Klara and Krista were on their way from Monrovia to Ivory Coast to work in the offices there. Mekkel is the new engineer for the road project in Saclopea who just arrived. And Mads is the road project manager who was afraid he had malaria so came up here to get tested. The guest house where I'm staying has four bedrooms and two "servants quarters" rooms out back. We filled every bed this weekend and it was fun! Three Danes, Two Americans, and a Ugandan equals some pretty interesting times... add in a bottle of wine or two and you have some even better ones! :)
Saturday before they all arrived, I woke early after a night of shooting the breeze with the 65 yr old Scottish/Australian guy, who grew up in Ethiopia and worked a full career with the UN's World Food Program... fascinating. I met a DRC driver (young guy... bored cause his family doesn't live here) around 8am to head to the market and for him to "show" me around town. We didn't do as much actual shopping in the market as I would have liked (I think for that I will have to go with Albertha the housekeeper next week), but we walked around the whole town, while he gave me very interesting "tour guide" details about the history, feelings toward the money men (the town's monopoly on ALL businesses - from fuel to fish - is called Jungle Water and all owned by one family), etc. It was fun just talking to someone my own age and getting the low down on the town. After playing with some little kids while waiting for him to get his hair cut (old school barber with a flat razor), I headed home to get some alone time in.
I grabbed my book and sheet and headed out to the lawn... where I proceeded to lay out and read in the sunshine! I was propped on my stomach reading intently (finally a book for fun!) when Albertha spooked me... she was standing just behind me by my feet! I turned and just looked at her and said, "well, hi!" Her very concerned response was, "KATE! What are you doing in the grass?! Sunbathing?" I just laughed and said "Yeah, kinda (if you consider being fully dressed and outside reading a book sunbathing)... is that ok? What's wrong?" She continued her confused staring at me, "uuuuhhhhh, ok then... see you tomorrow."
Hahaha! Oh, the miscommunications and cultural differences. I think she really thinks I'm crazy! Between that incident and wearing a skirt to go "hiking" around a lake... I'm pretty sure she thinks "these people," as she refers to all the white expats, have more than just one screw loose!
I got to read the majority of the afternoon, which was lovely... I had even managed to fall asleep for a moment and then the big fat rain drops started to fall on my forehead and I woke with a start! So I moved my spot to the covered porch and continued to read while the skies opened and dumped out rain... it was quite cool and pleasant... until the storm began! The winds picked up so quickly and the sky darkened at an alarming rate (that almost scared me), so I hurried inside. There are no window panes in our house, just screens... so the wind howled through the whole house, knocking things over, blowing rain into the house, and it was unbelievably loud as there are metal roofs here.
As I sat there trying to continue reading, I just kept contemplating what else could go wrong... when the TV satellite blew... then the generator... yikes! Then my thoughts turned to the guys on that terribly muddy, pot-hole filled road on the way to our house... no good. AND THEN, the thought just hit me... "What about all the refugees in their tents and temporary housing structures?!" It was awful as I sat there and just imagined what it must be like for them... the kids must have been so scared...
The storm passed and our guests arrived safely after long difficult journeys. Sunday morning came and everyone was taking their day of rest and sleeping in a bit. Jackson had invited me to his church, so off he and I went. It's a small Pentecostal church where they took offering three times, the women sit on one side and the men on the other, the preacher was a short bald man dressed in purple, and where they make first time visitors stand up in front and introduce themselves and who invited them! Then they shout and point at that visitor (being yours truly) that they are welcome and should stay with them... the Pentecostals! Again the singing and dancing was the best part - I've never felt so white though! :)
And then perhaps the best part of the weekend was going on somewhat of a sightseeing trip to Yekepa. Mads had to go and see about a concrete mixer machine there and Klara said we should go along because the old mining company had made a beautiful man-made lake up in the mountains and it was quite a site to see after the war and the company had abandoned everything. She was right. It was an eerie, beautiful place that I'm glad I got to see... but don't feel the need to go back to. All of these HUGE construction and mining machines are just left the way they were, but bombed and rusted and rotted after 10 or so years. The "lake" in the mountains IS beautiful, but makes you wonder what it looked like before the mining company left its mark... they were mining Iron Ore and now a new company has just come in to try to take over the remaining infrastructure (which isn't much... it was pretty much all destroyed in the war) and start the mining again. The town is ALL hundreds or maybe even thousands of little identical concrete houses or apartments for the miners and their families. It's a very weird feeling in that place. We also got stuck on the way up the mountain by a felled tree across the road which they managed to drag with a rope attached to the jeep and then drive over... yikes! Oh, and I went to Guinea yesterday. Ok, not with the official stamp in my passport or anything, but across the border we went... to buy bananas of course!
After we managed to make a form of guacamole (avocados are one thing that they grow really well here!), etc. for dinner (Albertha has Sundays off), we went out to the garden that a previous intern had started and got to harvest the first watermelon! I sliced it up for everyone the American way and there we sat munching on delicious, homegrown, juicy, watermelon (thanks Rahel)! I think persuaded them into a rousing couple of rounds of UNO... SO funny with an international group! Good times were had by all... I think!
We were all up and eating breakfast by 7:30 this morning and then had a big staff (about 35-40) meeting first thing in the office... two hours! But it was nice to finally be introduced to everyone and really feel like a part of the team. A couple of the drivers are great jokesters and it's getting to be a lot of fun to know them! Unfortunately one of them had invited me to the town's big graduation program yesterday afternoon and he said that when he came by the house to get me, we still weren't back from Yepeka... so I missed it! Bummer! Hopefully another invite will surface soon!
So... it was a good weekend! Now everyone is gone and it's quiet in the office this afternoon. I'm trying to work on a few documents that I've been assigned, but I hope to get out to the field again tom. or Wed.
Hope you all had good weekends as well!
Peace, Kate
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