Camping trip

What is the difference between camping out in the middle of nowhere in North America and camping out in the middle of nowhere in Africa? The number of people in the middle of nowhere!

heading out of town in our Toyota!

Get out of our way camel!

On Monday, Ginger and Barb (two missionaries I’m interning with) took me, Caitlin, and a team of six visiting sponsors “up country” on an overnight camping trip to visit a Hand-in-Hand orphan school. The Hand-in-Hand orphan schools are the rural schools run by village churches for the orphans in and around their village. Once you are outside of Bangui it really does feel like you are in the middle of nowhere. The villages seem so tiny but as soon as you step out of the car every kid in the whole village seems to flock to you and the village doesn’t seem so small then! Everyone has to shake your hand and all the little kids yell “boundjou, boundjou!” which sounds like the French word for hello but it really is the Sango word for “white person.” The visiting Americans were all saying “Bonjour!” back to the kids and waving very enthusiastically. Those of us who knew what they were actually saying were all thinking, “Yep, we’re white and please stop yelling that or else more people might come out to gawk at the silly looking white people who drove into your village waving and smiling like they’re in a parade.”

a little girl peeking in the church window

We didn’t set up camp outside because of all the onlookers. Instead, we set up camp inside the Bosemebele church building. There were still little kids peeking in through every window and doorway so we hired a guard to do crowd control.

the girls' tent all set up!

I love camping!

Barb enjoying African food

The people of the church at Bosembele are so hospitable! Pastor Dole’s wife made us a traditional African dinner of gozo, rolls, rice, and some meat in a red sauce. It was actually pretty good but I was glad we’d brought along ramon noodles. After a lovely dinner eaten by the light of our flashlights, we all ventured outside to sit around the campfire listening to African campfire stories about hunting for snakes and possessed man-eating hippos. Nothing like a few good scary stories right before laying down to sleep in the middle of the African bush!

It turns out that it was a very good thing we camped inside the church because halfway through the night it started pouring rain! It was raining so hard that water was dripping in through the tin roof and leaking into our tent. The rain was nice, though, because it cooled everything off and covered up all the squeaking sounds of the bats. The bad part about the rain was that the “outhouse” was very muddy the next morning. I was very proud of myself for not slipping and falling into the hole.

At the orphan school the sponsors gave out beanies babies, flip flops, and tennis balls and man were those kids excited! Caitlin and I had work to do taking individual pictures of each kid. This job is fun but it makes things tricky when the whole village is watching and the little kid getting his or her picture taken is really nervous. It is also an added challenge making sure you don’t get random kids going to the bathroom in the tall grass in the background of your photo.

happy kids playing with their new toys

I know this is making you all want to go camping in Africa now! It really is fun. 

We also got to stop by the falls at Boali again. All sorts of little boys like to hang out around the falls so that when tourists come they can be their guides and make some money. A little 11 year old boy named Samson decided that he was going to follow me around the whole entire time we were there. We went exploring all around the falls since it wasn't raining this time. I think this is one of my favorite places to visit!

crossing the bridge above the falls

hanging out with my African "body guards". Samson is on the right.

Overall it was a successful trip. Ginger managed to only kill two chickens on the drive home and we all made it back to the mission station safely. And let me tell you... even though I love camping, the warm shower, dry clothes, and homemade pizza when we got back couldn't have made me more happy!

A little glimpse of heaven

Since coming to Africa I have attended a church service preached in English translated into Sango, a completely Sango service, a service preached by a German man (which was mostly in English and a little bit in German), and this morning I went to a French service. 

Even though it's a bit annoying not being able to understand what is being said, seeing people praising God in other languages is such a neat reminder that the God I worship is God of the whole world and worthy of all the praise and adoration the world has to offer! I can't imagine what heaven will be like!

I took a quick video in church this morning. I tried to upload it on here but it was taking too long so maybe I'll try again later. 

Expectations and Extremes

Before I left for my internship my dad told me that living in the middle of Africa would be like living on a huge beach without the ocean: hot, dry, sunny, and sandy. (Being a beach lover who had the option of going to grad school in Hawaii, this was supposed to make me feel better about choosing to live far away from the ocean in the very middle of a “hot and dry” continent). Well Dad, as it turns out there is way more water here than there is beach. You were right about the heat, though.

Now that I’ve been in Africa 2 ½ weeks people are asking what I think of it. It’s interesting to me how perceptions and expectations are so often different from reality.

class

one of the Bosembelli schools

On Thursday I got to go “up country” to the village of Bosembelli to photograph some kids at a couple Hand-in-Hand schools. These are rural schools for orphans that are run by the Grace Brethren Church in the village and are more what you’d expect an African school to look like. The orphan care center in the city is very different. Besides working, I also got to be a tourist and see the waterfall at Boali. It was beautiful and very wet.

The falls at Boali

Me and Caitlin very wet from the rain and spray of the waterfall

looking down on some lower falls

A lot of people asked me to come home with pictures of elephants, giraffes, monkeys, lions, and gorillas. Believe it or not, there’s not much wildlife here. All the animals in and around Bangui have been eaten. But I couldn’t let you all down so I found some real live monkeys to take a picture with!

me and a monkey!

there are at least two monkeys in CAR that haven't been eaten yet!

 The Central African Republic is a country of extremes. For example, it’s been so wet recently because it’s the rainy season but I’m told that come springtime when it’s hot and humid we’ll be wishing for rain like this and rain won’t come for months. The scenery is full of extremes as well. In the past few days I have been in the colorfully cluttered city, driven through the suburbs full of dirty red brick houses built right on top of each other, and out to sparsely populated villages.

There are extremes in people too. Friday morning I was hanging out with orphans and widows (who aren't very respected in this culture) and Friday night I was attending a classy party at the US ambassador’s house surrounded by wealth and prestige. It certainly is an interesting country and I would have to say my experiences here so far have been different than I expected them to be. I'm still processing what I think of it all.

p.s. the US ambassador and his wife are super nice! They have a grand piano (probably the only one in the country) and they told me I can come over to their house and play it whenever I want to! This made me so happy!!! I certainly didn’t expect to find any pianos in Bangui, let alone a beautiful grand piano that I can play whenever I want to! Things being different than you expect can be a very good thing!

the Ubangui River

Life in Bangui is exciting, but there really is not a whole lot two young white girls can do in the city for fun so Caitlin and I have to come up with our own entertainment. We read a lot, cook, watch movies, have interesting conversations with visiting American pastors, swim, and hang out with the other missionaries. One of our favorite things to do is to go hiking/walking around the city. The best place to go to is the Ubangui River.

Yesterday we walked down to the Ubangui River and then hiked around to the ambassadors’ neighborhood via a mountain pass. There is a hotel and restaurant on the river where you are allowed to take pictures so here are a few to give you a better idea of what it looks like here.

the Ubangui River

the bridge out to the hotel restaurant

the restaurant is out on a little island of rocks that the Africans fish from

One side of the river is the Central African Republic and the other side is the Democratic Republic of Congo (the top picture is looking towards CAR and the next two pictures after that are looking towards the the Democratic Republic of Congo).

a dugout canoe

more fishing canoes

Mbi yeke manda ti tene Songo

I started learning Songo this week! Everyday my teacher, Madam Marie Claire, comes to my house and from 1-2pm I sit with her in the grass hut in my yard listening to her say words and then trying my best to say each word exactly how she said it. Songo is an interesting language to learn because it’s tonal and also has different letter formations than in English. The most difficult words for me to say are the “kp” and the “mb” words like “kpaka” which means to write and "kpe" which means run and “mbo” which can mean dog or to clean depending on which tone you say it in.

I’ve been focusing on learning Songo but I have been learning all sorts of other things as well. On Sunday I had my first African church experience, I’ve been learning how to do my job with the orphan care project, and I’ve been learning how to shop and cook African style. Oh... and I've been doing a lot of swimming at the American ambassador's pool. Here are a few pictures from this week.

The church I went to on Sunday

hanging out with kids after church

me with Pastor Marc Dounia and his wife Rebecca

the pastor, deacons, and wives

Pastor Dounia is at the missions station quite a bit working at the print shop. When I saw him the other day I got excited because, for one, I remembered his name and also because when he said hello and asked me how I was doing I actually knew what he was saying and was able to answer him in Songo!

the US ambassador's pool

fruit and vegetables for sale

a little piece of America

a class at the orphan care center

whenever I pull out my camera there are lots of curious little Africans wanting their pictures taken

me with some of the teenage girls at the orphan center (I'm the one in blue ;)

On Wednesday Barb took me and Caitlin (and a few visiting pastors) out to the orphan care center to give us a tour. I got introduced to a lot of teachers, kids, and teenagers I'll be working with this year.

the new orphans at the Ber Cail orphan center

This morning we had our first job assignment at another one of the orphan centers in Ber Cail. There are around 30 new students enrolled at this school this year so Caitlin and I had the job of taking individual pictures of each of these new kids. The pictures we took, along with a brief bio of each child, will be posted on the Project Hope and Charite website so that people can look through them and sponsor the children. The kids below are a couple of the orphans we photographed this morning.

First Saturday

What does a typical Saturday in Africa look like? I don’t know! But I can tell you what my Saturday looked like today.

4:30am- I wake up to the sound of the Muslim call to prayer (or maybe it was just someone who got up extra early to practice their trumpet because they really needed the extra practice!). Even though it’s already getting light out and there are people out on the streets being loud, I roll over and go back to sleep.

6:50am- “Co-co-co!” Barb is loudly calling, “knock-knock-knock!” in Songo right outside my window making sure Caitlin and I wake up in time to go harvest rice.

7:00am- I crawl out from under my mosquito net, eat a breakfast consisting of fresh grapefruit and a banana with peanut butter, take my malaria pill, then head off to the widow garden outside of town to harvest rice!

I’ll tell you about the rest of my Saturday with pictures.

The rice field

Women singing a greeting to us

Me harvesting rice with a really sharp knife!

gathering rice bundles

threshing the rice

The land for these gardens was purchased several years ago for the widows to use. Through gardening the women have a way to provide food for their families and make a little money and it also gives them an escape from their painful lives. You would never guess it from all their smiling faces, but many of these women are abused at home, HIV positive, and struggling.

this grandmother comes to the gardens to escape abuse

The directors of PHC discussing building plans

Ok so you have 40 acres of empty land and you want to build a shelter. Where should you build it? On someone else’s empty land really close to your own of course! This sounds ridiculous to Americans but in the Central African Republic I guess this is ok. When the owner of the land you just built on sees that his empty land is being used, that’ll make him happy and he will probably offer to sell you the land (which is what you wanted in the first place). It also increases the value of all the land around where you built. Go figure. This is Africa.

In the picture above, Madam Alexandrine Zokoe and Barb (two women I am working with) are discussing building a chicken coop. They just recently built the shelter you can see behind them and of course it’s not on their land.

little Africans!

The little boys were my favorite! I couldn’t talk to them because I don’t know Songo yet but they loved showing me things. They’d grab a cricket in their hand to show me, overturn a termite hill so I could watch all the little bugs crawl all over, or point out the trails of biting ants so I could avoid stepping on them. They smiled a lot and laughed at me a lot too. The coolest thing they found were a bunch of snake eggs that were just hatching! The little red baby snakes are really poisonous. If you got bit by one you be in extreme pain and be dead within six hours.

A cricket

a hatching snake

dead snake

I'm in Africa!

Paris

I've been on three continents in the last three days and last night I made it safely to Africa with all my luggage! It was a little late when we got in because of the strikes going on in France. We boarded the plane and then sat there in the plane and waited for a couple hours before we took off. But I made it!

The plane landed in Bangui last night at 6:45. It was pitch black and a balmy (humid) 83 degrees. The streets outside the airport were lined with African people and markets lit up by tiny little candles. It looked really cool!

Nzoni Gango, Bienvenue, Welcome

My house!

I wish I could tell you about everything I've done in the past 24 hours but that'd take too long. I'll give you the brief version for now: Today was laid back. I met people, had breakfast at a nearby cafe (the fresh squeezed orange juice is awesome), had a meeting with my new boss, ate lunch with the missionary women, unpacked, got a tour of the city and the city orphan care center, then had dinner with Wilfred, a German gardener who cooked special German food for me and Caitlin. (They've been feeding us so well... I've had ice cream two times already!) 

Caitlin and I share this 3 bedroom house.

Me and Caitlin. The two new PHC interns

I will do my best to upload lots of pictures but I can't take pictures out in the city for several reason: 

1) It makes the African people mad. They don't want you taking pictures of their city because they don't take pride in it and would be embarrassed for people from other places to see it... I personally think the city it beautiful with all the tropical trees and plants. 

2) The Africans don't like it when Americans come and take pictures of them and their stuff and then go back home and get rich from it. 

3) My camera might get stolen or taken away by police if I pull it out. 

I'll still be taking lots of pictures though. (Just not certain places.) I start my job taking photos at the orphan care center tomorrow! Thanks again for all your prayers. It feel good to finally be in Africa!