May 02, 2005

Rest at last

Day Six
Location: Luiza
Date: 05/01/05
Hours of Driving: 0


Today we stay in Luiza to get some work done. To use our laptop, we have to power the office with electricity: we pour gasoline in the little power box to get it going. The electricity comes on for a couple of hours and we rush to finish writing our reports.

It’s raining and it’s cold. I am still taking showers with frozen cold water, which makes washing my hair torture.

The lady’s house where we eat the majority of our meals is swamped with kids excited to see a car and curious to look at me. I sense that they are intrigued and take the time to shake each and every little hand. When I leave, they wave to me energetically.

I have been eating fufuh, manioc leaves and small pieces of unidentifiable meat for five days. Today, we have bananas and mandarins that we picked up from Luambo. It’s really hard to find diversity of foods in the villages so we rush to buy tomatoes, potatoes, pineapples and mandarins whenever we happen to see them on our trips to other villages. The average child here mostly eats fufuh and manioc leaves, with a little bit of meat if there’s any left over.

Congolese soil, when it’s not clay, is very rich: it’s a deep, dense, humid earth where everything can grow. People like to joke that if you spit out a seed, the next minutes it will have spouted a plant. There are mines of diamonds and gold close to the Angola border.

There is so much potential for this country, why isn’t more done to exploit that?

10 comments:

Victoria said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Wow Doro, sounds pretty intense and yet amazing. What is it that you guys are looking at on your trip (what is the purpose of your reports)?

Can't wait to see you in a few weeks. Bring pictures!

Miss you!

Anonymous said...

D -- Quelle bonne surprise de recevoir une missive de la brousse! Bonne chance avec le voyage et je te verrais bientot. (Je t'envoie un petit email, si tu peux le recevoir a Luiza.) --E

Beaver said...

Wow ! Senegal seems so remote after reading these accounts !

I guess this will change you, and the way you see the world... You've been very thorough in describing your adventures, but it seems that all in all you were left with more questions than answers... Isn't that what it's all about ?

See you soon in DC (if my destroyed car makes it there !)

Beaver said...

by the way, can you change the link to http://travelbeaver.blogspot.com ?

That's where my blog is !

That other link is completely empty now.

Thanks !

Anonymous said...

Yay, you're back online! Now I can pester you with annoying comments again :)

-Ammo

Kate said...

hey 007, it's kate. sounds like you're having an adventurous time! what do you do for your job, anyway?

well i just wanted to let you know that i'm over my weirdness about blogging now, and my blog is back at redhandedjill. so if you want to read you're welcome to.

Anonymous said...

Hey double-o
I'm enjoying your travel entries immensely - I can almost feel myself swatting at the mosquitos. No, wait, those are our mosquitos.

007 in Africa said...

Hi Dan...I'll be posting a map of where I went as soon as I get a good internet set up here in DC.

Thanks Vick. Trying my darndest to stay safe.

Laura, I'll explain what I do in my next post :)

Beaver! Senegal is rather tame compared to Congo. Oy, you have no idea.

Red Handed Jill...So glad you're back online. I'm enjoying reading your blog even if I'm having a hard time posting comments.

Steve, we actually don't have many mosquitos right now but I'm flattered that you are swatting the US mozzies and thinking about Congo. I suggest picking up some mosquito repellant at REI. But at least they don't carry malaria :)

Anonymous said...

I finally found your blogspot! Oye ve... it took me like a year! Love you and miss you Dorothee!