(RM) Snail mail/ parcels

Snail mail/ parcels

Thursday, 26 April, 2007

I've been asked if it is possible to receive mail here (thanks Nils!), so this posting basically explains the situation.

It's clear I'm pretty isolated here, but at least there's twice-weekly email uploads and downloads! So although I may be in the middle of the jungle in the middle of Africa, I still feel fairly connected, albeit virtually, to the rest of the world.

Physically, however, it would be difficult to get much more distant. Getting here, to LuiKotal camp, is a multi-day ordeal, involving an international flight to Kinshasa (which can involve several connections from most places), a harrowing ordeal to leave the Kinshasa International Airport (airport code: FIH), a minimum of one overnight in the city, a regional flight from the Kinshasa city airport to the Ipope airstrip (there are no roads to Ipope), possibly with a refueling stop en route, then a 5km walk to Lompole, another overnight there, and finally another 20km walk to camp, which includes several river crossings, lots of mud, one dugout canoe ride, and sometimes another overnight.

The international flights generally limit baggage to one carry-on and two checked pieces of up to 23kg (50 pounds), with the maximum limit being 32kg (70 pounds) per checked bag. I personally brought two 32kg bags, plus my carry-on which was over 20kg (fortunately they didn't weigh it!).

The regional planes are chartered, and have stricter weight limits. Passengers count as weight. When I came in we had the larger plane, with a total possible payload of 900kg (we used it all). The smaller plane that's often chartered for this project can carry about 450kg, including the passenger(s). We rely on the planes to reprovision the camp with staples like rice, beans, and coffee, in addition to carrying the passengers and their luggage, so food can sometimes take priority over excess luggage.

From the Ipope airstrip, everything is carried on people's backs. The first stretch (about 5km) is from the airstrip to the project's depot in Lompole, while the second (about 20km) is from Lompole to LuiKotal camp. Porters generally carry loads from around 15 to 20 kilos - anything above that earns them a double portering rate, but obviously there's an upper limit that anyone can be physically expected to carry so far.

So mail, as we know it, does not exist in this part of the world. Even in Kinshasa, the mail system is fairly dismal, and not to be relied upon for anything beyond inconsequential postcards or other anecdotes. And outside of the main few cities of the country, I don't think people even know the concept of 'mail'.

At our camp, however, we're connected to the outside world by periodic new arrivals or departures. I came in with three others, and four people left a few weeks later. This is how we can send and receive 'mail'. I, for instance, bought a few postcards while in Kinshasa, and 'sent' them a few weeks later when people left camp. They were probably posted from Germany. I also 'sent' some digital photos to my cousin in New York, via the New Yorker that left.

So using this same system, it is actually possible for me to receive 'mail'. Timing is obviously irregular, and weight and size are big factors on whether the person arriving will really agree to bring something in for me. But letters, postcards, photos, CDs, and so on, should have relatively inconsequential effects on their luggage's weight, so should not be a problem.

It is now late April, and the next flight coming to Ipope will be in mid- to late-May. It will be carrying Grit, and possibly Jonas. Grit is coming from Leipzig, and I think that's where Jonas is based right now too. Leipzig is where the Institute is that established this camp. So any mail that is sent to me should be sent care of the Institute in Leipzig.

For anything that arrives at the Institute by around mid-May, it can be addressed to Grit Schubert. After that, her mail will probably just sit there until she gets back from here several months later. So address any later correspondence to Gottfried Hohmann and he'll make sure it gets to me with the next Institute visitor. It is recommended that anything be double-enveloped, so that if Grit or Gottfried opens 'their' mail, they just find another label inside with my name on it. Use the following format:

Ryan Matthews at LuiKotal Camp, DRC
c/o GRIT SCHUBERT (or c/o GOTTFRIED HOHMANN, if it will arrive after mid-May)
Max-Planck Institut fur evolutionare Anthropologie
Primatologie
Deutscher Platz 6
D-04103 Leipzig
Germany

So following this method, I guess my wish list is data CDs with photos of what's been going on in people's lives in recent months, or even just with photos of what's been going on in the world (we get very little news of the outside world here). I suppose some interesting magazine articles or newspaper clippings would be appreciated, or some hardcopy pictures to look at and show off. Developed photos are ok, but the humidity here kills them, and the portering trip to camp often leaves everything soaking wet. Anything sensitive to being dropped in a river ought to be waterproofed! CDs with recommended listening of mp3-format music would be a good call - I've got about 100GB of space left on my player's hard drive. Or maybe spices that you think would complement the food here, or little sweets or whatever. I dunno - get creative!

Or just letters and postcards, of course:)

If you do send something via this method, I'll be sure to acknowledge it (by email) when it finally arrives. If it's been more than a month or so, or you read in another entry that someone new came but you haven't gotten a response from me yet, then it's possible the mail was left in Leipzig - write me to see what's up. I brought a list of email addresses, but I don't have everyone's, so be sure to include that too.

Whatever I get, it'll be cool. The fact that getting something to me here is such an involved process, just makes it that much more special when it finally arrives. Thanks in advance!

-Ryan.