Sunday, March 29, 2009

City of Hope

The City of Hope, Cite D'Espoire, is a settlement of refugees who fled the war in the East. We understand that they moved from the East to the banks of the Congo River, where their new community was flooded. They then moved near the railroad tracks, an unacceptable alternative so the government moved them to an area of rolling hills on the outskirts of Kinshasa.
The road to the City of Hope is a deep sandy track through a busy neighborhood on the outskirts of Kinshasa -- leading to these open vistas.






The following are views of the area surrounding the City of Hope, taken by Elder Mike Wright from Johannesburg, who accompanied us on this trip. On the day we visited, the hills upon which the settlement was built were breezy and hot. Our car thermometer registered 102 degrees.





In 2007, Elder and Sister Barlow, the country directors for LDS Humanitarian Services at the time, initiated an emergency relief project for the City of Hope. They passed out hygiene kits and other supplies, including orange tarps. The orange tarps are still in use today.






As visitors to the settlement, we were impressed by the neat homesteads and the villagers' attempts to work in the difficult environment. The city is divided into five large areas for governance.




City Center buildings have cisterns for the collection of rain water during the rainy season.




Every city needs a marketplace; this is the marketplace for this area of the City of Hope.

None of the plants indigenous to the hillsides provided food or were what the villagers were accustomed to. On this homestead, food producing plants were carefully transplanted from local areas, planted and watered.


Upon arriving in a central area of the community, we met under a bowery with the elected President of the City of Hope. He told us, "God has sent you and we are greatful to him." Our contractor, Dominique Sowa, talked in both French and Lingala about the possible plans for the wells. Elder Moody talked about the importance of the water committee and the need for women to be on the committee. The President and his colleagues agreed to elect a water board. For Dominque, the City of Hope presents several challenges: the sandy roads into the area provide difficult passage for heavy drilling machinery, the wells must be very deep (about 90 meters) to reach the water table and finally, there is no electricity available to the villagers to power pumps. Dominique has suggested a foot pump that has been successful for deep wells elsewhere.



As usual, we drew a crowd. The children were simply curious, but the women were intensely interested. Obtaining water is their job, and the current system is very difficult and strenuous.

We needed to see where the villagers obtained their water for our proposal, so we walk across the hill and down the hillside to the valley where the only water was available. One of the women told me how hard it was for the pregnant women to walk down the hill and then up again with a load of water on her head. This is the climb down to one of the water stations which is spring fed.













At the base of the hills, near the water source, the villagers planted neat vegetable and casava gardens.















It is difficult to see from this picture, but the water from the faucet was a very small stream. It is still the rainy season. During the next few months, the water will disappear completely

A crowd waits for their turn at the water station and a few happy children pose for pictures.
There is a long walk to the next water station where we find a similar small stream of water. Filling containers with this flow of water is very slow, resulting in the lines of villagers waiting.






By each water station, there is a small pond which the villagers use for washing and bathing. The children happily splash in the water to cool off on the hot day, but some of the villagers have developed rashes because the water is salty. The ponds never become larger during the rainy season, nor do they shrink during the dry season.
The container below is filled with the water from the pond. So, how did their mothers get these school boys' shirts so white? No wonder they are tired.



























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