the crescendo of amenities - a blessing or a curse?

as I prepare to head back to canada a few thoughts floating around in my head.
a good friend recently asked me if I’m looking forward to all the amenities….

made me think of McNorth America
yet I definitely WILL be giddy about:

hot showers
fluffy comforters
no mosquito nets
squishy carpet
camping for the FUN of it
drinking water from the tap
driving my own car
good coffee (JJ Bean of course)
wireless everywhere
luscious green grass
beaches with lukewarm sun

i MIGHT be a little afraid of
bank machines & debit cards
so many whiteys
big crowds of English speaking people
the grocery store
abundance in bulk quantity measure
apathy
embarrasing myself with my strange Congolese noises (ah whatever!)

Convergence...

Who would've imagined it?
There i was...Sat. night getting ready for bed and i hear some shouting outside (this part is normal) but i thought..."hey, that's not lingala"...and i thought i heard japanese. so i started to listen closely and look where the voices were coming from. it looked like there was a family in the house behind ours (which i alway thought was a hotel). they were playing a round of badminton right there in their back living room. as i listened i heard them say stuff like, 'be careful, oh you did it'.
so...carpe diem right!!! but i was starting to have language meltdown. i had to shuffle through the files in my brain to find my japanese pronouns. just last june i was still doing pretty well with it but now....ahhhh....how do you say "you" plural? oh ya. so i shout out "konbanwa anatatachi"! with my bedroom light turned on so they could see me through the dark. what a dork! the kids were shouting so i don't think they heard me. more carpe diem. put my clothes back on and decided i was going to go find their house and talk to them b/c come on...japanese in the congo????
i was a bit nervous as even my congolese girlfriends don't like to walk outside alone at night. but the cool thing was, just as i was heading out the door, our neighbor was heading into his house. i asked him if the place in behind was a hotel. he said no, it was a residence. i told him i heard them speaking japanese and he said, "(in french - at which point i was having language filing crisis again...) oh yes, they are my friends. i asked if he could introduce me and he said sure....so may happen this week...
cool and weird all the same.
Japan meets the Congo. looking forward to hauling out the japanese again. was trying to figure out what i would say in english first and then how i would translate.
can i get a witness?? (the whole language mumble jumble?)

more zongo...

ROAD TRIP - destination ZONGO FALLS

Finally busted out of the stinky, humid city to open spaces, green vegetation and red dirt.

It took us about 2.5 hrs in total. I loved the road heading towards the waterfall….many pockets of villages. Perhaps it is what one might imagine when thinking of “Africa”, although we didn’t run across any lions or elephants.

The villages were like small communities with men sitting under the trees, children playing with homemade trucks and women pounding the food. I was impressed at how clean and tidy everything looked. A very welcomed change from the big city. I thought….’ah, here is the simple life’. Where you grow your own food and eat from the land. But….alas….it seemed as though there was a hint of “whitey syndrome” Like a sad episode of Amazing Race, the N. American descends on a new place and commits every cultural faux pas known to that culture. Not to mention, creating a bad name for future tourists. Similarly, as we drove through the tiny villages almost every child screamed in excitement “Mundele, give me a candy, give me money, give me a biscuit”. Seriously. It made me sad. What has been created by others who have gone before us? Made me also think of our N. American parades when the candies go flying into the crowds as the firetrucks passed by. Is this what it has been like for these children?
Sigh.

Then, as we arrived at our destination – Zongo Falls – a huge waterfall from the Inkisi River, we were accosted by Miami Vice dude trying to hike up the price for merely parking on his land and viewing the falls. I was on to him though and wanted to see the “chief”. We all agreed on a nice price. After using the washroom, I found myself surrounded by a heated argument btw. uncle and the chief of the place. Hmmm…nothing like airing your dirty laundry. Uncle was making claims like “You don’t know God, you have many wives, you just want money, etc.” Whew. We dismissed ourselves and went on our hike.

AHHHHHHHH!!!

I NEED NATURE! I LOVE IT!!! I get a little crazy and like to find my own paths. It was a little like being in a dream world for a day. We were able to stand across from the falls and I kept making jokes about Gorillas in the Midst…b/c there was a good shower that came from the bottom. We were told that if we shouted the spray would become more forceful…so there we all were (4 of us) shouting, screaming and making lion roars into the waterfall and getting totally drenched.
Nice.

It's springing up.....

new life...

finally i have some more to show at the village. as we plowed over shrubs in the 4x4, grass sticking in the front grate, we came up over the hill and onto the terrain to look out over the great valley! in that moment i couldn't help but think that one day this is going to be history and all the little families that we passed will be joined together as a larger community with running water...and the shouts of many many children living on the land! WOW!

but....

that's in the future...

for now, these are the steps that are being taken -
below is the resevoir that water (from the spring in the valley) will be pumped into...the task is to pump it out, clean it out and cover it. also, as you can see in other pics. we are starting to line up the posts to mark the territory. things are on the move, coming into place...and springing up! this pic. doesn't even show the immensity of the whole village site!

Georgette update...

Just talked to Georgette...(really hard to get ahold of these days)

Glody is in hospital again due to an infection.
Dieu Merci has appendicitise (sp?) and should get an operation soon.
keep the prayer fires coming!!
thanks

Elikia Village Update~

o.k....so i didn't have any ice-cream...

but we're on to another week now and here is the project update...

In the past few weeks, Tresor & I have been TRYING to buy a container like this for the security purposes on our property. The ones that were available were sold..so...we move on to...

... red bricks - to build a small guard house. We will have a sheet metal roof...a little like the pic. below but it will be open a little so our security guard doesn't pass out in the heat.
Something like this....
(pictures from surrounding area)

Remember "THE MAN" well...he ran and then died. So...currently repairing this so we can haul our bricks, sand, cement, sheet metal....etc.

This week will be all about arranging the final purchase of 2000 bricks, getting the MAN, the men,(haha) materials and everything up to the property and then...LET"S GO BABY!!!!

In the meantime....I'm also trying to set up meetings with a couple key people, work on a dvd project and finish my English class before I leave for Canada in September, So....time is flying but we're having fun!

[picture...compliments of Tim]

WAAAAAYYY TOO much T.I.A. for me today!! So...plan "Q" is now we are going to build a brick guard house. We need this before we begin other work. Papa Prospere (on the right) is our new security guy....waiting to begin...waiting for the house....waiting for the bricks...waiting for the MAN truck....waiting for the technician....(get my point)! BUT i am HAPPY TO SHOW THESE PICS...that we are well on our way and the "plan" is that stuff will happen on Monday, after the weekend. Now, i feel like going and eating 2 buckets of ice-cream...okay..that's gross and i don't even know where i would find one bucket! haha I should probably make a saying that is more appropriate like I.A.C.= I am Canadian!?!

Surgery

Mama Georgette has been working hard at her outside contract work. A lot has been going on at home with 2 children now in the hospital.

Glody loves to sing and lead the kids. After going to camp he had to have an operation for a hernia?! I guess he hasn't been lifting heavy things but it became worse at camp. Georgette reports that he is doing better now but is still in hospital.

Dieu Merci
(she is 16)

Needs surgery on her leg. Scheduled for Friday. I'm not exactly sure what is wrong -something to do with her muscle. Will write more when i get more news.

...to those of you who pray...would appreciate the extra fire right now!

sigh...

...looking at friend's blogs makes me miss this...

RaNdOm FAcTs

it's dry season here - which means it feels like a nice Vancouver summer.
also means no fan or air-

con AND i have a fleece blanket AND
sometimes wear a fleece jacket!

i'm white. apart from that being a totally obvious fact..i mean i have NO TAN.
everyone seems to think one gets tanned here. not so.
dry season means almost every day looks like it's going to rain...but it doesn't
dry season ends sometime in Sept/Oct.

i tried to have a HOT bath today...this meant boiling at least 4 kettles of water...
only to dip into luke-warm water. still was a nice change to the freezing water
that gives you goosebumps.

instead of dog-walking in this city...some people do goat-walking.
was the funniest thing the other day as we were driving down the road
we almost ran over 3 goats running out of house compound onto the street
as we passed we noticed the owner locking up the front door...
wonder if he had a leash…

friends here claim that monkey, dog & cat meat are all very nice to eat.
- sick -
and sorry again, to you vegetarian friends.

i haven't driven in a year! this is weird. must do something about that!

many little people in many little places who do many little things
can change the face of the world.