Weekly Wrap: June 27-July 3

• The plan was to arrive in Uganda Monday and leave Friday. We were doing an engine swap on our plane. We had a loaner engine in our plane and needed to put a new one in. However, the engine got stuck in Belgium somehow while it was shipping so we had to wait an extra week for the engine. Another week in Uganda so I can't complain.


• Walked around downtown Kampala. Big city. Big buildings. Lots of people.


• Saw some kids playing Ultimate in a small grass field next to where I was staying. Upon closer observation I noticed they were doing Ultimate drills. Awesome! I just sat and watched for awhile. I was impressed with the skill level and the fact that they were playing ultimate instead of soccer.


• We ate dinner several times at a restaurant called Coffee At Last. It was great food and the price was very reasonable. It was quite a luxury from Congo. We went there so often that we became friends with the owner. It was a perfect place because we could sit on the balcony overlooking the street and be entertained by the things of Africa.


• Another long flight home Saturday flying at 14,500 feet with our oxygen masks on. Kind of weird to fly a long flight on an airplane that didn't have an engine in it 2 days prior.


• After arriving home in Lubumbashi, I went straight from the airport to a little animal park. Met up with some friends and walked around with the animals.

Currently reading: "The Shack" by William P. Young

Weekly Wrap: June 20-26

• I got up bright and early to fly our airplane to Uganda with my coworker Nate. Our aircraft have to have a maintenace inspection every 200 hours of flight time. We do not have the proper tooling and facilities here to do the maintenance so we fly to another one of our bases in Uganda. It was about a 6-7 hour flight up. Barrels of fun.


• Flying in the Congo during the dry season is not much fun because of the dust, smoke, and pollution that is in the air. You can hardly see the ground. I though Uganda would be different, but is we flew in over Lake Victoria, one of the largest lakes in the world, it was quite disappointing. The pollution in the air was just horrible. It is quite a shame because the terrain on the ground is quite beautiful.


• Met some MAF pilots and families living and working in East DR Congo and Uganda. It was nice to meet some fellow MAFers working in other parts of Africa and see some of the work they are doing there.


• I was put to work in the hangar doing some small maintenance items on the plane. I am not a maintenance guy at all so I felt like I was more of a liability. But I think I helped out a little. Took off the tires and greased the bearings and changed out the breaks. Took off some paneling on the wings and landing gear. Put together some new airplane jacks. Repainted the prop.


• Uganda is one of those crazy places with millions of motorcycle taxis everywhere. They are called "Boda Bodas". They are all weaving in and out of traffic or carrying ridiculously large loads. We nearly killed one Boda Boda driver as he was driving too fast down a dirt road and swerved to avoid us but couldn't avoid the tree stump. His two child passengers were alright, but the driver busted up his knee. We took him to a clinic and paid for his medical bills even though we were not at fault. He showed his gratitude by calling the next day to say that he would be calling the police to demand more money from us. Cool.


• The whole week I was singing the song, "Boda boda boda boda boda everywhere!" in my head.


• Spent a day with my UN friend from Lubumbashi who was passing through Entebbe on his way home for leave. It was good to see him one last time. We went bowling in a mall, which seems like an insane idea when you living in Lubumbashi.


• I went white-water rafting on the Nile River on the weekend. I had been hoping I would get the chance to do this while I was in Uganda and I am so glad I did. The river was just amazingly beautiful. Spent 5-6 hours on the water. There was mostly Class 4 rapids. A couple Class 5 rapids that we missed because of the wimpy tourists I had on my boat. 2 Class 6 rapids that we avoided thankfully. Rapids were tons of fun but enjoyed just floating in the river on the slow parts and just taking in the idea that I was on the Nile River in Africa!


• I think I had a serious case of culture shock on the 1.5 hour bus ride to the Nile River. I sat in front of 6 American college girls. "Like OMG, I totally want to take a baby goat home with me!". I had forgotten that this crazy species of humans still exist.

Currently reading: "The African Dream: The diaries of the revolutionary war in the congo" by Che Guevara

Weekly Wrap: June 13-19

My attempt at bring more proactive in updating my blog by offering weekly highlights. A few weeks old due to lack of computer and internet.

• We flew a baby chimp back to Lubumbashi on one of our flights. It had been bought off some hunters and is being taking to a Chimpanzee sanctuary. So now I can say that I helped save a baby chimp in Africa.


• Went to the "Bush Camp" restaurant in town for Tim's birthday. One of the nicer places in town that is full of African decor. Good food too. I think I will go back someday.


• Lunar Eclipse. I think everything seems more amazing when you experience it in the Congo and this was no exception.


• Political campaigning season here. Lots of politicians flying around the province campaigning for people's votes. Often there is a mini-parade with banners and a marching band waiting for some political figure as he steps of a plane. It is all quite ridiculous and humorous at the same time. I am still not quite sure what their jobs are, other than eating lots of food and making lots of money. Crazy place.


• Went to a concert at the French Cultural Center in town. Some girl and her band down from Kinshasa. She was apparently pretty popular and the place was packed. I showed up late and felt really awkward when there was a crowd of people trying to get in and the security guard sees me and my other white friend and personally escorts us in. The perks of being white? Awkward. I did enjoy myself once inside though. Awesome group. I even bought her CD and got a picture with her backstage. Silly.


• We had a good-bye party for my friend who works with the UN and will be moving to Kinshasa after he takes leave. The party was at my house and we had a huge bonfire in the front yard. Lots of laughs and dancing with good friends.


• Another good-bye party the following day for the volunteers who have been helping out with my roommate's street kids project (Kimibilio). So we had a bbq at a river just outside town with the Kimbilio kids and the volunteers. Good group of people.


• Observation of the week is that I noticed a lot of the people who work for MSF, who we fly for, are smokers. Just seems ironic and confusing. Seems like strange example to have as you are trying to solve the health issues in Africa.

Electricity

Most people probably don't ever think twice about electricity. It is something you always have right? Not here in the Congo. I've been trying to decide how often the power has been on during my 9 months here. I'm gonna go with 50%. The way it works at my house is that we are supposed to have 2 days with the power on and then one day off. This program is run by the electrical company here. Apparently the transformer in my neighborhood is not big enough to run everyone so it needs a day off so it doesn't explode or something. It is different in each neighborhood.

The electrical company is really good at making sure the power is off on our day off, but not so good about making sure it stays on on our day on. It'll often go off for half a day on when of the days we are supposed to have it or just go off and on constantly throughout the day. Sometimes lines will get cut or there will be some other technical problem and we will be out for several days. The longest I have gone without power at my house has been 5 days. That was fun. I am actually blessed here because my coworkers living in Kinshasa, the capital city, have it worse than me and have been without power for several weeks now and there are not many indications that it will return anytime soon. I do have a generator at my house, which will power the whole house, but it is expensive to use so I try not to use it too often. I will usually run it every third evening on our days off so I'm not depressed in a dark house getting eaten alive by mosquitoes.

It has become a way of life now. The food in the fridge gets stinky every 3rd day. Have to make sure to run the water pump when we have power so we have water in the tanks. Try to make sure we have fuel on hand in the garage in case we really need/want to use the generator. We do have a solar panel that charges a battery, which we can then use to power our internet. But the battery only last for a couple hours before it needs to be charged again. I think this is going to be one of the areas I will suffer culture shock when I return back to the US. Not having to plan my day around power outages. Weird.

Risking it all

Here is some video about transport in the Congo. I haven't been able to watch all of it because the internet here is too slow, but I've been told it is interesting. Check it out if you have the time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkq8YtGG6gI&feature=youtu.be

Neighborhood Noise

I spent the last few days home sick paralyzed by body aches and fatigue. A lot of time spent in bed or on the couch not being able to sleep, but only listening to the sounds of the world outside. My neighborhood is much like the Congolese people that inhabit it, Loud. This was not a new discovery for me, but having lots of time laying on my back at home allowed me to take in all these noises.

First of all, the night guard/gardener and his family live right behind my house, which is about 20 feet from my bedroom window. I'm not really sure how many children he has. I'm guessing maybe 5, but it sounds like 20. This is a noisy family. There is a lot of yelling that goes on, which I'm never quite sure if it is an argument or just a typical Congolese conversation. Occasionally the baby is crying. At least one or two times a day one of children is yelling for his father, who is definitely out of earshot range. "PAPA! PAPA! PAPA!" (repeat 20x as loud as you can). The latest development in the family is now they have 2 goats in their yard. My roommate and I were trying to decide why he has goats. We think that maybe one of his sons is getting married and it is a gift for the bride's family. If that is the case then I hope the wedding is soon because I am tired of listening to those goats.

Another exciting noise coming from my neighborhood is the church directly behind my garage. This church isn't nearly as bad as some of the churches around the neighborhood, but it does have it's moments. The first night of my sickness I was awoken by a 2am choir practice. Sure it wasn't terrible music, but it was 2 in the morning. They occasionally do this for some reason. It seems hard to believe that 2am is the only time the choir can get together for practice. This is actually quite normal for a lot of the Congolese churches, which there are a lot of. The churches here don't only have your typical Sunday morning services. They seem to have several services a week at every odd hour of the day. I have been driving home at 3 in the morning and seen church services going on. They also seem to hold the belief that the louder the church is, the better God will hear you. There is also the Muslims a few blocks away that announce their call to prayer every morning at 5am. I occasionally wake up to that as well.

There are kids everywhere here so there is always the sounds of kids playing. They are building a school on the property right next to my house so currently it is the sound of construction but in a few months it'll be the sound of children screaming. A group of kids are often playing soccer on my street so you will often here their screams of laughter and playfulness. If there is ever a club soccer match on TV you will know whether we are winning or losing by listening to the neighborhood noise.

Overall there is a just a general buzz of neighborhood noise here in Congo. It is very interesting to hear all the sounds and try to distinguish all of them. Everything is so lively here and out in the open for everyone to listen to. The other fascinating thing to me is that I can sit on my porch and look out at my big yard and hear all of these noises yet I cannot see where they come from because I am surrounded by tall walls.

Year of the Beard

One year of growing a beard. 2011. Quite possibly one of the top 5 best decisions of my life. I mean, seriously, what's better than combing food crumbs out of your beard after a good meal. I've been at this for 107 days. I thought maybe after a couple months I'd grow fond of it, but in actuality, I have to resist the urge to grab every sharp object I see so I don't hack it all off in one fell swoop. I'd like to say that large beards are common and my struggle is internal. But no. The external forces are powerful, especially those from the Congolese. Apparently these vocal inhabitants of Congo have a great appreciation of history of Christianity, including the western image of Jesus Christ. My swahili knowledge is not extensive, but there are a few words I can understand as I walk down the street: Mzungu (white person) and Jesu (Jesus). If I hear those words mixed in a sentence followed by some laughing, giggling, and pointing I am pretty sure I'm the center of the conversation. Fortunately I'm the most talked about person in every 50ft radius I'm in.

One year of my life and for what? I guess because I can. A way to make small group of people (not including the entire country of Congo) smile and laugh. A way to practice self-control. A story to tell when it's all over. I still have 258 more days to think of some other benefits. Cheers to the year I will not attract the ladies with the overgrowth of hair on my face.