Okay, so from Becca's posts, you know that the Congo isn't the greatest place in the Foreign Service to be posted, but there are some things that bring us laughter and the following story is one that at times makes life here beareable.
There is an American at the embassy who's son loves Star Wars. His son had one of those light sabers that lights up and makes noises. After the son played with it often and the dog chewed on it, the dad decided to give it away. There are several different ways he could enrich the lives of those in the Congo with this light saber. He could give it to an orphanage, give it to a one of the several kids who live on the street, and he could probably even give it to the Ndjili (Kinshasa's Airport) air traffic controllers, who could definitely use it.
Out of all of the choices he had, he chose to give it to the police. You may ask why the police when he could give it to a needy child. Well I will tell you why. There are very few stoplights in town (4) and even fewer that work (2). So at most busy intersections you have a police officer. Some police officers are nice and don't harass the drivers, others surround your car and claim you did something wrong and try to make you pay a bribe to get out of it.
But what these police officers do is stand in the middle of the intersection, either on the ground or on these little four foot stands. The rule (one of only two real traffic rules here in the Congo) is if the police officer is facing you, or his back is to you then you stop. If it is his profile that is facing you, then you have the right away.
So this American gave the light saber to one of the police officers and explained to her how to use it. She instantly took pride in her new gadget, walked out in the middle of traffic and used the light saber, and in my mind the force, to stop the traffic and let this American through. Because this light saber was so popular, this American then decided to start the LSI, the Light Saber Initiative and had friends send him some more light sabers and has started dispersing them through the city. These light sabers enable the police to do a better job and provides them with safety as the light saber is highly visible, but most of all it brings a smile to our faces because they have no idea that they are using a light saber to direct traffic. I will try and get a picture of one of these police officers for this blog in the future.
So today on my way home from work, a traffic cop (one of the nicer ones) was proudly holding his blue light saber, fearlessly directing traffic. And even though I am in the Congo, I couldn't help but laugh, possibly the work of the force from this Congolese Jedi, as the police officer waved me through with his light saber.
5 comments:
By far this is my favorite post about life in the Congo. I love the visual of this scene and can't wait for pictures. Perhaps we should push our youth to send more light sabers along with the other things you've already mentioned we could do as an eagle/yw project?
So awesome.
Tyler, this is the best story EVER!! Please try to take pictures. I'm cracking up just thinking about it.
I lauged so hard I cried. I can't wait for a picture of this.
Should we add this to the list of items we can send over to help the Congoliese people?
Great story Tyler! I can't wait to see pics too! May the force be with the Congolese Policeman. :-)
I also got a good laugh over this post. I smiled the whole time reading it and passed it on to G-Bob. I'm smiling now just thinking about it and reading the other comments. Thanks for the moment of laughter.
Post a Comment