Nathan, Melody and me
With Mtenzi Family
With Mosier Family
Workers waiting for baptism
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Sunday, March 14, 2010
pics
CFM's work crew
Nathan, Melody and me
With Mtenzi Family
With Mosier Family
Workers waiting for baptism
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Nathan, Melody and me
With Mtenzi Family
With Mosier Family
Workers waiting for baptism
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Tuesday, March 9, 2010
the rest
I'm back in Kinshasa with Mr. Mtenzi. We're staying in the same hotel I stayed in on the way to Kisangani. Pr. Mtenzi is teaching lay missionaries here. I'm just getting spoiled. With A/C in the hotel room, I slept more than 10 hours each of the last 2 nights. I hadn't realized that I had so much to catch up on. Having a pool to swim in is great. And having time to catch up on the blog is nice too.
Here's a few highlights of the last couple weeks:
Sunday, a week ago, we went biking up the road heading East again. This time we were all on bikes: Nathan gave Melody and April turns on the motorbike while the other pedaled, and I got to pedal the whole way. We made it much farther - almost 15km up the road this time. We got a tour of a school on the way. Apparently, the nice forest area along the road is a rubber plantation. Soaking in the creek on the way back was basically a necessity.
Sabbath, the day before that, was the day of the baptism following the meetings at Kabondo 2. Over 30 people were baptized, including 5 of the CFM workers. Getting to the baptism pond involved a truck ride and a hike. The hike involved wading through puddles for most people, but a couple of us gave rides across the puddle to those who wanted to keep their feet dry. On the way back, I chose to jog behind the truck, since it never went faster than any easy jogging speed, and jogging was much more comfortable than riding.
On Thursday, my last full day, we went to the river again. It was great: there was another show of the hippo chasing fishers away, sand castle construction, soccer and keep-away playing, and we even got wet... There was less swimming than normal though: the dam above the beach was opened enough that a whole bunch of floating weeds came through and congregated in the eddy we were at. It looked like a big green carpet in places.
I left Kisangani when the Bible arrived. The big 66-language Bible that Hope TV is sending around the planet arrived in Kisangani from Nairobi a few hours before I flew out. There was a big show put on, with the Pathfinder band providing the music.
I guess they then paraded the Bible around and gave out Bibles. It's all an attempt to get people reading their Bibles.
My time at CFM was an excellent experience. The timing was great: I was there just when I was needed, and I left feeling that Nathan and the local crew now have everything well under control. The last month I was taking it easy more: taking more time to study especially. Now for a couple more days in the concrete jungle of Kinshasa - then the trip home.
Here's a few highlights of the last couple weeks:
Sunday, a week ago, we went biking up the road heading East again. This time we were all on bikes: Nathan gave Melody and April turns on the motorbike while the other pedaled, and I got to pedal the whole way. We made it much farther - almost 15km up the road this time. We got a tour of a school on the way. Apparently, the nice forest area along the road is a rubber plantation. Soaking in the creek on the way back was basically a necessity.
Sabbath, the day before that, was the day of the baptism following the meetings at Kabondo 2. Over 30 people were baptized, including 5 of the CFM workers. Getting to the baptism pond involved a truck ride and a hike. The hike involved wading through puddles for most people, but a couple of us gave rides across the puddle to those who wanted to keep their feet dry. On the way back, I chose to jog behind the truck, since it never went faster than any easy jogging speed, and jogging was much more comfortable than riding.
On Thursday, my last full day, we went to the river again. It was great: there was another show of the hippo chasing fishers away, sand castle construction, soccer and keep-away playing, and we even got wet... There was less swimming than normal though: the dam above the beach was opened enough that a whole bunch of floating weeds came through and congregated in the eddy we were at. It looked like a big green carpet in places.
I left Kisangani when the Bible arrived. The big 66-language Bible that Hope TV is sending around the planet arrived in Kisangani from Nairobi a few hours before I flew out. There was a big show put on, with the Pathfinder band providing the music.
I guess they then paraded the Bible around and gave out Bibles. It's all an attempt to get people reading their Bibles.
My time at CFM was an excellent experience. The timing was great: I was there just when I was needed, and I left feeling that Nathan and the local crew now have everything well under control. The last month I was taking it easy more: taking more time to study especially. Now for a couple more days in the concrete jungle of Kinshasa - then the trip home.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Mostly about bikes
Only 1 week of work left for me here now. But still more than 2 weeks until I can hop on my bike...
So far this week I've been learning how to hang a wood vaulted ceiling from the metal structure of Keith's house. Today I taught Dady how to install doors.
On Sunday afternoon, Nathan, Melody, April and I went up the road a few km on bikes. It's farther than we'd been before, and the road gets into really nice forest, with rather huge trees along the way. I was on a toleka, a local bike, and it sure made me glad for how nice my bike is back at home. By the time we made it to where the Mosiers were enjoying a creek along the road, the toleka had fallen apart enough that I decided to leave it with them. So Nathan and I took turns running and biking the rest of the way.
One note - the locals commonly their toleka bikes on journeys of 100-200km. The poor guys sure have to baby their bikes. And they carry huge loads on their bikes. Often they will have two 75+lb, 3.5+ft high sacks of charcoal on the back of a bike. And then they have to get their bikes with the tippy loads off the road quickly so trucks can get by. And their brakes are almost useless.
Farther down the road there was the reddest butterfly I think I've ever seen. It was right where a guy was trying to fix his toleka, so I stayed with him until the others caught up and could take a picture. The guy said he couldn't fix his bike with what he had, so he probably had to push it to the next village to get it fixed.
We went on until a village, then had to turn back because of time. We went back to the creek where the Mosiers were with Keith's kayak, and had a good soak. It was fun to try out the kayak: it's a river kayak, so it is much more responsive than an ocean kayak. I had to learn how to paddle without making the kayak turn a half-circle every stroke.
Pastor Mtenzi's evangelistic meetings are still going well.
And Nathan fell a big tree yesterday: it was neat to learn a bit about how that's done.
And that's all for now.
So far this week I've been learning how to hang a wood vaulted ceiling from the metal structure of Keith's house. Today I taught Dady how to install doors.
On Sunday afternoon, Nathan, Melody, April and I went up the road a few km on bikes. It's farther than we'd been before, and the road gets into really nice forest, with rather huge trees along the way. I was on a toleka, a local bike, and it sure made me glad for how nice my bike is back at home. By the time we made it to where the Mosiers were enjoying a creek along the road, the toleka had fallen apart enough that I decided to leave it with them. So Nathan and I took turns running and biking the rest of the way.
One note - the locals commonly their toleka bikes on journeys of 100-200km. The poor guys sure have to baby their bikes. And they carry huge loads on their bikes. Often they will have two 75+lb, 3.5+ft high sacks of charcoal on the back of a bike. And then they have to get their bikes with the tippy loads off the road quickly so trucks can get by. And their brakes are almost useless.
Farther down the road there was the reddest butterfly I think I've ever seen. It was right where a guy was trying to fix his toleka, so I stayed with him until the others caught up and could take a picture. The guy said he couldn't fix his bike with what he had, so he probably had to push it to the next village to get it fixed.
We went on until a village, then had to turn back because of time. We went back to the creek where the Mosiers were with Keith's kayak, and had a good soak. It was fun to try out the kayak: it's a river kayak, so it is much more responsive than an ocean kayak. I had to learn how to paddle without making the kayak turn a half-circle every stroke.
Pastor Mtenzi's evangelistic meetings are still going well.
And Nathan fell a big tree yesterday: it was neat to learn a bit about how that's done.
And that's all for now.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Friday, February 12, 2010
crazy bobcat road trip, etc.
CFM’s population dropped significantly at the end of last week. Members of CFM’s board were here. Among them was Gary Rogers, a Missionary pilot who works in Chad. He grew up in Congo and Indonesia, so he had some neat things to share. He also shared some amazing stories of how God is reaching the Islamic world with the gospel.
Now the board members, Jonathan, Dr. Rittenour, Keith and Tammy are all gone. That doesn’t stop the craziness from happening around here though. Yesterday afternoon Nathan, Melody and I went to the gravel pit and had a water fight against ourselves with the motor-pump. We dug nine-foot-deep holes right though the gravel with the stream of water. We tried going in the hole with the water flowing – that was one fast way to fill shorts with gravel. Then Nathan had me shut off the pump when he was in the hole. He was almost instantly buried up to his shoulders in gravel, and couldn’t move. Good thing the pump started again…
Lately I’ve been working mostly at hanging doors and setting up the solar power. Since the locals set the door frames, hanging some of the doors eats up a lot of time: I’m getting used to cutting curves to get the margins okay. Yesterday Nathan and I finally got the solar system connected: we spent way to long at the drawing board with this project – then when we went to put everything together we had to make a bunch of changes because of parts that hadn’t been spec’d out right, or things we’d overlooked. Sure is nice to be benefiting from the free power Keith and Tammy paid so much for.
I had a nice little crazy bobcat road trip on Thursday. I was running to get a tool when a worker ran to me, telling me to get the bobcat while he made tumbling motions with his hands. I went to Mikendy, and he told me the truck was stuck down the road. So I grabbed chains, hopped in the bobcat, and headed off with a couple of workers in the bucket for the free ride - I mean, to give me directions. We went right to a place I was planning to never go with the bobcat: the puddle section of road close to the local village, about a mile away.
I managed to push the truck out of one puddle, then it got stuck in a place where I couldn’t push it in the next puddle. So I had to go around, but I got stuck beside it when I tried. I monkeyed around a bunch, but I had slid into a place that required shovel work to get me out. At this time I noticed I was getting low on diesel: losing power at some angles. After digging, I tried to get out without going close to the truck, but kept on sliding close to the truck. At the thought of being stuck in a hole with no diesel, bocking the whole road with both vehicles, I hastily decided to risk the sliding into the truck and go forward. So that’s how the lower window on the passenger side of the truck actually got broken, and how the bumper got slightly more bent out of shape; even though I was jokingly trying to blame these problems on Andrew and Pr. Mtenzi’s kids..
But, I made it through to hole (using the truck as traction maybe) without doing any more damage and pulled the truck out of the hole before running completely out of diesel. Then the truck and crew went on to get bamboo, while I ran back to the property to get diesel. By the time I got back, the truck was also back, waiting. We filled up the bobcat, and on the return trip it was me who got stuck first. Out came the shovels again – the workers finally were able to push me out of the soft spot I had discovered, and off we went again. I only had to push to truck out of one hole on the way back. Then it was more driving down the road again, smiling at the locals who were wondering why this crazy Mzungu was driving that intriguing machine down the road.
Apparently there was a rainbow around the sun a couple days ago, and locals say it signals the end of the dry season. Last night I woke up to some of the hardest wind and rain we've had here - I sure had to get my bed inside quickly. There's water in all sorts of places it's not supposed to go now. But at least it's cooler.
Now the board members, Jonathan, Dr. Rittenour, Keith and Tammy are all gone. That doesn’t stop the craziness from happening around here though. Yesterday afternoon Nathan, Melody and I went to the gravel pit and had a water fight against ourselves with the motor-pump. We dug nine-foot-deep holes right though the gravel with the stream of water. We tried going in the hole with the water flowing – that was one fast way to fill shorts with gravel. Then Nathan had me shut off the pump when he was in the hole. He was almost instantly buried up to his shoulders in gravel, and couldn’t move. Good thing the pump started again…
Lately I’ve been working mostly at hanging doors and setting up the solar power. Since the locals set the door frames, hanging some of the doors eats up a lot of time: I’m getting used to cutting curves to get the margins okay. Yesterday Nathan and I finally got the solar system connected: we spent way to long at the drawing board with this project – then when we went to put everything together we had to make a bunch of changes because of parts that hadn’t been spec’d out right, or things we’d overlooked. Sure is nice to be benefiting from the free power Keith and Tammy paid so much for.
I had a nice little crazy bobcat road trip on Thursday. I was running to get a tool when a worker ran to me, telling me to get the bobcat while he made tumbling motions with his hands. I went to Mikendy, and he told me the truck was stuck down the road. So I grabbed chains, hopped in the bobcat, and headed off with a couple of workers in the bucket for the free ride - I mean, to give me directions. We went right to a place I was planning to never go with the bobcat: the puddle section of road close to the local village, about a mile away.
I managed to push the truck out of one puddle, then it got stuck in a place where I couldn’t push it in the next puddle. So I had to go around, but I got stuck beside it when I tried. I monkeyed around a bunch, but I had slid into a place that required shovel work to get me out. At this time I noticed I was getting low on diesel: losing power at some angles. After digging, I tried to get out without going close to the truck, but kept on sliding close to the truck. At the thought of being stuck in a hole with no diesel, bocking the whole road with both vehicles, I hastily decided to risk the sliding into the truck and go forward. So that’s how the lower window on the passenger side of the truck actually got broken, and how the bumper got slightly more bent out of shape; even though I was jokingly trying to blame these problems on Andrew and Pr. Mtenzi’s kids..
But, I made it through to hole (using the truck as traction maybe) without doing any more damage and pulled the truck out of the hole before running completely out of diesel. Then the truck and crew went on to get bamboo, while I ran back to the property to get diesel. By the time I got back, the truck was also back, waiting. We filled up the bobcat, and on the return trip it was me who got stuck first. Out came the shovels again – the workers finally were able to push me out of the soft spot I had discovered, and off we went again. I only had to push to truck out of one hole on the way back. Then it was more driving down the road again, smiling at the locals who were wondering why this crazy Mzungu was driving that intriguing machine down the road.
Apparently there was a rainbow around the sun a couple days ago, and locals say it signals the end of the dry season. Last night I woke up to some of the hardest wind and rain we've had here - I sure had to get my bed inside quickly. There's water in all sorts of places it's not supposed to go now. But at least it's cooler.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
the hippo and the weight loss plan
Last night I woke up to getting rained on, so I had to quickly set up my bed inside. It was nice though, it rained enough to significantly cool it down here. I had been rather warm. I knew it was hot here: probably slightly over 30C. Turns out it was about 40C. I guess I’ll have some adjusting to do when I get back home.
I’ve been taking it easy lately. I discovered an excellent weight loss program. The night of Sunday Jan. 24, I got crazily cold for a couple hours, then hot again. The next day I spent in bed and on the ceramic. I’ve seen ads that say things like “I lost 15 lbs in 2 weeks”. I now know that’s nothing: I had them beat within a couple days. Thankfully, I’m now feeling almost 100% again. And thankfully, just like with most of those advertised weight loss programs, my pounds are coming back slowly.
Through the time of feeling bad, I got to take some photos and videos, and get some good reading in. The lay missionaries were here, and we filmed some of them telling some really good stories of God blessing their ministries and overcoming challenges. Witchcraft is a very real thing here, and these missionaries experience first-hand God’s power to overcome it.
We’ve gone to the beach twice this week. On Sunday, we saw the hippo again. After it retreated into the reeds, a fisher cautiously paddled up to the area in a canoe to check his nets. After a while, the hippo decided he didn’t like the invasion, and threatened the canoe, coming quite far out of the water. The fisher paddled off, with his son throwing rocks from the canoe. I think they were almost used to the ordeal, and were more annoyed than anything. We sure weren’t annoyed though; we were happy to get good views of the hippo.
Many times while working with the one-day church structures here, I found myself wishing I’d learned things faster. Now I’ve been teaching a few of the local workers the ins-and-outs of building them. It’s quite an experience, especially with my limited ability to communicate with them. It’s very rewarding to see them learn. Life here can be very rough, and finding work is a daily struggle for many people here. Hopefully the skills our workers are learning will serve them well in the future.
Best wishes to all the friends and family of Pastor Burgess. I’m sad I won’t be seeing him again in this life. Thank God: He “Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise”. Here’s what CFM is all about: spreading this good news to the many people here who haven’t heard it. By the way, if you question the above quote, I’m sure you have good reason to. But let me know: I’ll be happy to share with you the reasons I believe it.
I’ve been taking it easy lately. I discovered an excellent weight loss program. The night of Sunday Jan. 24, I got crazily cold for a couple hours, then hot again. The next day I spent in bed and on the ceramic. I’ve seen ads that say things like “I lost 15 lbs in 2 weeks”. I now know that’s nothing: I had them beat within a couple days. Thankfully, I’m now feeling almost 100% again. And thankfully, just like with most of those advertised weight loss programs, my pounds are coming back slowly.
Through the time of feeling bad, I got to take some photos and videos, and get some good reading in. The lay missionaries were here, and we filmed some of them telling some really good stories of God blessing their ministries and overcoming challenges. Witchcraft is a very real thing here, and these missionaries experience first-hand God’s power to overcome it.
We’ve gone to the beach twice this week. On Sunday, we saw the hippo again. After it retreated into the reeds, a fisher cautiously paddled up to the area in a canoe to check his nets. After a while, the hippo decided he didn’t like the invasion, and threatened the canoe, coming quite far out of the water. The fisher paddled off, with his son throwing rocks from the canoe. I think they were almost used to the ordeal, and were more annoyed than anything. We sure weren’t annoyed though; we were happy to get good views of the hippo.
Many times while working with the one-day church structures here, I found myself wishing I’d learned things faster. Now I’ve been teaching a few of the local workers the ins-and-outs of building them. It’s quite an experience, especially with my limited ability to communicate with them. It’s very rewarding to see them learn. Life here can be very rough, and finding work is a daily struggle for many people here. Hopefully the skills our workers are learning will serve them well in the future.
Best wishes to all the friends and family of Pastor Burgess. I’m sad I won’t be seeing him again in this life. Thank God: He “Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise”. Here’s what CFM is all about: spreading this good news to the many people here who haven’t heard it. By the way, if you question the above quote, I’m sure you have good reason to. But let me know: I’ll be happy to share with you the reasons I believe it.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Paintings
Here's some pics of paintings that we bought back in November. They show a lot about what Congolese life used to be like without European influence. The paintings of the women show what a large part of many Congoles women's lives are still like.
Sorry for the glare.
Sorry for the glare.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Hippos, fly catchers, and other monkey business
Today Tammy gave us the idea to go to the beach. So we forgot about the work we're so far behind in as quickly as possible, and went. This time a few of us swam quite far out into the river. Then we got a game of keep-away going. As the game was getting good, a lady told us to watch out: a hippo had been coming to the beach about this time of day. We looked around, and about a minute later Mr. Mosier saw the hippo. So we watched it a while - at least it's nose, which came out of the water every couple minutes. Good thing the hippo never came by when we were way out in the river...
Nathan and Tammy's sister, Melody, is here with her boyfriend Jonathan, who's a mission pilot in Chad. So we had to go up to the zoo to see the monkeys. There are also donkeys at the zoo, and one of them had just had a colt today. It was just starting to get comfortable on it's soft hooves. We were allowed in the pen, so it got lot's of attention, to say the least.
Freddy the chimpanzee put on a really good show. Nathan started to do the rival male thing with him, then he started to get a bit upset. There was a baby baboon, and another cute little monkey that the zoo had recently acquired.
Here's a little bit about Chad that I learned: Chad has a dry season for about half the year, and temperatures that reach like 115 F many days. For a few months of the year, papayas and mangos are available: most of the year there's almost know fruit available. And Chad is flat as a pancake from central Alberta. I'm glad to be in Congo...
Last week I saw a little praying mantis, so I put it on my hand to show people (I found out they've already seen lots). Just after I got it settled on my hand it shot its arms out like a loaded spring and caught a fly. It was awesome - we could use more of these critters around.
That's all I have time for now - if only I could hire one of the Africans for the usual $3 a day to write my blogs for me...
I've got lots of pictures I want to put up, but that'll be later
God bless
Nathan and Tammy's sister, Melody, is here with her boyfriend Jonathan, who's a mission pilot in Chad. So we had to go up to the zoo to see the monkeys. There are also donkeys at the zoo, and one of them had just had a colt today. It was just starting to get comfortable on it's soft hooves. We were allowed in the pen, so it got lot's of attention, to say the least.
Freddy the chimpanzee put on a really good show. Nathan started to do the rival male thing with him, then he started to get a bit upset. There was a baby baboon, and another cute little monkey that the zoo had recently acquired.
Here's a little bit about Chad that I learned: Chad has a dry season for about half the year, and temperatures that reach like 115 F many days. For a few months of the year, papayas and mangos are available: most of the year there's almost know fruit available. And Chad is flat as a pancake from central Alberta. I'm glad to be in Congo...
Last week I saw a little praying mantis, so I put it on my hand to show people (I found out they've already seen lots). Just after I got it settled on my hand it shot its arms out like a loaded spring and caught a fly. It was awesome - we could use more of these critters around.
That's all I have time for now - if only I could hire one of the Africans for the usual $3 a day to write my blogs for me...
I've got lots of pictures I want to put up, but that'll be later
God bless
Friday, January 1, 2010
African Road Trip
Last week was my first African Road trip.
Nathan, Chauffeur Robert, and I took CFM’s 4-ton Mitsubishi Fuso to Butembo, which is 800km away from Kisangani in the hills of Eastern Congo. We went to pick up roofing sheets and other supplies which are much cheaper there – and so I’d have something interesting to share with you in my blog.
We left before 6:30 Sunday morning, and made good time – just so we could have a good long wait at the bridge repair 61km down the road. It was okay though, the wait gave us time to work on the truck and read a bit, and I went for a nice walk. We finally got going and made it to Bafaswende at supper time. I went with the chauffeur to find food, but as soon as an official saw me, a white guy, in town, he made me go to the dgm, or immigration office – there went another hour. By the time we got to the Okapi conservation park for the night, it was well into the morning.
The second day I again chose to ride in the back about as much as I could, where the view and fresh air are the best. The roads vary from gravel to clay: they had holes in them that gave us air time over our seats – another reason it was nicer standing in the back. Driving past all the villages, the adults would stare, and the kids would wave. Despite the extra attention, it was still enjoyable riding outside. The jungle is beautiful, and a couple of times birds came and flew along beside the truck. Many of the villages had pygmies – their houses are tiny: smaller than many bedrooms. Nathan bought a pygmy bow and arrow set. There were a few scares as a couple of pygmies demonstrated how to pull the bow back – pointing it right at people.
A little after Komanda we came to a mud hole in the road that a truck was stuck in. After we found out that we’d be waiting a while, I ran back up the road to where I’d seen some red bananas for sale. I got about 5lb of them for 500fc, about 60cents – and the people were going to give me more for free, but I knew we couldn’t eat them all. Just after the mud hole, there was another hole in the road: this one about 4ft deep and 60ft long. To get trucks through, the locals kept on lengthening the hole, tossing wet clay out and dry in from the ends. One man had built a temporary bridge for light vehicles on the side, where the hole was smaller. He made a business out of it, charging $5 per vehicle. Other locals had made a business of selling food to the delayed truckers and passengers. Since our truck had no load, we took the bridge. The bridge had boards running cross-wise over the length-wise logs that spanned the hole. When the truck hit the boards they all moved forward, then when the back tires went over the boards, they spun the board out behind. If the truck had had a little less momentum, we would’ve been really stuck.
Overall we made good time on Monday, and got to Beni at suppertime, where we stayed with the Galaxy Transport crew. Galaxy transport is a Congo-wide shipping company that is Adventist-owned, and helps CFM out a lot.
In the area of Beni and Butembo is about 6000ft high and made of high, steep hills – almost mountains. Whole hillsides are covered in banana plantations, and there are many cassava and corn farms. Other large areas are dedicated to cattle grazing, and most of the rest of the land is Eucalyptus forest. There are many valleys with streams running through them. It’s a really nice area – kind of like the highlands of Ecuador, just more farmed. And there is a good variety of food, so we stocked up on things such as potatoes, peas, cabbage and carrots, which are treats in Kisangani. Butembo has nicer-looking buildings than Kisangani – it seemed a lot like cities in Bolivia or Ecuador.
On the return trip there were more police stops and time in the dgm office to keep things interesting – or at least test our patience. We got a flat tire about halfway back – it was in the morning when we got to the Okapi reserve. Robert said he’d take care of it so Nathan and I went to see an Okapi. The okapi is in the giraffe family, but is smaller with a shorter neck: about the size of a very large horse. It has zebra stripes over about half it’s body. It is native only to Congo. Sorry, I never got any pictures.
When we got back from the Okapi tour, we found that Chauffeur Robert didn’t know how to remove the inside tire of the duallies on the Fuso – so we all played around and eventually learned. The spare tires were sized for the front: slightly smaller. And the tire that was still good was a little low. I’m sure some of you see a problem here. We soon heard a strange rubbing noise – and were soon doing the whole process over again. I’m afraid we were in a hurry, and we expected each other to have chocked the wheels properly. Just after we got the first wheel back onto the axle (thank God it wasn’t before) the truck rolled off the jack. The wheel was on enough to catch the truck, and we were much more careful completing the job. I hope we’ve all learned our lesson…
We limped the rest of the way back, averaging about 30km/hr, since we were already using both our spares.
Here’s the main adventure of our trip back: the hole past Komanda had gotten worse: there was a big line-up of trucks, and they had a system of pulling each other through established, but it was slow. The locals really had taken advantage of the situation: there were people selling shoes, and all sorts of things. Against the advice of Nathan, I got out our shovel and started helping the guys throwing dry clay into the hole. People here are used to white people being rich and unwilling to work, so they sure had a lot to say about an Mzungu doing work. They were fine with it though. The line was moving slow, and we saw rain coming. We decided to do things the hard way: we hired 4 guys to help us unload most of the 5 tons of roofing sheets on the truck, and the banana starts and other heavy things. Then we drove over the bridge – after securing them with a chain tensioner this time. And we reloaded – by the time we finished reloading we were almost dropping the sheets – good thing there weren’t more. By the time we were all done the truck behind us in line was already through – we did all that work for nothing. At least we got a story to tell, and gave the locals something to talk about though.
(our truck isn't in the photo)
We were about 107km from Kisangani when the new year rolled in. We got close to Kisangani about 3 hours into the new year, but had to stop and wait to get through a check point that is closed during the night. The Butembo trip was an excellent experience, but I’m glad we’re back: I don’t think I could handle any more character building.
Nathan, Chauffeur Robert, and I took CFM’s 4-ton Mitsubishi Fuso to Butembo, which is 800km away from Kisangani in the hills of Eastern Congo. We went to pick up roofing sheets and other supplies which are much cheaper there – and so I’d have something interesting to share with you in my blog.
We left before 6:30 Sunday morning, and made good time – just so we could have a good long wait at the bridge repair 61km down the road. It was okay though, the wait gave us time to work on the truck and read a bit, and I went for a nice walk. We finally got going and made it to Bafaswende at supper time. I went with the chauffeur to find food, but as soon as an official saw me, a white guy, in town, he made me go to the dgm, or immigration office – there went another hour. By the time we got to the Okapi conservation park for the night, it was well into the morning.
The second day I again chose to ride in the back about as much as I could, where the view and fresh air are the best. The roads vary from gravel to clay: they had holes in them that gave us air time over our seats – another reason it was nicer standing in the back. Driving past all the villages, the adults would stare, and the kids would wave. Despite the extra attention, it was still enjoyable riding outside. The jungle is beautiful, and a couple of times birds came and flew along beside the truck. Many of the villages had pygmies – their houses are tiny: smaller than many bedrooms. Nathan bought a pygmy bow and arrow set. There were a few scares as a couple of pygmies demonstrated how to pull the bow back – pointing it right at people.
A little after Komanda we came to a mud hole in the road that a truck was stuck in. After we found out that we’d be waiting a while, I ran back up the road to where I’d seen some red bananas for sale. I got about 5lb of them for 500fc, about 60cents – and the people were going to give me more for free, but I knew we couldn’t eat them all. Just after the mud hole, there was another hole in the road: this one about 4ft deep and 60ft long. To get trucks through, the locals kept on lengthening the hole, tossing wet clay out and dry in from the ends. One man had built a temporary bridge for light vehicles on the side, where the hole was smaller. He made a business out of it, charging $5 per vehicle. Other locals had made a business of selling food to the delayed truckers and passengers. Since our truck had no load, we took the bridge. The bridge had boards running cross-wise over the length-wise logs that spanned the hole. When the truck hit the boards they all moved forward, then when the back tires went over the boards, they spun the board out behind. If the truck had had a little less momentum, we would’ve been really stuck.
Overall we made good time on Monday, and got to Beni at suppertime, where we stayed with the Galaxy Transport crew. Galaxy transport is a Congo-wide shipping company that is Adventist-owned, and helps CFM out a lot.
In the area of Beni and Butembo is about 6000ft high and made of high, steep hills – almost mountains. Whole hillsides are covered in banana plantations, and there are many cassava and corn farms. Other large areas are dedicated to cattle grazing, and most of the rest of the land is Eucalyptus forest. There are many valleys with streams running through them. It’s a really nice area – kind of like the highlands of Ecuador, just more farmed. And there is a good variety of food, so we stocked up on things such as potatoes, peas, cabbage and carrots, which are treats in Kisangani. Butembo has nicer-looking buildings than Kisangani – it seemed a lot like cities in Bolivia or Ecuador.
On the return trip there were more police stops and time in the dgm office to keep things interesting – or at least test our patience. We got a flat tire about halfway back – it was in the morning when we got to the Okapi reserve. Robert said he’d take care of it so Nathan and I went to see an Okapi. The okapi is in the giraffe family, but is smaller with a shorter neck: about the size of a very large horse. It has zebra stripes over about half it’s body. It is native only to Congo. Sorry, I never got any pictures.
When we got back from the Okapi tour, we found that Chauffeur Robert didn’t know how to remove the inside tire of the duallies on the Fuso – so we all played around and eventually learned. The spare tires were sized for the front: slightly smaller. And the tire that was still good was a little low. I’m sure some of you see a problem here. We soon heard a strange rubbing noise – and were soon doing the whole process over again. I’m afraid we were in a hurry, and we expected each other to have chocked the wheels properly. Just after we got the first wheel back onto the axle (thank God it wasn’t before) the truck rolled off the jack. The wheel was on enough to catch the truck, and we were much more careful completing the job. I hope we’ve all learned our lesson…
We limped the rest of the way back, averaging about 30km/hr, since we were already using both our spares.
Here’s the main adventure of our trip back: the hole past Komanda had gotten worse: there was a big line-up of trucks, and they had a system of pulling each other through established, but it was slow. The locals really had taken advantage of the situation: there were people selling shoes, and all sorts of things. Against the advice of Nathan, I got out our shovel and started helping the guys throwing dry clay into the hole. People here are used to white people being rich and unwilling to work, so they sure had a lot to say about an Mzungu doing work. They were fine with it though. The line was moving slow, and we saw rain coming. We decided to do things the hard way: we hired 4 guys to help us unload most of the 5 tons of roofing sheets on the truck, and the banana starts and other heavy things. Then we drove over the bridge – after securing them with a chain tensioner this time. And we reloaded – by the time we finished reloading we were almost dropping the sheets – good thing there weren’t more. By the time we were all done the truck behind us in line was already through – we did all that work for nothing. At least we got a story to tell, and gave the locals something to talk about though.
(our truck isn't in the photo)
We were about 107km from Kisangani when the new year rolled in. We got close to Kisangani about 3 hours into the new year, but had to stop and wait to get through a check point that is closed during the night. The Butembo trip was an excellent experience, but I’m glad we’re back: I don’t think I could handle any more character building.
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