Monday, October 19, 2009

Stanley Falls Visit

Here's what happened recently:

We finally finished getting the roof of the shop up on thursday

We went to the zoo, which has 4 animals: a chimp, a baboon, another monkey, and a snake. It was neat: I met some animals that go as ape over bananas as I do. Then we went to the beach, played soccer with a couple of locals (got schooled), and swam

I spent friday in the skid-steer in the sand hole, pushed my limits lots
The workers killed 2 snakes on the property ...and ate them...

Relaxed, walked lots, tried to talk in french with some people

On sunday morning I laid out and pounded stakes for the senior Mosier's house

On sunday afternoon Nathan Friedrich, Dadi and I went to Stanley Falls:
Dadi is a good worker who knows some English, so we asked him to come
We crossed Congo river in a giant dug-out canoe (with a motor)
We took pedal-bike taxis to the falls area (I hate letting somone else pedal)
We stirred up quite a commotion - all the locals want money
The local chiefs demanded money, but said we could take pictures
As famous as Stanley falls is, it's really just some rapids. It was neat to see the local fishing methods, people canoeing up the falls, etc.

Today we make scaffolding for the bricklayers, got rained out for a while, and played soccer with the locals. It's nice they let me play: they think and act probably 4X faster than me... I'll have to play more often

Stanley Falls Pics

Wreath locals made for Keith & Tammy

Stanley Falls

Fishers

Skills

Fish Trap

Boyoman Kids

Dadi - our guide - and Nathan

Boyoman Flowers

Sunday, October 11, 2009

8 days in 2 minutes

A little of what's been happening:
Last sunday: soccer in rain with some local kids
- D.R. Congo won the African cup last year - a huge achievement for Congo
The celebration for Keith + Tammy

monday: playing with bobcat in gooey pit

tuesday to friday: prep for and putting up frame for storage shed
- it's supposed to be a one-day structure: we'll take more than a week
= think anyone will want to give me work after they learn how slow I am here?
+ we're learning lots

Sabbath: after church, awesome hike with Nathan and Friedrich
- we got some locals to guide us to the Tschopo river
(that way we had permission to trespass)
= they led us on some back trails: even they got semi-lost
+ the guy I call "guide" in the pictures invited us to his house + gave us sugar cane

today: putting up some roofing on shed
- facing more curveballs, some uf which we threw at ourselves...
Frame going up

some local flora

palm: used for oil

the local rocky mountain: our gravel pile

at guide's place

guide + some family at his house

tschopo river

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

CFM property


A worksite

Dorms

Brick crew

Hauling Sand

Getting truck un-stuck

my role-models



Monday, October 5, 2009

Kisanagani Life

Kisangani life: the workers that CFM hires start at 1500 Francs per day, and average about 1800 Fcs/day. They also get lunch provided. And that's not bad wages for here. You get about 850 Fcs per $US, so that's about $2 per day. Of course, they can live off that here, but the difference is crazy.
Now get this: the workers, church planters, and pastors wanted to throw a special due for Keith and Tammy, so they each gave 2000 or 3000 Fcs to throw them a party. And many of them also gave a day of their time to decorate. I know I've got something to learn about generosity from them. They definitely know how to make celebrations worth-while: they're not quite as conservative as North Americans...I say that in a good way.

Most people here live in adobe houses. Many have high-centered, old-school pedal bikes. They haul huge loads on them - often they just to push them, because the bike is loaded about as high as they are tall. The old ladies are tiny but tough. They make backpacks out of palm branches that are as tall as they are, and use them to haul pineapples several miles into town.

Things are looking up for the younger generation here: they dress up in uniforms and go to school at about 7:00 weekday mornings. Some of them like learning language on the side too. They just might be the people we look up to 20 years down the road... as long as they don't have any more wars thrown at them.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Addis Ababa

Here's a couple Ethiopian shots:

What's more important? Satelite or house?

Typical building method for this part of the world