve just been seeing things, but starting on Monday I’ll be working on the Moringa project. And if I never mentioned it before, Mawe Hai is a demonstration farm less than a half hour from the city.

Refugees

2007-09-19T08:40:00.001-05:00

Goma has quite a few refugees right now. They have been coming in for a long time and only the most recent ones have made the news. They are all fleeing the fighting from Nkunda and the different armies that want him and his men destroyed. We visited a project of HEAL Africa’s where kids, many of them orphans or refugees, are put in a safe environment where they can share what their experiences are and other things that they think and fear and where they’ve come from:

I was in school when we first heard the gunshots. We all went out and went back to the village but already all the people were gone. My father, family, and I fled the village but the way was blocked by the military. We had 5 cots (sleeping mats) with us, but when the military saw us, they told us to leave the area and took our cots. There was nothing we could do and I was so scared because that was all we had.

I left the village with my mother and family and we had some food and other things with us. As we were walking we were stopped by the soldiers and they took our food and things and so we had nothing. Now we are here in Goma. My father before was a carpenter – he made furniture. Now he does nothing. My mother also does nothing. There is nothing to do. But I feel safer here than there. There is no war here.

The program has two groups of about 15 children each, but when the others see the children having fun, playing, and interacting with each other, they all want a part. They don’t say no to anyone so today with three foreigners watching, the crowd swelled as they played some local games, including a variation of tag. It was great to see the psychological and emotional healing going on, but there was so much that was not available to these kids. They are not in school, are malnourished, hungry, and don’t have much of anything. Some of the kids they actually have to encourage to play because its been so long since they have really played with other kids. I felt privileged to see that.

I made it!

2007-09-19T08:13:00.000-05:00

The team and I arrived in Goma around 1 or 2 pm on the 17^th. Coming from Entebee to Goma I was able to fly shotgun on the single engine plane we were in. The bins of medical supplies took off just before us and we followed for part of the hour and a half flight and then took over the lead as our plane was faster than the cargo one. We flew through clouds and over clouds, and my favorite, under the clouds. At times we were really low to avoid the clouds and you could see everything on the ground. One time as we flew between two volcanoes and the land raised up between the two I saw people and cars. It was pretty sweet.

As we approached Goma, there were visible patches of lava from the volcano eruption in 2002. These were huge paths of black/gray rock that nothing grew on. Some of the rest of the countryside was covered in vegetation, and the rest just nothing. There is a lot of bare dirt/rocks here.

We visited the hospital yesterday afternoon and this morning went to Mawe Hai (living stones) which is an agriculture project of HEAL Africa. It is a demonstration farm where they grow things on top of the lava rock using soil that they bring from elsewhere and maybe compost. It sounded like they brought most of the soil in. It is amazing how well the vegetables grew in that soil! The eggplants and peppers looked great and they had strawberries too. Another aspect of the project was growing tree seedlings because most of the surroundings have been deforested by the volcano, war, and greed. This would be one place I could work, but I’m keeping my options open. They do want to expand a lot, and especially into small animals, and there would be great opportunities to get to know some of the workers there as I pick up French or Swahili.

10 days

2007-09-05T11:03:00.000-05:00

Starting in 10 days I will no longer have a room at my brother's house. Does it look like it? Well, I put some stuff in bins the other day and got rid of a bunch of stuff, but other than that, my room is in full use. Why would my room look like its in full use if I'm leaving in 10 days? Oh yeah, that's right. I haven't started getting stuff ready to go yet. I've done some shopping, but actual packing? Of course not. There are still 10 days for me to pack with. Do I know how much stuff I can take? Two bins of 50 pounds each. Do I know how much stuff I want to take? Not at all. Will my stuff fit in two bins? I have no clue. Do I have an alternative? Nope. Given my luggage limitations, I'm beginning to work on what to take, and what is staying. I did it when I went to the Philippines too and I didn't have any problems. In fact, it's always humbling to realize that out of all the crap one accumulates in life, all you need is two bins. Actually, less than that because I probably won't use everything I take. There was always that one thing that was so important when packing, that never made it out of the suitcase when I got there.

It's also humbling to realize when traveling that my two bins of stuff is still way more than many people have in their homes that they live in.