Congo Kinshasa RPCV Beth Duff-Brown writes: I kept my promise. The last time I was here, I told the village I would come back again in 10 years



"We arrive at dusk, and the priest at the mission does what most Congolese do when they meet a stranger from a foreign land: He welcomes me in and makes me at home. When word gets out that I've come back, people from around this village of about 3,000 people gather at the church rectory, quietly whispering my name and asking if it's really me."

Congo Kinshasa RPCV Beth Duff-Brown writes: I kept my promise. The last time I was here, I told the village I would come back again in 10 years

AP Blog: In Congo return, a promise kept
Associated Press

AP chief of bureau for Canada, Beth Duff-Brown, is in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which she visited many times as a West Africa correspondent in the mid-1990s. She has returned to visit to a remote village in central Congo, where she was a Peace Corps volunteer from 1979 to 1981.

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Thursday, Sept. 7, 3 p.m. local

KAMPONDE - I kept my promise. The last time I was here, I told the village I would come back again in 10 years. My cook, Tshinyama, is still alive, despite rumors to the contrary. The tin roofs are rustier, and some of the mango trees are gone. But the same bells rang at 5:30 this morning at the old brick church, where I've been given a tiny room and cot, and the choir sang hymns that I knew by heart when I first was here.

We started off yesterday morning, shopping in Kananga, the diamond-rich province in south-central Congo. We went by the Beltexco, a massive provisions chain, so I could shop for the children and buy myself some beans and rice. With Jim's old pickup truck, we bought 200 notebooks - something many children can't afford - and hundreds of pens, rubber balls, powdered milk, soap, onions and oil. The head of Beltexco, when he heard what we were doing, donated 10 cartons of high-glucose biscuits for the kids.

We then transferred everything to a Nissan 4x4 for the 100-mile drive south. A trip that would take about 90 minutes on a paved road takes us six hours. The road is so red and sandy that getting up to 40 mph is rare. There's a debate in Congo on how many miles of paved roads there are in a country the size of the United States east of the Mississippi - some say 300 miles, others say 600 miles.

We arrive at dusk, and the priest at the mission does what most Congolese do when they meet a stranger from a foreign land: He welcomes me in and makes me at home. When word gets out that I've come back, people from around this village of about 3,000 people gather at the church rectory, quietly whispering my name and asking if it's really me.

They continue to come by in the light of the full moon. I keep it together until old Joseph - the housekeeper for the Belgian priest who was here in my day - and Kamina - the father of the kid who often sat by the fire with me and made up silly songs to my bad guitar - comes by. He gives me the handshake of respect, the left hand holding onto the right arm while shaking.

Joseph thanks me for keeping the promise, saying that some villagers had been asking earlier this year if they would see me again. Tshinyama is now a farmer in the next village, and I send one of the kids to tell him I'm here. I also learn that they never received my letters, or the photographs of the little girl they once prayed for.

I'm keeping this short, as I'm dictating it by satellite phone. There's no electricity and certainly no phone lines here. I'm told there's one spot in the village where you can get cell phone reception, which I'll try tomorrow.

Links to Related Topics (Tags):

Headlines: September, 2006; RPCV Beth Duff-Brown (Congo Kinsasha); COS - Congo Kinshasa; Journalism; Return to our Country of Service - Congo Kinshasa

When this story was posted in November 2006, this was on the front page of PCOL:




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