HUMANITARIAN WATER PROJECTS

Visits to Humanitarian Water Projects with Elder and Sister Moon

During the couples conference we visited a water project that was done several years ago. It consists of a well, a large elevated tank and faucets in a village on the outskirts of Kinshasa, in Camp Luka. We drew a crowd.

 A school adjacent to the well serves about 250 students. This is the Head Master in his office. He spoke English.

 The children followed us through the village. Here they are assembled in the school yard. Earlier they had thronged us, touching and crying mundele (white person) over an over. Finally, sister Jameson, a former school teacher, assembled them and had them count to ten, first in French, then English, then Lingala, to their great amusement. They were kept at bay by two inebriates who attached themselves to us as our "guides", and later latched onto the back bumper of the truck, demanding money, and could not be dislodged. We drove them far out from the village, made them descend, gave them each a dollar, and made them promise to leave us alone.

 Women and children gather at the well faucets below the tank overhead and to the side. I am standing under the large, elevated holding tank. The woman in the print dress sits in the plastic lawn chair collecting a few cents from each well user. The water committee manages the revenue for maintenance.

 At another project in the countryside, we passed a bakery that the Moons like. They bake small loaves of dense raised bread. The Moons had taken orders for other couples and bought a sack full. The bread pans are in the background.

 These are the wood fired ovens.

 This green fruit was baked in the oven. It is sour and fibrous.

 This is the fruit after baking. Before, it has purple skin.

 NGO representatives, the village Water Committee head, a woman, and us and sister Moon on the left.

Village women getting water.

 A termite mound off the path to one of the spring sites. In their fields they grow manioc, spinach--not the kind we eat in the US, amaranth, corn, sweet potato, yams, and celery, along with many other familiar varieties. Their staple greens are the manioc leaves, the spinach (epinard) and amaranth leaves. They pull the whole plant before it goes to seed.

 Water is taken away in many different containers.

I didn't count the bottles but the tub must have weighed well in excess of fifty pounds and she lifted and place it on her head with ease. Loads are carried in this manner requiring two people to lift and place atop the head. because of this posture is beautiful in Africa. We don't see stooping among any age, unless it is a deformity from birth or disease.