Congo day 6
Today we went to a clinic outside the city of Kinshasa in a more rural area. People began to look more and more poverty stricken as we started 4 wheeling off the main road. We pulled up to an old white clinic that Banding Together will be helping in the future with medical supplies and Aids education. They serve the community children two meals per week and attend about 44 patients daily. I went into the maternity ward first and met three women. I asked to hold the first madame’s baby and she placed the 2 day old child in my shaky arms. I then proceeded to ask her the wee little ones name. She first asked my name and then said the baby’s name is now “Esther”…. wow, i must say, i’ve never had a child named after me. Also, there were two other women in the clinic with two boys who named their babies after Drew and Josh, but they couldn’t say Josh’s name right, the child is now named George. I really enjoyed this place, because it is the first that i’ve been to that the people weren’t afraid of the camera. I snapped away as I met the local people, played with the kids and tried to say a few things in french. Tomorrow Josh is heading back to Kenya, where he will fly back to the States. Drew and I are headed back to the Clinic tomorrow to help prepare a meal feed the community children. I can’t wait for this !! Africa has really grown on my heart. It is a place that I will long to come back to. The below photographs are in Mpasa and the bottom photo is Esther and Esther. 
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Day 5 Congo
This morning, I was running late and had the luxury of breakfast, practically in bed.. Thanks to Josh.
We had several meetings set up today with the people who invited us to this country. The first man, was a bishop and also a member of the Senate here. He was very kind, gentle man who asked me if i was a madame or a mademoiselle. I replied,”Je ne suis pas mariee”. They all laughed. My french is starting to come back roughly at times. I have decided i’m going to study it a lot more when I get back to the states. It is such a beautiful language that is useful in many countries around the world.
Our next venture was suppose to be shooting downtown with a our own police escort, but we have decided it was best not to do that. People here do not want to be photographed in public. The best bet for good images seems to be from a car or in the privacy of homes.
We instead decided to visit a government orphanage on the outskirts of the city. We pull up to a semi-nice looking place that housed 110 children. Several of them were outside screaming ( mondelli ) which means white man. Drew sat in the office and had a meeting, while Josh and I, video recorded and photographed the kids. They were having meal time, which was some type of maiz. You could tell that the orphanage had no education on nutrients, because the children all had blown up stomachs from malnutrition. Rice is not good enough for them.. they need real food.
We have some very good friends that have been helping banding-together since they started working in this country. They made us a beautiful dinner the other night and we wanted to give back to them by making a good ole’ American Meal. They do have a nice store in this city where we found a handful of American food, but the prices are insane. A bottle of Cola cost about $6 USD a small frozen pizza cost roughly $15 USD, I think because most of it is imported. We decided on spaghetti, salad and garlic bread. I think they enjoyed our meal… or at least they smiled and said they did.
Tomorrow, we go outside of Kinshasa to a rural, poverty area to bring medical supplied to the local clinic.
-Esther
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day 4 congo
Third world countries are becoming more and more familiar to me. I want to still see it from an outsiders eyes, but i think i’m adjusting with being out of the USA so much lately. I remember the first time i arrived in India, I was in awe to my surroundings every place my eyes looked. Now here in Congo, I feel like i could be missing things because they seem so normal to me and to those who have never been here would be fascinating. I was talking with a friend today who was raised in South America. He said the first time he set foot in Walmart in the USA, he was blown away, but now it hardly has an affect. The things we take for granted in our clean country is shocking. We have so much, yet we all complain about being poor or not having enough. The truth is, will we ever have enough ?
My favorite part of coming home from a trip is the soaking in the luxury of Hot showers, electricity you can rely on all the time and the precious clean air we have in every city of America. Compared to the rest of the world that i’ve seen, we breathe in the best stuff.
I am smacking the mosquitoes as I am writing this to you. It is something you have to be very concerned about on this continent. Malaria is a very, scary and dangerous sickness that strikes with the bite of a mosquito. When i visited the dr’s clinic a few days ago, there were several malaria patients in the hospital rooms, hooked to IV’s.
As he told me, it is what most people come to him sick with.
Church on Sunday, was glorious. We visited a United Methodist Church that is right next to our hostel. The whole service was in english, along with the beautiful music. I recorded some of the african songs they sang and will post them when i get some time. After Church, we were invited by the dr. we met a few days ago, to eat lunch at his house. He lives on a street in Kinshasa that is named after him.
After a delicious meal in his Air Conditioned home, we went to see some communities and touch the Congo River. I asked him about the Tiger Fish really lived in the Congo River. A few weeks prior to my trip here i had googled the congo river and found photographs of this Giant Fish caught with Razor sharp Tiger teeth. It looked unreal. He confirmed what google had shown me.;-)
I am getting more use to the use of my camera here and learning when to hide it. Anytime you see any uniforms or approach an intersection, I dodge to conceal it.
-Esther
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Day 3 in the Congo.
I didn’t want to wake up this morning for some reason. I really hadn’t felt the affect of my jet lag till today. I was quite shocked that I transitioned so quickly without having naps and strange sleeping patterns. When i did finally open my eyes, I almost had to pinch myself because for a moment I thought I was at home in Austin in my own bed. The nights have been very cool here. I am very lucky to have such nice weather in Africa.
We headed out mid-morning to not sure of the schedule for the day. All plans constantly seem to change at a moments notice. We pulled up to a medical clinic / church compound. We sat with one of the professors who teaches on Aids there and interviewed him for about an hour about their education program he had in place. He seemed to know a lot about Aids, but had few materials to distribute to the community to teach them. After the meeting, we went to tour the compound and facilities and met some children in the area and began to play and photograph with them. The next thing i knew, we had to leave. Apparently the head honcho wasn’t very happy about this because the clinic isn’t in very good condition and he is very conscious about this being documented. If we wanted to film, they would have to fix it up and make it look “good ” for us to do so. We tried to explain to them that it was for their benefit that we document what it was like at this moment. If we show the way it REALLY is, more people will want to help. He threatened us to call the police if we didn’t leave right away. We got back in our vehicle and drove away.
We came back to our compound where we met a woman who is living with Aids. She was absolutely beautiful, dressed in her traditional clothing with a giant grin lighting up her face. I decided to try my french with her and see if she could understand me. I took a semester of french in college, but only got as far as describing family members and basic conversation. Shockingly, we somewhat communicated when we started to talk about our families. I showed her a photograph of mine and she wanted to know who each person was. She told me about her 6 children and her husband that had already passed away from Aids. We took her outside where Josh ( the videographer ) set up a professional interview. She told her story to us in a very bold and strong view. She is a positive woman who wants to speak about what she lives with because she wants more to know how they can help people who have Aids. Her biggest concern seemed to be funding for the education of her children when she passed away. One year in a government school costs about $150 US dollars per child.
After the interview, we went to meet another women with Aids. Both are part of a support group here in the capitol for women living with it. They are being threatened by their landlord to be kicked out because they talk so openly to everyone about having HIV. This has caused them to want to move outside of the city and live together in their own makeshift community. Many people have Aids and don’t want to be tested because of the shame it brings them from their families and friends. They also have false information that they hear as to what HIV is.
Today was a heavy day with a lot of learning on my part. I took each of these women aside before and after the interviews and photographed them. I also brought my polaroid camera and gave each woman a picture of themselves to give to their families.
I’ve attached a few photos from the day.
Tomorrow starts with early morning church in English ( whew thank goodness ) at a Zimbabwean church.
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Congo – Day 2
Today I awoke to a restful night of sleep in my bed with a beautiful, white mosquito net hanging above. We are currently staying at a christian compound in the heart of Kinshasa, the capitol.
We ventured out early morning to a hospital called Horizon 3000. We drove as far as we could to get to the clinic until the roads got so bad we could drive no further. Only the big trucks could make it over the rough terrain. Everyone stared right at us when we approached the main intersections. It seems that for the most part, the only foreigners here, are either UN or one of the few aid workers.
We approached a very nice clinic with a green lawn courtyard. We toured the inside as I photographed the malaria patients and got to know them a bit better. The Dr. provides healthcare to the surrounding community and has never turned a patient away. If they had no money, he said he would still find a way to help them.
They run an aids program at the clinic every other week. They invite 30 people from the community to the courtyard to educate them on aids and gives them the oppurtunity to be tested. The cost of 1 HIV test is about $1.50 in American dollars which is almost two days wage for most people here. The Dr. wanted to show us the neighborhood so I wrapped plastic around my camera and lens and attempted to shoot in the rain for my first time ever. People here are very private about being photographed. It is not at all like the other place I’ve been to where the kids run for the camera and will do anything to see themselves on the screen. Here they hide and put their hands up to block their faces from view. I also have to be extremely careful of getting caught by officers who would see me photographing. As I hear, if you are caught you can risk your gear being confiscated. I have to dodge to hide the camera if at any moment I see any type of man in uniform – and let me tell you…they are everywhere !!!!!!
Overall, I am happy with a few images from the day. But, something in me is gnawing to find out more… to really dig deep into the Congolese hearts and find their voices. What are they going through daily ? Do they live in fear ? What is life really like in the Congo? I believe these are questions that we all really want to know. If you think of anything you are questioning, please shoot me an email and let me know.
Saturday, I am meeting two women with HIV who have been out-casted from their community and families. They want to tell their story for all to hear.
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Captured this image today on the outskirts of Kinshasa.
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Hey Guys,
hello from the Democratic Republic of Congo. I’ve already written this twice with no success of it actually posting so i’ll try to make it quick.
I arrived in the DRC after many days of travel. I ended up on one of the craziest flights of my entire life from Paris to Kinshasa, Congo. Two hand cuffed woman were being deported back to their country by 6 French police aboard our Air France flight. They didn’t stop screaming when they were placed in seat belts in the back row. This threw the cabin into an uproar as the journalists were yelling at the congolese and vise versa. At one point a congolese man took a charge at the screaming woman and the police had to hold him back as people yelled. It felt like a Riot on the plane. And of course I was secretly filming as this all took place. It was at that point they called in the federal french police to calm the situation. They boarded our plane and commanded that each person sit in their seats so we could take off. An hour later, we finally went into the air. My mind began to question as to where I was really going.
Arriving into Kinshasa airport was interesting. I have never before been to such a place of corrupt chaos. They demanded money for everything single things they possibly could. When I handed her my Visa at the customs booth she looked it over and was about to call somebody over when I presented my letter of invitation from the government she then proceeded to say ” Go ahead “, in french or at least that is what I thought she said. The next stop was doctors who scan over all your immunizations to make sure you can enter their country. I had a pretty big list of hefty shots i had to take in the past months just for this trip. I was then greeted by one of our contacts who would escort me through customs. I entered into one of the most undescribable places i’ve ever been.
I talked to a woman this morning by the name of Mrs. Briget. She is here in Kinshasa and traveled all the way from East Congo to get her 24 year old daughter medical help. They have no idea what sickness she has, but are desperate for help. Her name is Jermani. I will have more of her story in the coming days.
Today we are venturing into the medical clinics on the outskirts of the city. I am going to be careful as to where I bring my camera out. This is a place where nobody wants to be seen or heard.
-Esther
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Hello Everyone,
Today I embark on an adventure unlike any i’ve been on before. I’m headed to the Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa. As i am told it is very hard for any person to get a Visa into this country right now, let alone a woman. I feel I have favor in having this oppurtunity to go and capture a story that needs to be told there. I am headed out today and should land in Africa sometime tomorrow. I will be photographing from morning to night almost everyday at the same time doing as much I can to help the health care facilities and orphanges we will be visiting. There are so many problems in this country right now and it is a very unsafe place to be for any person.
I plan to have internet while i’m there and will be posting day by day if possible.
Thank you all for your continued support in my life. It is a gift to be doing what I love.
-esther
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