ABCs

Guys, I just found out I can track which search terms lead people to my blog. My favorites? "Uruk hai crossbow" and "pretty lichen".  Excellent.  Also, apparently some weight loss website has led people here... how? I sincerely hope they didn't commandeer one of my pictures for a "before" shot or anything.  Anyway, the videos from the dance show and wedding refuse to load, so I'll have to hold off on that for awhile.  It's been an uneventful couple of days due to some unforeseen cancellations, so I thought I'd do a slightly different post this time.  Travel blogs have become one of my guilty pleasures when I'm feeling restless (or want to procrastinate).  A while ago the "ABCs of Travel" made the rounds, and I thought it'd be fun to fill them out here.  Also one of the cancellations was a literacy class (the teacher was sick), so it's kind of appropriate.

Age you went on your first international trip: Probably shortly after being born? Born and raised on the Canadian border.

Best foreign beer you have had and where: Hoegaarden, even though I've mostly had it in the states.  The ones I've had here in the Congo have been very good as well, I must say.

Cuisine (favorite): probably Indian or Ethiopian.  I love pretty much all food though.

Destinations- favorite, least favorite, and why: Least favorite probably Houston.  While I enjoyed going to the museums, as a city it was kind of a dud.  Favorite is way harder!  There are so many I like for different reasons.  Overall though, probably Spain.

Event that you experienced abroad that made you say wow: Carnivale in Venice in the more specific sense, snorkeling in the South Pacific in the general sense.  Also, if we're talking "wow" in all its tones, maybe Comic-Con (well, technically Expocómic) in Madrid.

Favorite mode of transportation: Boats! Of any kind. I love all things nautical.

Greatest feeling while traveling: That moment after the plane lands and the motion sickness dissipates when the excitement of being in a new (or old!) place hits.

Hottest place you've traveled to: Temperature-wise, Spain in the summer.  Perceived heat-wise, here in the Congo.  The humidity kills.

Incredible service you have experienced and where: Air Tahiti! Best flight I've ever been on, ever.  And considering how often I fly, that's saying something!  Also, Princess Cruises.

Journey that took the longest: Well getting here was about 27 hours of travel total.  That's certainly in the running.  Tahiti, China, and Japan all took quite awhile too.

Keepsake from your travels: Tons of pictures, usually jewelry too.

Let-down site- why and where: Toronto. While the distillery district was fun, it just seemed like a city made entirely of condos and construction (of more condos, of course).  

Moment when you fell in love with travel: Always, I can never remember not liking it.

Nicest hotel you've stayed in: While I've stayed in some truly fancy hotels (thanks to conferences, mostly), my favorite was probably the one we stayed in on Capri.  I don't remember the name, but it was so wonderfully Mediterranean with whitewashed walls, cozy and elegant at the same time.

Obsession- what are you obsessed with taking pictures of while traveling?:  Landscapes in general, and more specifically water.  Rivers, lakes, oceans, whatever, I'll probably have a thousand pictures of them, a bunch of which look the same.

Passport stamps- how many and where from: Impossible to keep track of, as I have several passports and the best one was stolen :(  A lot, though.

Quirkiest attraction you have visited and where: Maybe the Ciudad Encantada (enchanted city) near Cuenca, Spain.  It's a park with a bunch of interesting rock formations with names like "elephant fighting a crocodile". Also, Parc Guell in Barcelona was pretty quirky, but that's just kind of how Gaudí rolls...

Recommended site, event, or experience: Croatia. Go there. Now.  Emily and I went to Rovinj for a few days and it was one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen.  We rented a sketchy room from an old woman, ate a ton of calamari, and enjoyed the sun, sea, and spectacular scenery (yeah alliteration).  Also, you can take a ferry to/from Venice if the weather's calm enough (it wasn't for us, sadly).  Also, Manarola in the Cinque Terre (Italy).  Eat at Trattoria da Billy!  The food and views are both fantastic.

Splurge, something you have no problem forking over money for while traveling: Food. I love it and, as my mom is always bugging me about, I tend to order elaborate things.  Also experiences I deem worth it in general.

Touristy thing you have done:  Well I usually see the main touristy sights and museums and stuff when I go somewhere, so I've done quite a bit.  Most recently, probably walking down Bourbon Street in New Orleans, though walking down it was the entirety of that experience, so it probably doesn't count.

Unforgettable travel memory: So many, but one of my favorites is walking in the pouring rain for hours with my mom over lava fields in Hawaii, looking for where the lava flowed into the ocean.  We ended up turning back, and later heard all about how idiot tourists die every year doing the same thing we were trying to.  Lucky us!  Another one for good measure- taking a cable car through the rainforest in Costa Rica and seeing nothing but birds and lizards (and leaf-cutter ants, which are awesome), then seeing four sloths (including a baby!) in a tree at the gas station after our bus broke down.

Visas- how many and where: China, Spain, Italy, and the DRC so far.

Wine, best glass while traveling and where: I was a big fan of the ice wine in the Niagara Falls area.  Also, sangiovese around Bologna is one of my favorites.

eXcellent view and from where: San Marino- the whole country is pretty much on the top of a mountain.  Also taking the high trail from Manarola to Corniglia has amazing views of the Ligurian coastline.

Years spent traveling: My whole life, so 22 +

Zealous sports fans and where: probably Notre Dame, actually.  Abroad, well, a friend's host sister in Spain injured her knee celebrating after they won the World Cup!

Eating caterpillars, bathing in buckets, and a minivacation, oh my! Part 3

The second week of community demos was pretty much the same as the first.  I have so many pictures of me and the people of Camp Luka (Bon Berger's neighborhood). So many.  I  only post a few here because really, after a while they all look kind of similar*:

 Some people listening to a demo, looking miserable (the woman in front of the chair has twins!)*:

This family gets their water from the crack between those stone slabs there:

I saw an albino last week!  Albinism is actually fairly common here, and there's even a society for albinos in Kinshasa.  Here they are treated like anyone else, but in places like Burundi and some parts of Rwanda and Uganda, they are seen as cursed or sorcerers and cast out of villages or even killed.  Anyway, I felt bad for this one, as sunscreen is expensive and hard to find, and he kept squinting and closing his eye.  I bought him a bunch of it, as well as some sunglasses and a hat.  Here he is with his younger brother:

Kids lining up so I could take their arm circumference (I was really only concerned about the girl on the far left and the one in orange in the middle, but figured I might as well do the rest too.  I love the expression on the far right one's face):

Me actually doing the measurements*:

Everyone turned out fine, but the girl in orange was awfully close to the yellow.  I suggested they go to a cooking demonstration at least.  Also, yes, I have my purse with me.  I need it to carry my phone, camera, and room key, as well as the money I need for the day.  It made me nervous the first day, but in spite of the poverty, crime isn't a big issue here.  It’s like a big family- everyone greets each other on the street and is willing to help if someone is in need.  For example, we gave some random woman carrying an infant a ride the other day just because.  People visit each other unannounced and hospitality is expected and delivered.  My first day with the teams, I asked if the people we were visiting had agreed to it beforehand.  They thought that was pretty funny.  We just wander into people’s “yards” (i.e. patches of dirt in front of their houses), see who’s around, and wait for them to bring us chairs and gather around.  They always offer me a chair first, and at first I protested and insisted I didn’t need one, but I think I offend them if I say that, or at least come across as really strange.  Now I just take the chair.  Children kind of belong to everyone here too.  There is a lot of respect for elders, and anyone can discipline anyone else’s kid/give them candy or something without being really creepy.  This applies even to random children on the street.  On the way to the clinic one morning, Delphin yelled at some kid to hurry up and get to school.  I’ve given up asking if they know people, because it’s pretty 50/50, and it doesn’t seem to matter. Oh, and the guy in the bright yellow vest behind me is the chief (for lack of a better word I guess) of the neighborhood. 

An assortment of children in the street gathered to see the mundele (I’ve also been called “chinois” (Chinese) by several kids.  Not quite):

The kids love having their picture taken.  After, they all run up excitedly to see it, laughing and squealing.

 Each team pretty much just picks a street and tries to cover all of the houses on that street in three and a half hours or so. They all live here too, and when one team didn't show up and Erik the photo guy ended up doing the demo, he chose his street. I should add he was sick with malaria the whole time because his room is too small for a mosquito net, apparently (really?).  I felt bad, but it really underscores just how badly this work is needed.  Erik and his family:

 Friday, after having spent two weeks with the teams, I was asked to give an evaluation of my time with them- what I thought of the program and the teams, if it and they were effective, what was good and what should be changed. They had a meeting Saturday morning to discuss my feedback.  I assumed I would be attending, but nope.  I just gave my feedback to Papa Moku and he’ll be sharing that with the teams.  I said that generally, I think the work they’re doing is fantastic.  It’s pretty much the development ideal- the community volunteers are just that, people who live there and want to improve their neighborhood.  The people we visit mostly seem to listen, though sometimes I think it’s more out of respect than interest.  The solutions are simple and either very cheap or free, and all have the potential to have a huge impact.  Some teams are obviously more effective than others, and I tried to include their methods when making suggestions for everyone.  I ended up suggesting that they make it more of a dialogue than a lecture, and come up with a guide for the teams of several questions to ask (and to help them remember all of the information).  Some of the questions were: what are the diseases that most commonly affect the household?  What do you think causes these diseases?  Where do you get your water? What is the current state of your latrine?  Are you happy with it?  Why or why not? (these last two for both the water and latrine questions) How do you think you can prevent malaria?  How and when do you wash your hands (ask for a demonstration)?  There are more, and the questions engage the listeners (especially children) and provide the opportunity to praise knowledge (use of soap, mosquito nets, etc) and explain corrections and methods of improving hygiene and water quality.  Also, it’s important to ask for questions at the end in case something needs to be clarified or comprehension is lacking.  We tried this model out on Monday and it seemed to work really well, so hopefully the teams respond well to it.  I also suggested they take note of how many people in the household have had malaria, typhoid, and general diarrhea in the last month.  That way, they can have a quantitative measure for the program’s effectiveness when they go back to the same households for their own evaluation. 

In other news, Pierre’s wife had their first baby on Wednesday!  It’s a girl named Sublime (pronounced like Subleem). We all had a homecoming party for her on Thursday:

Here's a less fortunate baby born at the clinic with malaria.  It's only a day old here:

Friday night, we went to a traditional dance show at the French Institute.  It was really fun and energetic, and showcased dances and music from a bunch of different regions of the Congo.  I'll try to post a video next time, but I'd rather not risk another power outage while trying to load it now.  Also, yesterday, we went to a marriage at the church.  Wow.  Just... wow.  It lasted for 4 hours.  FOUR HOURS of people screaming and blowing whistles (all of whom I wanted to murder after the first hour).  At the end, people brought a bunch of gifts into the church for the couple.  These included a couch, a loveseat, a fan, a rug, a mattress, and assorted other household stuff.  Pictures and video of that next time too. Afterward, we got pizza.  It was delicious.  Oh, and speaking of marriage, whenever people ask about my future plans here, they keep going... and then? ... and then? And finally... so when are you getting married?  Nice. 

Eating caterpillars, bathing in buckets, and a minivacation, oh my! Part 2

Saturday was an adventure.  Delphin and his friend Caliste (? Maybe?) picked me up in the morning, told me to bring a swimsuit, and we drove out of the city.  It was a very long way through dense and nerve-wracking traffic: 

We passed through a depressing slum area and stopped at a huge market, both for me to experience it and for Delphin and Caliste to buy athletic shorts for swimming.  Well, it turns out everyone raises their prices if a mundele is with you.  I felt kind of bad and said I’d wait in the car next time (though I doubt there will be one).  Anyway, we continued on and eventually reached a fishing market town.  We bought some pretty awesome hats and went on a tour of the villages on the river.  The houses are on stilts to accommodate the tides, and not pictured are a small herd of cows, several pigs, and the ubiquitous chickens.

Street scene in the village (my neighborhood in Kinshasa looks similar):

 We had to walk out on these to get onto the tour boat!:

 Scenes from the river:

 Me on the boat:

 Delphin and Caliste in the boat:

 Blurry fishing hut:

 The village on an island in the river:

  After, we continued on to Safari Beach, a general’s estate/resort area.  Guys, the Congo is going to be the next tourist destination.  It was fantastic.  We ate at a fancy restaurant, went swimming in the pool, and marveled at the fantastic view of the river.  We later pretended I (as the rich mundele, you know) was interested in staying there and took a tour of the rooms and villas available for rent.  For $150 a night you can get a very nice room in the main building with a view of the river.  Not bad.  The villas, obviously, are pricier.  

We went out for lunch after church on Sunday with some of Delphin and Régine's friends.  Look what was on the menu! Chenille in it's unground form:

 They actually don't taste that bad, kind of nutty, but I can't get over the grossness of eating caterpillars.  I must say, Delphin and his family have essentially taken me in.  I eat dinner with them every night and spend most of my free time with them too.  They’re pretty much my host family, and I just sleep at the hotel.  I tried to tell them that all that isn’t necessary, but they were adamant that as their guest, I’m part of their family.  I’m so grateful for everything they’ve done for me, and I tried to make them dinner at the hotel last week as a thank you.  Well, that was a failure, as was everything I’ve tried to cook here.  Also, I have seen several mice in the kitchen at this point. I think I’ll be buying my thank-you meals at restaurants from now on.  The clinic staff also go out of their way to welcome me and talk to me and put up with my horrible French.  I should mention that all of the community demos are in Lingala, which I absolutely do not speak (though I’m picking things up very slowly), so one of the team members is always nice enough to translate into French (though by this point I’ve pretty much memorized the speech).  

Eating Caterpillars, Bathing in Buckets, and a Minivacation, oh my! Part one, because all of it won't post...

Hi all! I'm still alive.  First of all, happy birthday Dad, if you're reading this. Sorry it's a few days late.  Due to more power outages (and nearly two days without water- hence the bathing in buckets), I've had only sporadic internet at best. I meant to spend today writing up my main project, but ended up reading two books instead and getting some ice cream because nothing was working.  Thanks, Congo amenities (or lack thereof, I guess). Anyway, on to last week's recap (and some stuff from the first week).  The pictures of me in the last post and those marked with an asterisk in this one were taken by Erik, the son of the woman who runs the nutrition program (credit where credit is due). Also, a correction: Faith is 9, not 10. Chicks!:

Part of a hand-washing demo (note the kid with the alien head in the background! It was more dramatic from the front. He looked like the pictures you see of babies with hydrocephaly, but grown up a bit)*:

Me with one of the teams (I love their smock things)*:

As promised, some pictures of the nutrition program.  The large pot in the foreground contains a kind of porridge they make for the cooking demonstration.  It contains soy and corn flour, ground and dried caterpillars called chenille, palm oil (bright orange by the way!), eggs, mashed bananas, orange juice, and sugar*:

While the porridge is cooking, the attendees are given given a talk about proper nutrition (along with plenty of singing and clapping, as with most things here).  Many feed their children only carbs like fufu or chikwan, the staples here.  Fufu is sort of a steamed dumpling made of corn and manioc flour, while chikwan is made from fermented manioc flour and stored wrapped in leaves.  It's white and has the texture of clay.  Both are decent, if kind of bland.  Most people prefer chikwan, but I personally like the fufu better. Traditional congolese meals include one of these (chikwan is generally served with fish), a meat, and a serving of sweet potatoes, fried plantains, or a ubiquitous green here that I can never catch the name of. Also ubiquitous is pili pili, a paste made from hot peppers. Because many people in this neighborhood are extremely poor, though, they can't afford a complete meal or don't know what one consists of, and the children end up eating some fufu maybe once a day.  The nutrition program teaches mothers that the children also need protein and vitamins.  Bananas, oranges, eggs, and chenille are cheap enough and easy to get here, so incorporating these items does a lot of good for the children without burdening the parents too much*:

This little girl was severely malnourished but it now at a healthy weight thanks to the program*:

Me trying the porridge (the guy next to me is Papa Moku, the coordinator of all the community volunteers and outreach programs.  He's also been a leading a project to build ventilated improved pit latrines around the neighborhood)*:

It actually tastes pretty good, in spite of the hodgepodge of ingredients.  I called it the frankenporridge in my head*:

Weighing the kids (between 5 months and 6 years old)*:

Measuring the height:

I love this picture:

More height measuring:

They also take the kids' arm circumference about halfway down the bicep.  The chart that shows levels of malnutrition based on weight and height and the arm measuring tape are both color coded. Green is fine, yellow and red indicate malnutrition and the child is entered into the program (which is free).  A child can qualify based on either weight/height or arm circumference. The children receive an allotted number of plumpy nut (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plumpy'nut) packets a week (based on weight), and the mothers must bring the empty wrappers back to get the next week's supply (to make sure they are using them).  The children stay in the program until they reach a healthy weight.
The normal reaction I get from kids here:

Mundele!

Mbote! It's been a busy week.  Mysteries have been solved- Delphin's son is indeed named Stan and the servant/relative is Belange, Régine's half-sister (both her father and Delphin's had three wives!!) who lives with them in exchange for cooking and cleaning.  I also found out that Delphin paid Régine's parents two goats, ten chickens, a suit and dress, cases of beer, and several other things to be able to marry her. Yeah. Also, there are a lot of power outages here, so that's been fun.  Sunday we went to church, which Delphin said would be at least three hours. That's a lot of church. Well, I actually had fun! It mostly consisted of booty dancing (seriously), singing, clapping, and yelling in Lingala.  I was introduced to the congregation at the end, and many people came up to me individually afterward to say hi.  There were a ton of community meetings after, so I mostly just hung out and talked to people in the courtyard.  I was introduced to Elmer, a man from Fresno who runs an orphanage here and works with gangs, Patience, a nurse at the clinic, and a ton of other people whose names I don't remember.  One of these was a now healthy girl who had almost died of malnutrition.  The adults are all mama [name] or papa [name]; I've been introduced as mama Brittany a few times and it makes me feel really old. Anyway, on Monday I went to the clinic for the first time. Everyone has SUVs or vans here, and on the way I understood why.  The roads on the way are hilly and uneven and made of dirt and trash. It had rained in the evening, and at one point we had to cross a depression in the road that had literally become a small pond. We parked the car at a former patient's house at the edge of the "good neighborhood", and Delphin said we were going to cross a "big bridge".  We climbed over a low wall and walked down a dirt alleyway, then came across said bridge (also, that stream appears to be the water source for the neighborhood):

 Also, there was a tiny cat hanging out by the clinic:

 The clinic itself:

 The neighborhood:

 The lab:

 The cat stalking a chicken (on the other side of the wire thing):

 Pierre sitting by the reception:

Bon Berger is in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Kinshasa.  Delphin and Pierre started it after med school in a tiny, one-room house with only one bed.  Since then, they've moved twice and expanded, now occupying a fairly large (for the area) two-story building. Patients are still two to a bed though, and demand keeps increasing.  There is no help at all for the cost of supplies, and no government programs for even basic needs like water and trash removal. After treating patients for a while, they decided to try to tackle the larger problems facing the community, which are substantial. They, along with the clinic staff and many community leaders and volunteers, have started a water and hygiene program, a nutrition program, classes like sewing and career skills for the young men and women to help discourage prostitution and drug use, a literacy program, a microfinance program, and they plan on building latrines soon.  On Monday I met with the community leaders and volunteers after my mini tour of the hospital, and Tuesday I started doing house visits with water and hygiene teams.  The teams consist of a man and a woman, both well respected in the community, who go to people's houses and explain basic hygiene and prevention measures. They discuss mosquito nets to prevent malaria and covering latrines and food to protect both from flies, then do a hand washing demonstration using a bucket with a spigot (ubiquitous in the nicer areas of Kinshasa) to prevent against typhoid and diarrhea in general.  They also have a simple and free method of purifying water: put the water in a clear bottle, shake it up well, and let it sit in the sun for six hours.  These are all very simple, low cost or free things people can do to prevent disease.  And let me tell you, they are desperately needed. I’ve been repeatedly shocked at the standard of living. The streets are full of trash and worse, as some families don’t have latrines and just use the street, and of course the kids run around without shoes.  They pick things up off the ground and stick them in their mouths, are covered in dirt and flies and who knows what else, and have snot constantly running from their noses.  There are flies EVERYWHERE.  I saw some of the latrines yesterday, which were for the most part just holes in the ground covered in flies: 

 Me in front of a latrine:

A bunch of people who listened to a demonstration and I:

Wednesday was the nutrition program, where mothers come with their children to listen to a cooking demonstration. After, the children are weighed, and their height and their bicep circumference are taken.  Every child was malnourished.  Every single one.  While watching the demonstration, I thought that they didn’t look too obviously underweight or anything.  Then I found out how old they were. One fourteen month old girl weighed the same as a six month old (who was also malnourished).  If the children look younger than they are, the mothers look much older.  I was pretty sure a few were nearing sixty until they started breastfeeding an infant.  Apparently the life expectancy there is around 45.  I believe it.  Other than the deceptively old-looking mothers, I haven’t seen any actual old people in the neighborhood so far.  I'll have to post those pictures next time, as the power's gone out several times this morning.

The microfinance "office":

On a lighter note, especially in Bon Berger’s neighborhood, everywhere I go I’m greeted with “Mundele! mundele!”  That’s the word for a white person in Lingala.  All of the little kids yell and run after me and try to touch me.  When we do the home visits, a huge crowd of neighborhood kids gathers around me.  Most are excited, but some just look confused, and the littlest ones are sometimes afraid of me.  Delphin said the same thing happened to him when he went to the Philippines several years ago for a development conference. I’m torn between thinking it’s funny and feeling pretty awkward (which, to be fair, is kind of my normal state). Today, several older girls apparently had a long discussion about whether my hair was real.  One actually ran behind me and touched it.  I had to explain later as well that not only is it real, I don’t use any products to relax it and it used to be much longer.  Good times.