Congo Update 24, March 2013

Greeting from the Congo

News in the area.  The rebels captured the capital of the Central African Republic which is the country to the north, but that is a good 14 hard hours away by vehicle so no effect here.  Our bigger neighbor too the south, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) gets in the news from time to time since there is a civil war on their eastern border.  The DRC is just across the congo river which I can see from my apartment, but there problems are on the DRC’s eastern side and there are no roads between here and there.  The DRC is a huge country with lots of people.  There are 4 times the amount of people in Kinshasa which is right across the river than in all of the republic on Congo.  Its nice and calm here which is nice.

Kinshasa across the Congo river.  The Congo river drains the central African rainforest - one of the last wild areas in the world.

This next week we should begin planting the potato crop as the soil is ready.  Its been raining steady these days.  Hopefully the second rainy season which is normally between late march to may is extended and not starting early to end early.  We have also been sorting some of the seed and cutting some of the bigger seeds in some varieties.  This is more of an experiment.  If we can cut the seed like is commonly done in the US this makes more potatoes available for planting and seed costs cheaper.  In the tropics soil diseases are more of an issue and we don’t have the modern storages used in the US to store the cut seed.  Past experience has shown that storing the cut seed a minimum of three days and a maximum of 7 heals the cut wound enough to avoid problems.  We shall see here.

Republic of Congo like a lot of other developing countries has almost no middle class.  In the two big cities, Brazzaville and Pointe Noire there is a city center that is very nice and you can get imported stuff and go to nice restaurant for a lot of money.  About 2x what things cost in the US. This is where the expats live and the people well connected with the government.  Outside these enclaves things are much different - haphazard building, limited food choices and crowded in the towns.  There are very few people in the rural areas with just small villages.

Pointe Noire downtown.

And every street is a maze of small shops and street stalls selling the same stuff

Little town center of Louette in the rural area.

In the villages there are only a few stores selling the essentials

The roads also vary a lot There are these new roads the Chinese are building and when they are finish are really nice, but there are very few of them.  Most of the roads are rough dirt that turn into mudholes when it rains.  The roads up by Lekana go though the grasslands and its like driving in a green tunnel.  The grass is so tall you can’t see out of your windows.

Nice road near Point Noire

More typical country road after a rain

Road though tall grass in Lekana.  That’s a full sized truck

Then there are the adaptations to life here.  Brakes drums have a problem and you don’t have a lathe.  Take a grinder to them.

The power grid is pretty undependable if you have it at all so much is spent on private generators.  Everybody here seams to have a cell phone, but everybody doesn’t have electricity to charge them.  Thus cell phone charging businesses are born.

I’ll have more farming news the next update.  I’ll just close with a pic of some village girls with their little brother.