Birthday in Bunia (blog #6)

On the morning of my birthday I woke up to a mouse making noises under my bed!  Anyone that knows me knows that I am pretty scared of a lot of things (mice definitely being one of them!). I do not watch scary movies and am pretty much scared of anything that moves.  Being here in Bunia, I have had to get used to a couple of moving things that I do not usually have to deal with like lizards.  Since they eat the mosquitoes and they somewhat have a purpose I can deal with them.  But mice, I don’t think I can get used to them.

As I sat up in my bed, I started thinking and hoping that it was just a dream and that I had not really heard a mouse.  A few seconds later though, I saw it crawling up the wall on the other side of the room.  I shined the light on it and it took off out of the room.  This was 6am and as I lay paralyzed in my bed I tried to think of my next move.  I figured/ hoped that I had scared it and that the chances of it coming back were slim so I decided to stay in bed within the “safety” of my mosquito net.  Other people in the house were starting to wake up so I reasoned it would probably hide and we would not see it for the rest of the day.

I finally managed to come out of my room after I laid there for another hour or so contemplating if I should try to get on the next plane/bus/boat/motorcycle or whatever mode of transportation was necessary, out of Bunia.  Stephen and Scott were up so I proceeded to tell them my story.  They seemed to be concerned reassuring me that the mouse would not come in my bed (that’s not the point!!!) and said we could get a trap or something while Kalongo said, “My dear, I’m sorry.  We will have to get some poison. That is our only option now.”

After breakfast, I decided to go to the French service at church with Stephen b/c it was a special women’s service.  It was nice but I did not understand much being that it was in French and Kiswahili.  We saw some of our other mzungu friends there from MedAir and Samaritan’s Purse, 2 NGOs doing work in Bunia and the surrounding areas.  I also attended the English service at church later that evening which we have been attending for the past 3 weeks.  We have had a chance to meet a lot of people through the church.  Many people that we met have already heard about us and the project we are doing (Bunia is a pretty small town so word gets around) and they have been very encouraging.

After church is when the real fun began.  The crew back at the house surprised me with a couple of gifts and a cake.  I received a traditional Congolese outfit that was creatively wrapped by Scott in webbing from his hammock.  It took about 10 minutes for me to unwrap it!  I tried my outfit on and I am no longer a mzungu!!!! I look like a Congolese woman!  The girls in the house, Hope and Grace gave me cards that were wrapped in wrapping paper which was really sweet.  Stephen and Scott has also prepared a slide show with pictures from our trip so far that we all sat back and enjoyed. 

After dinner, they family prayed for me and Kalongo with his wise and humble spirit gave a speech.  He stated that while we are here celebrating my birthday, there are people that are not as fortunate as there are some mothers that are burying their children at this very moment.  He also reminded us that that fact that I am still here at my age (whatever age that is b/c I did not tell them J) means that God has a plan for me and while we might always understand that plan or know what that plan is, things happen for a reason.  It is no accident that I am here in the Congo at this time with the people I am with (this made me think that maybe the incident with the mouse from this morning wasn’t such a big deal although I am still trying to convince myself of that!).

I later taught the family and the guys the Cupid Shuffle and the Wobble, 2 all time American favorites or at least Atlanta favorites.  We danced for a while and everyone had a great time.  All in all I enjoyed my day and the time I spent with the family and my 2 partners in crime here.  I am going to call it a night now as I sit here in my bed with the mosquito net tucked as tightly under my mattress as possible with the hopes that the mouse does not venture back in here.  I already had the guys check under the bed and other hiding places in the room which will probably a nightly routine until I am assured that the mouse is dead!

Home away from home (Blog #5

My home away from home here in Congo is at the Rwabikanga residence.  Their home is 4 bedroom home with a living room, bathroom and a hallway/ kitchen preparation area.  The actual kitchen where they cook the meals is out back in a small shed with 2 coal stoves.  There is also an electric stove inside the house but it is less often used b/c it takes too much power to use it.  The family consists of Kalongo, the father, Akiki, the mother, their daughters Hope (12) and Merveil (4 months), and their niece Grace (17).  Grace and Hope are currently sharing a room as the family has graciously given 2 of the rooms to me and my colleagues.  I have my own room and Stephen and Scott share room. 

     

Daily life in the household includes breakfast, lunch and dinner at the dining room table, cooking, cleaning, washing, going to school 6 days a week, going to church, watching TV and entertaining Merveil who is a delightful and happy baby.  Merveil is a French name meaning marvelous.  Today is Sunday and as I am sitting here writing this blog, gospel music videos from Tanzania are playing in the background.  The videos include dancing and singing with scenic backgrounds such as the island or beach, beautiful mountain villages, and landscaped gardens.  Each video also usually conveys some kind of message such AIDS awareness and watching what you say b/c your mouth can get you in trouble. 

I am not too fond of some of the other TV shows here.  2 of the main ones that the girls like to watch here are foreign shows that have been dubbed in English and French.  There is a Spanish show called “2^nd Chance” that looks like something from Telemundo that has been dubbed in English.  From what I can tell it is about a man names Salvador that has had a 2^nd chance at life b/c he died and came back to life.  However, when he came back to life, he is in his body but with the spirit of an older business man that was the owner of a profitable company.  Salvador has a swag that makes him irresistible to women, young and old, with his long curly hair and his sexy physical build.  He also more knowledgeable about the business due to his new found wisdom of the spirit inside him which makes the women even more attracted to him.  The acting is already terrible and the dubbing of the voices makes the show even worse.  The girls and Kalongo are equally enthralled by this show though so it is often the focus of the TV, when there is power of course!  Another show is an Indian show that is dubbed in French about a family that apparently has some kind of demons but they cannot figure out who the actual demon in the family is.  This is what I can gather from just short portion of it I have watched trying to discern what very little I know in French.

Akiki, works a lot and I try to do my best to help her around the house but she often tells me no.  I have to be very insistent on helping out and trying to do my share.  Although the family does have a housegirl that helps with the washing and cleaning and a man that helps with the cooking, Akiki and the girls do a lot of the work.  So far, they have allowed me to help wash clothes one time, clean my room, cook some eggs and help wash dishes.  I also help take care of Merveil sometimes by keeping her occupied while Akiki eats or prepares dinner.  Merveil is easily entertained and has the most precious smile so I can work with her because as many of you may know, babies are not my thing lol!  Akiki has promised that she will teach me how to cook as I try to become more domesticated J.  The meals we have are very good and usually consist of rice and/or potatoes; a vegetable such as cabbage, green beans, peas, or spinach; a meat, usually chicken, fish or beef; and boiled or fried bananas.  The diet here consists of a lot of starch and oil used to prepare the food (I really have to make sure I keep going to the gym or I will definitely gain a lot of weight while I am here).

Stephen, Scott and I spend a lot of time conducting Sports4Hope business but we have managed to find other fun ways to occupy our time.  We were invited to a Congolese wedding last weekend that was fun with lots of singing and dancing.  We also spend time in the internet (when it is working) making contact with people back home and the guys check the sports scores to various games that they are not able to watch here.  We play games to keep ourselves entertained like “Catchphrase”, “Stadt, Land, Fluss” (A German version of Scattergories that requires only paper and pencil), and various card games.  Yesterday the guys played volleyball with some other mzungus here in Bunia.  There is an NGO here called Medcare that does relief work in the area and every Sat. they have volleyball games at their compound. 

We have been very blessed to be living with the Rwabikangas.  The family is very hospitable and makes sure that we have everything we need such as hot water to take our “showers” twice a day which apparently is a requirement here.  You have to shower before breakfast and again before dinner.  Meal times offer an opportunity to learn more Swahili and more about the culture.  Many times though, Stephen, Akiki and Kalongo get engrossed in a conversation in French and Scott and I have puzzled looks on our faces.   Also Kalongo just rigged up the refrigerator (that man is truly a jack of all trades) so that it now works with some kind of stabilizer device that he bought so we will now have cold water to drink and will be able to refrigerate items.  Oh the life!  

1st Committee Meeting in Vilo (blog #4)

One of the highlights of my time here so far was our first committee meeting in Vilo, one of the 3 communities we will be working in here.  We were able to establish a committee during our first visit out to the Vilo community as they are very eager to start the program and anxious to get involved.  Our committee in Vilo consists of 20 people from youth to adults including the local sub chief who has a great personality and seems to be very active in the community and well respected.  The committee also includes students, coaches, teachers, elders, pastors, business leaders, and community leaders. 

In our first meeting we started with an ice breaker to get everyone up and moving.  I explained that the group was to get into a line from youngest to oldest but the catch was that they could not talk.  I observed but my colleagues Stephen and Scott as well as our host, Kalongo were involved in the activity.  We conducted the activity outside of our meeting room which is a small, one room building with wooden benches, 4 wooden chairs for us mzungus (white people) to sit in and a desk where the chief and secretary usually sit.  Once the committee started participating in the activity and trying to organize themselves from youngest to oldest, it seemed that our committee grew quit a bit.  We went from 20 people to about 36 people as other community members joined in.  It was interesting to see this interaction especially since most of the people that joined in did not know what they were supposed to do.  The group took about few minutes to get in a line but I observed that there was little interaction going on in terms of communication.  Stephen and Scott tried to communicate their age to others through various hand signals which some people seemed to understand and some did not.  When the group was all assembled in a line, I asked the chief to come out and check to see if it was accurate.  He moved a couple of people around and then stated it was correct.  I them proceeded to ask everyone their age and not surprisingly, there were several discrepancies in the line. 

We went back into our meeting room and debriefed the activity.  I asked what some of the challenges were with the activity.  Someone stated that it was not that hard.  I asked what were some ways that they were able to communicate with each other and some replied through hand signals and clapping.  Someone else commented that they learned more about each other b/c they really did not know how old everyone was and he was surprised to find out that he and Stephen were the same age.  (No one knows how old I am thoughJ).  Scott asked if they did it again would they be able to get it right and a young committee member responded, “Of course because now we know how old everyone is but if new people came in it would mess us up b/c we do not know how old they are.”  I told them that they will have more chances to prove because we will do similar activities before each meeting.  One point that I wished I would have brought up in hindsight was how outside influences changed the dynamics of the outcome of the activity.  There would have been a greater chance for success if the additional people did not jump in without knowing what was really going on.

After the icebreaker, we had everyone introduce themselves again and then established a charter as to how we will conduct meetings with the input of the committee.  Here is what we came up with:

1.       Cell phone should be on silent and if you need to take a call, you should step out of the room. (This was important to me because in our preliminary meeting, several cell phones went off and it was very distracting.  Everyone seemed to be ok with the idea.)

2.       Respect time.  Meetings should begin and end on time.  (This was important especially considering that we were actually an hour late for the meeting because we were waiting on our host that was held up in another meeting.  We did not want this to be the precedent for our meetings and we apologized several times but it was bad on our end to be late.)

3.       Raise one finger when you want to speak. (this is something that is done in other community meetings in Vilo)

4.       Use a hand signal where you make a “T” with your hands if you want to add on to what someone else is saying (also a strategy used in Vilo meetings).

5.       Clap hands 3 times to get everyone’s attention and back on track.

6.       Tolerance- respect others when they are talking and do not cut anyone off

7.       Speak slowly especially when what you are saying is being translated.

Everyone agreed on this charter and we proceeded to the small group discussion of our meetings.  We divided the committee into 4 smaller groups to discuss the topics of peace, reconciliation, sports and peace education.  They were to assign a leader, a time keeper, a reporter and a secretary and after 10 minutes of discussion, each group would present on their topic for 2 minutes.  The group discussions went well and promoted great ideas. There was a connection made between peace, reconciliation and freedom; one group expressed that sports helps with physical fitness and also strengthens relationships because it brings communities together; yet another group expressed that reconciliation helped put in regulations between people in conflict and bring people back to peace. 

We ended the meeting with thoughts on what the Bible states about reconciliation for the committee to reflect on for next week and established that our meetings in Vilo would be every Wed. at 2:30pm.  I truly enjoyed this meeting and hope that we can continue to have meetings that are this engaging and productive.  This was a chance to actually begin to put in place all of the things I studied in my masters program in International Peace and Conflict Resolution.  Many of my professors talked about similar program they had conducted or told about program designed to work towards peace and reconciliation and here we were in a small African village beginning to do the same thing!  I was so excited yet also overwhelmed at the task that is set before us.  There is a lot to consider and we will face many challenges as we begin to implement our program but our idea is to involve the community at all levels and have their buy in so that this program is sustainable and so that the community takes ownership of the program.  We are not here to say that we know everything and that we can fix all the problems but we are here to share our expertise and work along with the community on this path towards peace and reconciliation.       

Mzungu or no Mzungu??? (Blog #3)

This trip to the Congo marks my 3^rd visit to Africa.  I first came in 2007 on a mission’s trip to Ghana with my church and in 2009 I was in Tanzania for 6 months for my masters program.  Each time I come to Africa I seem to feel this need to reconnect (well actually connect) with my roots so to speak.  I do not know where in Africa my family’s roots can be traced back to but that is something that I would like to know one day.  I recently met a man in a village who was a pastor that reminded me of my grandfather so maybe I am from the Vilo community here in eastern Congo.

Me and a pastor from Vilo that reminds me of my grandfather!

Every time I come to Africa I am called a “mzungu” which basically means white person.  I find myself constantly trying to convince people that I meet that call me “mzungu” that I am not a “mzungu” because to me that takes away the connection that I have to Africa through my ancestors.  However, when people see my light skin they automatically put me into the category of “mzungu”.  Granted I may act like a “mzungu” because the experience of a black American and  white American coming to Africa for the first time are probably more similar than not, but there is a part of me that wants the people I meet to know that I do have some connection to them.  Maybe this is for selfish reasons, I do not know, but I do want to have this connection. 

When I was in Ghana, no matter how much I persisted that I was not white, the local people kept calling me white.  In Tanzania, I did eventually get some acknowledgment that I was at least part black, as people started calling me “half-caste”, the term for biracial people (my mom is actually German and my dad is black American).  I remember being excited to have this acknowledgement where people recognized that I was at least part black.  In Congo, I have yet to establish such an acknowledgement despite the fact that I have seen other mixed people in the town where we are living.  It took a lot of convincing for our host Kalongo to believe that my dad was black like him.  I was able to show his wife, Akiki, some pictures and I think she now somewhat believes me.  The other day we met a guy who is a mechanic friend of our host family and he finally confirmed that I am not mzungu!  He said, “Look at her, she is black!!!”  I was like “Yes! Finally!”  He, himself was biracial, having an Italian father and a Congolese mother.  We also met a biracial Minister of Parliament that works in Kinshasa, the capital of Congo, who “looked” more “mzungu” than I do and he was also biracial (half Congolese and half something else, not really sure what). 

All of the “mzungu” talk has also made me think about connection or more of the disconnection between Africans and African-Americans.  I mean the whole purpose of the push to call ourselves African-Americans was to make this connection back to Africa but it seems that we are actually more disconnected that ever.  Don’t get me wrong, I know there are many African-Americans that are deeply connected to their roots and are very knowledgeable about Africa and their ancestors, but I feel that the many are disconnected, myself included.  In the US there is a big disconnect between African and African-Americans because in actuality the cultures are very different despite the roots of the cultures.  We have different experiences that have shaped our lives and our history although that history begins in Africa.  It may be hard for Africans coming to the US to understand the plight of African-Americans through slavery and segregation and it may be hard for African-Americans to grasp the history and culture of Africans coming to American because they have never experienced this culture first hand.  Many Africans that I have spoken to in the US often say that they experience more prejudice from African-Americans that Caucasian Americans.  I know it will take a lot of work to try to bridge this gap and education plays a key role in this along with the willingness to explore and learn about new cultures.  I hope that my blog can shed some light on this topic and elicit some conversation in regards to this matter as well.  

Let there be light (blog #2)

Bathroom in our new house

Our first week in our new home has been eventful and productive.  We are settling into our new home and getting adjusted to Congolese life.  Although life is different here than life in the US, we still have many luxuries compared to the average resident in Bunia. We enjoy electricity and running water most of the time.  Sometimes we have running water and sometimes we have electricity and when we are lucky, we have both!  When we do not have electricity, Kalongo’s house is equipped with a generator that gives us a decent amount of light.  There is even a solar panel on the roof that allows us to access the internet when there is no power.  There are still problems with this system as there is not enough power in Bunia to power the whole city all the time so therefore the power goes out every now and then.  Even if residents in Bunia wanted to have higher end appliances such as washers, and refrigerators, there is not enough power to support these items so they are useless.  Kalongo has a refrigerator sitting in his
house that he cannot use b/c of the lack of power.

Stephen and Scott's room in the dark.

  Most of the time we do have hot water for showers that has been boiled in the backyard on the stove.  The hot water heater is another appliance that does not get enough power to be of any use.  We take baths in a bathtub that has a small bucket of warm water in it.  There is not enough water to take a complete bath.  You basically squat in the bathtub and slash water on yourself, soap up, and then splash water on yourself again to rinse off.  We all received a proper demonstration of this technique cupping the palms of your hands when we arrived.  Washing my hair proved to be pretty challenging for me and I have not even begun to think about how I will shave!  I am sure it can be done, just need to figure out the most efficient way to do it.  Another challenge I have is plucking my eyebrows.  Melissa, Eunice and Michelle, where are you when I need you?  Being the only female among 2 males, makes you miss your girls at times like this.

We were able to venture out into the city a little bit this week after realizing that we been stuck in the house and office most of the week.  We are working in Synergie Simama’s office which is right next door to Kalongo’s house (literally 5 steps from one door to another) so we most of our business was handled between the office and home.  This week we did get a chance to meet an American missionary named Dana that Stephen had been in contact with prior to our departure.  Dana and her husband work at Shalom University and have been here about 2 years.  She gave us some ins and outs about life in Bunia advising us not to walk at night, to take our malaria pills at night to avoid too much exposure to the sun, and to have fun.  She told us not to take things too seriously despite the importance of our project and that it will be ok to make mistakes.  She is very passionate about her belief in God and spoke about different world views and how it affects the way people think.  Dana introduced us to some families on campus so that we can come by and practice our Kiswahili.  Learning Kiswahili is a definite goal of ours during our time here and the more we interact with locals, the faster we will learn.  Many people speak French as well and some are learning English. 

Another exciting outing for me involved going to the gym.  We are officially members (and I think the only members at this time) of the first gym in Bunia, outside of the gym at the UN which is only for UN officials.  The gym is run by Synergie Simama and is located at its rehabilitation center.  The gym has just recently opened and is for the clients of the rehabilitation center but also open to community members.  I had my first workout session today in the gym that is a small room in a tiki hut type building.  It has 2 bicycle machines, an ab bench, a weight bench (without any weights) and a weight machine (with weights).  There are also 2 exercise balls and mats for doing abs on the floor.  Videos are available for cardio but I have not seen what those videos consist of just yet (Ms. Tiffany, I need my beach body videos asap lol)! 

                              

Gym at Synergie Simama

Hope you have enjoyed a snippet of life in Bunia.  This weekend we have been invited to a wedding so we are looking forward to that.  Stay tuned for more updates to come soon.

The road to Bunia: Planes, buses and automobiles (also motorbikes and boats)

The road to Bunia: Planes, busses and automobiles (also motorbikes and boats)  


The trip from Atlanta, GA to Bunia, Congo all in all took 4 days.  I left Atlanta at 5:30pm EST and arrived in Bunia @ 7pm Congo time.  It was a 7 hour flight from Atlanta to Amsterdam where we had a 2 hour layover.  From Amsterdam we flew 8 hours to Kigali, Rwanda where the plane stopped to off load some passengers as well as pick up new passengers.  We then flew another hour to Entebbe airport in Uganda arriving in Uganda at about 10:30pm Friday night.  We drove about 30 min. into Kampala, the capital of Uganda and stayed at a hotel overnight.  The plan was to head to Bunia the next day with our friend and local contact from Bunia, Kalango, however, one of our bags did not make the flight so we ended up staying in Kampala an extra day to make sure we got our bag.  I can’t say I am big fan of Kampala.  It is very busy and crowded at all times of day and night.  Crossing the street there was like playing a game of frogger.  Being mzungus (foreigners), we also managed to get hustled a couple of times.  For example, we paid $10 for 2 pair of flip flops that should have only cost us about $3-4. 

                      

                        Amsterdam Airport                 Kampala, Uganda

From Kampala, the real journey to Bunia began.  We boarded a large bus with every seat filled that took us to Fort Portal in Uganda.  This bus ride can be anywhere from 3-5 hours and this particular trip took about 4 hours.  We arrived at Fort Portal in the evening and checked into a guest house. Fort Portal is a smaller yet still developed town that I enjoyed much more than Kampala.  The next morning we had breakfast and went to the post office to apply for a PO Box.  We will have to receive mail there in Fort Portal, as it is the closest, reliable city to receive mail (closest meaning we will have to take a 2 hour boat ride and a 2 hour car ride to get to the post office) so we will only be checking our mail about once a month.  People in Fort Portal were very friendly and hospitable, much more so than in Kampala. It reminded me a lot of Arusha where I lived in Tanzania.  It was in Fort Portal that I took my first motorbike ride.  I was too scared to do it on the crowded streets of Kampala, but it was not so intimidating in Fort Portal so I thought I would give it a try and it wasn’t bad. 

              

                                    Fort Portal, Uganda

From Fort Portal, we took a 2 hour taxi ride to Lake Albert.  Parts of the road were smooth, while others were very bumpy and dusty.  Apparently the Ugandan government has partnered with a Chinese company to fix the roads and it will be a 5 year project to pave the road from Fort Portal to Lake Albert.  Kalango informed us that you can sometimes be stuck on this road for hours as they clear away large boulders.  Luckily that did not happen to us today.  Once we reached Lake Albert, we had to clear immigration, as we were about to leave Ugandan soil and cross the lake to Congolese soil.  We boarded a motorboat with all of our belongings and it was another 2 hours before we reached Kisenyi, the town on the other side of the lake in the Congo.  I would have to say that the boat ride was my favorite part of the trip.  It was a little warm out there on the water but it was so beautiful.  We were surrounded by hills and green farming land.  The scenery was breathtaking and I really enjoyed being out on the lake. 

  

                                                            Lake Albert

Once we reached the shores, we were officially in the Congo!  We were met by immigration officers who stamped our passports and took down our information.  In the Congo, we also officially transferred from being in an English speaking country to being in a French speaking country.  Good thing my colleague, Stephen spent a year in Paris learning French or we would be in bad shape.  They also speak Kiswahili in the Congo but it is a little bit different from the Kiswahili that I learned in Tanzania but I am excited to learn more and hopefully become fairly fluent during my time here.  While in Kisenyi, we visited Kalango’s businesses that he has set up near the beach.  He has a restaurant as well as some guest houses that he is building to rent out to people when they travel to Kisenyi. 

Our last ride was in Kalango’s land cruiser from Kisenyi to Bunia.  The distance is only 56 kilometers, however, the roads are not good and very bumpy so it took us about another 2 hours to make the trip.  We finally made it to Bunia, our new home by about 7pm Monday evening and I was happy to be there.  From what I saw so far, Bunia is a small town like Fort Portal but the roads are not paved although they are very drivable.  It was quite dusty as we were driving into the town.  We arrived at Kalango’s house where we were greeted by his wife and his 3 daughters.  We will be staying with his family for a while until we get settled into our own place.  Kalango explained that he would like us to stay with him at least until Dec. because he feels responsible for us and would like us to learn more before we venture out on our own.  He stated that there will be elections in November which may prove for a more exciting yet unstable time and he would feel more comfortable if we were with him and his family during the time leading up to and after the elections.  Kalango has worked with Stephen’s family for many years on various projects and he is truly a man of deep faith in God which drives him to do the work he is doing.  He started the organization entitled Synergie Simama, which is in essence sponsoring Sports4Hope’s work in the Congo.  Without Kalango and Synergie Simama, it would have taken Sports4Hope many years to get through the bureaucracy within Congo to be able to do the work we are going to do.  Kalango believes in our project and backs it 100%.  His enthusiasm is encouraging because he sees the need for Sports4Hope to help bring about reconciliation in the communities where we will be working. 

At Kalango’s house we settled in a bit, bathed and ate dinner.  I have a room to myself and the guys are sharing a room and it is a little weird b/c we have all been together since Thursday.  As I write this blog I am settled into my bed surrounded by a mosquito net.  It is kind of like being in a tent and although I know it is necessary, I do not like sleeping under a mosquito net.  I feel too closed in.  Within my “tent”  I have the necessary items for the night: my head lamp (thanks EuniceJ), my computer, my head scarf, a book, a DVD and my mp3 player, all to keep me entertained until I fall asleep because I do not want to have to get out of the “tent” once I have gotten in it!  So with that, I say good night or lala salama as they say in Kiswahili. 

In peace,

Selina