Good morning! It's 8:30am here on Tuesday. You all are in bed or about to be so. I wake up early each morning around 5:00am to the singing of the fisherman in their small wooden boats called pirogue (in french) or mutumbu (in swahili). It's often a little misty. And often there are 3 boats attached together. It is beautiful. This morning I was so tired I rolled over and went back to sleep instead of getting up to watch them and take pictures. The hotel is up on a high hill above the lake, so the view of the big lake is quite expansive. Oh yeah, if I haven't mentioned it, the lake is Lake Kivu. There are so many large lakes in this region of Africa. I have been eating a lot of fish.
OK, here is a food report. As you can probably imagine, Congo is not a hub of culinary delights. Here is what we've seen/experienced (realizing that most likely it is a skewed perspective b/c they are cooking for what they think we like or what we can eat without getting sick):
Fish (sometimes with parts like heads and tails intact)
Chicken in various forms
Peas, carrots, greenbeans cooked to no end and mixed together
Vegetable curry with white rice
Potatoes - either frites or boiled
Samosas (not sure why there is the indian theme...didn't think there had been much Indian presence in central Africa versus Eastern Africa)
Fresh fruit - pineapple, endless bananas, occasional mango, a fruit called prine in french or tamarillo in New Zealand
Avocado
Endless pizza
Eggs for breakfast
So, we are eating well, especially if you're willing to step out of the pizza comfort zone.
On to the gorillas. Sunday we went to Kahuzi-Biega National Park to try to find a family of Eastern Lowland Gorillas. Christine's father started this park back in the 70s. He was a fierce man with big vision. Christine's husband, CArlos, took over the effort after Christine's dad died. The park is about 600,000 hectares and touches 3 different provinces in Congo. One of the areas is lowland and goes all the way up to the mountains. We met up with 4 Congolese guides when we got to the park. Carlos is such a visionary and so smart about true community development, most of these guides are formerly poachers. He figured out how to approach them and bring them into the other side of this situation.
So, off we went with two guides in the front with sharp machetes clearing our path in the jungle. We were not on an actual trail. We only had to hike about 30 minutes before we found the gorillas. We started to see huge gorilla poops and completely striped branches - leaves and the outer-layer of green "bark". We found Chimanuka, the big silver back daddy, mama with a Swahili name that means "loved", 2 teens and a baby. They were spectacular. At ease with us moving around to eat...sometimes on the ground sometimes in the tree.
The gorillas were wonderful and it felt SO good to move my body after all the travel. But, the drive up there was the true highlight of the day. In fact, the drives everywhere have been the highlights of my trip so far. I get to really see true African life in all of its beauty and hardship and color and simplicity and unbelievably hard work. Sunday was church day so there were people in there best clothes heading to church and others doing chores and others hanging out. On the way home it was clearly market day. As we climbed up higher and higher into the mountains I thought we had left the people behind in Bukavu but we came across a handful of rural villages along the way and rich farmland.The crops changed as we headed higher. Toward the highest point I saw sorghum growing...very fun to see the crop that goes into all that gluten-free beer! Mud huts, huts made out of anything one can get their hands on, lots and lots of kids, kids carrying kids, women selling beautiful and bountiful onions and bananas, men with 4-5 flats of eggs sometimes on their heads. Sometimes we would get stopped at a gate of a "rue tarif" (toll road). Yes, a toll road in the middle of no where...just another way to make money and make problems for people. Our anything but discrete convoy of SUVs causes quite a stir, but it would be a time for some interaction with the folks living along the road as they could approach the cars.
My interactions (so so limited as they have been outside of the hotels) with the Congolese have been so warm. They are a truly beautiful people. I never feel threatened or even overly pressured by those selling stuff. They are curious about us and I feel they want to connect in some small way. I have really loved these encounters. Would really love to have more...thought that is not what this trip is about. It is not a travel trip. It is not about getting immersed in Congolese culture. It is really a work trip to learn about inspiring, forward thinking work happening here to build capacity and help the Congolese to realized their power to create better living and change the country.
So many of my fears about being consumed by the suffering here and the huge gap between how we live in the US and what life looks like here have not materialized. It's not to say that the poverty here is not absolutely staggering. And yet, there is joy here. There is beauty here. They are so incredibly industrious. I am in awe rather than afraid and broken.
Ooops, just looked at the clock. Time to head to the V-World Farm. I'm looking forward to it. I have some downtime this afternoon between when we get back from the farm and Christine's surprise birthday party. I will be back for "Big Update #2". We head to Goma tomorrow and then up to Virunga National Park, and I don't yet know what the wifi situation will be. So, I'll be sure to get back on today.
Lots of love, ME
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