lost congo memoir
Category archives for lost congo memoir
Mail Order Brides and Hypergyny
Posted by Greg Laden on July 1, 2009 Seymour had a mail order bride and he was very proud. Seymour was a night watchman that I got to know because I was forever lurking around at night, passing through alarmed doors and making a nuisance of myself and, usually, keeping just one step ahead of Seymour, who’s main objective in life was to…
The good book
Posted by Greg Laden on June 28, 2009 Whenever I sat at Joseph and Mary’s dinner table, Mary showed a great deal of interest in my work. In between her frequent forays away from the dining room table to get this or that food item, or to issue instructions to a servant, or whatever, she would sit at the table across from me…
Don’t be a Jew
Posted by Greg Laden on June 27, 2009 Joseph and Mary, and Little Joe and Mary, and Grinker and I, sat around the table where most of the dinner had been laid out. Additional bits and pieces of the dinner would be brought out as needed shortly, but now it was time to pray. So we held hands and bowed our heads, and…
Dirty poor people living in slime: Missionaries and American Idol
Posted by Greg Laden on June 26, 2009 Actual missionaries As you may have noticed, I have written a series of posts about missionaries in eastern Zaire in the 1980s and early 1990s, focusing on my own personal experiences. These seven posts represent only a small number of these experiences, but they are more or less representative. They are meant to underscore the…
Attack of the Hound of Malembi. Or, “Whose are these people, anyway?”
Posted by Greg Laden on June 26, 2009 As I’ve mentioned previously, the study site I worked in was beyond the Peace Corps Line. It was beyond the Blender Line. And it was beyond the Beer Line. Out here in this arguably very remote area, we were never short of remoteness. Every year the study site become more and more remote, as roads…
Michael Jackson Thrilled The Kids in Zaire
Posted by Greg Laden on June 25, 2009 I have only one Michael Jackson story.
The Great White Missionary
Posted by Greg Laden on June 25, 2009 It was a rare day that I was at the Ngodingodi research station at all … usually I was off in the forest with the Efe Pygmies, up the road excavating an archaeological site. It was also rare that Grinker, my cultural anthropologist colleague, was at the research station. He was spending most of his…
Our Research Camp as a Mission Station
Posted by Greg Laden on June 24, 2009 A couple of “missionary” posts back, I intimated that we got to stay at the missionary stations while visiting various cities or en route between points in return for our work giving out medicine and such at our research camp. In truth, the arrangement was a bit more complex and subtle than this, and in…
Forget the Maginot Line, What About the Beer Line?
Posted by Greg Laden on June 23, 2009 Near the end of the earth there are lines one might not cross for fear of falling off. OK, you won’t really fall off, but you will become scared and lost.
On a Mission from God
Posted by Greg Laden on June 22, 2009 Lately I’ve been reading the 19th and early 20th century traveler’s accounts of what is now known as the Western Rift Valley and the Ituri Forest, Congo. Some are written by the famous ‘explorers’ such as H.M. Stanley, others written by scientists on expeditions in the area, and still others by missionaries. Reading these accounts…
King Leopold’s Soliloquy
Posted by Greg Laden on June 21, 2009 Through the filter of time … a repost that may still be interesting to you from two years ago. I’m reminded of this work of literature owing to a recent discussion on another post. I like to point this text out whenever I get a chance, and since I’ve got a blog, this is an…
Flight 447 and the ITCZ
Posted by Greg Laden on June 9, 2009 I had never felt airsick before, or since. But now I was a nauseated rag doll flopping around in the middle row of a six seater prop plane and I was ready to hurl at any moment. BBC depiction of the path of Flight 447. I find it astonishing that the most important weather related…
, which is now available for the 
