Ending Extreme Poverty in the Congo

Your Cigarette Lighter is More POWERful Than You Think

Can you imagine using your cigarette lighter to power all your electrical devices?  Most of you probably use your cigarette lighter to recharge your cell phone.  Have you ever used your cigarette lighter to power your laptop, your printer, your room light, or your lab equipment? 

If you worked at the Bulape Hospital, you would feel lucky to have a 12 volt power system to power your electrical equipment.  The Bulape Hospital does not have electricity except through solar panels or through one of two diesel generators.  The diesel generator is costly to operate.  Therefore, it is used only as necessary.  

Most rooms through out the hospital have one or two car batteries connected to solar panels on the roof via a control system.  You connect a cigarette lighter to the batteries and you have power.  Also, you can connect a 120 volt inverter to the batteries to power a normal outlet.

The Bulape Hospital is fortunate.  They have mostly working solar systems.  Due to widespread poverty in Bulape, villagers and most small business can not afford solar systems.  So they live and work without electricity.

Just When You Thought You Were Safe

After two deadly outbreaks of the Ebola Virus in central Congo very close to our village of Bulape.  I finally figured out there must be a link (direct or indirect) between the deadly Ebola Virus and Extreme Poverty.

The first time it happened I thought it was by chance or that the planets had aligned in a certain pattern.  After the second time it happened in less than 18 months in the same area near Mweka in central Congo.  I dismissed chance or the planets alignment as a cause.

Personal hygiene, bushmeat, and hunters were identified as cause of the Ebola Outbreak.  In February 2009, the virus hunter, Nathan Wolfe, laid out his research (proof) and the bigger problem.  The link is video is here or you can view the video of his talk is below.  Wolfe shows that the HIV virus was present in Cameroon in 1929.   Also, he did a followup interview.  We are not safe!  Ebola is a plane flight away!

  

Virus hunter Nathan Wolfe is outwitting the next pandemic by staying two steps ahead: discovering deadly new viruses where they first emerge -- passing from animals to humans among poor subsistence hunters in Africa -- before they claim millions of lives.

It takes a well prepared field along with good seeds

Education is a fertile field.  You have to use the good seeds to produce a bountiful harvest.  But sometime, the field is not ready for the seed.  So it does not matter, if you have the best seeds in the world.

We shipped elementary school books to Bulape from Canada.  They were in French.  They were in good condition.  They arrived in Bulape.  However, the books were met with mixed reviews.

The field was not ready for the good seeds.

                                                                                  20Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. 21They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." 22Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.25Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.

27"Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say-"Father, save me from this hour"? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. 28Father, glorify your name." Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again." 29The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, "An angel has spoken to him." 30Jesus answered, "This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. 31Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. 32And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." 33He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.  John 12:20-33  

My Taxes Dollars at Work in the Bulape Health Zone

Evaluators from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) are in Bulape Health Zone to visit their supported health centers.  I visited the opening of the Mpata Mbamba Health Center last September.  I was told that the health center was built for about $15,000 each.

 

The health center was already in use on the day of its grand opening.  There were two women who had just delivered babies.  If this health center was not available, these mothers and or children may have been one of the statistics.  Congo has a one of the highest child mortality and mother mortality rates in the world.  One in five children do not live until their fifth birthday.  And one in thirteen mothers do not survive child birth.

 

It makes me feel good!  Those are my taxes dollars at work.

USAID Visits Bulape in the Heart of Congo

 

When you see a school building that is falling down, you do not need an study or inspection report to validate the need.  The power of a personal observation backed by a picture is a worth more than a slick and pretty binded report  completed by a Washington Think Tank.

Today, I got an email from the village of Bulape stating that they had visitors from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).  They are the U.S. government's humanitarian organization.  A slick and pretty binded report by USAID is the greatest.  I wonder what their report is going to say about the state of poverty in Bulape and the area.

Congo Needs More Female Drivers

 

You see very few women drivers in the Congo.  It does not matter what form of transportation.  They do not ride bicycles.  They do not drive motorbikes, motorcycles, cars, or trucks.  As a matter of fact, I only know two women drivers in a town of Kananga which has over 600,000 people.  One woman drives a pickup truck and the other woman drives a motorbike.

The Basic Utility Vehicle (BUV) has the potential break through some glass ceiling.  The BUV is easy to drive and affordable.

The majority of women are forced to walk even while carrying babies, toddlers, bags of food, wood, water, steel drums, and etc.

 

Congo's High Protein Foods

 

Congolese are very charitable people.  These poor people who have little for themselves will still find some food items to give to us, their honored guest.

It is always a treat to see what live animals are being given to the group.  As the leader of the group, I automatically had to go out to receive the animals.  Typically, gifts included eggs, chickens, bananas, plantains, fish, and goats.  I was most frighten when they brought chickens. 

But the scariest moment for me happen when I got a bamboo tube of dried peanuts.  They made a strange hissing noise.  I just refused to take them until someone told me that it was just peanuts in the bamboo tube.  I was a little embarrassed.

All in all, the Congolese gave us their best protein items.  It made you feel bad because you knew the average Congolese did not eat as well as we did.

Cassava, called Bidia, is served with or without anything

Cassava is the food staple of the Congo, and most of Africa.  Each African country and even region within a country has its own recipes and names for the cassava.

In the Kasai region, corn meal is added to the cassava to give it more flavor, texture, and nutrition.  It is called bidia in Bulape and other areas of the Kasai.  It is made in a pot over an open fire in boiling water.

So what goes with bidia?  Anything the family can afford or find to go with it.  A meat or vegetable flavored sauce is the typical side dish.  Of course, a poor family may just have bidia. 

 

 

Missing Are the Rows and Rows of Corns

 

Subsistence farming is a way of life for most people in Congo.  Most farms do not follow conventional farming techniques. 

Contouring farming is not always used to prevent top soil erosion.  Also, fertilizers are not used to supplement soil nutrients.

You will not see rows and rows of corn or other crops.  The most striking difference is the random planting of seeds.  Typically, most crops are not planted in nice, neat, and vision-appearing rows.  Second, the farms are not too large since the work is done by hand.  Smaller land plots do not produce large quantities for sale.  Also, storage of corps like corn is not practiced.

Therefore, enough food to prevent hunger can be problematic and risky. 

Clean Water is A Challenge for Congo's Rural Poor

Clean water is essential to life!  The high child mortality rates in Congo is directly related to drinking water from unimproved and unsafe sources.  Clean water save lives!

Generally, children under five years old die from severe or chronic diarrhea caused by poor water quality.

Developing clean water sources in rural area of Congo will be a challenge.  One, there are very few or no water well drilling companies or nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).  This is an unbelievable situation when you consider the number of companies drilling mineral samples throughout the country.  Second, the majority of the population live in rural villages which are generally unaccessible by roads and railways.  The poor rural Congolese will be last to get improved and safe water sources.

Special water well drilling equipment and expertise must be brought into the rural areas of Congo.  Clean water is a challenge but it is not impossible. 

The international observance of World Water Day is March 22, 2009.  Did you know that 1 billion people around the world lack access to improved water supply?  This year will be the 17th annual observance of this day.

The theme for World Water Day 2009 is "Water Connects".  We all need water and all water flows together connecting us all and the need to protect this needed resource. 

From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. The people spoke against God and against Moses, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food." Then the LORD sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned by speaking against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD to take away the serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people. And the LORD said to Moses, "Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live." So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live. Numbers 21:4-9