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From the outside or the inside, you can not tell how the building was constructed. Yesterday, I disclosed what the building looked in the beginning stage. I said the walls were optional.
The outside walls of the building look great and professional. And the inside walls look equally impressive.
Now, I changed my mind, the walls are complementary.
How do you build a stick-and-mud house in the rural Congo? What are the processes of construction?
At this point, I would say different. I might even say it is the opposite of our building practices in the US. First, posts are placed to support the roof. Next, the roof is completed. Then, the walls are completed. Finally, the floor is completed.
Typically, we start with the floor or foundation. Next, the walls and supports are completed. Then, the roof is completed.
The walls are accessories to the building. They are optional.
If you fly over a neighborhood and see lots of swimming pools, then you can safely guess the residents are affluent. When I flew overthe village of Bulape, I noticed a lot of empty swimming pools, too. Actually, they were not swimming pools but they were empty cistern.
Bulape was once an American Presbyterian mission station. The missionaries built many cisterns to provide water for their households. Today, the cisterns are empty. They were made from concrete which broke down over time. The price of concrete needed to maintain the cisterns was too high for the average poor Congolese to afford.
Cisterns are a integral part of a safe water system for rural Congo. Modern cisterns are being replaced with plastic tanks.
About half of the population of Congo have access to safe clean drinking water. You want to be part of the better half. You want to be part of the ones who have access to safe clean drinking water. Let's assume you are put of the haves and not the have-nots.
You may have to walk 1-2 miles to a central protected water source. The water source could be an underground cistern, a capped water spring, or a well. You are really lucky if it is a working city-supplied water source. You stand in line to wait your turn for water. You want back to your house carrying the water.
A mother and her baby are trying to beat the odds. Maternal mortality and child mortality are a deadly game.
The mother just survived childbirth. One in 13 women will die from childbirth complications during their lifetime. So this woman have beat the odds this time.
The baby's struggle just started. One in 5 children will die before their fifth birthday. At just a few days old, this baby has a long way to go.
It is not a game, it is life for women and children in the Congo.
The two girl teams played soccer to a tie. But they set records. Just imagine girls not only going to school but participating a school soccer match.
It is rare for so many girls to attend second school in a Congolese village such as Bulape. If it was not for a separate girls school, such a game would not be possible.
Also, it is rare for girls to participate in sports. In poor villages, soccer is only sport played. Congo is not a big sports country. Children and young adults are busy surviving. There is just loo little time left for sports.
Under the right conditions, anything is possible. We all could be happy and smiling.
We could solve extreme poverty. We could prevent most deaths from treatable and preventable diseases. We could provide safe clean drinking water. We could minimize most cases of malaria. We could reduce child and mother mortality rates. Even in Congo, under the right conditions, anything is possible.
But business as usual is sad and deadly.
