THE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST





The following pictures are everyday sights that we see
as we drive to work.  Beautifying their city is not high on
their priority list. 

  



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We constantly see this.  The two men are carrying stones
in their cart.  It is so heavy that they strain with every step.
The man on the bike is carrying a load of "charbon" which is
charcoal that they make from wood and they sell to the people
for cooking their food in little hibache (about 1 foot square)
barbecues.  We pass dozens of these bikes carrying charbon
in a two mile drive.

Fixing a bike.  We see lots of bike flat tires being fixed.



It is difficult to find beauty here because things are dirty and rundown, however, this is a picture of women planting along the main road.  DR Congo received a grant from the world bank and they are using it to beautify their main road.  I think it will be gorgeous.  They are planting palm trees and their type of grass.  The reason these are women is because five years ago they passed a law that emancipated women (those are the words) and now you see them doing jobs they would never have been able to do before.  There are about a hundred of these women (men too) in these blue jumpsuits planting and digging in this hot climate.  (by-the-way,the rain stopped this week.)  We also see a few women police directing traffic.  I wish I had a better picture because this is not flattering to these Congolese women but at least it shows the backbreaking job they do.

TO BE CONTINUED WHEN I RETURN IN A FEW HOURS.