Christmas at Maji

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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.