Men in Flowers

Men in Flowers

The clothing on people that you come across really does vary. You’d think people living in villages would be wearing “village” clothes (whatever that may be) but not necessarily. You will see people in the latest footwear (at times covered in mud), ladies with very fashionable purses, wearing very nice perfume. Track pants, Nike hats, Puma shoes, you name it. However, I must say, these people are mostly from the city working in the village. I must admit it does seem a little odd, since all these people are better dressed than you are (and smell better than you do). What actually is more common are the random pants and shirts, marketing for L’Oreal or Lexmark, tattered and worn out usually. Then there is the traditional Congolese wear, which varies as well. The ladies often wear a “panne”, which is basically a piece of material wrapped around as a skirt (but wrapped like a bath towel), with a matching top. The style usually rests upon the top piece but at times, the bottom piece is a true skirt (rather than a piece of material). The colors of these outfits are often quite bright. As for the men in traditional wear, it comes in this combination shirts-pants thing. I must say very similar to pajama pieces. But what really stands out is the pattern on these pieces. Not only can they be very bright (or very pink), but also very flowery. Not too long ago, one lab tech came into work in one of these pieces: white with red roses all over – top to bottom. Not a problem at all. Nobody really noticed except me.


Parties

I’ve been here for one month and I’ve been to two parties already. Despite the fact that we host the parties, the national staff likes to organize it. So they like to set up the sitting arrangement in a large square. I think the idea is that there is a lot of space (and I mean a lot) in the middle so that people can dance. But the problem is, people don’t always dance. So here you have all these people, all sitting very far from each other (except for those to your immediate right or left) and not dancing or talking to each other. It seems they have no desire to displace themselves to socialize with others either. You have your same token people on the dance floor and a whole lot of people staring at them from their seats. Apparently this phenomenon is the same across villages. How very awkward.


Torrential Shower

It was a very nice night if I remember it correctly. Perhaps a little drizzle. We had this shower system thing going (since there was three of us at one point who were in the habit of showering at night) and I was to shower in the middle. As I headed towards the shower, I noticed that it had started to rain (versus light drizzle). I really didn’t think it would be a problem since I was going to shower anyways and get wet. How silly I was to think that…

The shower started off relatively pleasant. The water wasn’t too warm or too cold. It started raining harder and I thought I probably shouldn’t take my sweet time since the rain was coming down cold but still tolerable. I proceeded to wash as quickly as I could and it continued to rain, harder and harder. Now it was getting really cold and the rain was competing with the nice water from the tank, curving the stream and the temperature. The wind was picking up, the flap covering the shower was blowing wide open, the thunder started clapping and lightening proceeded to come shooting down. Not particularly pleasant, especially when undressed. By no choice of mine, the shower was over but it was impossible to get dressed without getting wet. In my towel, the rain is pouring down in buckets and lightening shooting everywhere. I contemplated to run out in my towel but decided against that but instead I ridiculously concluded to get dress – so that my dry clothes can get wet. Drenched wet and cold, I was struggled to bring all my stuff back to the house, hoping not to get hit by lightening on the way. Luckily in the midst of all this, my boss came hollering for me with an umbrella, fearful that I was going to get hit by lightening. Was I glad he came, even though I was already soaking wet.