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| fence between the Smith home and the road |
When we arrived on Friday and saw the lake, Daniel asked if he could go fishing. None of us had a pole, but Avi, one of the Smith's employees, said he would see what he could do. On Saturday, Avi presented Daniel with a fishing pole that his son had made for him. It was literally a stick with about six feet of line tied to it and a tiny little hook. For bait, there were several options. At first we went out to the taller grass and caught grasshoppers for Daniel to use. Later, Avi gave Daniel some sort of wormy critters he dug out of a dead tree. These were gross.
Daniel fished most of the day, and finally caught a little fish just before supper. Avi was almost as excited as Daniel was and promised to bring a larger hook on Sunday so that Daniel could catch bigger fish.
Avi has quite a story. During the upheaval and violence after Indepence in the 1960's, Avi, like many others, hid in the forest. He estimates he entered the forest when he was about 7 years old and spent five years in hiding. When it was safe to come out, the UN dropped clothing from airplanes so that all the people hiding in the forests could come out. Avi had not had a hair cut, or even a mirror and comb, in five years and had grown quite a bit, so when he came out of the forest his own mother did not recognize him and said he was not her son.
Nancy Smith, Emily, and I decided to spend our Saturday morning in the villages nearby because it was "market day." This was my first visit to a village and I noticed many differences between the villages and the city of Kinshasa. The first one I noticed was the lack of garbage. In Kinshasa, it is literally everywhere, strewn about the streets and sidewalks.
As you can see in this photo, the housing is also different. Homes are constructed out of sticks, reinforced with mud, and have grass roofs. The white stuff on the roof of this house is manioc that is being dried before it can be ground into flour.
Manioc is a staple food here. Here it is being weighed before it goes to market.
Nancy Smith with a village chief. The "balls" on his hat indicate that he is a chief of more than one village or group.
This is how you shop for clothing in the interior! Certain thrift store chains in the U.S. send their surplus to African countries. They are supposed to be free, but obviously aren't. I could probably write a whole other article about the good and bad impacts that donated clothing has had on the economy and social structure here.
Jim found an inner tube for the kids. We all swam in the lake during the afternoon. These are all the photos I was able to take before a group of about a dozen naked boys from the village came to swim on the other side and I had to put my camera away, or rather chose to. They were friendly, but completely at ease with walking about in the buff, so we were grateful that they stayed on the other side of the water.
At one point on Saturday, a fitting broke in the plumbing, causing the upstairs bathroom to flood and water went into one of the bedrooms and down the stairs. The fitting was a new one, and had been done incorrectly. David discovered several other newly installed fittings and sure enough, by the time we left on Monday, he and Jim had repaired nearly all of them, one at a time, as they took turns rupturing.
We ended our daylight hours with a walk up to the runway. This is actually a pretty good stretch of the road. The Smiths told me that to get to Vanga, which is roughly 75 kilometers, it is a 9 hour drive - longer if the river ferry isn't working. The road is so bad that no one can drive more than 10 miles per hour, even slower in some spots. We flew right over Vanga on our way to Nkara and it was less than 20 minutes from one to the other. That's why people like the Smiths need the services MAF provides.
Avi has quite a story. During the upheaval and violence after Indepence in the 1960's, Avi, like many others, hid in the forest. He estimates he entered the forest when he was about 7 years old and spent five years in hiding. When it was safe to come out, the UN dropped clothing from airplanes so that all the people hiding in the forests could come out. Avi had not had a hair cut, or even a mirror and comb, in five years and had grown quite a bit, so when he came out of the forest his own mother did not recognize him and said he was not her son.
As you can see in this photo, the housing is also different. Homes are constructed out of sticks, reinforced with mud, and have grass roofs. The white stuff on the roof of this house is manioc that is being dried before it can be ground into flour.
Manioc is a staple food here. Here it is being weighed before it goes to market.
Nancy Smith with a village chief. The "balls" on his hat indicate that he is a chief of more than one village or group.
This is how you shop for clothing in the interior! Certain thrift store chains in the U.S. send their surplus to African countries. They are supposed to be free, but obviously aren't. I could probably write a whole other article about the good and bad impacts that donated clothing has had on the economy and social structure here.
At one point on Saturday, a fitting broke in the plumbing, causing the upstairs bathroom to flood and water went into one of the bedrooms and down the stairs. The fitting was a new one, and had been done incorrectly. David discovered several other newly installed fittings and sure enough, by the time we left on Monday, he and Jim had repaired nearly all of them, one at a time, as they took turns rupturing.
We ended our daylight hours with a walk up to the runway. This is actually a pretty good stretch of the road. The Smiths told me that to get to Vanga, which is roughly 75 kilometers, it is a 9 hour drive - longer if the river ferry isn't working. The road is so bad that no one can drive more than 10 miles per hour, even slower in some spots. We flew right over Vanga on our way to Nkara and it was less than 20 minutes from one to the other. That's why people like the Smiths need the services MAF provides.
