Day 29
We did not have anything to do today but to keep out of trouble and wait for our mechanics. We slept until the sun transformed our tent into a sauna. Upon opening our tent we were greeted again by the looks and laughter of our crowd. The first thing we heard today was somebody shouting from a distance "Eh Mundele -Donnez-moi de l'argent!" -"Eh mundele - give me money". A very good morning to you too!
We would move our chairs regularly around the car, trying to escape the onlookers. Minutes later the crowd would then move too so they could see us again. They always kept a distance of 20meters or so, but nobody talked to us. From time to time they would shout something (usually begging). We tried to be as uniteresting as possible...
After a while I got really fed up. I took my chair and put it close to them. I sat down, facing them. I looked straight into their eyes. They looked straight back. I just sat still for half an hour, hoping they would get bored of looking at me. Or possibly even embarrased. But I lost. They did not loose interest.
I tried talking to them, explaining that we would really appreciate if they stopped looking at us as we would like to get some rest. I avoided the word privacy as it an unknown concept here anyway. I only got blank stares in return. From the back of the crowd I could here somebody shout "Donnez-nous de l'argent!" -"Give us money". Shortly after followed by "Ce n'est pas vorte pays!" - "This is not your country"
This made me so angry. He was right ofcourse, this was not my country. I was nothing more then a visitor. I had no other intentions but to explore their country and meet the people. But they did not want me here. They wanted my money, but not me.
We did meet a few interesting people though. A teacher from the local school came to see us. It was a math teacher. He had heard that I am a computer engineer. He had a question for me. He had heard about Internet and how it was such an interesting tool. But what is Internet exactly? I asked if they had computer here. They did not. He knew there were computers and Internet in Kikwit, but that is several hundres of kilometers from here.
He kept me busy for many hours. I tried my best explaining him all the different components and concepts. Everything from a modem to a webpage. I drawed him diagrams and everything. But I am a bad teacher I guess.. I could see he had difficulties understanding it all. How do you explain Internet to somebody who has never seen a computer? He took my notes and said he would teach his students about 'Internet'.
We constantly had the company of Anton. People called him "Le fou" - "The village fool". He was no fool though. Apparantely he was a very intelligent guy who had studied. It could be told from his vocabulary. But he kept talking and talking and talking. Always in a very dramatic way, swinging with his stick and jumping around. He would sometimes drop dead on the floor and stay put for 10 minutes and then he would jump up shouting loud. The kids loved him and were scared of him at the same. Children would sometimes throw rocks at him.
He was truly very annoying (and he had an incredibly smelly breath) but I took a liking to him anyway. At least he was honest. He dared to talk to us. We appreciated that. But he was still very annoying.
We will never forget his words: "Les blanc, les noirs, les rouges, les jaunes, nous avons tous le même sang" - "The whites, the black, the red, the yellow, we all have the same blood"
Another guy comes to visit us "Venez avec moi. Police!" - "Come with me. Police!"
Another guy comes to visit us "Venez avec moi. Police!" - "Come with me. Police!"
It's a guy wearing slippers and tatty clothes. We are not impressed and ask who he is?
"Chef de la police de Dibaya-lubwe"
We know where this is going to lead to so we tell him that everybody can claim they are police, does he have anything to prove his function? He hasn't. We tell him "au revoir" and ignore him. This annoys him tremendously. The look on the faces of the people around us tell us he was probably right and they can't believe we just turned our back to the chief of police! He leaves again. He was furious.
We befriend Monsieur Shinandi. He is an older man in a lovely old-fashioned suit. He is the school prefect of the area. A very clever and friendly man. He actually apologizes for the attitude of the people towards us, he tells us he is embarassed about the situation. He also ask us to try to understand how hopeless life is for people here. That is the reason they act this way. We do understand, but we also explain that is not the same as accepting it.
Mr. Shinandi accompanies Josephine to the town's market to make sure we get honest prices. It's nice to have some fresh food for a change. Eggs and tomatoes. Meat is available but it did not look very tasty so we skip it. Mr. Shinandi tells us a lot about the poor condition of the schooling system in Congo. There are almost no funds and the little funds there are dissapear before they reach their destination. Education is supposed to be free, but parents need to pay the teachers as the teachers are not being paid by the goverment. Most families can only afford to send a few of their children to school, not all of them. He was genuinely worried about the future of his country. Without education the new generation is lost. These youngstes are the future rulers of Congo, and the only thing they learned is corruption.
He also tells us about the abusive nature of many teachers, mostly in rural areas. Young girls are regularly forced to have sex with the teacher in return for good results. There are massive amount of child pregnancies. These children barely have enough to survive, let alone to raise children. Their parents send them to school with the hope of having chances on a better future, but instead their lives are ruined. They don't stand a chance.
Mr.Shinandi also takes me to a bank to exchange some US$ into Congolese Franc. Most things can be bought with dollars, but eggs or bread and small consumables are paid in CF. In the bank they cannot help us... they have no
money. :roll: We eventually end up at the farmers organisation. They provide micro-loans to farmers. They wanted us to go trough a mountain of - self-produced - paperwork first but eventually give up and change the money. At a horrible rate for us. It is strange how people try to give the impression that everything is organized. They try to give that impression by using as much paperworks as possible.
Walking around town with Mr. Shinandi is a pleasant and interesting experience. He is well respected here and because of that we are left alone.
When we return to the mission a man in a police uniform is waiting for us. It's an impressive uniform with several stars on the shoulders.
In front of us was the same guy that claimed he was "le chef de la police". He had dusted off his uniform. Looks like we made a little mistake there. We apologied for being so rude earlier and at the same time explained that we had so much problems with corrupt police before. He on his terms apologied for not being in uniform earlier and for his corrupt colleagues. This was actually a nice guy, he registered us and then chatted a bit. We probably shouldn't have been so rude earlier... but who knows how he would have acted then?
Despite having had nothing to do today, we had a busy day. It was with great joy that we heard a little motorbike approaching. We had not expected our mechanics back so quickly. They had found us two gears! They looked worn, but at least they had teeth. They did not come cheap, but it was not like we had a choice here. It was too late to start fitting them now. Tomorrow...
That evening we paid our daily visit to the mission of the sisters and went to bed early. We wondered when 'our wrowd' would get bored of us when they saw of us in our tent.
