More Kikongo Pictures.....Had A Great Time You Know!

Pictured above is a very typical hut out in the heart of Congo. We never got to go into one....its really rude to ask to go into one I heard....but I sure would have loved to see what's inside. The people sit outside most of the day preparing their food and just hangin'. The men are fishing or working the crops while the women are beating the mantioch down into flour for their staple, fufu. This woman is beating the mantioch root which has been dried for days after bringing it out of water for 4 days in order to leach a poison from it. It becomes flour (like corn meal) that they mix with water and make into a rather tasteless playdough-like food.

This is a very typical look at Congo landscape as we took off from the Kinshasa airport. As we flew on the hour flight to Kikongo this is a very typical view of Congo. It is very fertile ground with lots of great farm land and very few village. Villages are out there to work the land....cultivating the land for Congolese crop like corn, Mantioch plants, bananas, pineapples, and rice. In the forest they harvest rubber, and timber. There are other sections of the massive country that are rich in minerals and precious gems (diamonds, silver). Its an amazing country that has lots to contribute to the world (massive power could/should be potentially generated by the Congo river).

This is one blog entry to our trip to Kikongo......we saw amazing sunsets and moon rises. This shot shows you how cool one of the nights when the moon started to rise. I caught this shot with my camera being on a 25 second open aperture. You can even see some stars up in the sky.....the moon was just starting to rise and there were clouds that were on the horizon and the moon rose up between them. We were in awe at the color and and beauty of the sky.

How would you like to have this place to visit if you had to go to the bathroom. This is a very typical outdoor toilet in the middle of Congo. It would be hard to convince any woman that I know to use this facility unless they were really desparate! No Thanks....I can hold it!!!