One of the plethora of learnings I have acquired in my years
of travel is the difference between a tourist, a backpacker and a traveler. A
tourist seeks the getaway; think Egyptian pyramids, the Las Vegas strip or
Paris’s Sacre Coure. A tourist leaves for a short and defined period of time
with a purpose that is most commonly a mix of fun, relaxation and culture.
Backpackers however, can be defined by name; they seek “getting off the beaten track”
but, generally don’t really stray far from it and they travel light, with their
belongings on their back. They crave shared experiences and are always young at
heart. A traveler however, is here for the journey. A traveler is a personality,
an ethic, and a mode of movement. This ethic, in my opinion, can best be
described by a verse in Lord Tennyson’s Ulysses,
I
am a part of all that I have met
Yet
all experience is an arch wherethro’
Gleams
that untravell’d world whose margin fades
For
ever and forever when I move.
How
dull it is to pause, to make and end,
To
rust unburnish’d not to shine in use
As
tho’ to breathe were life.
And so, it is with these perspectives that I absorb my
experiences on this world and with which, walking home from work last week, I met
a traveler. I heard English first, and then I spotted the sun browned skin and
shoulder length dreadlocks of Inongo’s first traveler. I did a double take, but
he remained. We were walking towards each other so I smiled and said “What have
we here, a tourist washed up on the shores of lac Mai Ndombe?” He smiled,
introduced himself as Amit and stumbled over his words explaining he hadn’t had
an opportunity to communicate in English in weeks.
I have lived here in Inongo for 14 months and although there
are occasionally other westerners here for projects, I have never seen or heard
of one arriving for personal reasons or by any form of transport other than
airplane. As the Democratic Republic of Congo goes, this province is one of the
most unexplored and undeveloped in the country. Compared to the eastern
provinces of Katanga and the Kivu’s with famous cities like Lubumbashi and
Goma, Bandundu Province and Lac Mai Ndombe are unknown even by most Congolese. And
it is for that very reason that Amit was travelling here.
We were going in separate directions, so I invited him to
our Community Mapping workshop the next day if he was still around. He said he
hopped he wouldn’t be as he was eager to get on the next boat heading north to
Kiri, a village about 200kms north of Inongo. We parted and I walked home,
later wishing I’d learned the story of this intrepid traveler in my ‘hood.
The next day he appeared at the workshop, obviously not
having been able to find a boat. We walked back to my office and I explained
the project and our work. Amit explained that he was on a search for Africa’s most
indigenous tribes, especially those that remained in isolation from the ‘modern
world. Amit hoped to find and live with the Batchwa pygmies. The Batchwa are
the native people of the Congo River Basin, they still live today as they have
done for 1000s of years. Hunting monkeys and forest antelope with poison
arrows, naked but for a gourd or a leaf.
Native to the lands of the DRC in relation to the relative newcomers,
the Bantu, the pygmies have been pushed to the edge of society. They still live a primarily subsistence
life, living off the forest and without agriculture. By many Bantu they are considered
to be primitive and closer to animals than to humans and are often treated as
such. They suffer greatly in the villages where I have met them, so I will be
interested to hear what Amit finds on his arrival. His goal is to arrive in
this area, where the are reputed to be relatively untouched, gain their trust and live with them
for a few weeks learning about their world. His family and friends around
the world are petrified he will be captured and eaten and he was warned time
and time again not to undertake this life risking adventure into the dark
corners of the Congo.
It took him two weeks on a bus, motorbike, boat and by foot
to arrive here in Inongo and he still had about 200km to cover before his
destination. Once he reached the waters of Lac Mai Ndombe everyone he spoke to
said that Inongo was the lake’s hub and it was here that he would quickly catch
a boat northwards. He spent a full week here in Inongo, to Amit this was a
significant chunk of his two month visa, to the Congolese this was rather quick
and to us it was a welcome visit with a fascinating and tenacious traveler.
The first two nights Amit and his guide, Timote, stayed near
the port in a dirt-floored room in the hopes of catching a boat. But we told him he was welcome to stay at our house, and so he did. We were quite amused to discovered that not only did Timote speak
no English and Amit speak no French, but Timote had quite a stutter. Just another
challenge in an already difficult mission, but they appeared to get by just
fine.
The week pushed on, and Amit was disappointed by undeparted
boat after undeparted boat, his family and friends imagined him being eaten by
natives, and we sat on our veranda, talked politics and religion, drank cold
beer and even played a round of golf or two.
 |
Amit practicing his shot |
One hot afternoon we were cooling off in the tepid brown
lake when a ferocious wind blasted by and got our attention. Although we basked
in brilliant sunshine, we could see a heavy storm approaching from the end of
Inongo bay. We stayed in the water, sipped our beers, and watched over the
next minutes as dark clouds, heavy rain and wind blew in our direction. As seconds passed we watched one boulevard palm tree after another whipped
into a frenzy. Lightening forked from the sky. In the opposite direction moisture heavy clouds created a prism
for the sun’s rays and they bounced in fuschia and orange off the clouds. It was a 360 degree nature show. The
pelting rain arrived and massive raindrops bounce of the lake’s
surface while our puppy Kitoko sought shelter while her crazy parents and
friend stayed in the warm and magnificent lake.
We had many a good discussion with Amit, a worldly traveler
and devoted worshiper of Israel. A true student of the world, Amit reveled in
discussions with the locals of Congo. He wanted to understand how they lived
and hear stories of survival, bravery, love, culture, and a way of life
forgotten by many of the rest of us.
He was not limited in who he sought to learn from, and teach. Most nights spent on the patio with him
in Inongo, the discussions became in-depth and intriguing. As a proud child of Israel, Amit was
well versed in the teaching of the bible.
He spoke of the duplicity in the Christian teachings between the Old
Testament and the New Testament. And during many a discussion he would present
his bible, written in Hebrew, and read to us what the original text actually
stated. It was a fascinating and often humorous study in the histories of
religion.
 |
| Amit finally leaving! |
Another conversation about the history and negative
impacts of development got Tristan and Amit quite heated. Amit quite causally
claimed that mostly all the atrocities in the world in the last 2,000 years
were caused by the White Man;
hunger, war, slavery, disease and plastic. I was only half listening, and was surprised
to see smoke coming out of Tristan’s ears. The discussion went on for a long time and they begrudgingly
agreed to disagree. We jokingly called him white man from then on.
A few days later Amit apologized to Tristan. He said that he had learned a bit
about sensitivity and would no longer refer to many of the atrocities from the
past 2000 years as a fault of the “White Man”, but rather Western Culture. Tristan now sees the merits of being a “Politically
Correct” advocate.
We were both sad to see our new friend leave after one
unexpected week of visit. We learned
a lot from him in a very short time.
Safe travels friend.
Jenn & Tristan
