Here are some pics:
Sam found this spot right away upon arriving at the home we were staying in and sat there every day. He also loved chasing the chickens (thought it was hilarious that they run away from him) and around town loved spotting the other animals. He's pretty afraid of goats and sheep- especially when they "baa." John and I find that really funny.
We went on lots of walks there- the first day we went around with Emile- the driver for BREAD. He was Sam's favorite there.
We didn't see the sun at all for the first four days- but that just made it all the lovelier.
I love that Congo is green and that it gets cool for a few months- where I lived in Tanzania was never like this.
Birds of Paradise grow there as wildflowers and are everywhere- on the side of the road, in the ditches. Emile picked this one (the first one I saw) and I was shocked- but it was just like picking a regular old wildflower to him
This is the radio station BREAD is building. There is only one other radio station so the idea is to do community programming (with development themes) to educate and raise awareness.
This is BREAD's office- right on the main square.
Sibiti has about 20000 people which makes for a decidedly manageable town. There is electricity in the center of town from 6:30pm-10:30pm every day and the water runs from 6-6:30am. It's very punctual really. And it makes me very grateful for our water and electricity which only cuts from time to time.Here's a pic from the sewing school BREAD has funded. It's goal is to give young women a skill they can use to make some money for themselves- so they don't have to be reliant on men and "boyfriends." 
So pretty. John's aesthetic is bothered by the preference for dirt to grass, but I think it's lovely all the same. Dirt is preferred because snakes can't hide out in it (so I hear). I'm with John- and that's why we're planting grass in our yard, but generally speaking a neat yard is a grass-free yard here.
A little public service announcement- we saw lots up in Sibiti and also in Dolisie including one that we'd heard of before the "rape is a crime" sign.
BREAD's main project in Sibiti is to ensure that 14 other NGOs are correctly implementing a World Bank funded, govt designed HIV/AIDS project. That means checking their financial records, activity records, meeting minutes etc. This is one of the NGOs we work with- the Congolese Association for the Integration of Pygmies. They gave us a good introduction to the social issues and needs of the Pygmy population in Congo. I've got to confess that I'm only just learning the politically-correct ways to discuss this disadvantaged group in French and am even more hopeless in English. I'm not sure if the term Pygmy is offensive or not- in French they are called an autochtone people, which translates to indigenious people. Wikipedia defines pygmies as any people whose males typically grow less than 59inches average height. Where we were, about 20% of the population are pygmies and I didn't hear of any people-group name- like the Aka mentionned in the wikipedia article. They speak a version of the language that their Bantu neighbors speak, so it's not a different language altogether. Anyway, the gist of the situation as I understood it is that the pygmies were the first people here in Congo (hunter/gatherers) and that Bantu-origin people (agriculturalists) immigrated in and dominated because of advanced technology (kind of like in SE Asia with hill tribes and agricultural valley majority people). The majority of pygmies in Congo no longer live as hunter/gatherers but alongside their Bantu neighbors. When I say 'alongside', I mean next to- because every village (including the town of Sibiti) were segregated. The peoples don't intermarry much at all. Anyway, pygmies are definitely a disadvantaged group here- less educated, less land, more poverty. I don't know what the history is altogether- but I think that you could think of issues that indigenious peoples face the world over and arrive at a clearish idea of the situation here. So, back to the pics (the ONG I talked about is here below)
A pretty view of their office.
A pic with one of the pygmy groups (I'm trying to search for the right English word to describe how it is-not neighborhood... kind of like mini villages of 60-100 people, just outside of the Bantu village). The guy in the maroon shirt next to John is the chief. And the guy in the brown jacket on the end is Franck- the head of BREAD in Sibiti and a super gracious host (we stayed at his place in town).
Sam got monumentally dirty every day from the dust. All of his clothes were completely filthy by the end of the week.
This is BREAD's Moringa field- Moringa leaves are incredible- read more here http://www.camaservices.org/priority/moringaTree.php
Some of the dirt is so red and all the plants on the side of the road (and houses too and everything really) get totally coated with it.
The last day we went along while BREAD staff handed out Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes in some of the villages where they've done HIV/AIDS awareness projects. Samaritan's Purse delivers loads of these presents all over the world (my Dad gave some out in Morocco for example). It was a little chaotic here, but made for a good afternoon and for some good pics.
In Brazza- Sam would be out of my arms in a minute in a situation like this, but here you can see the berth given to us. When Sam walked around it was funny to see the crowd move with him but never touch him. It wasn't like that completely, some people were stoked for him to shake their hand, but still different.
Emile hands out a shoebox (these are filled, by the way, with toys and stuff donated from America).
I liked this pic of two kids waiting their turn.
Everyone listened attentively to Franck's speech. Basically, explaining that these gifts were from kids in America to share God's love and that to be fair they have asked the village counsel to give them the name of one kid per family so that everyone can get something (so the presents don't go just to the kids really). Actually, it was a mob scene at times and when the boxes were open, the adults got first dibs- but realistically, there is no way for everything to end up with the kids. Like I saw one kid get a flashlight with batteries- that's a major commodity- no way he's keeping that.
Sam's presence was too distracting to the gift-giving process so I encouraged him to wander a bit. This time he ended up at this building which turned out to be the local manioc-making house- it's a lot of work to prepare the favored-staple here. Cassava root is soaked and beaten and rolled and stuff until it turns into a jelly-like paste. I'm not a big fan really- it tastes kind of fermented to me. But I love cassava boiled or plain- go figure.
That's a view of the gift-giving from where Sam and I were.
This last pic is the pygmy village that was right around the corner from that last village. We stopped there special to give out some more presents- one of the kids had a nasty nasty infection and couldn't get down to the main village to pick up his package. I've actually never seen anything like his wound (this next bit is for the medical-types out there) but it didn't look that bad really, it was on his ankle and not bigger than a dime, but someone lifted up his leg and liquid poured out for like 30 seconds in a constant stream. That's really bad, right? Anyway, there was much consternation on why he wasn't being taken to the hospital and stuff. That's a problem though- medical care is far away and costs money and these pygmies don't really have money- mostly make or find or hunt what they eat and they build their homes of locally-found materials, etc.
So pretty. John's aesthetic is bothered by the preference for dirt to grass, but I think it's lovely all the same. Dirt is preferred because snakes can't hide out in it (so I hear). I'm with John- and that's why we're planting grass in our yard, but generally speaking a neat yard is a grass-free yard here.
A little public service announcement- we saw lots up in Sibiti and also in Dolisie including one that we'd heard of before the "rape is a crime" sign. 
BREAD's main project in Sibiti is to ensure that 14 other NGOs are correctly implementing a World Bank funded, govt designed HIV/AIDS project. That means checking their financial records, activity records, meeting minutes etc. This is one of the NGOs we work with- the Congolese Association for the Integration of Pygmies. They gave us a good introduction to the social issues and needs of the Pygmy population in Congo. I've got to confess that I'm only just learning the politically-correct ways to discuss this disadvantaged group in French and am even more hopeless in English. I'm not sure if the term Pygmy is offensive or not- in French they are called an autochtone people, which translates to indigenious people. Wikipedia defines pygmies as any people whose males typically grow less than 59inches average height. Where we were, about 20% of the population are pygmies and I didn't hear of any people-group name- like the Aka mentionned in the wikipedia article. They speak a version of the language that their Bantu neighbors speak, so it's not a different language altogether. Anyway, the gist of the situation as I understood it is that the pygmies were the first people here in Congo (hunter/gatherers) and that Bantu-origin people (agriculturalists) immigrated in and dominated because of advanced technology (kind of like in SE Asia with hill tribes and agricultural valley majority people). The majority of pygmies in Congo no longer live as hunter/gatherers but alongside their Bantu neighbors. When I say 'alongside', I mean next to- because every village (including the town of Sibiti) were segregated. The peoples don't intermarry much at all. Anyway, pygmies are definitely a disadvantaged group here- less educated, less land, more poverty. I don't know what the history is altogether- but I think that you could think of issues that indigenious peoples face the world over and arrive at a clearish idea of the situation here. So, back to the pics (the ONG I talked about is here below)
A pretty view of their office.
A pic with one of the pygmy groups (I'm trying to search for the right English word to describe how it is-not neighborhood... kind of like mini villages of 60-100 people, just outside of the Bantu village). The guy in the maroon shirt next to John is the chief. And the guy in the brown jacket on the end is Franck- the head of BREAD in Sibiti and a super gracious host (we stayed at his place in town).
Sam got monumentally dirty every day from the dust. All of his clothes were completely filthy by the end of the week.
This is BREAD's Moringa field- Moringa leaves are incredible- read more here http://www.camaservices.org/priority/moringaTree.phpIt was so so beautiful- the kind of life that really makes me long for something. The land has been donated by one of BREAD's local staff and he and his family live on this beautiful land and have for several generations. It'd be a great place to grow up.
Some of the dirt is so red and all the plants on the side of the road (and houses too and everything really) get totally coated with it.
The last day we went along while BREAD staff handed out Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes in some of the villages where they've done HIV/AIDS awareness projects. Samaritan's Purse delivers loads of these presents all over the world (my Dad gave some out in Morocco for example). It was a little chaotic here, but made for a good afternoon and for some good pics.The minute we stepped out of the car, Sam was surrounded by kids. In Brazzaville, kids are all about picking Sam up and carrying him around, but in these villages nobody would come that close- I think some kids were scared of us and Sam was oblivious.
In Brazza- Sam would be out of my arms in a minute in a situation like this, but here you can see the berth given to us. When Sam walked around it was funny to see the crowd move with him but never touch him. It wasn't like that completely, some people were stoked for him to shake their hand, but still different.
Emile hands out a shoebox (these are filled, by the way, with toys and stuff donated from America).
I liked this pic of two kids waiting their turn.
Everyone listened attentively to Franck's speech. Basically, explaining that these gifts were from kids in America to share God's love and that to be fair they have asked the village counsel to give them the name of one kid per family so that everyone can get something (so the presents don't go just to the kids really). Actually, it was a mob scene at times and when the boxes were open, the adults got first dibs- but realistically, there is no way for everything to end up with the kids. Like I saw one kid get a flashlight with batteries- that's a major commodity- no way he's keeping that.
Sam's presence was too distracting to the gift-giving process so I encouraged him to wander a bit. This time he ended up at this building which turned out to be the local manioc-making house- it's a lot of work to prepare the favored-staple here. Cassava root is soaked and beaten and rolled and stuff until it turns into a jelly-like paste. I'm not a big fan really- it tastes kind of fermented to me. But I love cassava boiled or plain- go figure.
That's a view of the gift-giving from where Sam and I were.Waiting to open their presents...
This last pic is the pygmy village that was right around the corner from that last village. We stopped there special to give out some more presents- one of the kids had a nasty nasty infection and couldn't get down to the main village to pick up his package. I've actually never seen anything like his wound (this next bit is for the medical-types out there) but it didn't look that bad really, it was on his ankle and not bigger than a dime, but someone lifted up his leg and liquid poured out for like 30 seconds in a constant stream. That's really bad, right? Anyway, there was much consternation on why he wasn't being taken to the hospital and stuff. That's a problem though- medical care is far away and costs money and these pygmies don't really have money- mostly make or find or hunt what they eat and they build their homes of locally-found materials, etc. 
1 comment:
This was a great post. I really enjoyed reading it and getting a feel for what you guys do. Thanks!
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