Congo

Posted by Mikkel

In a second attempt we succeeded and made it in to the ”promised land” of Congo. The town of Goma – on the border with Rwanda - looks like what it is. The result of one disaster after another: 75 years of colonial exploitation, 35 years of miserable and corrupt leadership and since 1995 a confusing armed conflict involving up to 5-6 different countries, numerous rebel groups, tons of valuable natural resources and absolutely no respect for human life and dignity. In 2002 the devastating eruption of the Nyarigongo volcano even offered a natural disaster supplement to all this human caused suffering.

Invisible fire

(Posted by janine)
Yesterday I talked to my colleague about her 17-year old sister who attends a boarding school.  Whenever someone tells you he or she is 17, you cannot help thinking about the year of birth... 1994. I asked my colleague about whether her sister learns about the genocide in school?

Her answer is giving me the shivers. Of course they learn something about the history of genocide (the 'official story'), but they don't really talk about it. It's too difficult, which is understandable.  But then she tells me that her sister actually got traumatized last week because of a fight that broke out at the school. Turns out that the T (utsi) children at the school have been receiving small notes with 'hate speech' from some other students, threatening them that they should be killed. Where did they get those ideas from?

Once again you realize that some tiny flame is still simmering throughout the country. And you wonder how often it sparks up a fire, and where, and who gets hurt by it. But you don't know because you just don't see it...

Friends and Gorillas

(posted by Janine)

Sorry: we haven’t been very active in writing lately. Part of the reason is that we have been very happy getting friends over, and of course we needed to spend all our spare (non-working) hours with them. We got the most out of it: biking through all the poor and rich neighbourhoods of town, showing them Kigali’s nightlife (and dancing moves!) and spending lovely hours at the lakeside with great swimming, grilled fish and evening-fires.

 

BBQ at our house: Dennis, Tine, Mikkel, Laetitia, Mikkel

Our first ‘visiting team’ were Tine and Mikkel, who spent 3 weeks in Rwanda.  I am pretty sure they saw more of the country than either of us (or perhaps any other tourist) ever did.  We had a great time with bbq's, rwandan-style aerobics and varagi-gin tonic. We also spent a super relaxing weekend at the lake together, 3hours from Kigali. 

The next ‘team’ –all the way from Holland- were Melchior and Jeroen, who came with a mission: visiting DRC Congo (to climb this volcano). Although Mikkel and I were able to get a visa in Kigali (not without trouble, but hey –it’s Africa), the others were told by the Congolese embassy to get their 285-dollar-visa at the border. But this was easier said than done. We ended up spending 6 long, hot and hungry hours at the border … without success!