Christmas Miracle: the Bridge is fixed!

On December 20, the Epulu bridge was officially reopened by the governor of Oriental Province.  It took only 26 days for the Office des Routes to fix the bridge, which is record time considering the case of the nearby Komanda bridge.  That bridge took more than 2 years to fix, presumably because it was more than 4 times as long, other possible routes were available, and more than 500 people had work, and several corrupt officials directly benefited from the costs of transporting vehicles across the river. 

Let's hope that 2010 will mark an incident-free year for bridges, so that I don't have to make a predictive model of how long they'll take to fix, because that wouldn't be interesting all.

Variables include:
X = Other Routes possibly be taken
Y = Merchandise tonnage
Z = (number of people who benefit * 5) - number of people who suffer
ZZ = number of corrupt officials who benefit

Not interesting....

The fast action can be attributed to political will behind fixing this bridge because National Route 4 connects Orientale Province and there were no practical options for  goods transport but to continue crossing at the broken bridge site.  Thus, transporters had to pay officials for the right to offload goods, villagers to actually offload their goods, spend a night or two in town, and have another vehicle waiting on the other side of the bridge.  The effect of the bridge being out was increased prices of beer from Kisangani's Primus factory moving east to population centers like Beni, Bunia, and Butembo, while it also increased the price of food (beans, corn, and potatoes) and cheap Asian manufactured goods (tvs, stereos, flashlights, batteries) going west to Kisangani and even Kinshasa more than 1000 mi away. 

So Epulu is a little bit deforested near the river but not too much the worse for wear.  Many villagers were able to make some cash out of this whole disaster.  How can this be prevented from happening again?  It will take basic law enforcement, which is hardly easy in this country where most people live on less than dollar a day.

Update on the Pont

The bridge bazaar is getting a little harrier every day. Just between
Sunday and Thursday, 5 large boats have appeared to start hauling big
loads of merchandise, including Primus beer (surprise surprise) across
the river. Two of these boats were brought from Komanda where "Broken
Bridge emergency response / organized absolute chaos" was not so
distantly experienced. At Komanda, the piroguier assocation charged
$50-100 for each of dozens of vehicles which crossed the river
everyday. Markets on both sides must have employed 500 people. Now
some of the same people from Komanda are responding to this broken
bridge by bringing their boats. Also, many locals are enjoying
newfound profits made as restaurateurs, truck cutters, and porters of
planks, beer, and merchandise.

The park guard association ICCN, is keeping pretty good control.
Crossing hours commence at 600h and finish promptly at 1800h. They
have a guy with a loud speaker and says something in Swahili, like
"You are in a 'conservation zone integrale'", which at least
subconciously lets people know they can't do whatever they want.
Vehicles must stay more than 1 km away from the bridge while they wait
their turn to offload their merchandise by the river side. Then the
village chief and police collect $20 for the privilege of offloading
their merchandise. The prices on all the stuff that crosses the river
is undoubtedly marked up for these petty charges and delays.

We are dealing pretty well with the situation, trading fuel with ICCN
and Gilman Conservation who are on the other side of the river. Papa
Michel, my favorite sentinel at our compound is at least 60 yrs old
and somewhat hard of hearing, but has managed to keep lunatics out of
our compound. We're even guarding someone's vehicles as they continue
on to Kisangani and will return for their vehicles after a few weeks.
As Papa Michel proudly recounted, the ICCN granted these people
permission to leave their vehicles in our compound because "Il y a
beaucoup de sécurité la bas/There is lots of security over there".

The serenity which makes Epulu so charming is gone for the moment.
There is no walking out over the bridge alone to watch a full moon
glance of the rushing river. Instead, there are the incessant beeps
of Nile Coach buses, motor bikes vrooming, and the distant crashes of
who knows what. Also, there are people everywhere outside of our
compound and the ICCN station. Mostly people are acting ok - they
seem to know this is Wildlife Reserve, and there are certain rules and
restrictions. They're also enjoying the opportunity to make a few
dollars.

Congo bridges falling down

My small village Epulu has bridges over the rushing river of the same
name, which is a tributary to the mighty Congo. Epulu is in the
center of the massive Okapi Wildlife Reserve, and therefore is a
well-chosen and picturesque headquarters for park management and
conservation NGOs. Epulu's bridges grant marvelous views of the
surrounding primeval forest, glorious sunsets which disappear towards
scads of unknown, more westerly villages. They are also a good
lookout point for harbingers of distant lightning and nastily grey
clouds, which forebode incoming thunderstorms.

Furthermore, the bridges enable daily foot traffic between Epulu
village "centre" and my side of the river where most people have their
gardens. Ladies traverse while carrying huge loads of charcoal home
from the forest, uniformed school kids (white shirts, blue shorts and
flip flops) amble on their way to school, pygmies port large bundles
of fresh leaves on their heads to bring the okapis their choice of 30
types of fresh leaves everyday.

In addition to local traffic, the bridge is a national road between
the cities of Kisangani and Bunia, which was improved a few years ago.
It is one of the rare good roads in DRC, which is famous for its
neglected infrastructure which was both symptom and cause of the
severe under-development, among other things. Roads either
disappeared into narrow footpaths, or were maintained in a "artisanal"
manner in which people dug when stuck, in some cases gorges that are
10+ feet deep. However, this road is continually maintained (thanks
to World Bank & Chinese funding, not the government), which
facilitates lots of traffic.
Cattle move to market hundres of kilometers away, huge beer trucks,
trucks with migrants sitting on top, trucks that are nearly as tall as
they are long, coach buses, and all manners of transport use the route
and therefore these bridges. Since 2007, due to a fallen bridge over
the Ituri River, this national road has been a bit handicapped. An
overloaded truck brought down a 200 meter bridge and limited traffic.
Only since the beginning of October, was this bridge finally repaired,
which has opened up long-distance travel across the massive Orientale
Province.

Now we are a bit deranged...there is a massive 60-ton double truck in
the Epulu River with the bridge crumpled underneath it. No one was
injured or killed, but the truck was more than 2x the legal limit,
carrying timber east towards Uganda. Vehicles, fields, ladies, are
all on the opposite side from where they might need to be every day.
And road traffic on our national road cannot continue.

Fortunately, there are two pirogues in Epulu. I'm sure that the needs
to make daily crossings or long haul transport, may bring another wave
of Congolese resourcefulness. But the bridge fall will likely bring
forth a frustratingly opaque demonstration of malfunctioning
governance and public service sectors. As we wait for someone to fix
the bridge, rumors will float, passage methods will develop and the
river banks may be damaged and Epulu will function differently. The
mamas will slide down the river slopes to mount the pirogue, while
schoolchildren wait on the other side (or just stay home), and a young
male piroguiere will demand money from the both for their passage.

I just hope nothing like what happened at the Ituri River banks
happens here. More than two years without a bridge turned both banks
into huge market places, full of hundreds of porters moving timber,
beer, and cheap Asian electronics and goods, as well as trucks and
buses onto man-powered "hand over hand" rope ferries. As Conrad, or
maybe it was me, once said, "the chaos...the chaos....". We had to
cross with our vehicles every few weeks and pay $50 and wait 1-2 hours
for the privilege. But there aren't going to be ANY vehicles crossing
here.

The advantage is our bridge is less than 40 meters long and we're
located in a protected area, and both banks are occupied by
international conservation NGOs, which might help to protect the
surrounding area. The disadvantage is that this is Congo, where
outsiders fear to invest or work, and where civil servants are rarely
called so due to merit. This chaos always presents opportunities to
pad the pocket of a mal-trained, ill-paid, or fat individuals. I
can't make any bets about what will happen with the bridge, so stay
tuned....

Where T-shirts go to die...

I am stealing this headline from the Congo Bradt Travel Guide, because
it is so true that tshirts come here to die in Africa. They are
usually made cheaply in developing countries in Asia or Central/South
America, sent to US for its maximum purchasing power, then sent to
Africa when they've been outgrown or are just not wanted....they go
there to die.

In the US, we are so conscious about the words on our t-shirts or
which emblem is on our hat. It goes so far as for me to not bother
striking up conversation with most people who are rocking a Yankees
hat, unless its to tell them that their team sucks...

In Congo, Africa, and maybe most of the world...emblems have little to
no importance. That is not to stay style does not matter because I
think most people, especially women, take more pride in their
appearance here. No offense to women anywhere else, but first of all,
African women always wear dresses. Dresses are always more elegant
than even designer pantsuits in my opinion. The dresses are usually
fabricated from bright primary-colored pagnes, and pedestrians often
shade themselves from afternoon sunshine with umbrella parasols! The
essence of elegance.

Also, try to keep up with women who are re-braided twice a week or
more...plates, weaves, wigs, and the classic Congolese all-direction
braids. Lots of effort!

But sometimes the women wear tshirts with their dresses, and then the
styling priorities become very clear. No one here has allegiance to
Wright State University...but if its got nice colors, then consider
them a fan. Charlotte Hornets had some of the best colors ever - teal
and purple - even causing me to go color blind & conflict my
allegiance to the Celtics, by chosing to don a Hornets winter jacket.
The team is now in New Orleans and has slightly different colors, but
that doesn't really matter to my Mama and her husband Stanley, who
I've both seen wearing a nice warm Charlotte Hornets jacket, similar
to the one I used to have.

Guys here also have a bit of style. On Sundays or even serious
workdays, men will make me look downright slovenly in comparison.
Ties with brightly colored checked shirts, silk golden shirts, or
well-sewn button-down shirts made from pagnes which show their
allegiance to their home Catholic Parish, favorite (or only....cringe)
politician, etc.

Some people are just a little more casual or maybe can't afford these
niceties, so that brings out the ridiculous t-shirts that charity
groups love to dump into African markets, the likes of which have led
to:

Lots of dudes wearing shirts like "Girls Soccer Camp", "Too Hot to Handle"
A lady wearing an official Pub tshirt - "Taking it to the house since 1863"
Tambo, my favorite forest guide who is probably 50+ years old,
frequently wears his "I Love Soccer Moms" t-shirt, an emblem idea
which probably came from a drunken frat dude somewhere.
Little Mbuti pygmy girl wearing a tshirt "Bitchie" in the font and
colors of "Barbie"
Mbuti chief wearing a "Weezer: Punk @$$ tour" or something like that

a) who makes these shirts? b) who sends these shirts to markets in
Africa? are we really this capitalistic? charitable? or is it an
ethic of not letting anything go to waste? Well they certainly don't
go to waste here, they're worne thread-bare and continue to be worn
until one day they just fall off. I've been many kilometers deep in
the forest and seen some of the dingiest looking flip-flops ever -
which were left there because they finally gave up and broke.

Also, there might be some pretty valuable vintage or rare t-shirts or
jerseys around. I've seen a guy with a #33 Celtics jersey before.
For years, I coveted a throwback Larry Bird jersey, but couldn't
handle the $100+ price tag. Maybe next time I must spring quickly to
make an offer! Also, my alternate mama Marceline has a little boy
named Serge who wears a vintage #16 San Francisco 49ers Joe Montana
t-shirt. Try finding one of those in the mall - its a special-order
item, bank on it...

One day, I'll find that favorite tshirt of mine from a former time....

Backed updates: UGANDA TRIP

After about 20 days on the road, I finally got back to Epulu this past
week. I had a nice time visiting Uganda. It is a lovely country -
people are very hospitable, beautiful landscapes, and the logistics
are easy enough. I stayed three days at a guesthouse near Fort
Portal, which is a place where you should think about retiring. The
house was surrounded by well-kept tea fields stretch over the rolling
green landscape, which have a backdrop of the towering Rwenzori
Mountains. The panorama from the guesthouse also included a nice view
of the hard-edged forests of Kibale National Park, which is Uganda's
primary park (and most expensive!) for chimpanzee-tracking.

Tea and other agricultural fields are interrupted by over 30 crater
lakes, which result from volcanic activity which ceased only 10,000
years ago...another of the Albertine Rift's unique landforms. I spent
an afternoon with a guided mountain bike tour which passed 6 crater
lakes, which was just spectacular, fun, and tiring!

Its elevation of 5000+ feet keep days mild and nights cool. Western
Uganda is a birdlover's dream. From the guesthouse, I saw so many
birds that I made the decision to just leave my bird book alone,
because I had never seen any of them before and had no idea where to
start looking. They were mostly stunning...

After leaving the guesthouse, I found my friend Pat, who works for
World Harvest in Bundibugyo on the far-side of the Rwenzori mountains
near to Congo. I decided to find this solitary crater lake that I
grew to love when I was intern with World Harvest in 2005. My friend
Michael had taken all the interns there for swimming, boating, and
camping. At that time, a British man had purchased the property with
the dream to build a luxury lodge - Lake Kyaninga Lodge - so I
checked his progress. This crater lake is still the most stunning I've
seen. The large hills that hide this lake can be seen from several
kilometers away, and when you reach their crest, the lake seems like
it must be 200 meters straight down below. Also the progress is good!
The lodge is nearly ready, and when it is...I doubt I'll be able to
afford the view. Now, nine bandas sit atop the crest above the lake,
with the the highest part occupied by a main lodge, which will have
many nice sitting areas, and a swimming pool perched basically in this
cliff. It will be too nice when it is finished.

Pat took me back to Bundibugyo, where I had spent 5 months in 2005.
The view descending from Fort Portal and driving switchbacks in the
slopes of the Rwenzori is lovely. The Semuliki Valley spreads out in
the distance beyond the hills, and the snaking Semuliki River marks
the border with Congo. I have so many good memories from
Bundibugyo...where I lived in a special Christian community, the likes
of which are difficult to replicate! Other than the Americans on the
World Harvest team, I had no idea who I'd find or remember or who
would remember me. Most of the team is new from when I was there, so
I enjoyed meeting the new folks. I was pleased to find a few teachers
at Christ School who I had enjoyed time with before, and meeting
others who were new. It was nice to attend team pizza night, to hike
out past hot springs to the Semuliki River in the Semuliki National
Park with young WHMers Nathan, Sarah, and Anna, and to share TACOS
afterwards, thanks to the Myhres! It was also nice to attend a very
long church service with a melange of local language Lubwisi and
English, including Lubwisi hymns and raps.

After visiting for 4 days, it was time to dive back into work and
trying to speak French again. I crossed the border only 10km from
where my friends stay to get back to the big town Beni about 100km
away. This route is not frequented by muzungus (European origins /
white people), and road traffic is very rare...mainly just local foot
traffic. It was basically no man's land for a while for two reasons -
1) the ADF rebels who attacked Bundibugyo in the late 90s fled there,
and rumors continue about them still being there... and 2) before
2005-06, a few villages right over the border in Congo were not
connected to the rest of Congo, but by a "decroded" route/bikepath, in
fact they still use Ugandan Shilling currency. The road was recently
improved and now its possible to travel from Bundibugyo to Beni. I
was greeted by very thorough but civil bag searches in both Uganda and
Congo's immigration offices. The Congolese immigration officers
helped me find a hotel/restaurant in the little border town in case no
taxis came that day. Luckily, they even found me a shared taxi that
would traverse the northern sector of Virunga National Park and arrive
in Beni in 3 quick hours.

Lots more happened, but this post is long enough! More backed updates soon!

Greetings from Uganda

Hello from Bundibugyo - the most isolated district in Uganda. It
really has the most Congolese feel of all other parts of Uganda that
I've been to. I am visiting friends who have worked here with World
Harvest Mission for over 15 years.

On Monday I will cross into Congo via a new road that was just
recently improved in 2006-7. Before that a part of Congo was so
disconnected from the rest of Congo that they used Ugandan shillings
and had no road access to other parts of Congo - separated by the
Semuliki River.

It should be an interesting journey through the northern sector of
Virunga National Park, where okapi just recently were rediscovered
using camera traps. Even in Semuliki
National Park, there are rampant rumors that okapi are even found in
these forests because the okapi survey confirmed they were on the east
side (towards Uganda) of Semuliki River, expanding their range, and
leaving no great barriers to accessing Semuliki National Park.

So now I am wrapping up a week of vacation which followed a weeklong
GIS conference in crazy crazy Kampala. Lots of fun, but man is
Kampala noisy and full of traffic. But it is growing ever more
developed on the surface.

Now, back to Epulu!

Contrasts

My Maman Asumpta delivered healthy beautiful baby girl named "Joelle"
last week Wednesday, October 14. She was 6.6 lbs and is doing very
well. Asumpta is good and ready to move back to Epulu after being in
the big town Mambasa since a few weeks before her delivery. So now
her other beautiful little kids - Astrid, Lydie, Don de Dieu are ready
for another little one too. I got to hold her - she is tiny like all
newborns and beautiful!

On the other hand my friend Duga - who is about 30 years old - lost
his 5 year old daughter a few weeks back. She was stricken with
something and died within a day! Pointless, inexplicable, yes - all
of the above.

Meanwhile his wife was pregnant again and in her second trimester.
Last Thursday or so, she suddenly developed major problems and
required an emergency cesarean section. This required an imaginably
uncomfortable 70-km ride on the back of a motorbike. She lost the
baby but kept her life, so it could have been worse! But really - its
not easy to be from rural Africa. All the more reason to rejoice for
healthy births and happy, active lives.