Mbudi
Mbudi is a private resort area about 45 minutes west of Kinshasa. I went there last week on an employee picnic. The resort is on a promontory at a narrow part of the Congo, in low water. In high water there is sort of a lagoon at the base of the hill and the river scours the bottom and about 40 acres of bedrock is exposed when the water is low.
We walked to the top of the hill and on the way up I heard what sounded like an industrial strength wind chime. At the top of the hill I could see the source of the noise. There were 200 people in the area of exposed rock, quarrying stone with hand tools. I was hearing the sound of 200 hammers on chisels, tink tink tink. They would rough cut, very rough cut, the rock, put it on a dump truck and drive it to Kinshasa where it was worth $250.
Some of it would be used as is. Some of it I think was delivered to Kinois who sit at the side of the road with a hammer and make smaller rocks out of bigger rocks; which they then sell. I see these people sitting, pounding at a rock with piles of littler rocks in front of them. I wondered where the bigger rocks came from.
Say what you will about the 3rd world, people who can make something worth selling out of rocks, got potential.
We walked to the top of the hill and on the way up I heard what sounded like an industrial strength wind chime. At the top of the hill I could see the source of the noise. There were 200 people in the area of exposed rock, quarrying stone with hand tools. I was hearing the sound of 200 hammers on chisels, tink tink tink. They would rough cut, very rough cut, the rock, put it on a dump truck and drive it to Kinshasa where it was worth $250.
Some of it would be used as is. Some of it I think was delivered to Kinois who sit at the side of the road with a hammer and make smaller rocks out of bigger rocks; which they then sell. I see these people sitting, pounding at a rock with piles of littler rocks in front of them. I wondered where the bigger rocks came from.
Say what you will about the 3rd world, people who can make something worth selling out of rocks, got potential.
posted by Carl at 8:50 AM
5 Comments:
Huh. I wondered where the bigger rocks came from too.
Looks like I will be in the vicinity the 2nd week of October (in Brazza before that).
Wait...Dont little rocks always come from big rocks??
No... they come from littler rocks fused together by rock-et scientists.
"don't call us. we'll call you."
Dont you mean rock-ette scientists? If that is the case, wouldnt they make more marketing them as dancing rocks?
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