“The teeth are smiling but is the heart?” — Congo proverb

Since coming home from my first trip to Africa in September 2008, I have plotted to go back. My first trip was to Rwanda, site of the 1994 genocide where a million or so people were killed in a three-month period. My second trip, I believe, will be to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda’s next-door neighbor.

3-year-old Marlene Nsimere, an orphan at Congo Restoration

I have recently met a wonderful woman from the DRC, who has sparked my interest in her homeland. Her name is Gorethy Nabushosi. She was an attorney back in Congo, as she calls her country. Because she fought for women’s rights, she had to flee 10 years ago, leaving behind her husband and six children, who joined her almost two years later. About a year ago, she returned home for the first time, finding a hospital full of rape victims and a village full of orphans. She took in 30 of them and started Congo Restoration, an organization she hopes will help those 30 sweet children and so many more.

We shared a meal with Gorethy and her family last week, which I’ll write about in my next post. She makes my heart smile, even when my teeth don’t want to.

In the meantime, here are some interesting facts about the DRC:

The Congo River

1. After Rwanda’s genocide, many of the genocidaires (those who killed) fled across the border into DRC. These Rwandans, combined with long-time political unrest, started a war, which, in 1997, overturned the government.

2. Since the war began, more than five million people have died from violence, famine, or disease, making it the deadliest war since World War II. The weapon of choice is often rape.

3. The DRC gained its independence from Belgium in 1960.

4. The country used to be called Zaire and should not be confused with the Republic Congo, another African country. Laurent Kabila, who became president in the coup of 1997, renamed the country the Democratic Republic of Congo.

5. Kabila was assassinated in 2001. His son, Joseph Kabila, is now president.

Rape victims reintegrating into their community

6. DRC is the 12th largest country in the world and the third largest in Africa. DRC is about a quarter the size of the United States with more than 2.3 million square kilometers and 68.6 million people. At least 1.4 million are internally displaced because of war while another 212,713 living as refugees in other African countries.

7. 47 percent of the DRC’s population is age 14 or under. Only 2.5 percent are over the age of 65.

8. Half of the country is Roman Catholic, 20 percent Protestant, 10 percent Kimbanguist (a Christian offshoot that started here), 10 percent Muslim, and 10 percent other.

9. Members of Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army continue to live in the DRC’s Garamba National Park, which borders Rwanda and is home to one-third of the remaining Mountain Gorillas left in the world.

10. A pasty white food called fufu, which is pounded into the texture of oatmeal, is a staple here and often eaten out of a communal bowl. Sweet potatoes, perch, bananas, and plantains are also common. Meat is not.

11. Traditionally, women serve meals to men, who sit in chairs. After they eat, the women and children eat what’s left while seated on the floor.

Civil war in DRC

12. French is the official language of the country, but most Congolese speak many languages.

13. War broke out again in 2008 along the eastern border with Rwanda.

How you can help:

• For $60 a month, sponsor an orphan of the war through Gorethy’s organization, Congo Restoration. Or share such a sponsorship with a friend: $30 pays for the child’s food, $30 pays for rent, medical care, housing, and school.

• For $27 a month, support a woman through Women to Women International, which works in war-torn countries around the world. Your letter of support to these women is as important as the money that helps them start their lives over with education and a trade.

• For $3 a week, help Invisible Children as it works tirelessly to set free the 3,000 child soldiers who have been kidnapped by the Lord’s Resistance Army in many African nations, including, as of December 2008, the DRC.

“Traditional Botswana men like ladies who are more traditionally shaped. You and I, Mma. We remind men of how things used to be in Botswana before these modern-shaped ladies started to get men all confused.” — Alexander McCall Smith, The Full Cupboard of Life

Forgive my tardiness with this week’s Africa lesson. I usually do these on Wednesdays (as I’m sure my millions of followers have noticed), but it was an unusually busy week and I’ve been trying to out-vitamin a cold for a couple of days.

I’ve been reading The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series (now on book two of 10) for a while now, a delicious indulgence among other books on my nightstand. My friend Meg Medina suggested it when I visited her this summer. I confessed to her that I found myself only reading books about Africa. “Well,” she said, “if you’re only going to read about Africa, you might as well read something entertaining.”

I love Botswana through the eyes of Alexander McCall Smith and his main character, Precious Ramotswe. She is one of those characters I will deeply miss when I am done reading her stories. Someone with whom I would love to share lunch or an afternoon of people watching on her front porch.

In addition to reading the book (really, even if you’re not obsessed with Africa, the stories are wonderful), here are some things you should know about Botswana:

1. The country (which is slightly smaller than Texas) borders and is closely connected in many ways to South Africa.

Gathering food in Botswana

2. Bridge is a very popular game.

3. This is a stable country and has been since its independence from Britain in 1966. Since that time, the people of Botswana have pulled themselves up from being one of the poorest countries in in the world to being a middle-income country. Much of this is due to the discovery of diamonds shortly after independence.

4. Botswana has one of the world’s highest rates of HIV/AIDS infection. The CIA estimates from 2007 show 23.9 percent of adults are infected, second only in the world to Swaziland where 26.1 percent are infected.

5. The country is predominantly Christian (71.6 percent).

6. 81.2 percent of the population is literate (80.4 percent of men, 81.8 percent of women).

7. Many refugees from Zimbabwe flee to Botswana to escape their corrupt government.

8. There are actual Bushmen here. They have been kicked off their land (although they were the first there) and are living in resettlement camps. They now face alcoholism and many other problems (sound familiar to other native people we might know?).

9. Sorghum is a food staple here. In urban areas, you will find also find fast food like KFCs. I’d rather eat the sorghum. A favorite dish is “bogobe, nama and morogo,” the bogobe being sorghum or maize, nama is meat, and morogo is a green leafy vegetable that looks like spinach.

10. Most people in Botswana have three homes: one in a town (near work and school), one in the village (usually where their family is from), and one in where the cattle are (called the “moraka” or cattle post).

How you can help:

• For $30 a month, you can sponsor a child who has been orphaned by AIDS through SOS Children’s Villages.

• Donate to Cheetah Conservation Botswana to help outreach, research, education efforts to help Africa’s most threatened big cat.

• Help the 1,000 Bushmen, who won a court victory in 2006 but have not yet been allowed to return to their homeland, by donating to I Want 2 Go Home.

“Between true friends even water drunk together is sweet enough.” — Zimbabwean proverb

I am so looking forward to tomorrow’s Thanksgiving feast with my sister, family, and my friends from Zimbabwe. I say “friends” although I do not know my friend Prosper’s wife and children very well at all — yet. I’ve known Prosper for a couple of years, since he fled his home country under persecution and worked for two years to fight for asylum for himself and for his family. They finally joined him this summer.

I look forward to celebrating my first African feast with them, sharing in this American tradition of Thanksgiving and perhaps becoming true friends over the years ahead of us.

Children in Zimbabwe pick up corn off the street (NYT)

Some interesting facts about Zimbabwe:

1.The country is bankrupt. President Robert Mugabe spent too much money fighting with the Democratic Republic of Congo and ruined farming in his the nation by forcing successful white farmers off their land and giving it to black friends of is who didn’t know what they were doing.

2. Earlier this year, the worthless 100-trillion-dollar Zimbabwean banknotes were being sold to foreign tourists as souvenirs for $2 each.

3. Although the government is incredibly corrupt now, Mugabe does leave a legacy of education in his country. The literacy rate is estimated at 76 percent, thanks to the free education put in place by Mugabe in his early years.

Victoria Falls

4. Average life expectancy is between 37 and 45.7 years, depending on what you read.

5. The official annual inflation rate rose from 32 percent in 1998, to 133 percent in 2004, 585 percent in 2005, and approached 1000 percent in 2006, although private sector estimates put the figure much higher, according to a group called Sokwanele (“Enough is Enough”).

6. 15 percent of the population has HIV/AIDS.

7. Zimbabwe’s infant mortality rate has increased 20 percent over the past 20 year, Reuters reports.

8. Almost 5,000 people died from cholera last year, mainly because of the country’s economic troubles.

9. Victoria Falls, one of the most beautiful sights on earth, is in Zimbabwe.

10. A 2008 UN study found that 7 in 10 people had eaten either nothing or only a single meal the day before, according to The New York Times.

11. The cornmeal-based dietary staple of Zimbabwe is also the national dish, called sadza. Sadza to the Zimbabweans is like rice to the Chinese or pasta to Italians, according to Food in Every Country.

12. Zimbabweans eat with their right land and it is considered impolite to eat with the left (even if you are left-handed). It is also polite to leave a little food on your plate to show that you have been sufficiently fed.

How can help:

• Friends of mine in Philadelphia, Debrianna Obama and Peter Harris, have started a school in Zimbabwe. The Kubatsirana Primary School educates and feeds 200 children in grades 1-6. A $100 donation to the Kubatsirana (which means “helping each other” in Shona) sends a child to school for one year.

Child being fed at school by ZOE

• ZOE Ministry has been desperately trying to help feed orphans since the government fell apart. I have traveled with ZOE (to Rwanda) and know this organization to be doing the right thing by orphans in many African countries. A recent report from Zimbabwe to ZOE: “Things are worse than ever, but you should know that the ZOE food is really helping a lot of children. There’s almost no teaching going on in the schools, but food is being prepared by headmasters, and children are coming for a daily meal.”

“If you can’t ride two horses at once, you shouldn’t be in the circus.” — American proverb

Frantic today.

Kids are home from school (teacher conferences). Deadlines like crazy. House is filthy and the laundry isn’t done because my housekeeper was sick this week (poor me, right?). Friends coming over for dinner. African soup (vegetarian and non-veggie versions) needs to be made, as does the apple crisp.

African soup with friends

All this on top of an alternative holiday market I’m co-chairing at church most of the weekend. But, while it certainly adds to the stress, I’m thrilled that dear friends are coming over this evening to share soup, a great crusty bread, wine and — if it makes it in the oven — the apple crisp. We have an assembly line ready to finish last-minute details for the market and a table at the market for Congo Restoration, benefiting 30 orphans in the DRC whose parents were killed in the war.

It all fits together tonight: feeding my family (and friends), feeding Africa, and — oh so importantly — feeding my soul.

“I think Rwanda is going to be paradise.” — Richard, the kind driver who took our group to see the country’s mountain gorillas and told us about his family’s losses during genocide.

As part of my mission — feeding my family, feeding Africa, feeding my soul — I will dedicate one weekly post to each of the 53 countries in Africa. I start with Rwanda, where my passion for Africa began.

Eleven things you should know about Rwanda:

1. About half of the remaining 700 mountain gorillas left in the world live here; the other half are just across the borders of the DRC and Uganda. These are Dian Fossey’s gorillas in the mist. And they are the second most amazing beings I’ve ever had the honor of being with; the first are the people of Rwanda.

Guhonda, the largest known among the endangered mountain gorilla (Photo by Jack Soper)

2. Today, 9.3 million people live in Rwanda. The country is about the size of Maryland, which has about 5.6 million people.

3. Almost one million were killed in three months during the 1994 genocide; more than 553,000 women were raped, 63 percent of whom contracted the AIDS virus.

4. Rwanda grows (and serves) the best tea and coffee I’ve ever had.

5. Many families are headed by children, as there are one million orphans, most from AIDS or the genocide.

6. Plastic bags are illegal throughout the country.

7. A staple of the Rwandan diet is cassava, a root vegetable. Being “food secure” means you have two meals a day until the next harvest.

8. The per capita household income in 2007 was $370.

9. Most people in rural Rwanda, which is most of Rwanda, do not have running water or air conditioning.

10. There are fewer than 60,000 vehicles in the entire country.

11. Rwanda could be paradise. But the people there need our help. The United States, with the rest of the world, ignored Rwanda in its greatest time of need. Now the country is making great progress 15 years after genocide. Still, women and children struggle the most here, true of most of Africa.

How you can help put this country of beautiful people back together:

• Support a woman through Women to Women International for $27 a month.

• Buy a pig ($30) or a goat ($40) for an orphan raising his or her siblings through ZOE Ministry.

• Spend $160 for a sewing machine to give a Rwandan the skills to survive through Rwanda AID.

• Provide a $500 scholarship for a school-aged child or a $1,000 scholarship for a college student in Rwanda through the Left to Tell Charitable Fund.

“When planning for a year, plant corn. When planning for a decade, plant trees. When planning for life, train and educate people.” — Chinese proverb

When planning through Friday, write a list and stick it on the refrigerator.

As is often my Monday routine, I organize the week’s food once I get everyone off to school and work (one of my greatest pleasures, I must admit; after my banker husband was off-and-on unemployed for 14 months last year, it still gives me a thrill to see him drive away to work every morning). I start with a my low-tech version of a spreadsheet (pictured), which includes the vital info on where we have to be each night. Sadly, it’s no longer ever a case of whether we have something to do on a weeknight — it’s just a matter of what, when, and how far away in Dallas traffic it is.

I love the mundane task of planning a weekly menu and grocery shopping. It’s meditative for me, just like cooking. I look at what we’re doing, how much time I’ll have to cook, what I got at the fruit & vegetable co-op that weekend, what’s forgotten in the freezer, what’s on sale at Whole Foods, and what my family is eating these days (which seems to change hourly with my 12-year-old; as of Halloween night, Kit-Kats are now out of favor).

Who needs Excel?

This week’s offerings thus far:

• Monday: Arroz con pollo (a recipe from one of my dearest friends, given to her by the Cuban woman who waxed her legs in Port St. Lucie, Fla., in the ’90s) with a French baguette, fresh mozzarella, basil and Roma tomatoes. A true Mediterranean mish mash. Bought some fake chicken to try a version for Noah (the vegetarian with the suddenly unpredictable taste buds). Never tried it before so we’ll see. In a pot on the next burner, you’ll find the tried-and-true version where a chicken so kindly has sacrificed its life.

• Tuesday: The vegetarian has a campout with his class, which means two things: One, guess we’ll all get up early to have breakfast together before he leaves (I suspect this request will not be popular). Two, T-bones steaks all around. Since they were on sale a couple of weeks ago at Whole Foods, I got three, so my 9-year-old carnivore will get his own plate-sized steak. He’ll be thrilled (and likely have leftovers for Wednesday’s lunch). Red potatoes and green beans on the side.

• Wednesday: So far, I just have brats and okra. Since I hate okra, I probably should find something to add to that.

• Thursday: Running-around kind of afternoon so gnocchi (frozen) with a pesto cream sauce, some yummy bread out of the breadmaker, and salad. UPDATE: What am I thinking? Rock climbing 5-7 pm for Noah, 7:15 pm football game for Sawyer. Leftover arroz con pollo and maybe a salad if I’m feeling ambitious (which seems doubtful by the time we all walk back in the door at 8:45 pm).

• Friday: African soup with friends who are coming over to work for this weekend’s Global Village Market at my church. We’re stealing the Starbucks idea of putting fabric in coffee travel mugs for Congo Restoration. Thinking about inviting friends from Zimbabwe. Maybe my first African feast? We’ll see. I can’t wait. A chilly autumn Friday night with bowls of hot soup, buttered fresh bread, red wine, and friends to help orphans in the Congo — perfection.

My 12-year-old son doesn’t think we can pull this off, this daily dining together. I say all it takes is a little planning and a lot of intention — in thinking about dinner, in what we hope our children will remember from their childhoods, and in what we hope they will pass onto their children and world.