UCBC - Round 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Two things

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Evil Muzungu

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The roads are (were) fixed!

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

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

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

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

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

The way things are supposed to work

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

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

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

Picinic at the beach

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

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

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

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

Standing Water

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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