And finally...

We are getting to the end of our time in DR Congo, our six months sojourn here is almost finished. We have been reflecting on things and have realised that there are many things we will miss, and many things we will not miss. We thought we’d share them with you….

Things we will miss:

·         Fun thunderstorms

We enjoy thunderstorms, as long as we are inside, and we have had many thunderstorms whilst we have been here. The rain is torrential and no-one goes out but the noise of frequent overhead claps of thunder is scary but exciting.

·         Wearing sandals, not shoes

The freedom accorded to feet is wonderful!

·         Fruit

The fruit here is simply delicious. There are the small, and very sweet, bananas, which are very plentiful. But, there are also mango, pineapples and avocados. The flavour is something else compared to what we get in Britain, so much more flavour, so much fresher. We’ve not been too bothered about mangos in Britain, in comparison to here they are tasteless, as are pineapples and avocados. The latter are so much nicer, so much creamier….you get the idea!

·         Being outdoors a lot of the time

Because it is so much warmer here we have spent an awful lot of time outdoors. We are not looking forward to being cooped up in houses again.

·         Sitting on the veranda

Our home has a small veranda, with enough space for four chairs. Most of the day time we use the veranda as a sitting room. We have particularly enjoyed breakfast outdoors every day we have been here.

·         The climate

It was incredibly hot when we arrived, now it is 10 degrees cooler. Sometimes we even feel a little chilly but it’s nice to never feel cold – it is never really cold, there is frequent sunshine and it is really very pleasant altogether! – and let’s not forget the fun thunderstorms already mentioned above (though maybe just a few too many lately)!

·         French

It has been good to improve our French, and for Pete especially, to be able to converse more than a couple of words in a language that is not English

·         Not having to make many decisions

There is not a lot of choice here, so not many decisions! Breakfast is porridge or Weetabix, lunch is cooked for us, evening meal is from a restricted list, there are no leisure activities to choose from. It means there are few choices, which means less pressure.

·         Singing

Virtually anyone in a group can start singing, and they do. Often, when you walk around you hear groups of people singing, simply because they love music and singing (there has been less of this over the last few weeks).

·         The ‘dancing’ as people sing

People rarely sing standing still, they nearly always move in rhythm with the music. It is fascinating and impressive. They also do wonderful dances as they process anywhere.

·         Greeting, always having time for people

You always greet people when you meet them. Sometimes this is just a two-handed wave but, more usually, it involves handshakes and a brief discussion at least. People stop as they trundle past on their motos, just to say hello. People always have time for each other here.

·         Feeling in touch with people

People, basically, live their lives outdoors. This means you regularly see the same people as you walk past. Because you always greet them, even if there is no common language, you feel you are getting to know them in some way. It has been good to see one of the local pastors family steadily lose their shyness and now always say ‘Hello’ (or rather “Mbote”, which is Lingala for hello) as we pass. The children always give us a warm smile, and they do not feel the need to say “mundele” (see below) any more.

·         Flexibility

A blessing and a curse! People are very flexible and will make arrangements very readily to meet etc. It makes making arrangements easy. However, needless to say, there is a downside, another easily arranged meeting may take precedence over yours…

·         Pace of life

The generally relaxed atmosphere, a lack of urgency and there is never seems to be a sense of hurry, or panic or need to get somewhere ahead of everyone else here. It is really quite pleasant. OK, it brings a different set of problems(!) but it is relaxing

 
·         The slapping handshake

It has been good to get to know people better, and to have that increasing friendship acknowledged by the ‘slapping handshake’. Instead of just shaking hands the hands are brought together quickly, so they slap together, then you shake. During the peace in church you hear a lot of these slapping handshakes

·         Not much washing up or cooking

Because we do not have running water or electricity (except from a solar charged battery to give us lights and recharge our laptop) we employ people to do things for us. This means food magically appears and the washing up just gets done!

·         No traffic

There is no background sound of, traffic – something that is hard to achieve in the UK. Sometimes a lorry rumbles by (and they do rumble) but the constant noise is simply not there.

·         Walking places

It is good to use one’s legs, there isn’t an alternative really. So, as long as it is not chucking it down, you walk, and often meet people as you do so.

 
·         The hand washing ‘ritual’

If you are ever out and have something to eat people always wash hands. There is a jug of water and a bowl with a bar of soap, a girl (usually a girl, if no girl available a woman, never a man) brings the bowl round and water is poured over your hands as you wash them and the water drains into the bowl, then they move to the next person. When everyone’s hands have been washed the person who took the bowl says some form of grace (usually so quietly you cannot hear it) and then you get your tea and biscuit, or meal or whatever. The need for this ‘ritual’ is obvious but we cannot recall any time when it has not happened, even for just a biscuit.

·         Observing the behaviour of animals in our garden

Our garden is visited by various semi-domesticated animals, goats, chickens + baby chicks, a piglet and guinea fowl. It is interesting to observe their behaviour – particularly the behaviour of an increasingly muscle bound cock and a much younger male teenage cock. As the young cock matures his presence is increasingly not permitted by “beefy”.

Things we won’t miss

·         The sound of goats farting

Goats do not ‘pass wind’!

·         The cry of “Mundele” whenever you walk around

Small children seem to feel the need to call out “Mundele” (“white man”) when they see white people. They also love to run up and shake your hand. When this is a school it can involve 20 or 30 children. After several weeks it gets tiresome – particularly when some (not many) also ask for sweets.

·         Cockroaches

Self-explanatory! Frequent evening visitors

·         Insect bites

Even innocent looking little flies bite you here!

Not that flies often look that innocent…

·         Not flushing the toilet very often for fear of lack of rainwater to fill up the tank

This has not been a problem recently with thunderstorms practically daily. However, when you go a week without rain it gets a little worrying. The fact that the cistern takes 30 mins. to refill doesn’t help either. On the other hand, we should be grateful we have a flushing toilet at all…

·         Long drop toilets

We are fortunate to have a sit down toilet (see above) but we sometimes have to avail ourselves of the alternative, a hole with a very long drop – we won’t go into more detail

·         Excessive heat

At present the temperature is pleasant but when we arrived it was very, very hot. It turns out that the hottest time of year here is February / March and July / August is the coldest. We are just in the northern hemisphere so this is a little puzzling but we are getting thunderstorms most days at the moment, and it is not horribly hot leading up to them. When we arrived it was 37^o most days, and no cooler than 27^o at night.

·         Very long church services

Services take a minimum of two and a half hours. They are mostly conducted in Swahili, but with some Lingala (a language use as a ‘trade language’ in a large area of Congo, spoken by millions along, and around the huge Congo river basin). The record was a service that took four and a half hours. If there is a special event, nothing is removed, things are just added. So, the other Sunday there were 47 baptisms in one service – the baptisms alone took an hour but nothing else was taken out of the normal two hour service

·         Some of the old French hymns

At morning prayers we use a song book that has been put together locally, most of the songs are old French ones and are not our choice. It is a pity, because all the Lingala and Swahili songs we have heard are great.

·         Not being in control

We are used to managing by ourselves, and having control of our own travel etc. Here, we are dependent on others to get us to places, most particularly to Arua in Uganda, where we have to go to get money from the bank. This means arranging a lift to the frontier, a lift from the frontier and the reverse. If it is arranged too far in advance people forget (see ‘flexibility’ above), if too late then you cannot find the people you need.

·         Not really understanding what is going on

At first we didn’t know how things worked and we couldn’t fathom anything really. Now things have improved but we still find that we think we understand what is happening, understand the French etc., then you suddenly realise you have been asked a question….

·         French

Whilst it has been good to massively improve our French it will never be good enough, and it is tiring…The fact that some people don’t speak French also doesn’t help. Some of the people Pete has been working with speak better English than French, so French is not much use to them, it has to be translated into Lingala or Swahili. This sort of thing is normal here, with so many languages being used.

·         Boring food

All the food is tasty (though we don’t like ‘fu-fu’, the grey millet stodge the Congolese love with everything). But, the choice is beans and rice, beans and plantain, beans and potato. Variety comes from the different sorts of beans and ‘exciting’ possible combinations. The feasts are also the same each time, fu-fu, rice, perhaps potato and/or plaintain, beef, chicken, muchicha (a sort of spinach and peanut sauce mix, very good) and palm oil (which we have avoided as it does not suit western stomachs). A particularly exciting highlight at the last feast we attended was termites….

At least we don’t have think and plan too much

·         Tins of sardines

Evening meals have been a collection of what we can get together. A highlight we will not miss is tinned sardines and sweet crackers.

·         The risk of ‘eggs that are off

We have made quite a few omelettes whilst we’ve been here, but we were warned that the eggs are sometimes off when you open them. It is obvious an egg is off when you crack the shell open, because of the smell, but there is a distinct sense of anxiety before cracking open each shell.

·         Flying termites

After rain there are often a lot of flying termites, which come into the house in the evening. They are large and, if you don’t like catching them to eat (we don’t, locals do) not nice to have around

·         The noise of guinea fowl

We’re not sure we’d heard guinea fowl before, and we don’t wish to again There is a group of about 12 that wander round, often in our garden. They can make what can only be described as a “fearful racket”

·         Working

Gill gave up work a year before we came here so working has been a shock. However, it has also given a structure for the day.

·         Indirectness

It is rare to discuss something openly and directly. You are expected to be sophisticated in your communication and understand what is being said “in-between the lines”. So, you do not get to the bottom of something, the core issue, but are expected to work it out from what has been said. We have read that talking directly is seen as simply something children do, speaking directly is, therefore, seen as childish. This means that if you do talk directly you are treating the other person as a child. Tricky!

·         Bumpy roads

In Congo we have not found any tarmac roads, some roads are OK but usually they are pitted and are very rough. After a short while you have had enough of being bounced around

·         Dust

No tarmac, lots of dirt paths (which also turn very muddy in the rain) mean loads of dust that gets everywhere

·         Uncomfortable chairs

They start off comfortable enough but the foam (if it is there at all) is insufficient and/or old. After a while you become very uncomfortable, and cannot get comfortable whatever you do.

That's it - thanks for sticking with us!