I am so grateful to all my friends, coworkers, and interested folks that have given me tips as well as funding! I couldn't hope to be able to do it without you!
The visa was really the final step. I have all my vaccines (Hep A, Hep B, Typhoid, Yellow Fever, etc), my prescription for malaria pills, and my itinerary.
I’ve been getting non-stop emails from the team leader (Kevin) for the last week. Among several this week was a “Dos and Don’ts” list. Here are a few of my favorites.
Here are a few Dos (or at least don't minds)
1. Blow your nose in public
2. Address people by their title
3. Discuss religion, politics, sex… oh… and the way you look
And a few Dont's (or you will be rude, illegal, etc)
1. Do not dance in the side streets (can I dance in the main streets!?)
2. Do not eat in public (I'm not sure I will be able to avoid that if they have food carts... do they have food carts?)
3. Do not brush your teeth in public (I think I can promise that)
4. Do not take pictures of people without their permission
5. Women wearing pants is “frowned upon”
I am still waiting on some more guidance on the clothes thing. If only I could bring some of my saris from India. I suppose I may be buying clothing in Kinshasa... I only have one or two skirts that seem like they would be appropriate. I'll have to assess. Though I wouldn't mind buying something there. I do love clothing!
We arrive in Kinshasa on September 20th. I'm taking a little extra time in London before meeting the rest of the team, which is why the days don't count up. Plus, these flights are brutal! I will be spending a lot of time on planes in the span of 2 weeks!
Our site is about 14 miles from the center of Kinshasa. Kinshasa is the capitol city of the DR Congo. As a city planner, it will be intriguing to see the city form and how folks live there. From the aerials on Google, it looks very suburban. And a lot of brown roofs. I've heard that they do a lot of metal roofs there so I'm guessing the brown is from rust. Is metal cooler in this climate? Or just available? Hmmm.
This is the site, as found on Google Earth. I realize it may be hard to read this so if you want to see it, use these coordinates: 4 30.329' S 15 13.839' E
Among the various emails I've been getting in the last week or so has been a bunch of "get-to-know-you" emails. Although most of us live in North America, we are a pretty diverse group
The team consists of 11 people:
3 Canadians (one of whom was born in Hong Kong)
5 Americans
1 Brit
1 Nigerian
1 South Korean
We range in ages from 22 to 62.
We have an architect, architecture student, agricultural and aerospace engineer (who works as a civil engineer), math teacher, several civil engineers, surveyor/electrical engineer, construction management engineer, and a civil engineering student.
Quite a crew! Should be fun.
I'm sure I will eventually post photos of all the peeps... with stories to go along with them.
1 comment:
Hi Elizabeth!
Gayatri sent me your blog. Looks great! It was good talking to you yesterday.
I saw your dos and don'ts
A couple extra (at least from a Mauritanian perspective):
DO: Ask about the families and health of the people you interact with before starting work for the day, and it would be a good idea to drop in and do the same on a daily basis, even if you have no plans to interact with a particular counterpart on a given day. Pleasantries before work and on a regular basis are VERY important.
Don't: Tell a parent that his or her child is cute, beautiful, or anything else. It is considered bad luck. They themselves would follow up such a comment with, "no, he/she is ugly," refering to the child. This is to counteract the bad karma you may have instigated with your compliment.
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