Sarah and the Concern team are responding to the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by rebuilding 30 kilometers of road and 18 bridges as well as by distributing seeds, tools, oil, salt, food and resettlement kits to people in 64 villages in Katanga. 

July 9, 2007- It’s been quite an interesting few weeks here in Katanga. We’ve been out doing a water and sanitation assessment, so I’ve visited about 60 villages, been stuck on the road nine times, done a ten-hour drive from Shamwana to Dubie and received a marriage proposal! 

We started the water and sanitation assessment three weeks ago to see if the needs were strong enough to start a program here. We split the work so that Per, our advisor, looked at the water sources in the villages and I did the group discussions with the community members. The water sources in the communities are sometimes more than a 30-minute walk away from the village. You can imagine how difficult this is for the women here who have to make three trips a day to collect up to 20 liters of water for all their cooking, drinking, and bathing needs. My job was a lot easier than Per’s because I got to sit under a tree and have discussions with the people. We were asking them questions about their hygiene habits, trying to teach people to use latrines, wash their hands regularly, etc.

It was great to get out and see all of the villages in which we work. We stayed overnight in one, and the chief kindly gave us his house, although I chickened out and got the guys to put up a tent when I saw mice running around the floor! The almost 200 kilometer drive around the target area took us two full days to complete, and we got stuck five 5 times—on the road and in swamps—despite the fact that it’s the dry season. We ended up with ourselves and all our belongings covered in mud after the driver revved the engine in the swamp with all the windows open. I never thought I’d be as happy to see Shamwana as I was at the end of that day!

Suppose you’ll be wondering about the marriage proposal? After a community discussion, I asked if anyone had any questions. A 60-year-old man said yes. He wanted to know if I’d marry him! He thought I looked nice, and that I’d be able to buy him new clothes and build him a house, (I suppose that’s as good a reason as any to get married!) His current wife was standing beside him, so I told him that I would have considered being wife number one, but didn’t want to be number two. It’s given my team a good laugh—they now find it hilarious to make references to my fiancé in Kisele village.

I’m in Lubumbashi now, after spending a few days in Dubie to do the water/sanitation assessment. Stopping in Dubie (which has a population of about 12,000) first was a gradual reintroduction to urban life after seven weeks in Shamwana. Mind you, we’ve discovered that any place with a population of more than 5,000 is considered urban, which means Shamwana is an urban area! It’s certainly becoming more developed, as we now have a cinema there. It’s actually a television with a huge loudspeaker that transmits the film to the whole village, regardless of whether or not they want to hear it! It costs about 10 cents to go, and has been full every night, judging by the noise people make on the way home. Normally, life in Shamwana stops after 8pm, so it’s nice to hear voices and laughter as people go home after the “show.” Unfortunately, the films they choose are all violent action ones, although they are in English. I can now hear the sounds of movie gunshots and actors cursing at night as I try to get to sleep!

Visit the Concern Worldwide website at www.concernusa.org