It has a wider angle than my previous camera. It zooms. It has point-and-shoot image stabilization. It takes videos. It takes macros (close-ups). It's tiny. It's rechargeable (no batteries to buy/throw away). It took me days of research to decide on. If you ask me, and you eat all your veggies, I'll let you know which of the hundreds of models it is. It's perfect.
I woke up in the middle of the night, on Saturday morning, realizing that I needed to charge the battery before morning. We had a big day planned. We were going out in the country again! This time, we were going with one of the Marines, Sgt Aaron Beck, who's in charge of the missionwide "Toys for Tots" program. But mostly, we were going with the Sisters (Franciscan Missionaries of Mary) because I'd met someone that had something very interesting to show them, out on the Bateke Plateau, in the same area as their land with the non-functioning well (see The Sisters and the Well): a model/school farm, already in operation, teaching Kinshasa street boys how to live and work in the country. Just what the Sisters want to do with street girls. Immediately we had set up the visit, and since it was almost Christmas, it could be combined with the Toys for Tots program.
We had stocked up on food for the tots, too. Almost accidentally! Here's how it happened. A grocery store in Kinshasa circulated an ad offering gift packages of food for employers to buy for their employees. I asked my cook and two housecleaners if the prices were interesting, and not too surprisingly, they said the next to largest box was the best value for the money. So I put in an order. I also thought Sam's two drivers should be included, and the gardner, and the guards. We found out there are five guards. I put in the order for three large packages, each with a huge, 25 kg bag of rice, 10 kg bag of cornmeal, and large reusable grocery bag filled with cans, bags and bottles: oil, sugar, tomato paste, sardines, etc; and five smaller packages, including the bag of rice and some of the cans. PLUS, frozen chickens for everyone.
Well, when all this food arrived at my house, it became a problem for everyone: how to get it home? So I offered to buy it back from them all, and they were happy with the deal. And I was very happy, because grocery shopping is a major hassle here, and all this well-packaged food was ready to go to the orphanages: La Grace de Dieu, Becky's home for street boys and another orphanage in Masina, the FMM's orphanage in Kintambo, and now, Father Guido's "Boys Town". He doesn't call it that, but I have a hard time with African names.
I had met Father Guido at an International Women's Club meeting. He is an Italian priest, who was sent here by his order, alone, 13 years ago, to see what he could do, and what he found most appalling was the condition of the street children. He had very little funds, but he more than makes it up in energy and contagious enthusiasm. He now has brought three African priests into his order, mobilized funding and volunteers from all parts, mostly his Italian connections, and he has built a center for street children in Kinshasa. And 5 years ago, he bought land on a lake (or large pond) on the Bateke plateau, and built dorms, farm buildings, a meeting hall, a schoolhouse, a solar powerhouse, water tanks, all as if there hadn't been a civil war going on.
So that's how we spent our Saturday. The road was long and painful, but we were in good company. The dirt road part was just as bad as going to the Sisters' place at Menkao. But when we arrived there, what a difference! A tree-shaded avenue leads to a campus with many buildings, connected by paved paths lined with flowers and bushes. Cows graze in a well-enclosed pasture, next to the henhouse and pigsty. Every kind of fruit tree including, yes, a small breadfruit tree, a trellis heavy with passionfruit, vegetable plots, pineapples, and, he said, they've put fish in the new artificial lake. Potable water comes from a spring 500 meters away. That's a lot of plumbing, so we asked who had done the work. We were surprised to find out that it was the same company that had dug the well and built the installations at Menkao. Padre Guido recommended getting back in touch with them, that it was likely they'd fix it. Except, being nearly the only competent people in Kinshasa, they're overwhelmed with work.
You can see my photos of this trip on snapfish. Internet connection is bad, so bad that I lost my first draft of this post trying to upload a video.
P.S. Actually, it wasn't lost. So, if you want to read a different version of the same story, look at the post below, "Padre Guido." Also, it has the snapfish link to the photo album.
I woke up in the middle of the night, on Saturday morning, realizing that I needed to charge the battery before morning. We had a big day planned. We were going out in the country again! This time, we were going with one of the Marines, Sgt Aaron Beck, who's in charge of the missionwide "Toys for Tots" program. But mostly, we were going with the Sisters (Franciscan Missionaries of Mary) because I'd met someone that had something very interesting to show them, out on the Bateke Plateau, in the same area as their land with the non-functioning well (see The Sisters and the Well): a model/school farm, already in operation, teaching Kinshasa street boys how to live and work in the country. Just what the Sisters want to do with street girls. Immediately we had set up the visit, and since it was almost Christmas, it could be combined with the Toys for Tots program.
We had stocked up on food for the tots, too. Almost accidentally! Here's how it happened. A grocery store in Kinshasa circulated an ad offering gift packages of food for employers to buy for their employees. I asked my cook and two housecleaners if the prices were interesting, and not too surprisingly, they said the next to largest box was the best value for the money. So I put in an order. I also thought Sam's two drivers should be included, and the gardner, and the guards. We found out there are five guards. I put in the order for three large packages, each with a huge, 25 kg bag of rice, 10 kg bag of cornmeal, and large reusable grocery bag filled with cans, bags and bottles: oil, sugar, tomato paste, sardines, etc; and five smaller packages, including the bag of rice and some of the cans. PLUS, frozen chickens for everyone.
Well, when all this food arrived at my house, it became a problem for everyone: how to get it home? So I offered to buy it back from them all, and they were happy with the deal. And I was very happy, because grocery shopping is a major hassle here, and all this well-packaged food was ready to go to the orphanages: La Grace de Dieu, Becky's home for street boys and another orphanage in Masina, the FMM's orphanage in Kintambo, and now, Father Guido's "Boys Town". He doesn't call it that, but I have a hard time with African names.
I had met Father Guido at an International Women's Club meeting. He is an Italian priest, who was sent here by his order, alone, 13 years ago, to see what he could do, and what he found most appalling was the condition of the street children. He had very little funds, but he more than makes it up in energy and contagious enthusiasm. He now has brought three African priests into his order, mobilized funding and volunteers from all parts, mostly his Italian connections, and he has built a center for street children in Kinshasa. And 5 years ago, he bought land on a lake (or large pond) on the Bateke plateau, and built dorms, farm buildings, a meeting hall, a schoolhouse, a solar powerhouse, water tanks, all as if there hadn't been a civil war going on.
So that's how we spent our Saturday. The road was long and painful, but we were in good company. The dirt road part was just as bad as going to the Sisters' place at Menkao. But when we arrived there, what a difference! A tree-shaded avenue leads to a campus with many buildings, connected by paved paths lined with flowers and bushes. Cows graze in a well-enclosed pasture, next to the henhouse and pigsty. Every kind of fruit tree including, yes, a small breadfruit tree, a trellis heavy with passionfruit, vegetable plots, pineapples, and, he said, they've put fish in the new artificial lake. Potable water comes from a spring 500 meters away. That's a lot of plumbing, so we asked who had done the work. We were surprised to find out that it was the same company that had dug the well and built the installations at Menkao. Padre Guido recommended getting back in touch with them, that it was likely they'd fix it. Except, being nearly the only competent people in Kinshasa, they're overwhelmed with work.
You can see my photos of this trip on snapfish. Internet connection is bad, so bad that I lost my first draft of this post trying to upload a video.
P.S. Actually, it wasn't lost. So, if you want to read a different version of the same story, look at the post below, "Padre Guido." Also, it has the snapfish link to the photo album.
1 comment:
Il faut faire un nouveau blog.
Hmmph.
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