To the field at last

Field visit on Tuesday - stream of thought.

I went on my first field visit today. It was a somewhat surreal experience to be walking through overgrown paths of vegetation on the way to see a group of women planting cassava. It did link up all the different parts of the process I’ve seen – from giving the money ‘to charity’ in the UK, to the work that goes on at head office, creating proposals, sending out equipment, recruiting some staff, to the in-country HQ to where the financial, HR and logistics support takes place, to our office in Kindu with people in the office writing up reports in pen and paper, creating plans and trying to evaluate how things are going in the field. And then the field – or ‘the terrain’ itself, which is a lot more down-to-earth then it is when you imagine it. We saw the harvest tht people had approached – I touched the grains that they will be grinding to eat and to sell. I saw the Cassava cuttings which are divided into 5 inch sticks and then put in the ground to grow. I saw the cabbages and aubergines which mean that the number of vegetables grown has risen from 0 to enough to feed families. I’ve sat down with the Chief of the village and the village committee and discussed issues that they’re having. I kept reminding myself that I was walking through the middle of the forest in the middle of Congo, in the middle of Africa. It felt normal until I reminded myself it wasn’t.

Even getting there is quite exciting. You go down to the river where you cross by pirogue (a very long dug out tree trunk, a bit like a canoe). You can get all sorts on a pirogue, including a couple of motorbikes, bags of equipment and however man people. We have a contract with one of the pirogue ferrymen so it’s only Tearfund staff crossing – all in our bright orange life jackets that I think must make everyone else stare in amazement. Other pirogues are really loaded with people – you can get about 50 people on the slightly bigger ones but I’m not sure I’d want to join them! We were only going to fairly close by villages today – maybe about 25km, and there’s actually a really good road to get to them. It’s even tarmaced! I haven’t seen any other tarmacced roads in Kindu, but there’s one leading away into the bush. We keep a pick-up truck on the other side of the river (it’s somewhat more difficult to get the cards across the river) so then drove for 30 minutes or so until we arrived.


Benoit and myself (with Blaise and Jean-Pierre in the background) in the pirogue

We spent some time and chatted to Mama Kapinga, who looks after 9 children. She is benefitting from the fishponds that Tearfund are supporting. The fish aren’t yet big enough to eat/sell – they’ won’t be until June. At the moment she goes down each morning to feed them, and sometimes in the evening because she likes watching them play in the water. When she’s able to sell them, she’ll be able to use the money to pay for the children’s school fees.

The poverty is pretty bad. People lost everything during the war, running off into the bush and losing the few things that they had. The children (of whom there are lots) run around in the most raggedy clothes I’ve seen, which are more holes than clothes. Most either didn’t’ fit or were coming apart. The adults were dressed a lot better, had more dignity and were very much with it!


Cassava cuttings to be chopped into 5 pieces and then planted - amazing that this stick of wood can grow into a couple of metre high bush!

Susanna, chief of the hygiene committee, who has an energy saving stove. Means she only uses 1 basket of wood a week, instead of 3. And when you have to walk 25 km (5 hours) to find wood that’s quite a substantial difference.
The woman’s group of 13 members who are growing maize and cassava. The rice harvests, now they’re producing a lot but don’t have a grinder to grind it so it eother all has to be done by hand, or wheeled on the back of a bike (imagine wheeling a tonne or so of rice on the back of a bike for 5 hours or so). Mixed emotions about merrily driving by in a landrover whilst they’re struggling every day. I know that we need it to be able to do our work – which is making major differences in their lives – yet I still feel a bit guilty about the vast discrepancies in our lifestyles. But grateful for what I’ve got, the opportunities I have, the comfort I live in… If you’re even able to read this, then you’re really blessed in the variety of opportunities we have!