What a trip! It started out with 3 guys and me at 6:00 in the morning on a
bumpy road in Central Africa. After 20 minutes we came to a wide river and
a 2 car ferry called a bak. It is an ingenious system they use to get the
bak across the river with no power, just some cables and a pole and the
current does the rest. After crossing we found a beautiful, freshly graded
logging road and after four hours and many small villages later we landed in
Bilolo, home to a missionary couple and their 2 young kids. The Fester's
work with SIL doing translation work on one of the Central African languages
in that area. They fed us a superb lunch and sent us on our way. After
crossing two more rivers we started to feel the encroaching rainforest. We
drove up a couple hundred feet of elevation and came to a savanna like area
where Bantu (the common Central African), Fulani and Aka (pygmies) all lived
together. This is quite unusual but there it was. Once we left the savanna
we were surrounded by rainforest and we drove by clusters of Aka houses on
either side of the road. One may be tempted to call these villages but they
are really more like camps. The Aka live in small family groups and they
are usually segregated from the Bantu villages, living just on the outskirts
of them, rarely mixed in. All along the road are large areas of land that
have been burned down to create gardens for manioc and bananas. It gives a
disturbing look to the road to see huge trees burned down but then gardens
have to go somewhere and the government will only allow gardening along the
road. The pygmies, who traditionally live deep in the forest, are more and
more living along the road as they have been forced out of the forest by the
creation of a large national forest where hunting is not allowed. Certain
concessions have been made but the pygmies have no chief to stand up for
them. They are very egalitarian. So much so that if one family gets more
attention or success than the guy across the road, death threats start to
surface from intense jealousy. This we are taking into account when
considering development projects among them.
The morning of our first day we spent working in the tree nursery of the
mission, unloading the 300 trees we brought, planting seeds, organizing
things and looking at the health of the trees in ground. Finding good soil
was a challenge as the soil at the mission is extremely sandy. Almost felt
like home since the soil in Florida is much of the same thing. That
afternoon we hired a pygmy guide, Benoit, and we headed off to the park to
see the rainforest elephants, a species similar to the savanna elephants of
Kenya, only smaller. We drove quite a ways in and then hit a network of
trails only Benoit could find his way on. We had to wade through a couple
of streams and in the process got a lot of elephant poo between our toes.
Speaking of elephant poo, it turns out that one of the best ways of
collecting rainforest fruit tree seeds is to look through elephant poo.
Even the seed coat fibres have been processed off.
We stopped and watched some monkeys in the trees above us and then continued
on until we came to a natural clearing in the forest called a bai. The park
has built a look out tower that we climbed up to. It not only gives a good
viewpoint but is also a much safer way to watch elephants, especially when
they have new babies. Many animals come to drink and soak in the mud of the
bai and we also saw bush pigs and a type of rainforest antelope. On the
walk back we observed orchids nestled in huge trees, listened to the chatter
of grey parrots above our heads and dug through more poo to satisfy Roy's
craving for rare and unusual fruits.
The next day, Paul Ohlin, a man who has worked with pygmies both in the CAR
and Congo for many years, took us and some Aka bible students out to some
villages. He showed us some of the projects he has been working on and we
got to see Jackfruit and breadfruit trees planted beside little Aka 'igloos'
.. The traditional Aka houses, which most of the pygmies still live in are
like 1 metre square igloos constructed from a framework of sticks with large
leaves woven through them. They are small yet practical and must do a good
enough job of keeping the rain out. They also make a good breeding ground
for TB since people are together in such a small space. Seeing jackfruits
planted next to these was very exciting indeed but so much more work needs
to be done. A few of the Aka had started little, and I mean little,
nurseries of jackfruits from seeds that Paul had given them that he got from
us here in Gamboula. To get to the nurseries you have to walk 2 or 3
kilometres through the forest on little trails down to a stream. The only
source of water for all the people along the road are these streams a few
kilometers from their camps. Ideally the nurseries would be in the village,
where there is more sun but without water this is not possible. Doing all
of this hiking in a skirt is slightly awkward to say the least but I did it.
I have decided however, that if pygmy women can go topless, I can wear pants
to climb around in the jungle. We also gave an impromptu training session
at one man's nursery and Darren and Roy caught me on video showing a man how
to transplant jackfruit seedlings and plant avocado seeds.
Saturday we spent the day fishing for tiger fish. They get to be huge and
have large, toothy jaws that hooks do not set in. Typically they are hunted
with nets, but both Roy and Kim had some fancy lures from the States they
wanted to try. So a collective 50 hours of fishing later, we only had two
12 inch fish to show for it between 5 of us. I guess I am not cut out for
the 'thrill' of sport fishing. We couldn't even eat what we had caught!
Sunday morning we worshipped with a group of pygmies in one of their camps.
It was a refreshing experience. No one was dressed up, most of the ladies
are topless, and the men are wearing rags. We all huddled under an a-frame
roof on little benches and a pygmy evangelist in training taught for a few
minutes on the flood in Genesis. The believers there are all in the infancy
of their faith and I couldn't help think of the apostle Paul and what he
would have done down there. The singing was beautiful just as we had heard
it was and I could have just listened to them sing for a long time. After
the service we gave a little lesson on the greatness of planting fruit trees
and what kinds of food God has provided for us in the trees, sort of
building off what the pygmies already know regarding the provision in the
rainforest. We had brought a large jack fruit with us for them to try,
especially since they had a trees around their houses that Paul had planted
out there but they had no idea what kind of food it provided. It turned out
to be a very poor quality fruit but no one seemed to care as they all loaded
up on pieces of fruit, latex sticking to everything. I really wish I could
give you a physical picture of this scene but it will have to wait.
There is so much to be done down there it is overwhelming to think where to
begin. We persevere with language learning and now feel all the more
motivated to be able to communicate so that we can help the Aka, truly the
poorest of the poor out here. I am running out of space but will send
another dispatch soon.
The Bosses
