Telegraphe Congolais

Cruisin...

So waiting for this so-called war to happen has been very relaxing. I spent the weekend sunbathing and canoeing. I didn't take the canoe out too far because-- as Dr. Jo would say, this is a silly story-- last week some NGO pleasure boaters went out to explore Minova, the territory on the far shore of the lake to the south, and came under fire from the 10th Congolese battalion. A British girl got shot in the calf and fell out of the boat, swam to shore and was taken into custody. Seems the boys of the 10th imagined that the boat full of mzungus crossing into another military sector could be mercenaries. More likely they were having a little target practice. In any case it was a clusterfuck and the british girl was brought to DOCS with a flesh-wound, for which she was airlifted to South Africa at a cost of $500,000-- and that could buy a lot of yellow-fever vaccinations. Silly NGO people. N'empeche que we were on our way to that same place earlier that same day but didn't have enough gas for the two-stroke. Prudence, prudence serves you well in the Congo my friends!

A word about Mama Jeanne. We have been visiting her orphanage a lot lately and it is the most impressive, filthy, warm, and effective operation, overflowing with children, chickens, goats and rabbits. Nelson was taken with a tiny little girl in a lavender dress who is the most ruthlessly adorable child in history. That is, until the dress flapped up a bit and we found that this was in fact a little boy who only has access to said dress. It was a little jarring for poor Nelson, and all of us in fact. We were treated on Sunday to lunchtime-- a boiled egg, beans, bugari (ground manioc) and a piece of goat meat for each kid, a hundred or so packed into a tiny clapboard room. After the plates were cleared it was sing-along time, and hoo boy. That was crazy. I think it can only be conveyed with footage, which hopefully will be in this incredible nobel-prize winning documentary we are making.

Have suffered notable reverses in tennis progress. Will advise.

posted by LouisAntoine @ 1:51 AM