After the excitement of watching the gorillas H, John and I had a cup of coffee in the Park headquarters talked about the foundation and then set off to go to a monkey sanctuary that we had been told about by another colleague. The weather was beautiful and the scenery was stunning, with the mountains in the background driving through the back roads of the park through the tea plantations that line the hills below the park. It was a bouncy but spectacular drive, and as ever the small children running after the car gave me much delight.
Sadly the monkeys and chimps were in cages, as the new forest enclosure was under construction, but managed to get a hat trick of DRC primates, bonobos, chimps and gorillas whilst out here, which was pretty awesome.
Across from the sanctuary was the most beautifully constructed colonial manner/palace, which wouldn’t have been out of place in the Loire valley, a bizarre reminder of the changing states and faces of this country.
We started to head back towards the city, but as we went through a town John asked if we could stop and see one of his friends on the way through. We weren’t in a rush, so we pulled over unaware of just what we would find when we stopped.
A Congolese villager called David.
Who was building a helicopter.
From scratch.
That would run on perpetual motion.
In the DRC.
(oh and he dropped out of school at 16, and has no engineering education)
I was flabbergasted, and speechless, in spite of the absurdness, the shell that he has created, was structurally sounds and well crafted. He has so much conviction in his ideas that you couldn’t not be impressed.
And for all my cynicism, I really do hope he has a revolutionary idea. For those of you who don’t think that this story could be possible here is a photo of David with his chopper.
We headed on in amazement, and John suggested we stop at a monastery that sold wine and goods that they produced on site. Not only did they produce a variety of different flavoured wines, they sold surprisingly excellent ice cream and yogurt.
This place never ceases to shock and amaze me.
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