Congolese construction - mixing concrete

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

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

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

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

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

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

UCBC

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thoughts on Jinja

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thoughts on Kampala

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

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

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

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

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

I'm done

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

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

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

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

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

Josh takes a test

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

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

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

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

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

Mawe Hai

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

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

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

I'm back

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

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

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

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