Into to bush, and video footage
Wednesday September 17th:
This morning we went into the ‘brusse” or bush. We were going to leave early in the morning to go and visit the GECEC’s largest debtor: CODEVIR. They are a doing: Expoitation Indepandante De La Foret Commonunataire Par La Scierie Portative with the CETI du DIANG (from what I gather is pretty much a guy named Herve). In english: “La Scierie Portative” is a portable sawmill project that the Dutch relief organization SNV organized. The idea is that each village (or a collection of smaller villages… in this case CODEVIR) can buy and run its own sawmill, managing its own community forest, using sustainable logging techniques, selling the milled lumber (which gets a higher price than the logs alone) directly, employing local labor, and enhancing the wealth and livelihoods of the village. GECEC is the credit agency that made the loan, and is helping with the financial manegment.
Apparently there was some grumbling/miscommunication amongst some of the ‘interns’ (the apprentice sawmill operators) about getting paid, or having access to money. Charlie, who is a total hustler (and I mean that with respect), saw a triple opportunity that a visit would bring. 1) Setting the record straight that owning your own business as a community would involve real sacrifice and hard work before any rewards would/could be realized. 2) Making a pitch for some of the other GECEC services, like advances on salary (when it starts coming). 3) Bringing out the white man with the camera to impress the hell out of the locals.
I was introduced as the person who is going to be doing marketing and publicity for GECEC, and that the footage I was taking was part of either an ad, or a documentary about them that would be seen world-wide. I don’t know about that, but what I do know is that I got some astounding footage, our guide chopped the head of a poisonous snake off on the way in, and I got my first taste of the rainforest. Astounding, and I want more… is all I will say for now. We headed back, and looked at some of the footage on Charlie’s TV (did I mention that he has cable? A neighbor has satellite cable, and sells access to a few people. We can watch one channel at a time, whatever the owner happens to be watching). No plumbing, no phones, but soccer matches on cable. Priorities are clear here. I rested a bit, and drank some water that I really shouldn’t have. After almost a week of constipation due to the high protein, high carbohydrate, low fiber diet, I got the shits. I had to walk into town to get some toilet paper, and I barely….barley made it to the toilet in time. Did I mention that there is no plumbing in town? My thighs are getting stronger daily, both from the walking and the squatting. The evening was my coming out party. I met all of the town’s functionaries, plenipotentiaries, and social luminaries except maybe one or two. I smiled a lot, and tried to improve my casual French chatting skills. The power went out for about 30 minutes during the proceedings, but all in all it was a pretty big success.