The signature exchange
The following posts are possible thanks to our friend Bruno from MSF in Mbandaka ... who also made us delicious Pizza for watching Bayern Muenchen vs. Barcelona tonight! Thank you Bruno!
Not too much going
on this last week. We have a variation of the following food EVERY
DAY: Rice or Fufu, Makemba (deep fried Plantains), Spinach or Beans,
and Fish – Every Day! Breakfast is white bread, powder milk, black
tea and either a scrambled egg (fried) or half of an Avocado –
Every day – well, I did find a nutella substitute that sweetens up
my breakfast : ) (thanks to the south African exporter Yempy) There
are Bananas, Pineapple, Mango and Oranges around (meaning that they
grow everywhere in the city), but since there are no supermarkets but
instead random women (or children) just selling what they have, find
or pick, it’s a matter of luck… also to find fruit that is ripe,
but not over ripe or all banged up is trickery than expected. Often
it is a problem of when they are picked (seldom too early and often
too late) and the transport of course, which can be cumbersome and
packed in a box with many more … bananas for example.
Apparently the city
has exploded in terms of motorized transport over the past 4 years.
Back then there were not even cars around. Now we have a plethora of
Motorbikes (that are also Taxis), also one kind of normal bike is to
be seen everywhere – it’s a Chinese model sold for $100 and
equipped with a sitting spot over the back tire – also used for
transporting mostly people, often carrying heavy weights with them.
There are quite a
few UN cars and some from other NGOs cars on the street as well, but
still many people simply walk. Carrying weight is done on the head as
often seen all over this continent. Very impressive weights are
balanced, seemingly without any effort and even the turn of the head
to check out white people, is easily possible for them.
We are still living
in hotel L’Epervier and I can announce that the flea war has been
won this week. Even better: an end is in sight of our bucket shower
and mind-numbing generator living, as we have signed a lease for a
house just a few days ago. A large house with garden– six rooms, of
which two will be offices and two visitor rooms (for researchers and
work visits but also family and friends), two bathrooms and hopefully
soon a kitchen.
As mentioned before
cooking is done in Mbandaka with wood or coal. We will have to do the
same (only that we most likely will hire a ‘cook’ that knows how
to handle this kind energy source for cooking : ) This means however
that cooking is often done outside, so we don’t smoke out the whole
house. For this a wall has been broken through and a cooking area
established outside.
Right now there is
no water in the house. We have the option to buy unreliable water
from the city, but people advised us against it. Instead we will
clean the well, install a pump and also collect rainwater -
hopefully. It’s not exactly clear how we will do this as we are
just now collecting estimates from local engineers to renovate the
place, which have given very different opinions on what has to be
done and how.
Of course there is
no electricity, so we will have to buy a generator and keep our
fingers crossed to find a decent company that will install a solar
system for us – hopefully soon. As with all products in the DRC
solar equipment is expensive and often of poor quality. Heinz, a
German engineer (to be seen on the photo with the butterfly eating my
nutella) visited Mbandaka last week to install a solar system on the
WWF building. He of course imported high quality products from
Germany and adviced us to do the same. However, it also took him two
years and not all the equipment arrived : / I will discuss the
problem of shipping things to the DRC in one of my next posts as I
read extensively about the port called Matadi, through which most
products have to go before coming here…. WWF advised us to use DHL,
even to ship solar panels to forgo the mess in Matadi, but most
likely we will not have the time or the budget to have a fancy solar
system. In fact right now no money has been transferred into our
account and we can only hope that it gets here soon so the work on
the house can start, because here the guys need 50% up front to start
buying the material….
In a country were
Monopolies are the norm and competition is limited (or eliminated),
finding good service or products becomes a task in itself. The times
of surfeit of choice are over. We can just hope and pray…that we
find a decent solar system installer, a ‘normal’ mattress, decent
mosquito repellent, or medicine…..Everything seems to be a matter
of luck. You just have to trust that life will bring you what you
need.
So signatures were
exchanges last week, deposit paid and for $1,000 the Woods Hole
Research Center officially rents an office, and we will home to home
to live in. Now it just has to be made workable and livable…
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