Resuscitated Spider

The other day there was a spider in my shower.  I assumed it was dead because it did not move all day.  Usually spiders (or cockroaches, or hoppy bugs, or whatever else is alive in my bathroom) jump when I fill up my bucket of water to flush the toilet (our toilets don’t flush so you have to throw a bucket of water down).  All day, the spider stayed put as water wooshed into the bucket right next to it.  So imagine my surprise when I went to pick him up and throw him away that he jumped to life and nimbly ran across the shower.  Since I was about to take a shower anyway I figured I would drown him, so I opened up the tap and washed him away.  It took a bit of time with him struggling to get out, but eventually his legs crumpled up and he washed down the drain.  This time I was sure he was dead.  So imagine my surprise when I looked down 5 minutes later in the middle of my shower and see a soggy spider crawling out of the drain.  Apparently 5 minutes of water washing down the drain was NOT enough to do away with this hardy fellow.  Well, enough is enough, so I got a flip-flop and stepped on him.  Several times.  And then again.  Then I washed him down the drain again.   This time, as far as I know, he stayed down.  It is entirely within the realm of possibility that this spider exited the drain once more once I had left the room, so believe me when I tell you that I was looking around for him all night.  I was not going to be surprised if he was lurking in my bed- maybe even with a bunch of angry spider friends that I had tried to kill before in the past year and a half.  I haven’t seen him since, but you never know… 

Lent: The Season of Hope

The liturgical season of Lent started today.  From the outside, Lent might seem like that dreary time of year before spring when you have to give up something you like and remember to not eat meat on Fridays.  But for me, Lent is the Season of Hope.  It is one of my favorite liturgical seasons (I’d say favorite, but you really can’t beat Easter for a good time) and is a great source of inspiration and growth each year: I have been looking forward to Lent starting for weeks.

But why season of hope?   

During lent, we can increase hope in first God, and then ourselves.  Jesus is the center of this season; it is during this time each year that we prepare ourselves for The Resurrection: by remembering Jesus’ Resurrection at Easter and by preparing ourselves for our own resurrection with Jesus in concrete ways. During Lent, we contemplate the life and death of Jesus.  There are many somber, painful, and sad moments during Lent, but even these, or really, especially these moments give us hope- because we can look up and see the Resurrection.  We can see the wonders of God and all the reasons to hope in Him.  We are able to refocus our lives centering on the Resurrection and remember our reason for living: Eternal Life.   We hope in Jesus Christ and we hope in Eternal Life, that is why we live.

Once we have increased our hope in Jesus and His Resurrection, and by consequence our own hope of Eternal Life, we can increase hope in ourselves.  If we really try during Lent, we can find that we are able to change our lives: we are able to give our lives to Jesus.  We can do more, try harder, and even change a little.  We can learn and grow and that gives us hope to learn and grow more.  6 weeks is not overwhelming, like a New Year’s Resolution: this year I will change this forever.  It’s just 6 weeks to try something new, give more, live without.  But at the end of these “just 6 weeks” we can find that we have changed our habits into something better, or that we enjoy giving more, or that we can live without- and it’s not so hard, in fact, it’s good.  We can also learn that we really love chocolate cake and now we can indulge with a true appreciation of just how much we enjoy it.  When Easter is celebrated, we can be filled with hope that we changed ourselves- just a little bit- for the better during this Lent.  And that gives us hope to continue, and this hope grows so we can continue to become the person that God created us to be. 

Lent comes every year the same, every year is a new chance to add something to our lives- even if we add by taking away.  Every year gives us hope in Jesus, in Eternal Life, and in ourselves to be and to do what God is asking us in this life. 

At the beginning of Lent today, I am filled with hope.  I know that many of my ideas of how I will spend Lent will not work out the way I think, and I will change differently than the ideals in my head, but I also know that I will emerge at Easter full of Hope: in Jesus and in life.  And this hope does not disappoint.

From Whence I Commence Blogging Once More

Whoa, what happened?!  It’s been like 3 months!  I could tell you I’ve been super busy and I haven’t had a minute to type out a blog or that I’ve been so into living in Congo I’ve given up computers (except that I work at a Cyber café, so that’s not really going to happen).  The truth is, I just lost inspiration.  I have some nice blog topics all picked out and some even started, but I just couldn’t find the inspiration to write.  I would think occasionally of updating, but I just couldn’t do it.  I’m not way busy, I haven’t given up computers, but I did have a 3 month case of writer’s block.  I’m getting better now, so here I am attempting to blog again. 

Changes

There have been many, many changes.  When I abandoned all my loyal readers, we were 7 people celebrating Thanksgiving with disturbingly fresh Turkey.  Since then Lydia has returned to Canada, Clara returned to Italy for one month vacation and came back again, and Stefano, Maria, and Matteo returned to Italy for good.  We had some Italian visitors for Christmas- 2 of Sterfano’s friends came for 10 days.  Then my parents came for 3 days in Aru and a 10 day Safari in Tanzania.  After all these changes, Clara, Katie, and I are starting to build our new, 3 person, girl-power community and adjusting to changes in working and living.  I’m still working at Cyber and a bit at the bakery plus a little more on the library.  Things are much quieter (minus Italian men- also less smokey) and I’m looking forward to some stability in the community after over 6 months of constant change.  Truly, the community has not been stable for more than one month since I left for home in June.  Although it would be nice to have a fourth person (especially a guy with considerable computer skills who loves to sing karaoke), I’m very happy with stability for the moment.     

Cyber

I’m the head of the Geek Squad now.  When Matteo left I looked around and suddenly realized I’m the number one Geek in town.  Katie and I think it’s hilarious we are the Congo Geek Squad- although we can both use computers, there is no way Best Buy would hire us.  Even so, we want to make Geek Squad t-shirts, and maybe even get badges.  If you’ve ever dreamed of being on Geek Squad but lack the actually technological skills necessary…come to Congo!  Our standards are much lower. 

Library

The library construction has been underway for just over 1 year now, and we are nearing some stage of completion.  I’ve tried to be very patient, but I really want to see this thing up and running.  I’m getting worried I’ll have to leave before it’s even open!  The front rooms are almost done- the children’s classroom, the reception area and book storage, plus the first study room.  We are putting all of our resources into finishing these rooms so that we can open on a limited basis and then we will finish the 2^nd study room and community/class room later when funding permits.  Our community is undertaking the painting ourselves (the Congolese painter was charging an exorbitant rate waaaay outside our budget) so now 2 afternoons a week we go on over to the library and paint away.  It’s actually a nice way for us to build our new community by working together and it is helping the library get to the point where it can open.  I’m still entering books into the catalogue, very, very slowly.  We are still looking for French language books- especially textbooks and nonfiction resources, so if you know anyone who knows anyone who knows anyone at all that might have access to French books let me know!

Bakery

You all know about the recent political unrest against the establishment in Tunisia, Egypt, etc. that is spreading across Africa and the Middle East?  Well, stay tuned for bakery news.

That’s a basic outline of life in Aru at the moment.  I do feel like I will be blogging more often now so check back again soon…maybe there will even be pictures next time! 

Thanksgiving: Africa

This was a Thanksgiving to remember. 

Since Katie from Nebraska has joined us here, we decided the 2 of us needed to make a real American Thanksgiving, Turkey and all.  We had seen some Turkeys hanging out around Aru so we decided to find one.  Lydia went out for some reconnaissance and came back saying the turkey would cost something like $30, which is highway robbery because that’s how much a goat costs.  So Katie and I returned the next day with Sister Gracianna hoping she could lower the price a bit.  Well, the man wasn’t home.  So bright and early Thanksgiving morning we tried again and did succeed in a slightly lower price.

I came home triumphantly after breakfast with a turkey in tow.  Here she is, one hour before her death:

And here we are together:

I had a great plan in my head for Mama Marie (a local woman who cleans, gardens, and sometimes cooks for us) to come and kill/clean/ready the turkey for us (i.e. make the turkey more like you find it at the store).   Sadly, Thanksgiving was the one day Mama Marie was sick and didn’t come.  So that left us all standing around our turkey, who was tied to a tree in front of our house, wondering what we were going to do with it.  Stefano thought he could kill it, but had never killed anything before and we didn’t think a turkey was a good place to start.  Finally we decided to go to the convent to ask for some help.  This was a good move.  Raymond, one of the men who does various odd jobs for the sisters came over, took the Turkey out back and slit its throat:

Then he cleaned it:

Then he emptied out its insides and gave it back to us almost as you would find a store-bought Turkey.

Here she is, one hour after her death:

With the Turkey death out of the way Katie and I were able to concentrate on cooking our feast.  After lunch we set to work.  I made an apple pie from a can I had imported from Denver and Katie made her dad’s famous stuffing.  Clara and Matteo helped to finish the Turkey and we stuffed her up nice and big and put her in the oven.  Our oven is usually a disaster to work with because it has 2 temperatures: off and really, really hot.  Everything burns in this oven and it is always frustrating to bake.  We have now discovered the one thing our oven is good for: Turkey! Here she is going into the oven:

While the turkey was roasting nicely in our super-hot oven, I made my family specialty Grandma Noodlies and Katie and I made some delicious mashed potatoes.  As the turkey came out of the oven to rest I took the drippings and attempted to make gravy from scratch for the first time in my life.  The taste was good, but the consistency was a bit off, I’ll have to try again next year.

As the turkey rested the Italians broke out the salami and Parmesan cheese for Happy Hour before dinner (although I did warn them not to eat too much because we had tons of food just around the corner). 

After the turkey’s last nap everything was ready and it was time to eat!  The Italians took control of the carving…well, they didn’t exactly carve the turkey but hacked it into 8 huge chunks.  It wasn’t a nicely presented platter of turkey slices, but it added a lot of character to our International Thanksgiving.

We all stuffed ourselves with tons of food and shortly after dinner found that we were all exhausted, like there was some kind of chemical in all that Turkey we ate to make us tired…

So we left the dishes for the morning and lounged around until it was time to stuff in a little bit of apple pie and drag our overstuffed bodies to bed.

This was my second International Thanksgiving in a row (3^rd if you count Guam as International).  It was great fun to introduce Thanksgiving to Stefano, Clara, and Maria and Matteo enjoyed his first Thanksgiving with turkey.  I encouraged all of them to come to America some day to experience even more food and family. 

I hope you all had a very Happy Thanksgiving and I hope that you all appreciate turkeys that come all nicely wrapped up and ready to go into the oven!!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Kisangani

I have just returned from a two week vacation with my community to Kisangani, a city on the Congo River smack in the middle of the Congo jungle. Let’s just assume that all the traveling over treacherous Congo roads went swimmingly and we arrived in Kisangani and returned to Aru without encountering any problems such as muddy roads, rivers without bridges, flat tires, or running out of gas and focus on Kisangani itself. 

We were in Kisangani for one week and I think we were able to see pretty much all there is to see in this moderate sized jungle city. Kisangani is located on the upper reaches of the Congo on the last navigable part of the river. It is about .01º above the equator and thus very hot. There are also lots and lots of mosquitoes. In colonial times it was known as Stanleyville (which is great because I went to Stanley British Primary School for kindergarten and as it turns out the city and school are named for the same guy) and was a major trading post for goods headed down the river to Kinshasa (Leopoldville) and onto Europe. Since colonial times Kisangani has fallen on hard times being the center of much violent conflict and even the setting for a war between Rwanda and Uganda. Being in the middle of the second largest rainforest on earth, Kisangani is not exactly accessible. Although the road we took from Bunia was passable it was by no means a high way, thus, the river is the main means of transport. Kisangani shows signs of once being a prosperous city and the potential to become a prosperous city again, but at the moment it’s nowhere. There are many beautiful old colonial building and many crumbling concrete buildings. There are some paved roads and many pitted, muddy, dirt roads. There are a fair amount of motorcycles and a few cars. There are some expensive places to eat and lots of cheap street food (like GIGANTIC larvae). It was a wonderful opportunity to see more of Congo and compare Aru, a town, to Bunia, a small city, and Kisangani, a larger city (the 2nd or 3rd largest in Congo).  

Day 1: We arrived from Bunia bright and early Sunday morning at 6 am. After waiting to officially register with immigration (Congolese LOVE paperwork) we made our way to a lovely hotel ½ block from the Congo river- Le Palm Beach. Palm Beach features a swimming pool, hot water from the tap, air conditioning, and a tv complete with CNN- in English! So it was a nice play to stay. Plus, the proprietor gave us a discount because we’re volunteers. I imagine it helped that we showed up to check in with a sister…

Everyone else went to the pool, but I got stuck on the bed, since I hadn’t slept so much on the 24 hour bus ride from Bunia. After a relaxing morning we decided to try out the hotel restaurant for lunch, and thus commenced our first of many nearly identical restaurant experiences. All restaurants in Kisangani have the exact same menu, but the all change the prices a bit depending on their perceived elegance. All restaurants in Kisangai are missing certain parts of their menu, so you sometimes have to ask for 2 or 3 things before you find something that the kitchen has. All restaurants in Kisangani take at least 1 ½ hours to bring you your food from the time of ordering. Okay, so we didn’t try ALL restaurants in Kisangani, but all the restaurants we did try were almost exactly the same. So much about restaurants. Now when I say we ate at a restaurant you know that we had to order 3 times and wait 1 ½ to 3 hours for our food. So, 1 ½ hours later we left the Palm Beach restaurant and took a walk down by the river and around the town a bit. It was great to finally see the great river of this country, and the 4th largest river in the world. It is indeed a large river, especially for me since I don’t have much to compare with in the way of rivers growing up next to the Platte and all. The Congo makes the Platte look absolutely pathetic. 
The Canossians of Kisangani invited us for dinner that night so we went out to their place, which happens to be an amazing old colonial building overlooking the Congo. I can easily imagine the old colonials sitting on the front porch, looking over the river, and sipping their gin and tonics. Here is the view:

I don’t know how, but the Canossians are able to get the best pieces of land all over the world, but I will have to explain more on that in another post. 

Day 2: We slept in, late. It was amazing. And very cold in our air conditioned room. We spent the morning lounging at the pool, swimming and sunning. We had a picnic in our room with food the sisters sent us, watching tv:

In the afternoon we made our way to the famous Wagenia Falls where the fisherman have built big wooden frames over the river from which to dangle fishing net like things and catch fish. This is what it looks like:

We then took a pirogue (small canoe-like boat) on an expedition down the Congo to the convent to meet Srs. Daniela and Charlotte for dinner. It was a beautiful time of day to be out on the river, just before sunset so the temperature and scenery was perfect. It was very relaxing to be rowed down the river and take in the sights. The Congo is a huge river completely surrounded by dense jungle. The city and other small towns poke out a bit, but really, the jungle dwarfs all its surroundings, coming just to the river’s edge on both sides. Here are some photos of our expedition:

We met the sisters at a lovely place, but they didn’t have food because you need to call 1 day in advance, so we went into the city and ate at a restaurant- you know how that went.

Day 3: Srs. Daniela and Charlotte came to fetch us in the morning for in expedition to the Left Bank. We hopped in a pirogue with a motor and traversed the river in a few minutes. There is a small town on the other side of the river plus a railway station. The railway looks like its from the 1950s (which it is) and hasn’t been updated since (which it hasn’t) but it is still working. We then set off on a long trek around visiting Wagenia falls from the other side and tramping though a lot of very hot jungle. We ended in the town center where there is a huge church, St. Martha’s and ate our picnic lunch at the local convent where Sr. Charlotte has some friends. After lunch we headed back over to the Right Bank to experience the Kisangani market.  

The market in Kisangani is more or less the same as the market in Aru, but on a much bigger scale. There are more things for sale, more shops, more stalls, and more people. But the basic feeling is the same. It was fun to check it out and see all the goods one can find in Kisangani, but also tiring and a little overwhelming for someone accustomed to a small town market. Think what it would be like to go to Super Target after months of 7-11. Well, after the market expedition we were all quite tired so we headed back home for a short nap time.

After nap we headed over to the convent for dinner with the sisters. After dinner we went back to Palm Beach where I took advantage of CNN in English to follow the results of Election Day in America. It was a nice surprise to know what was going on in the world and especially my country, but it also reminded me how out of touch I often am in Aru. We don’t have television and the internet is so slow, who wants to waste time on silly things like news? So I usually have no idea what is going on in the world. Thus, I enjoyed very much watching Election Day news in my air-conditioned hotel room!

Day 4: We had grand plans to visit the hydro-electric plant on the river to the north of Kisangani, the Tshopo, but once there we were told we needed to seek permission from another office in the center of town. So instead we crossed the river and had drinks at a “beach” overlooking the falls, which are quite a nice sight:

We then walked over to the “zoo.” I think our guidebook describes the zoo best “…a sorry place with about three animals right now.” It was indeed sorry, but there were more than 3 animals, I think there were at least 7. But they were all in very small, plain, cages, and didn’t seem all that happy. There was also a wild monkey who hangs out by the caged monkeys, I don’t know if he’s comforting or tormenting his captured comrades, but it was an odd juxtaposition.

The plus side of this type of zoo (or yet another minus) is that you can pet all the animals, so here is Stefano getting groomed by Freddy the Chimpanzee:

And Matteo kissing the snake that they kindly took out of its cage for us

After the restaurant we retreated over the Tshopo and sought a place for lunch. This restaurant was the same as the others, but also special. Some of the food arrived lickity-split after one hour, but Clara’s did not arrived after 3 hours, which is the Kisangani restaurant record.  

We had a few quiet hours in the late afternoon and evening before heading out for a big night on the town. We went to one of Kisangani’s premiere night clubs “Dallas.” I am sure I won’t do this place justice in my description because it was something special, but I’ll try. In the middle of the rather broken down city of Kisangani we found ourselves in a very posh night spot. There was music blasting and laser lights beaming all over the place and every 5 minutes a smoke machine added to the bizarre atmosphere another layer of mystery. The music was a mix of African and American music from the 80s and 90s. I found myself dancing to the Macarana (but me and Lydia were the only ones dancing). And I can’t forget the floor to ceiling wall mirror that everyone oriented there dancing toward. I must say, I’m not sure I want to see myself dance, but in Africa, it’s all about watching yourself in the mirror. After awhile it this strange atmosphere we decided to move on to another place. We found another night club that wasn’t quite so posh (the beer was 1/3 the price). It wasn’t so fancy, but it too featured mirrors. In fact, I observed that people didn’t so much dance with each other as they did with themselves in the mirror. Very different from America. On the other hand, some aspects are the same in all night clubs all over the world. 

Day 5: I dragged myself out of bed early after our late night out so I could attend daily mass at the Kisangani Cathedral which was just a 2 minute walk from our hotel, overlooking the river. This is the Cathedral from the river (our hotel is to the left and ½ block back):

The mass was in Swahili so I understood even less than I normally do when mass is in Lingala. My favorite part was the 10 year old who was playing a gigantic drum almost taller than him.  

Later in the morning Sr. Roberta, the superior of the Kisangani Canossian Crew came to fetch us to visit a center for handicapped people run by a priest who was bitten by a mosquito on the spine and became paralyzed. He decided to devote his life to helping other handicapped people and in 25 years has built this center. People can go to the center for different therapies as well as educational opportunities. Most of the center is run by the handicapped themselves. It was very inspiring to see a sustainable and successful project.

The rest of the day we spent quietly at the hotel, enjoying the pool, the sun, napping, and so forth.  

For dinner we tried what the guidebook described as the best restaurant in Kisangani. And it did not disappoint. Now, to be sure everything was the same as all the other Kisangani restaurants BUT Psisteria had free appetizers. As it turns out the hour and half of waiting for food goes much faster when you have some bread and butter to munch on in the meantime. And there was just something different about the atmosphere of the place that made it seem like it was slightly better run than other restaurants. 

Day 6: Our last day in Kisangani. We started off by returning to the hydro electric plant on the Tshopo for our tour (we had dropped by the central office the day before to pick up our official letter). Apparently there was some miscommunication because the people at the plant were expecting 20 Belgians military personnel rather than 5 multi-national missionaries, but no matter. The tour was cool, but I don’t understand much about electricity and even less in French. My favorite part was the control room because it was right out of a 1950s film. Yes, the Kisangani power plant is still using the technology of the Belgian colonial period 50 years ago. But it’s still working…

After the plant we went to the sisters’ for one last meal. One of the sisters even made Tiramisu (or something like it) for us. Then Sr. Roberta joined us for a tour of the Primus brewery. Primus is the premiere Congolese beer. In Kisangani, this beer is actually cheaper than water. Usually factory tours take you through some displays on the process and then maybe you get to see some of the real factory through a window. But this was not your usual factory tour. Our guide took us right through the real factory, where everyone and everything is actually working to make the beer. It would never fly in the U.S., but it was a pretty cool experience. At the end of the tour we got to taste some Primus straight from the vat, before bottling, and it was good. Much better than the bottled stuff in fact. Another hi-light of the tour was the view from the roof of Kisangani:

This picture is odd because while on the street I never noticed many trees, but from the roof I could hardly find the city.  

After Primus we continued our touring by visiting a house for Street kids just outside of Kisangani. It was a very simple place and over crowed. Over 50 small boys sleep in one small room on make shift beds. It is better than being on the street, but it is a project that needs a lot of work. There are currently 2 Italian volunteers helping to run it now so hopefully it can become more organized.

By now it was getting very late and the sun was setting on the final day in Kisangani. We hurried to the Hotel Bamboo out of the city on the Congo for a nice view of the sunset and we hoped dinner. We did get the lovely sunset, but dinner no:

So we returned to our favorite restaurant for one last restaurant meal before going back to Aru and cooking for ourselves and doing our own dishes.

This post is getting mighty long, but that is the end of our Kisangani vacation. I will write more updates soon on what is going on in Aru.  And just so you know whose blog your reading, here is a picture of me and the Congo river:

Meat Grinding, Mouse Hunting...

I love tacos. Especially in Congo where Mexican food is a rare treat. This Saturday night I decided I wanted to make tacos for dinner. I had my imported spice pack of taco seasoning, a fresh avocado for guacamole, tomatoes, lettuce, and cheese (not cheddar, but one must not be too picky). All I needed to do was whip up some home made tortillas. Oh yes, and meat, I needed meat. Clara had gone to the market earlier and bought some lovely chunks of cow meat. But the best tacos are not made with chunks of cow meat, but with ground beef. Therefore, I endeavored to grind the meat myself. I went to the convent to borrow the sister’s meat grinder and cut up all the meat into reasonable sized chunks. I put the machine together and started grinding. Well, grinding meat is hard. I didn’t get too far by myself. As is turns out it is VERY important to remove every bit of non-meat (fatty stuff) from the beef in order for the grinder to grind smoothly. I had about ¼ inch of ground beef and was struggling for more when Matteo came in offering to help. As much as I wanted to grind beef all by myself, I didn’t put up much of a fight and he took over. Well, Matteo was not afraid of the fatty stuff slowing the machine down, oh no, he just powered right on through. Do you know what happens when you power through with the meat grinder? A cow explodes in you kitchen. I mean, cow blood everywhere. All over the floor, the table, everywhere. It was awesome. All the carnage was worth it in the end when we had delicous tacos for dinner.

After Saturday came Sunday. We eat breakfast a little later on Sunday mornings (I enjoy sleeping, others go the early mass or do other stuff that I don’t know about because I’m sleeping). We all gathered for breakfast and were having a pleasant time when something ran across the oven and behind the cabinet. A mouse!! **Side note: we had seen this mouse before but had been unable to catch it. You might wonder why we didn’t put our cat Etienne on the job. As it turns out, in Congo the cats are afraid of mice. Furthermore, our dog is terrified of our cats.** Matteo, who loves mouse hunting (it seems Matteo enjoys the nastier parts of Congo life) sprung into action with the broom and Clara followed closely with a shoe ready to spring. They chased the mouse around the room a bit and finally succeeded in stunning it into oblivion. Matteo then gave it to Etienne who devoured it with joy (He’s not afraid to eat it if it’s already dead). It was really lovely entertainment for Sunday morning breakfast. So you can get in idea of what a Congolese mouse looks like, I will leave you with a picture of Sr. Angela with a mouse:

Cyber Days

So what is running a Cyber Café in Africa like? Now that I work at Cyber 3 mornings and several afternoons a week, I’ve learned a lot about the Cyber business. My first observation is that things usually don’t run as smoothly as they do in your typical Cyber in America, but we muddle through somehow and the Cyber often does a brisk business of Internet, printing, scanning, photocopying, typing, and various other computer related things.

First the set up: We have 2 computers for internet and 2-3ish computers for other business such as typing, scanning, printing and such. We have one color printer/copier/scanner and two black and white printer/copiers. However, one of these has been out of toner for over 1 month and the other refuses to talk to computers. So in reality we have only one black and white copier. *Update: We got a new printer/copier/scanner. **Update: We got the toner for the copier. Now we have something like 4 machines for doing various jobs usually done at Kinkos (or is it Fedex office now?) Here is the main room of the Cyber:

During the morning when the generator on, there is another room of desktop computers for people to use for individual work as well as for classes. The Cyber offers classes in basic computer skills, Word, and internet navigation and is also used by the local schools for a computer class. Here is the back room (I took this picture when we were already closed for the day so the computers have been tucked into their blankets for the night):

Now, onto our services. First, of course (because it’s called the Cyber) is Internet. But sometimes (a lot) the Internet doesn’t work. This is because it isn’t catching the signal, or it’s expired, or it’s cloudy, or it’s sunny, or it’s daytime, or it’s a day that ends in y. However, when the internet does work, both computers are often in use and sometimes there is even a line of 2 or 3 people. The line might not get so long if it didn’t take 20 minutes to merely sign into email, never mind actually read or send an email. I always feel bad that most of the time the customers pay for is them waiting for the internet to work and not actually using it.  

One of our most popular services is photocopying. We make lots of photocopies. As I mentioned there are two copiers, one for color and one black and white (and now 4! But the 2 new are redundant as they offer the same services and problems as the old). The color is very slow and the ink is expensive, so we can’t make more than a few copies. The black and white is big and can make lots of copies, but can only be operated when the generator is on. Thus, we can only make lots of copies in the morning. So when someone comes in asking for 5 copies of a 200 page book at 4 in the afternoon, we have to say, “sorry, come back tomorrow between 10 and noon.” Or if the copier is out of toner and we haven’t figured out how to use the other one, we have to say, “Sorry, come back in several months when we can get toner from Kampala.”

The last major service is my specialty: typing. I’m a lightning fast typer and can do pages and pages in a single day. This is why I went to college and spent hours hammering away at the keyboard. The first few weeks I was here I typed 3 English reports (those were easy) plus a bunch of different things in French (not so easy). I typed for hours each day, until my fingers were sore. I hope no one ever thinks that working with computers doesn’t involve hard labor; it was certainly hard labor for my fingers!

Some of our smaller services include scanning pictures or documents and emailing, charging telephones, printing documents, and searching the internet. The other day I attempted to search for information on Congolese contract law. Searching in French on a subject that would be difficult to understand in English…that went well.

When explaining the Cyber it is very important to mention the difficulties of power. Computers need electricity. So do printers and copiers. Electricity is therefore essential to running a Cyber. Electricity is a bit of a problem in Africa. For 2 hours in the morning we have generator power, but we operate for another 4 hours each day without the generator. That’s where the sun comes in handy. There’s a lovely solar panel on the Cyber roof powering all our electronics when the generator isn’t on. However, the sun is unable to power more than 2 laptops and 1 small printer at a time, which means we are constantly taking turns running down the battery for the different laptops. And you can imagine what happens when there isn’t any sun for several days. 

As it happens, Cyber is a bit of a misnomer. Now you can see a better name is “Place where there are computers and related equipment that sometimes works.” But I’m not sure that would bring in customers. At lease with the name Cyber we can bring in customers, even if we have to turn them away when they want something that doesn’t work at the moment.  

I think with all this computer experience I might just try to get a job at Geek Squad when I return home!