across the board it is amazing to watch congolese life in action. But some things and people just blow me away. Meet Molonga, my new hero:
Malonga is the night guard here and probably the toughest dude i know. But he's the warmest softest person too. He wakes up at 5pm each night to start the day by cutting down palm nuts. Today he let me go with him and it was some seriously impressive stuff. Step 1, get a serious machete.
step 2. find some marijuana in the bush? wait, thats not right. yeah, that was some other thing he was saying is delicious. he took it home with him.
step 3. walk around scanning the forest for the right tree.
step 4. up the tree. this part is amazing. he has this belt, which is made out of palm wood itself, and he ties it around himself and the tree. then he climbs up the tree like this:
step 5. cut. basically you have to cut away at all the branches as you climb so you can get to the palm nuts in the middle. In the tree below I think Molonga cut about 20 branches to reach the nuts. Then once you have the nuts accessible, you have to hack away at them for awhile too. Finally they come crashing down to the earth.
step 6. get the palm nuts out of the forest. i can barely lift this thing...it is really heavy. Molonga hoisted it above his head without a problem and then walked for about 20 minutes with me balancing it on his head. Oh, and also, there are all kinds of sharp spines and needless on this thing which cut my hands when I picked it up.
Its good to know Malonga is looking out for this place at night. I would not want to run into him if I were trespassing. When I left tonight he showed me how he finds the snakes on the ground at night (some are black mambas) and takes care of them with one swing of the machete.
Malonga is the night guard here and probably the toughest dude i know. But he's the warmest softest person too. He wakes up at 5pm each night to start the day by cutting down palm nuts. Today he let me go with him and it was some seriously impressive stuff. Step 1, get a serious machete.
step 2. find some marijuana in the bush? wait, thats not right. yeah, that was some other thing he was saying is delicious. he took it home with him.
step 3. walk around scanning the forest for the right tree.
step 4. up the tree. this part is amazing. he has this belt, which is made out of palm wood itself, and he ties it around himself and the tree. then he climbs up the tree like this:
step 5. cut. basically you have to cut away at all the branches as you climb so you can get to the palm nuts in the middle. In the tree below I think Molonga cut about 20 branches to reach the nuts. Then once you have the nuts accessible, you have to hack away at them for awhile too. Finally they come crashing down to the earth.
step 6. get the palm nuts out of the forest. i can barely lift this thing...it is really heavy. Molonga hoisted it above his head without a problem and then walked for about 20 minutes with me balancing it on his head. Oh, and also, there are all kinds of sharp spines and needless on this thing which cut my hands when I picked it up. 
Its good to know Malonga is looking out for this place at night. I would not want to run into him if I were trespassing. When I left tonight he showed me how he finds the snakes on the ground at night (some are black mambas) and takes care of them with one swing of the machete.
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