Tillers

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

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

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

Time to Till!

Time to test the tillers!

Women's Day Parade

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

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

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

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

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

It started already

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

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

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

I'm hot

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

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

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

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

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

Here we go again!

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

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

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

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

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

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

UCBC - Round 2

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)!