Mangos and Weird Things

Walking around from village to village finishing off some research the other day we come upon a friend climbing with a stick to purchase the highest mangos from the tree. He climbs, he pokes and mangos rain down upon us, huge, hurtling missiles. We laugh as everybody scoops up the precious fruit.  Bosco buys a jack fruit so big it nearly tips him off the back of his bicycle. I chastise him for it as the heat is sizzling and we have a long day in front of us, but he really wants it, and so on we go with the heat beating down, the dust in our eyes and the fruit weighing us down.

Later I sit under a tree with the Local Council leaders and they ask me about  my country. We are sitting under a mango tree. I remark that those mangos would sell for a good penny in my country and suddenly the scheme to export mangos to Canada seems a great idea until the freight, labour, export fees, custom brokers etc. take their due. The old men settle for having a great mango tree to shade them from the baking sun.

Walking along, the most magnificent tree takes my breath away, it’s a mango tree.

On my way home, I buy some mangos and they are all the sweeter for the connection we’ve made today.

My friend just returned from the Congo. He does some funny, funny business between here and there as he puts it. He tells me about a man he sees on the street just over the border there. The man cannot walk. He has been accused of witchcraft and they have cut the tendons behind his knees and at his heels. It’s horrible. Some relatives come to feed him but he is stuck there on that road now.

The Congolese cut holes in prisoners heels to run the chains through instead of handcuffs. The Chinese got nothing on them for torture.

Can you imagine it will cost me $70USD to go to the Congo  for one day? I had no idea there was a visa entry fee to hell.

The election weirdness does not abate. The other night opposition posters were torn from the streets at gunpoint in front of everybody. This is getting to be serious business. The German embassy has warned citizens here not to travel 5 days before or after the elections. The streets are filled with posters and trucks and blaring vuvuzelas and loudspeakers and people carrying tree fronds and whistles and dancing and ululating and bikes zipping up and down and the EU is here to observe and so in 8 days we shall see what comes. 

The power has been mostly off for 3 days now and it’s bloody annoying. Everything in the fridge got thrown out today. The computer had no power source, nor the phone. Load shedding gets old.

It’s grimy hot now, steamy, sizzling, brain frying hot. I wash my own clothes in the shower and by the time I’m done I need a rest. Energy economy gets you through the day. I sleep in the day sometimes – that’s a really weird thing for me.

I've decided I really don't like okra.. is it even a proper vegetable?

Weird things don’t seem weird anymore. It may be time to pack up and head home soon.