My trip to Congo, day 6

On day six, we had breakfast at BTEDE, then piled into the back of the truck to visit the other experimental seed farm they run-- this one was in a rainforest. I think there were nine of us in the back of the truck on the way there. Most of the way was paved.



This is what the trucks in the Congo look like-- totally overloaded with stuff. I guess the idea is if you have a truck, then you haul as much as you can with it!

I took some pictures of people along the way there....





When we turned off the highway, we had about two kilometres of road going through the rainforest. From the back of the truck, it felt quite bumpy and winding. Ken rode standing on the back bumper and later said it was better that we couldn't see the road as we went. I guess there was one part where it was a sheer drop on either side. Thank You, God, for keeping us safe!




Lunch in the rainforest.

Konrad had requested fish.



Then we got a tour of the farm.

Here I'm trying a plant they call macaroni-- it was quite tasty!



These girls were pounding the cassava into flour. They had such a great rhythm going!



A group photo in part of the rainforest they're clearing.



An eggplant.



A termite mound.



As we were driving into the rainforest, I'd asked Brigitte if we'd see any monkeys or leopards, etc. She replied that the animals had all left when the machines came in to build the road. I then asked if there were snakes. She said yes, but she'd never seen any.

Well, when we came to the end of our tour, we saw this...



It was a red mambo snake, which is actually poisonous! Quite the sighting, I'd say!

On our way out of the rainforest, they stopped to let us out before trying to get up this hill (the one with the sheer drops on both sides!) Castro (in red) ran along with the truck. He was the hand brake. If the truck started rolling backwards for any reason, his job was to put a large rock behind the tire to keep it from rolling back down! Good thing that didn't happen!



Following the truck up the hill.



Coming back to Kikwit, we stopped for some reason, I'm not sure why. But when we did, the vendors approached the vehicle to sell us their wares. Ken and I bought some little woven purses (I gave one to Sage.)



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