This week and weekend went by in an absolute blur. This is partly because I was in Libreville at the beginning of last week, which set off my internal weekday/weekend calibration and partly because the PMI trip on Thursday was brief so we had the afternoon off. My roommate and I used that time to go on a LONG walk and to pick up stuff at the tailor's. I had several things made: skinny jeans from flared jeans I got at the bins, pajama pants from elephant-print cloth, and a purse from fabric I found in the garbage. Even in Africa I like to dumpster dive! The tailor did a really nice job though, unlike the clothes I had made when I lived in India, so I am excited to get a few more things made as well.
Anyway, this weekend was completely fast and furious. Friday night we left the Schweitzer compound right after dinner to go a funeral/wake for one of the nurse's uncle who died earlier in the week. It was interesting to hear about how death is dealt with here: after an adult dies all of the women of the family who are free sit with the body for five days. People drop by all the time to pay their respects and visit with the family. You say “mes condolences”, not I am sorry for your loss, as we say in the US. After five days of sitting with the body, there is a vigil/wake the night before the burial. Everyone sits outside the house, men on one side, women on the other, and talks quietly or just sits. A lot of people spend the night with the family outside that night. Then the next day you wake up and the men start digging the hole for the burial. Burial happens, then lots of drinking and eating. Then one month to one year later there is a deuille, which is a celebration of the dead person's life and is basically just a huge party. After we sat with the family for awhile on Friday night we went to get a few beers with some of the family members.
Saturday morning we woke up early to go on a boat trip on the Oogue to the lakes that are upstream from us. This pirogue trip is kind of a classic Schweitzer experience, everyone has to do it at least once. Also you get to see hippos! I thought of my mother-in-law the whole time because she loves hippos and we were able to see several families of them swimming in quieter parts of the river. They were so funny, they would just surface with their big heads, blow off water and air, and swivel around with their ears. It made quite a racket when they would come up for air like this. Hippos can stay underwater for up to 30min, but they tend to surface every few minutes for air. We also saw monkeys, crocodiles, iguanas, and pelicans on the trip.
On Sunday morning we were again treated to the opportunity to wake up early and do something African. One of the nurses who works with us invited us to go planting in her village. Here it is often referred to as going “en brousse,” which means going into the jungle, even if you are not walking very far away from the road. Planting is traditionally considered women's work and we only saw women and children out in the jungle. The African women we were with carried everything we needed out to the field in giant paniers, which are woven baskets that have straps threaded through them that you can either wear like a backpack or around your forehead. Most women choose the forehead method which I find absolutely stunning. It would put so much pressure on your neck. Anyway, the women loaded up the paniers with machetes, taro bulbs, and small banana tree roots and me and Annie put on our backpacks. And then we headed off down a steep path into the jungle. We walked for about 20 or 30 minutes to a clearing that had been burned the week prior to prepare the soil. Here you always burn before you plant bananas. You don't have to clear the jungle, because the banana trees will grow in between the other vegetation but you do need to prepare the soil with burning. Once we got there, we got to planting. You dig a hole about 6 inches deep—with a machete, mind you-- and plop the banana or the taro into the space. Then you cover and repeat. You try and plant the taro in between the banana plants. After we had planted the first batch we went back to another, older plantation to dig up more banana roots to go back and plant at the first site. You have to do this because banana trees only give one fruiting, they are not annuals, so you have to keep replanting them every 6 months to one year. Once we finished with the third round of planting, we headed back home, in the pouring down rain (saison de pluie!), which I loved because I come from a rainy city and rain makes me happy. When we got back to Schweitzer, I fell asleep almost immediately and complained loudly the next day about how hard the work was. The life of an African woman is so physically demanding, I do not know if I could do it. Maybe if I had been raised like this and was in the habit it would be okay, but after one day of mini learning, I am exhausted and sore!
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