A Different Kind of Youth (and a P.S. - UFO)

When I travel, I pay close attention to how young people react to their environment and with whom they interact. I make quick observations that are usually accurate based on my experiences traveling to over 100 countries (including many before my AIDS Walks began in 1998) and from living with families in diverse foreign cultures. However, I recognize that any snap judgments are tentative and could very well prove mistaken over longer observation. Besides being an AIDS educator trained at Harvard, I am an ethnologist, multi-culturalist, politician and pop psychologist. These are my first impressions of Congolese youth.

There is a malaise and moroseness in young people here – at least those in the capitol city of Kinshasa. At the end of the week when I travel into the interior up the Congo River, I will see how those youth react. I believe that part of it comes from the abject poverty, past and present possibility of civil conflict and reality of an uncertain economic future. Globalization is creating opportunities and problems for all teens -- especially when they see how well their peers in other societies live. TV, music and movies give them a look at life in developed countries where youth have money, cars, families that provide material wealth and more chances to succeed. Here there is almost no middle class with most living in poverty and a few in luxury.

Congolese youth are worried and it shows. What strikes me foremost is the lack of direct eye contact and cheerful countenances that can be found in other countries that are equally disadvantaged. A similar economy is Haiti where I have worked but even there youth appeared happier than here. In the Congo DR, I must work doubly hard to get them to respond in conversation. It happens but with great effort. This was not an issue in Sudan, Kenya or Rwanda, even with their own difficult situations.

I was struck by this comment from one of my volunteers who said, “The first question youth ask is where to find food* today?” In his family of ten siblings, often they are lucky to eat once a day. There are days when they have nothing. Can you imagine many American teens that have to say that? I am not talking about a runaway or a drugged out teen who is temporarily without money for food and chooses not to ask for help – but rather the vast majority of a nation’s youth like here in the Congo.

On World AIDS Day I was with university youth at a good private school (UPC – Protestant University in the Congo). After meeting with its administrators and receiving personal permission from the Rector to do my outreach, I walked around with many volunteers. We conducted AIDS Attacks along every pathway and corridor. I met perhaps 400 hundred as they passed between classes and talked with friends. I watched as they greeted fellow students and sometimes I observed them joking and engrossed in conversation. Yet only occasionally, not frequently, did I see really happy or engaged young people.

Yesterday and today, I noticed the exact same phenomenon in our teen meetings, street outreach and market interventions. I know what I see and can compare it with experiences elsewhere. If I was not so experienced in interacting with young people worldwide (perhaps more than most experts in the field because few have walked the streets as extensively as I have), I would not be able to make these generalizations.

Except for a few instances, young people are not as relaxed as I expected. In conversations with key informants, they understand what I observe and acknowledge it as true but assume that most youth are like this. I tell them for most other nations and societies, this feeling of dejection is the exception not the rule.

But when I visit children in schools or catch their eyes on the street, they appear happy for the most part. They wave and they look me in the eyes. They laugh and play like kids everywhere. What happens in the space of a few years that profoundly changes them?

A 19 year-old university student said, “It is despair. We do not know where life is going. We don’t think it will be good. I worry too.” When I asked if he was not talking about the economy and future jobs, he said yes but added there exists a weariness that saps their youthful energy. If there is little or no hope, why dream of better things? He thought “malaise” was an apropos term. He said that the history of the Congo was a brutal one with abusive foreign colonialists, home-bred dictators and war. He added that his country had four major groups, Bangala, Bakongo, Baluba and Baswahili and 400 dialects. He added that people are despondent that there is no administration, few human rights or leaders that can ensure that life will be good. He said many feel exploited – that everyone above their position in life exploits them.

But I said other countries have similar histories.

When pressed for an explanation, my informant said, “You must understand that Congolese sleep on gold and diamonds but have nothing in their stomachs.”

I told him that there is some other reason for what I observe and he said he would think more about it.

However, I was encouraged when meeting with a team at the RACOJ-SIDA offices. Ten peer leaders (all university students) were there and were inspired to do AIDS prevention outreach with teens in schools and neighborhoods. We talked about themselves and their work as volunteers (in a society where even a few dollars could buy them food). These are the future leaders of a new Congo – if they don’t lose hope.

* The young 18 year-old volunteer said tea or coffee was a luxury as were fruit juices. He was describing life in the city, not the countryside where the soil is rich and farmers can provide many essentials. Rice and plantains are staples; Congolese palm oil is often put on rice or used in cooking sauces. Sometimes there are fruits like bananas and mangos but they can be expensive. They also eat fufu, cassava and its leaves and pondu. Fish (“thomson”) is less expensive than chicken but any meats are a rarity as an everyday staple. He added there is bread in the city (French baguettes) and that peanuts are not expensive and provide protein he thought. And of course, there is always water. On the streets, you see many young men carrying tall plastic bags on their heads filled with water in sealed baggies for sale.

P.S. UFO

Coming back from the home of Princess, who is one of the supervisors at RACOJ, I looked up at the night sky and noticed a strange phenomenon. It was a crisp, crescent moon low in the sky, with two lights equidistantly spaced above the horns of the crescent. I stared at the image thinking they were two airplanes passing above the moon, but they didn’t move. It sounds ridiculous but it looked more like a representation of the smiley face that was pasted in a coal-black sky.

In fact, the moon and stars didn’t look that far away. If I had to guess, I’d say they weren’t more than a couple thousand meters. I said out loud in front of seven passengers in the minivan, “That’s really strange. Look at that! I wonder what it is?” Jerome, the driver said, “Those are two stars” and kept his eye on the road for the next humungous pothole and/or pedestrian. I thought he must be right for what else could it be except a … ? Jimmy just thought I was just joking. I looked up again at the smile and let the matter drop.

The next evening, some of the volunteers were in our apartment watching the television news while I prepared notes for the next day’s activities. Because the TV commentary was in Lingala that I couldn’t understand, I ignored the noise. For some reason, I glanced up and there it was! The smiley face in the night sky on the news!

The image was interspersed with many people being interviewed about what it was. I became very excited and said to everybody, “That’s what I saw! That’s what I saw!” So Princess and Kevin translated what was being said. People on the street were saying the exact same thing, that it wasn’t two stars or a crescent moon but something else.

Although it appeared to be unidentified on the news, I received this wonderful e-mail from TeenAIDS board member and good friend Bunny Bullock:

John,
What a treat to get all details on your incredible trip! I really love your writing and it was so special to see the crescent moon with Jupiter and Venus so unbelievably close, knowing you could see it (assumung the the weather was clear)and get as excited as I was ! It looked as though someone had pasted a page from a children's book up in the sky.....what a sight. Keep the news coming. Hugs, Bunny