so one of the things with having a drone is you aren't really allowed to fly it anywhere.
in DRC i know a guy who is the head of his local territory, and runs a little community forestry project. so i asked him if i could come and do some flights, make some videos for them, try some new techniques and teach his guys how it works and everything. they were thrilled!
i asked if any of the kids from my training wanted to go - yes yes yes! i couldn't say no and had to upgrade to one our land cruisers to have room for 7. learning from the training experience i got Serge to rent a generator so we could be completely "autonome." don't have to depend on anyone. i also suggested that even though they said they had food and drink, we should bring some.
so on the way out of kinshasa, after the airport we started stopping at these busy hectic local markets. i would pick out something from my list - eggs! bananas! and it would arrive through the door or window or a few steps away, though preferably one of the congolese guy's door because a few times went like this:
eddy goes and buys avocados from a lady for 500 francs each and comes back and says, "avocados!"
and i say, oh, i love avocados, let's get some more.
the exact same lady comes to my window and offers me her avocados for 2000 francs each, which i buy and i'm like, hey guys, only 2000 francs!
so then they said, just stay in the car.
eddy came back with matching straw hats for everyone.
later, we are driving along and i spy mangosteens. i love mangosteens! i want like, 100 kilos of mangosteens!
next stop carine comes back and says, we couldn't find 100 kg but we got 20!
as always, crowds of guys hang around the truck talking lingala and all i hear is mondele. if i called out "congolais" every time i saw a congolese i say!
one guy starts chattering on and i ask TGV to translate. stop me if you've heard this one before...
"well, this fine young gentleman in the Neymar jersey is politely requesting your hand in marriage, he has a large farm and would be proud to be your husband."
thank you TGV, please tell him i kindly receive his request, but cannot accept. i am truly sorry.
the guy continues chattering, smiling everyone in and out of the car is snickering, Serge says, "oh, do you want me to smack him? i will!"
what is he saying? TGV continue translating
"well...so, he wants the wedding to be now now now, his brother is a pastor, you will be married at lunch, and the honeymoon will begin today. you will go to his farm and..."
what, go on! at this point i am eating a banana
and TGV does not want to continue
eddy picks up where he left off
"well, since you like bananas so much you can go to his farm and eat his bananas, all day, all night and soon you will have beautiful mixed metisse babies and he will be so proud, one baby a year, every year until you are so old you can't anymore! and every day, bananas!"
ok you can stop, thank you!
the car got fuller and fuller until i realized we should stop stopping and start going. one more stop - meat!
and so we hit the butcher, who, ironically is wearing a shirt that says "would you marry ME??"
to which point we enter the how many children should people have debate, which i know is a favorite.
Serge the driver has 7 children and won't stop until he has to.
the other serge has 2 and will have no more - it takes a lot of "moyens" resources for many children, and i can spend more time with my 2 girls
Serge the driver responds: when le Dieu blesses you with children, he also blesses you with the resources to care for them (you know, the whole, children are wealth perspective)
to which the other serge says "what about Obama then! he has the resources but he only has two girls!"
pfff Obama, where is Obama now?
Obama's face is on this plastic bag! (and it is, look!)
and then the conversation evolves into Lingala and i zone out. at one point i read a lingala phrase off a beer billboard:
leke leke
mwete mwete
pete pete
they all laugh hysterically, i guess it was good timing to say something like triple filtered, extra smooth, easy going or something like that.
in DRC i know a guy who is the head of his local territory, and runs a little community forestry project. so i asked him if i could come and do some flights, make some videos for them, try some new techniques and teach his guys how it works and everything. they were thrilled!
i asked if any of the kids from my training wanted to go - yes yes yes! i couldn't say no and had to upgrade to one our land cruisers to have room for 7. learning from the training experience i got Serge to rent a generator so we could be completely "autonome." don't have to depend on anyone. i also suggested that even though they said they had food and drink, we should bring some.
so on the way out of kinshasa, after the airport we started stopping at these busy hectic local markets. i would pick out something from my list - eggs! bananas! and it would arrive through the door or window or a few steps away, though preferably one of the congolese guy's door because a few times went like this:
eddy goes and buys avocados from a lady for 500 francs each and comes back and says, "avocados!"
and i say, oh, i love avocados, let's get some more.
the exact same lady comes to my window and offers me her avocados for 2000 francs each, which i buy and i'm like, hey guys, only 2000 francs!
so then they said, just stay in the car.
eddy came back with matching straw hats for everyone.
later, we are driving along and i spy mangosteens. i love mangosteens! i want like, 100 kilos of mangosteens!
next stop carine comes back and says, we couldn't find 100 kg but we got 20!
as always, crowds of guys hang around the truck talking lingala and all i hear is mondele. if i called out "congolais" every time i saw a congolese i say!
one guy starts chattering on and i ask TGV to translate. stop me if you've heard this one before...
"well, this fine young gentleman in the Neymar jersey is politely requesting your hand in marriage, he has a large farm and would be proud to be your husband."
thank you TGV, please tell him i kindly receive his request, but cannot accept. i am truly sorry.
the guy continues chattering, smiling everyone in and out of the car is snickering, Serge says, "oh, do you want me to smack him? i will!"
what is he saying? TGV continue translating
"well...so, he wants the wedding to be now now now, his brother is a pastor, you will be married at lunch, and the honeymoon will begin today. you will go to his farm and..."
what, go on! at this point i am eating a banana
and TGV does not want to continue
eddy picks up where he left off
"well, since you like bananas so much you can go to his farm and eat his bananas, all day, all night and soon you will have beautiful mixed metisse babies and he will be so proud, one baby a year, every year until you are so old you can't anymore! and every day, bananas!"
ok you can stop, thank you!
the car got fuller and fuller until i realized we should stop stopping and start going. one more stop - meat!
and so we hit the butcher, who, ironically is wearing a shirt that says "would you marry ME??"
to which point we enter the how many children should people have debate, which i know is a favorite.
Serge the driver has 7 children and won't stop until he has to.
the other serge has 2 and will have no more - it takes a lot of "moyens" resources for many children, and i can spend more time with my 2 girls
Serge the driver responds: when le Dieu blesses you with children, he also blesses you with the resources to care for them (you know, the whole, children are wealth perspective)
to which the other serge says "what about Obama then! he has the resources but he only has two girls!"
pfff Obama, where is Obama now?
Obama's face is on this plastic bag! (and it is, look!)
and then the conversation evolves into Lingala and i zone out. at one point i read a lingala phrase off a beer billboard:
leke leke
mwete mwete
pete pete
they all laugh hysterically, i guess it was good timing to say something like triple filtered, extra smooth, easy going or something like that.
1 comment:
Carsten devrait s'inquiéter à ce point et commencer à compter ses chèvres ....
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