The Stilt Village of Nzulezo

Saturday July 19^th

We were up and off with Eric, Thomas and Emmanuel this morning by 7:00, for a long drive. Emmanuel is a teacher who teaches not far from the village we are going to visit today and he has been recruited as our local guide. It started out okay, but about half way we turned onto a road that was under construction. It was in incredibly bad shape and we had to go really slowly. We stopped at a rubber tree plantation and saw how the trees were tapped and the latex collected, not unlike maple syrup.

We continued until we got to the Amansuri Wetlands. Here we loaded up into two large canoes for an hour long pole along a manmade canal until we got to the lake where we were paddled to the stilt village of Nzulezo. The ride was relaxing and beautiful. This is a village where the people live in houses raised on stilts to keep out of the way of the seasonal rise and fall of the lake. They live off fishing and farming. We were allowed to wander around the village taking photographs. We listened to a presentation by the village elder about the history of the place. We saw the school and learned that they cannot get teachers to come live and teach out here because it is too remote. We also saw the Catholic Church which is in a small shack. There are about 400 people living here. They are now connected to the electric grid and there were a few satellite dishes. Really an interesting place with lots of children. We were supposed to go to a slave castle museum but we were running late as Eric really wanted to get off the rough road before dark.

On the ride back we stopped at the same restaurant and had a late lunch, which we ate in the van because it took so long to make it. We just got off the rough road when it got dark. It was interesting to see the streets and traffic at night.

When we got back Angela, Barb and I spent the evening looking at photos on our large screen TV and then turned in for the night.