Chat with your soulmate in Saka. They talk to strangers like you would talk to your siblings – or at least how you would talk to strangers after a couple of pints. Less self-conscious and worried about embarrassment or bringing attention to themselves. Now I shower. I’ll spare you the logistics but I’m half convinced now that with the trustworthy business relationships that he’s built up here … and if he filled the container with only the right stuff…he would make a decent profit and could manage the whole operation from England stress-free. “Exactly” he said. Circa 400-200 BC. It was a little Skol bar on the riverbank with the sun blazing, amazing views and an acoustic guitarist jamming in the corner. Hi Elena, Thank you very much for writing again! Cassava leaves (saka saka), pounded and cooked, are always a favorite. Always grabbing my hand and laughing, repeating ‘David’ whilst shaking her head like she can’t believe it is me. Barkas iki saka Wikimedia Commons lan kena kanggo proyèk liya. One of his first questions to me (he speaks fluent English) was “Are you business minded?”. Date of visit: August 2016. And by the end of the conversation I had almost changed my mind. Join Facebook to connect with Estelle Saka Saka and others you may know. Then suddenly there was a thud, as the policeman jabbed the driver with his truncheon on the side of his head. E.G, old men wearing. Now this makes it sound like it is a mad lawless town like Deadwood, which in some ways it is, but evidently this law of the jungle must keep people in line out of common sense and necessity for their lives to function properly. “He kept all the money for himself and ripped me off”. And I could tell he was weighing up whether or not to give him another chance. Saka Saka Organisation RDCCompetence Skype and telephone asakasaka My dream: Kinshasa competent against aids I'm proud of: RDCCompetence work. Basically, the corrupt president Joseph Kabila is trying to abuse his position to change the rules so that he can stay in power for longer than is usually allowed – and with the new election coming up he plans to run again and most likely fix it to win. But then so was Dad. Mapwata Saka-saka is on Facebook. (Below is a beardless pic from my visit with her three years back). Due to a power cut we eat in the dark, but we have a satisfying meal of saka saka, fufu, chicken and kwanga (google them, I’m not a foodie). Estelle Saka Saka is on Facebook. My language skills had improved, to the point where I was stringing relevant sentences together in a direct reply to someone’s questions, and when I listened in on conversations I could actually tell what the hell people were on about. Even mixed race people like myself attract a lot of attention, which ranges from stares and whispers to one student who literally stopped in his tracks with an open mouth when he saw me. Let me stress first that the roads in Congo are nuts. “England brought me down. Please check your browser settings or contact your system administrator. The car, as well as everyone inside, was fuming as the driver pulled over to the side of the road and rolled to a stop. He tells me that he owns property that he bought for $200,000 which is now worth “A million, easy”, and one of the houses which my Dad built over the years could now be sold for at least $500,000. The Constellation video, where we journey in less then 2 minutes from space, through nature, to villages, in homes and back while exploring what the Constellation stands for. To be fair though, after hearing Dad’s side, it didn’t really matter… because it sounds like Rene messed up. Booking.com, being established in 1996, is longtime Europe’s leader in online hotel reservations. Basically, I was already being a mundele hindrance. In fact, even as I write this at my riverbank spot, the guitarist I mentioned earlier keeps trying to make eye contact with me (I had previously said bonjour to him when he sat down and start playing and singing) and has now hobbled over to get closer to me. The specialists knew the Ebola virus only too well. “Muy est difficile en Congo, eh?” (Me trying to say in Lingala/French that water is difficult in Congo). Seeing the land in person and hearing the figures definitely woke me up. Hope and faith – a positive and unburdened mental state – is a healthy way to live. Estelle Saka Saka is on Facebook. 4. Then one day my friend Dan was donating a couple of fridges to the cause and said “Why don’t you go to Congo with him?”, and to be honest, I couldn’t think of a reason not to. Now, surely even the most die-hard cynical atheist couldn’t help but see some of the beauty in that. “Dad, ask her what her secret is, to you know, a long and healthy life”. When I quizzed my Dad on this later he spoke about how there isn’t really a jail in Congo, which sort of blew my mind. Maboke: A freshwater fish cooked in large marantacee leaves. Constant horns, all cars packed in like sardines practically touching each other and sweat pouring everywhere even after sunset. Patrick Jaszewski says: December 30, 2016 at 2:49 pm . He never did fire his farmer Rene. None of this really had the air of disappointment or desperation though, and it was all pretty casual and friendly. One baby was crying and hiding behind her mother, repeating ‘mundele’, and looking pretty fearfully towards me as I waited for my Dad to finish a conversation with a tenant. It’s always friendly and I was used to it from my last trip so it didn’t particularly phase me, but after a while you start to feel like a two headed man in Leicester Square. I don’t condemn this though, because after a couple of days in this exhausting heat I quickly realised the reason for a slower pace of life). There are no speed limit signs, rarely any seatbelts, no licenses, no M.O.T, no holds barred. One canister abandoned ship at this point, but I didn’t let that slow me down and left it for the boy trailing behind me to collect. Panyandraning kaca panyandra barkasé kapacak ing ngisor. The driver continued his attempt to cross back over onto the other side of the road, whilst creating minimal damage to the minibus which was already significantly scratched. So we flagged down the next car that happened to have space for two and was headed in the same direction, and headed off about 7pm in the pitch black of the city. I hope this has clarified everything. I am frequently reminded by Dad and his friends that money talks in Congo. Most of it is just bravado anyway which becomes clear over the years. But instead he launches into a long spiel about something, to which I say “Je suis désolé, je ne comprends pas. Join Facebook to connect with Davina Saka and others you may know. Meet and match with the best looking singles in Saka. When you first meet Joe he comes across as pretty tough, barely cracking a smile, so I can see how this would be intimidating to some. Antoine Saka Saka | Democratic Republic of the Congo | communication for development officer at Unicef DR Congo Kinshasa | 46 connections | View Antoine Saka's homepage, profile, activity, articles To make things a bit less biased though, I’m sure he found me equally as annoying to be with for two weeks – sponging off him, bugging him for translations and generally being a mundele hindrance. Moke (D.R. I used it to describe the one man who managed to beat me at pool the night before, which got a bit of a laugh). Patrick Jaszewski says: December 30, 2016 at 2:49 pm . After finishing school he was a member of several 1970s Kinshasa bands: he sang with Super Tukina who recorded his first hit, "Satonge," then he joined Super Bella Bella alongside Jean Bosco and Mongoley, a guitarist formerly of Orchestre Lipua Lipua, and he also played with Bariza and Saka Saka. Moke (D.R. Served with rice, Saka Saka/Pondu, fryed Bananas/Plantains and sweet potatoes, the red ones, american I think. “Nope, no idea”. I came and sat next to her on the floor and we laughed and spoke as much as my small range of Lingala vocab would allow me to. After about 20 minutes everyone started to get uncomfortable and agitated and the latest addition to the cab did his best job at peer-pressuring the driver into becoming more and more reckless. So what were they talking about? Why isn’t she sitting comfortably in an armchair, or lying on a bed, what’s going on? !”, and lift it out of the ditch with my new-found superhero strength. When meeting the current tenants of Dad’s house, the house manager introduced me as ‘akieme’, with a big grin, and I smiled along despite not knowing what the hell he was on about. Sold unframed. Now, after a long-winded introduction, I can finally get to the actual trip. I should mention that our house does not have any taps or a shower… and we have to use these canisters to fill up the buckets which we bring into the house (And we purchase all of our drinking-water in bottled form from the town). After I left I said to Dad, “If he can sell a house right now and get a million – why is he still working here?”. So they have a problem, trouble, war. But because this time he was doing it with me, I needed confirmation of my flights beforehand in order to book the two weeks off from my part-time teaching job. It was fun quizzing my Dad about his early life in Kimpese as he showed me around the grounds of the school which he attended. I couldn’t even tell who was winning the argument to be honest, because they both seemed to think they were right. Even when you leave the room you can still hear him muttering under his breath. A lot of people have thought it to be strange that, as a mixed race person, I would still be called a mundele over there. I gave him a call a couple of days before heading out myself in order to check in on him and he told me that there were only about 10 engines left to sell, as well as the two cars and the tractor. Mundele = white man = opportunity for cash (or mbongo as they call it). And Eric was Joe’s even skinnier and gaunt older brother, who was quiet but friendly when spoken to. Now when my dad says “Let’s get a taxi”, what he means is “Let’s hitchhike”, because in Congo every car on the road is potentially another taxi. Another local favorite is pounded sesame seeds (wangila), to which small dried shrimp are added. So the four of us (the driver stayed with the car) set off trekking through the high grass until we finally came across Rene. “There is no secret, only God!” she answered, which Dad relayed back to me. The bus stopped right in front of us and continued to beep in short bursts, whilst our driver tried desperately to find an opening on the right hand side. After a couple more failed attempts Dad finally tutted, paid him half a fare and we got the hell out of the car. Dad would often come bursting in the front door, out of breath, yelling up to me in my room, “David, hurry up I need you” and then run back out again before I had the chance to reply (and tell him I was too busy doing absolutely nothing). “Madness” I said to my dad, who was shaking his head. Reading this back, it sounds like one of those cons, where all that’s left to say is “Now I just need you to invest $20,000 and I assure you that you can capitalise on this goldmine”. It was mostly plain sailing (ish) once I got into a bit of a rhythm. It was half serious, half comical. Later I was speaking to Dad about it and he was pretty livid, and deciding on whether or not to fire him. So after months of collecting items and a last-minute loading session at a scrapyard in Lancing, the containers were finally sent off on a ship to Congo. Let me explain. Saka Saka Organisation RDCCompetence Skype and telephone asakasaka My dream: Kinshasa competent against aids I'm proud of: RDCCompetence work. There wasn’t much tying me down in England and I figured I could do with a bit of excitement.