Road trip

A recent field trip to visit some of the bridges that we are rehabilitating to improve access throughout the region. I went to give logistical support and also to gather material for marketing products about the progress of the work.

Some of the bridge team....

The bridges are in need of repair and teams of workers will be replacing the road surface and general strengthening work.

The improved bridges will mean that supplies of medicines and other items can be transported much easier. Also, local communities will benefit. This woman said she walked over this particular bridge every day to go to the market or the hospital.

This is mud!! On the way back the vehicle dropped into a very muddy pothole and some mud came flying through the window at about 100mph......lovely!

Festivities

International Woman`s Day in Congo is a national holiday which aims to celebrate women throughout the land!!! In essence, it means all the women take a day off work or domestic activities - and participate in the festivities. Pictured here are most of the females from our base. Everyone participating from the same place of work or society wears clothes made from the same material. 

The main part of the day is a big parade where all the women march down the main street whilst the men look on, there is also a tent of local and regional officials about half way down the road. The female members of the police are at the front leading the parade and then females from different businesses, health clinics, charities, clubs or family members of the military walk behind in their group - in there matching outfits. There are also `Mamans` groups; mamans are held in very high regard in Congo and are the equivalent of  `madame` in France. We had to wait here for it to start for quite a while!!!!

Some of the other people in the line up ready to go..

This is our group. There is music in the form of a band and a BIG BASE DRUM which you sort of walk / dance in time to. The effect is a sort of jiggly walk in time with everyone else. I think you are supposed to keep you hands at your side but I clearly got carried away!! I can honestly say I was completely terrified but not wanting to let the side down acted as if I would to cartwheel-arab spring-backflip if I could. As you can see we had a banner, everyone has this in front of their group. I should add that the crowd was fairly somber, until we jigged past. I am not sure what it was but their was a major uproar!! Afterwards, we had people shaking our hands saying how great the dancing was.

Back at the ranch! Not that we were glad that was over......!

The staff on the base

Most of the staff from our base

This is Rachel and her team at her leaving soiree, I have now taken over her role (eek!!)

A walk in the jungle...

Hello, well it has been a while since the last update - the last few weeks have gone so quickly, hope all is well with you. A few people have asked us to explain a little about the work we are doing so will share some news about that. Pete is managing the base which involves overseeing the finances, security, training and recruitment of national staff. He has been quite busy the last few weeks covering for different people who have gone to work temporarily at other bases or on leave. I have now started my role properly now which is managing the logistics for different work areas (such as delivering medicines to health clinics, delivering construction materials, buying and arranging the delivery of fuel, ensuring the vehicles are being maintained, travel plans of teams moving around the region). I am also providing support on the communications side from this base - so far this has involved writing articles about different projects and obtaining photos.

Day to day things can be quite routine here, we live and work on the same base and quite a few national staff work here as well who mainly live in the local area. We do try and leave the base when we can; I quite often drive into the market to get supplies or on occasion go on a longer trip and we also go for walks in the jungle when we can. Fancy coming along? Ok lets go....!!

Yes admittedly that did sound a bit cheesy.

Outside the house - Pete and I stay in a little annex opposite

There are none photographed here but there are a few small houses along the way

Heading into the jungle, a stones throw from where we live

Although the jungle is really beautiful we haven`t really seen a lot of wildlife, only large hawk-like birds overhead, lizards and on one occasion, a noisy ominous rustling coming from the vegetation by the path. However, the other day Pete and I were walking along with our friend Isabelle and we could here loud unusual bird call, or possibly monkey! We waited for a few minutes and suddenly four or five beautiful birds flew quite low over the trees and landed quite near to us. After some research on the internet we worked out they were Ross`s Turacos which are bluish-purple in colour and found in the forests across central tropical Africa.

Do you think he would get on well with Ollie?

Termite mound! Every now and they swarm and shed their wings, piles of wings everywhere. Some people like to fry them for a tasty snack! Pete tried them and said they were quite nice. I was feeling a bit full but maybe another time! In this photo I am with Rachel who has now left.

Heading back to the ranch