In 1984, I joined the Peace Corps to teach veterinary nurses in the center of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). The name of the town was Omendjadi -- a pretty name for a village of five hundred people. The name was the only thing good about it, because there was no way to get to anywhere from there. There was not one telephone, newspaper, store, restaurant or bar. Also, the postal service was extremely sporadic, due to a government mandate that all mail had to be carried by the national airline. (It was called Air Zaire, but everyone called it Air Peut-Etre, or "Air Maybe")The rusted roof building in the weedy yard above is the Administration Center of the "Technical Agricultural Institute" where I taught. The school offered agriculture and veterinary nursing as options. Most of the students lived on site and the school farm was managed by a few teachers, in part, to supply the dormitories with food.
Photo by D. Messinger
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