时间:2018-12-08 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2011年(十二月)


英语课

Pushing Goods in Carts Provides Needed Work for E. Congolese


In Eastern Congo, formal jobs are rare and locals say survival is "by chance." Self-reliance is a way of life, and is immortalized by a golden statue of a boy pushing a wooden chikudu cart in the center of Goma. Almost exclusively used in eastern Congo, they are chipped out of solid wood plucked from forests crawling with rebel militias 1. Heather Murdock bring us more from Goma.



In this dusty corner of Eastern Congo, locals say unemployment is 70, 80 or 90 percent. With no available jobs, many seek out a living carrying things -- vegetables to the market, construction materials, crates 2 of goods to the supermarket.



Unlike other parts of Congo, this region boasts a vehicle they say is only found here: the Chikudu cart. It is a two-wheeled scooter of sorts that these men can push more than 24 kilometers a day, carrying more than 114 kilos of materials. On a good day, they can make $6 to $8.



But for Eastern Congo natives, the Chikudu cart is more than just back-breaking work. It is a symbol of Congolese endurance through decades of conflict and crushing poverty. One man takes photos to sell to tourists of the Chikudu statue in the center of downtown Goma.



“The statue that you see here represents the hard work of the drivers to survive and to develop our town,” he said.



Like other Congolese tools and art, Chikudu carts are hand-made, deep in the countryside. They cost drivers $50 to $100 dollars and are crafted from wood found in the Virunga Forest, a national park that has been plagued by conflict for decades.



Matias Mulumba owns an art store in Goma. He sells miniature Chikudu carts for children, and occasionally foreign visitors. He says the Chikudu is not just a symbol of the Congolese struggle, it is also representative of this region’s unique -- and practical -- craftsmanship 3.



“The Chikudu cart is unique to this region- you can't see it any other part of Congo. That’s why they decided 4 to build a monument to the vehicle. It does a job. It helps many families to eat,” Mulumba said.



He says Chikudu carts were developed by farmers, who once pushed their goods to market over Congo's rocky roads on wheel-barrows, and can now deliver three times faster.



But in a land now populated by motorcycles and trucks, some drivers say they wish could afford a more modern method of transporting goods for cash.



“I’m doing this because it is not possible to get another job here in Congo,” one man said.



The driver laughs when asked about the golden Chikudu statue in the center of town, saying with eight children at home and without even the ability to read, what else would he do for a living?



1 militias
n.民兵组织,民兵( militia的名词复数 )
  • The troops will not attempt to disarm the warring militias. 部队并不打算解除战斗中的民兵武装。 来自辞典例句
  • The neighborhood was a battleground for Shiite and Sunni militias. 那里曾是什叶派和逊尼派武装分子的战场。 来自互联网
2 crates
n.手艺
  • The whole house is a monument to her craftsmanship. 那整座房子是她技艺的一座丰碑。
  • We admired the superb craftsmanship of the furniture. 我们很欣赏这个家具的一流工艺。
3 decided
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的
  • This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
  • There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
学英语单词
2-CHLOROBENZYLAMINE
abandonate
allowable impact load
amphibianlike
barbey
barbier
benzisoxazoles
better-tasting
BKdusty pink
booking commission
bruderrat
butt joint welder
cardiac ventricle
caribbean subregion
catarrhal dyspepsia
christenly
circular flow of economy
class lists
clientela
contracted domain
Corypha
cronak method
cryptophialoidea secunda
deed registration fee
deflowereth
delay in payment
diogenes tumidus
dipping structure
dissidently
eastermost
endoscopic cold light source
ethynylbenzyl carbamate
eutelolecithal
exergonic
false-zero test
five-channel scanning radiometer
frost hygrometer
fug us
gel swelling
gingival border
hoale
i-deled
ice-shelves
icodextrin
incremental speed governing droop
insaner
internal spermatic veins
Ipililo
Johnstonebridge
joint operating procedure
ketoic
legal argument
life-holy
liquid scintillator detector
list-directed input/output statement
litmouse
Luconge
lynch-pins
mellow-soil plow
mentorlike
MEV, MeV, Mev, mev
myelomeningitis
Napicladium asteroma
nebularia contracta
neutron superfluidity
Nittendorf
ole-db
palpebral edema of the newborn
Penguin Beach
percentage of twist shrinkage
petrolisthes obtusifrons
primary cutaneous cryptococcosis
pronounces
propulsion parameter
Prügy
radioactive cemetery
radiomuscular
refollows
registry offices
relay return spring
roll-off area
RTTIs
sampling apparatus scattering area
so also do
space mark
spring swench
steinwachs
stokes' law of settling
tactical command ship
tangent-cone method
target domain
taxi pattern
thiosemicarbazone isonicotinaldehyde
track servo mechanism
trash boom
triaster egg
triple-digit
upright engine
video envelope
wash place
wideband coating
XIPHOSTOMIDAE