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).