Hi Lizzie here, thanks for reading this and hope all is well with you. Well as I said in the last post I am here at the progamme base with Pete and all is going well. I did feel a bit strange the first few days just getting used to being so remote in the middle of the Congolese jungle !! The town is about the size of a UK market town with one main high street and is mainly comprised of  low buildings. Around the edge of the centre are different villages which have a very rural feel just a stones throw from the jungle.

Below is a photo of Pete enjoying a cup of tea outside our little annex and the two photos below that are our immediate view:

                             

In spite of fairly sleepy immediate surroundings it had all been quite busy ; Pete has alot going on with his job and I have been in the office every day doing a handover of the logistics work with my predecessor  (well she is still here for another couple of weeks which is a good thing !) and trying to help where I can. I have also been meeting my new colleagues, getting to know the area, practicing French, researching a media article and acclimatising - it is 36 degrees in the shade today !!

Yesterday Pete and I went for a bike ride (after he had fixed the brakes) in the town and out in the countryside, we must have said ‘bonjour, ca va !` at least 50 times and had the same in return - there are a surprising number of people out and about. On our way back after a particualy vigourous ‘bonjour, ca va !` and ‘trés bien !’ exchange with some children at the side of the road we noticed that the the large group of people walking towards were being unusally silent and we quickly sussed out that we were about to ‘bonjour, ca va!’ into a funeral procession. We dismounted and walked solomnly through the crowd – there was a large group at the back however who were singing and dancing, still part of the same group, which was a surprising contrast.

Last night Isabel, who works here as well, had the brilliant idea of making pizza and once we had the dough and toppings sorted it was just a case of popping them in the oven. You can see this is the photo below, it is made out of old oil drum with fire above and below the ‘pizza oven’. They were really tasty and we even tried to make one with cheesy stuffed crust which was, I think, a success !

We all finished off the evening with a board game called Settlers – I think I am becoming addicted ! 

And finally some local wildlife....a colourful lizard.

Well I made it! Navigated a bit of a `come fly with me moment` at the aiport with me, mum and dad vs the check in person for the flight to Uganda - it started when I was told I couldn`t take two pieces of hand luggage on board even with double luggage allowence and one being quite small. I politely enquired what the fee would be to check a third bag, thinking I would be willing to pay for it as worth it for the time away,  but was told `200 pounds flat rate`. Feeling slightly cresfallen at this news, and with the advice that if I could squash everthing into three bags I should be ok, we all traipsed off to try and squash my carefully packed belongings into one less bag. Cue the three of us scrabbling around on the floor trying to zip everything back up with airport staff hovering around us. So, back to the check in. This time another person saw us and is happy with the state of my bags. Result! However, my joy was soon to be over. She then asked to weigh my handlugguage and, with a sinking feeling, the three of us hoisted it onto the scale thinking a forklift truck would be handy right now. ``Hmmmm, a bit overweight`` she said. I am thinking, `well it has just been Christmas`, but it seems that she is in fact referring to the bag. ``There will be a charge for this`` she said. With bated breath I asked how much. ``200 pounds flat rate`` was the reply. As airport rage was looming it must have been the thought of dealing with the chaos for one more moment that the airline relented and let me get away with it. Horay! Now, better make the most of the 300 bottles of sunscreen I have with me. I should add I was very glad indeed that mum and dad were there for moral support!

At last I arrived in Uganda and then boarded a very small plane for DRC. It was a bit like being in a car especially when the driver adjusted his seat forward, asked me if I had enough leg room and popped on his seatbelt before pulling out onto the runway. Also, in Uganda there is an unusal species of bird called Marabous which are a bit like storks, they seem to have no fear at all and I saw quite a few taking a solitary stroll around the airport area.

This is clearly not a photo from the airport but just what this particular bird looks like! Uganda has a huge variety of bird life, much like Roath Park lake.
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The view from the plane was totally stunning with the highlights being passing over some enourmous lakes and this was my view coming into the country:

Anway, thanks for reading this, best wishes for now, Lizzie.

Lizzie's Here!!

Lizzie has arrived in DRC, hoorah!!
Will get to see her on Fri when she arrives at our base.

Our new room

The construction of our new accomodation. I am standing in what will be the living room by the front door. The new hole leads through to the the bedroom, which has a shower in the corner as well. Workmanship is interesting, the door was originally going to be a foot to the left, until I pointed out the electrical socket on the other side and that there would be no room for the bed! Painting the room was also exciting. The painters throw water everywhere so that the paint will not stick when they spill it, the wardrobe and doors were covered in paint so this technique came in quite handy! A bit different but I guess there are no apprenticeships around here.

The Base

This a view from our front gate, looking at the house in which we live it is a modest 4 bedroom bungalow with 2 bathrooms, a kitchen/ dining area and a living room. It is fairly modest with an outdoor toilet and showers made from buckets, but it is home.





Another view from the gate, you can see the garage behind the red pick up and straight ahead is the admin building behind the 'pilot' (thatched roof thing). Directly to my left is the new office block (out of shot) and inbetween it and the admin building is the logs office.




The kitchen and dining room









The living room