Last day in Goma

In the last two days, we’ve visited three schools, a nutrition clinic, and a safe child center. In all three, we’ve met some amazing staff and volunteers that are really working to try to improve living situations for children here.

First, we stopped at a school in Goma. This school works to provide primary education and vocational training for orphans and vulnerable children. The children here have suffered much, and all have stories to tell. Many have lost parents to either conflict or to AIDS. Others are former child soldiers, who had been kidnapped from their families, and forced to serve in the conflict in DRC. In these cases, the children escaped, but their families wouldn’t take them back, as they were afraid the child had become dangerous, and might kill the family. Others have parents who are now living with AIDS, and are no longer able to support them.

The school works to find foster families in the local community to take these children in at night so that they won’t have to live on the streets. “Foster family” here is not the same as in the US. These families are simply giving the kids a place to sleep, and maybe a meal, but not much else. Often the foster families are barely surviving, and have many children of their own.

The school is a happy place with multiple school rooms, a mechanic training school, a sewing center, and a clinic. There’s also a large building that is used as a community center, and events are put on each weekend so that the children have a place to come to simply be kids. The primary school is really for any child that has not had a chance to learn. Many of these kids have been on the move due to conflict, and have never had a chance to go to school. The primary classroom has kids ranging from probably 6 to about 14, all learning the basics. In the vocational centers, you find older children who need to learn a trade to get work. They also teach some reading, writing and math skills in the vocational center, as these children are too old to sit with the primary children.

This school received bad news this week. Their primary source of funding (a grant through one of the large world aid organizations) has been cut. They will need to find a new donor to continue paying their teachers and maintaining their school. The school administrator was showing us around between phone calls to people trying to secure new funding. We asked how much a teacher makes, and were told that each teacher makes $200 per month, and than includes salary, medical care, and transportation. We counted 6 teachers at the school, although their may be one or two more, as not all the vocational classrooms were operating that day. We figure at the high end, this school is probably operating on about $100K annually, and that is most likely extremely high. It’s probably closer to $60K. Amazing work and huge support to over 500 children for what is really a fairly small amount of money. We hope they find new funding to continue this work.

Yesterday, we were able to travel north of the city of Goma to several communities about 70 to 100km from town. The countryside here is beautiful! As noted in an earlier post, there are many National Parks near here, although today, they have been significantly damaged by the conflict that the country has seen for the last 10 to 20 years.

Just north of the city, things are growing, and people have planted, but this is a recent lava flow, so it’s a little harder to plant here. Eight years ago, the volcano erupted, and sent hot lava down through the city of Goma, and all the way to the shores of Lake Kivu. In fact, the school I talked about above, is actually built on what 8 years ago was a huge pool of hot lava.

After you move north of the volcano, the soil changes, and the landscape is covered with thick vegetation. The country here is very hilly, but people are doing terraced farming right up the side of the hill. You see maize, lentils, cabbage, and coffee beans growing everywhere, plus all the fruit trees – mostly bananas and plantains. The soil here is wonderful for growing. If people could just stay in one place long enough to both plant and harvest, the north-eastern part of DRC could probably feed the entire country, and possibly most of Africa. We’re told before the conflict, there was substantial farming and exporting of goods from here.

Today, conflict has forced people to move from their homes and seek refuge in other areas of the country. Then over time, they move back, only to find that someone else has laid claim to their property, most likely someone seeking refuge from another area marked by conflict. Children are uprooted as well. This is incredibly hard for them, as they are not afforded the opportunity to go to school or to receive medical care. Many of them are malnourished, and all suffer from mental trauma from the constant moving, the conflict, the looting, and other awful things that have happened to either them or their mothers.

We visited one area that is somewhat stable. The community has actually built two school, one from bricks and concrete, the other from old UN tarps that they’ve secured to a wooden frame. The children have made desks, and many have managed to find a composition book and a pen or pencil. There are no books, and the chalkboard looks like it was broken into pieces so that each classroom could have something to write on. We didn’t ask how many students in the two schools, but as a guess, I’d say there was 150 in each school. Their favorite subjects are French and Mathematics, although some of the children said they like English. I think that’s for our benefit, as they weren’t learning English.

From there we visited a nutrition center. Here mothers can bring children under the age of 5 to be seen and be helped with nutrition. Volunteers scour the community looking for children or mothers that are either acutely or severely malnourished. The acutely malnourished children are treated at the clinic with special food supplements that can be administered at home, and are re-checked every two weeks to ensure they are coming back to health. The severely malnourished children have to be sent to another clinic where they are treated as inpatients. At this clinic alone, they see 8 new cases of acute malnourishment per day, and 5 cases of severe malnourishment. This number should probably be higher, but it takes time for the volunteers to scour the countryside to find the children that need help. To be honest, this number is probably about all the clinic can handle at one time due to supply of antibiotics and therapeutic foods.

We then went to a place that has been set up to give children a place to go to simply be kids. The “child safe” location has about 500 kids coming each day, and was only established last week. Here they are running a small school for children who’s parents can’t afford the government run school fees (about $5 per child per semester). They also have a small vocational center with sewing, mechanics, hair cutting, and embroidery. The children come and in the morning, go to school to learn to read, write, and do basic figures. Then the older ones are able to do some work to learn a trade. In the afternoon, they simply play. The dance, sing songs, play soccer, and do other games.

While the learning is important, for these kids, the afternoon play time may actually be more important. These are kids who have seen terrible things. Some have been beaten, some are child soldiers, some have seen their families killed, many are living alone due to loss of parents, and all have been living in fear, sometimes for their entire lives. Learning to trust other kids and adults, and simply learning how to play and to relax and feel safe is as important for these kids as learning to read and write. The volunteers here are people in the community who want to see these kids thrive and grow and not repeat the terrible things that have been happening.

I could write and write about the things we’ve seen in the last two days. Instead, I’ll just share my biggest take-away. This is an area where people want to change. They want to support themselves. They want to make a life for themselves, and they have the courage to do it. Better yet, they have nearly everything they need to make this happen. They have good soil, access to water sources, wonderful people, and great ambition. They are only lacking two things. The first is infrastructure, but this could come with time and effort, and a little initi who have seen terrible things. Some have been beaten, some are child soldiers, some have seen their families killed, many are living alone due to loss of parents, and all have been living in fear, sometimes for their entire lives. Learning to trust other kids and adults, and simply learning how to play and to relax and feel safe is as important for these kids as learning to read and write. The volunteers here are people in the community who want to see these kids thrive and grow and not repeat the terrible things that have been happening.

I could write and write about the things we’ve seen in the last two days. Instead, I’ll just share my biggest take-away. This is an area where people want to change. They want to support themselves. They want to make a life for themselves, and they have the courage to do it. Better yet, they have nearly everything they need to make this happen. They have good soil, access to water sources, minerals, wonderful people, and great ambition. They are only lacking two things. The first is infrastructure, but this could come with time and effort, and a little initial assistance and training. The second is stability and peace. This one is obviously much harder. The people here will never succeed if conflict continually requires them to flee from their homes, and if fighting continues to have them live in fear. I hope that one day they will see peace in this area. The opportunity here is amazing!

We’ll be leaving here shortly for the long trip back. First, we will visit with our host in a park in Rwanda (just across the lake). Then we will go by taxi for 3 hours to the Kigali airport. Then off to Nairobi, Amsterdam, and finally home. This has been an amazing trip, and I thank you for letting me share it with you.

Arrival in Goma

Greetings from Goma! We arrived here two days ago via the ECHO flight operated by the UN. Just as when we arrived, departing the Lubumbashi airport is an experience. The taxi dropped us off at the door, and there was a huge pushing mob out front, and one policeman at the door that was attempting to control the flow of people inside. He was stopping people randomly, and then pushing some out of the way. We finally all made it inside, waiting for 30 minutes of complete confusion at the check in location, then off to wait for the flight. Then there was another issue of some sort, so back through the front door of the airport. This time, the crowd outside was mostly gone, except for the fight that broke out at the front door just as we approached. A quick step back avoided the punch that missed the first guy, and almost nailed me, but all is well. The punch thrower has poor aim, and missed everyone! The police officer took care of that, and we made it in quickly. Suddenly, a whole new scene – all is peaceful, everyone is standing neatly in lines, no one is yelling. We go to the location directed, only to find out that there really isn’t a problem, and we are sent back to wait.

Not sure how flight announcements are made, but all of a sudden, there was the run to the plane, across the tarmac with our bags. Quite amusing…. Security consists of someone checking the tag on your bag, and then asking you to throw it onto the plan. Then as you board, someone waves a wand around your body, and if it beeps, the person asks what it could be from. Apparently, any logical answer suffices, and everyone is allowed on board. The prop plane had 28 seats, and probably could have held three to four more rows, but the back was closed off to store cargo. Once everyone was on board, we started off. We’re asked to read the brochure about the flight, so I take a look at it. It states proudly on the front cover, that the plane has had zero accidents and only 200 emergency evacuations! What a record! I didn’t know whether to be comforted or worried.

The plane has 3 stops along the way before Goma. The first is on a dirt runway in the middle of nowhere. I believe the village is called Moba. The entire village turned out to meet us, and I think they were all trying to help unload the plane. Luckily, a few things were left on, namely our suitcases, and we took off again, this time for Kalemie. This airport was larger and had a concrete runway (what was left of it). The airstrip is at the end of Lake Tanganyika, so as you approach, it looks like you are going to land on the lake. Got me thinking about the 200 emergency evacuations. As we got lower and lower, with only water in view, I wondered if we were going to make it 201.

After discharging a few passengers, and picking up a few more, we took off again. This time, we landed in Bukavu. This is again a fairly large airstrip, with a good runway, at the other end of Lake Tanganyika. The thing you notice about this airstrip is the tanks and gun emplacements alongside the runway. Obviously, things have not always been great here.

Finally, we were off again, and landed 15 minutes later in Goma. We collected bags, and headed into clear customs again. We don’t quite get this, as we never left the country, but apparently, everyone clears every time they come to an airport. As we left the airport, the first thing you notice is the big volcano just outside of town, and all the lava rock piled up next to the streets. Mt. Nyiragongo erupted in 2002, and covered a portion of the city of Goma in lava. In other areas, it blew stone and ash, covering parts of the city. The volcano is still active, but it looks quiet now.

The hotel is very nice. It looks like it was once some type of resort area. It sits right on the shores of Lake Kivu. It is in beautiful surroundings! We’re told before all the conflict, that Goma had many tourist areas. It is surrounded by National Parks, and people once visited them on safari. Unfortunately, 20 years of conflict have looted many of the buildings here, and has destroyed large areas of the parks and much of the wildlife. It’s really sad, as this is truly a beautiful area of the country. You can easily see how it could attract thousands of tourists.

We’ve spent the last two days visiting schools, nutrition clinics, and safe places for children. More about that in a post tomorrow.

Last day in Lubumbashi

Today is our last day in Lubumbashi. In the morning, we fly to Goma for a few days of meetings there. Quick update on some of our activities the last few days.

Over the last few days, we’ve visited a few sewing training centers and some maternity clinics, in addition to our office meetings. At the sewing centers, we met some amazing women. In one of them, all the women had formerly been prostitutes. Through various means, they all managed to find help through a local program, and then received some sewing machines and sewing training. They now make enough money making garments and other tailoring for the local community that they can fully support their families and send their children to school. They talked with us about the changes in their lives and their dreams for the future. Right now, they are using a room in a community training center for people with disabilities. While that has helped them get on their feet, they are currently saving to build a center of their own.

In another, we again met a group of women that had been unable to care for their families. They also received some sewing machines and some training. Over time, they have been able to save money from selling their products to build a small house in which to do their sewing. You should have seen how proud they were of this small brick building. They told us how they made the bricks and built the house all by themselves with their own hands. Their next step is to find out how to get the community leaders to bring electricity to the area so that they can use electric instead of manual sewing machines. As with other groups, we asked them many questions about their work and their lives, then at the end, we always ask if they have any questions for us. This group asked one question. They asked us to share best practices on how women in our communities at home in the US come together to help one another and their community. They wanted to learn what we do so that they could do more to help not only their own families, but their community as a whole.

Now this is a great question. And sadly, one I found hard to answer for two reasons. First, our cultures are very different, so things we may do, may not be appropriate for this group of women. But secondly, because I could not think of one thing that the women in my community do regularly and collectively to give back to our communities and to improve them. Obviously, we do things in our schools and churches. We pray together, volunteer for various organizations, etc. It’s not as if we are disinterested or as if we do nothing. But their real question was, “How do you and the women you live closest to, come together daily to support the others in your neighborhood?” And the answer is, “well, I see my neighbor occasionally, and wave, right before one of us closes our garage door.” I think we need to learn something from these women.

So how did I answer the question? Well with an example of a wonderful group of women Caregivers in Zambia that had started with sewing, and then bee-keeping, and then small vegetable farming, and were now reinvesting enough in their communities to send about 80 orphans to boarding school each year. They saw that as a challenge, and started immediately talking amongst themselves. The name of this sewing center is the “Courage Sewing Center”. I think they have the courage to set big goals like that. If I am ever able to visit them again, I think we’ll see them be a huge force in changing their entire communities.

We also have visited some maternity clinics in several of the locations we’ve been. These clinics are typically small 4 – 6 room buildings with nearly nothing inside. In the first one we visited, two doctors showed us the operating room where they do Cesareans. We had a bit of a language barrier, but if I understood right, they do 100 or so operations a month here. I saw no anesthetic equipment, no drugs, no antiseptic equipment, but the doctors were very proud of their operating room. They are definitely wonderful, caring people, but I can’t imagine working in conditions like that. We also asked about sterilization, and were assured that after we had walked in the room, it would be sterilized. The room was definitely clean, but you could see right outside the door the stains on the floor, doors and walls. Clearly, not every operation goes well.

In another clinic, we met with a wonderful nurse who runs a clinic that handles 70 to 80 births a month. On this particular day, the pharmacy was running low, so no painkillers for any mother in the clinic. There was a room for admittance, one for delivery, another for recovery, and then another ward for women to stay 3 or so days after giving birth. They had many women come this week, so they were staying two to a bed, along with their newborns. Imagine two women on a twin bed with a very thin mattress, one facing one way, and the other the opposite, their newborns right beside them. In one case, the bed was also shared by another one of the women’s children, a boy maybe 1 ½ years old. And this is probably one of the better equipped locations.

After our visits and meetings, we began the long drive back to Lubumbashi. It took about 7 ½ hours, same story as told in the prior post – lots of dust and very bad roads. On the way back, we saw several overturned trucks, really emphasizing how dangerous the travel here is. It looked like the trucks were travelling too close to the edge, and one of the wheels slipped down the soft side, turning the truck onto its side on the side of the road. We asked our host how they get assistance, and he said it basically takes a long time. There are no tow trucks, but eventually, the truck gets righted somehow, fixed, and back on it’s journey. Hard to believe, because in some cases the container on the truck had burst open. In another, the axles had separated from the trailer. I think some of these will be there for years. Luckily only one very bad one. Looked like two trucks had hit each other head on and burned on the side of the road. I was very thankful to get back to Lubumbashi that evening!

Along the drive, our host told us a little more about his family. He is one of 11 children, and all of them completed secondary school. 7 or 8 of them completed college. All on a small village school teacher’s salary. We thought that was amazing for any culture, let alone rural Africa. He then told us his father’s story. When our host’s father was young, his father (host’s grandfather) would not allow him to go to school. He did not believe it was necessary. After some years, some missionaries came to the village, and his mother asked them to take the boy to school. The story from there is a little long, but let’s just say the father was not happy, and would not send the boy to school. The mother told the boy to hide, and when the father found out, he burned the place where the boy was hiding and tried to kill him. The boy eventually escaped with the missionaries, and the father had to come to terms with this. That boy didn’t start primary school until he was 13 or 14 years old, and after 6 years, became a teacher, later married, and had 11 children, one of whom is our host. Talk about learning the value of education and pursuing at all costs! And picture the legacy that the grandmother has given by helping her son get to school. Not only was her son educated, but the importance she placed on education influenced the lives of her son’s 11 children, and now their children.

Tonight, our host invited us for dinner to meet his family. We had a wonderful dinner, and were very thankful for a home-cooked meal. During the dinner, he talked about how he and his wife have also taken in 3 of their nephews, and all three are now going to university. The grandmother’s legacy lives on. And these are not wealthy people, but hardworking, and very smart with the lessons they teach their children and the direction they put in their lives.

Enough for now. I’ll post about the Goma trip in a few days.

Church service

Since the last post, we’ve traveled to Likasi and Kolwezi areas. Likasi is about 120km from Lubumbashi and Kolwezi is about 300 miles from Lubumbashi. Both towns were started by the mining industry. Unfortunately, many of the mines in DRC either reduced operations or closed completely in the last 10 to 20 years, leaving the people with no jobs. You can see how things have deteriorated in the last several years. I think Kolwezi is doing better now than Likasi, but both clearly have seen better days.

We’ve not had time to visit in the communities much, as to drive here has taken quite a while. It took about 2 ½ hours to drive the first 120km (75miles), and about 4 ½ hours to drive the next 180km (about 112 miles). The first part of the drive wasn’t too bad – mostly pavement, but the 180km drive was nearly all dirt roads. It hasn’t rained since May here, so after 4 – 5 months, you can imagine how dusty the dirt roads are. In some areas, the dust had blown and drifted a bit, resulting in about 6 or so inches of powdery dust on top of the harder packed surface. Driving in 6 inches of dust creates the same kind of slipping / sliding that you get when you drive in that much mud. A few times, I thought we were going to have to get out and push, but it all worked out fine.
The homes here are mostly made from clay bricks or cement, with metal roofs. I think I’ve seen only one or two mud huts with thatch roofs. We’re told that when the mines were operating, people were well paid, and could afford to buy land and build the homes. The larger mining towns are well-laid out, with wide streets and street lights. In Kolwezi, the lights work! Saw another variation on a round-a-bout today. This time, three roads came together, and in the middle of the intersection sat a large truck tire. This was the round-a-bout. You simply had to go around the tire, just as you would a circular grassy area in a traditional round-a-bout at home. I actually think this may be a great money saving opportunity. Perhaps we should consider this at home. Think about it, one tire instead of a few hundred thousand to build an island. And if we went to all truck-tire round-a-bouts, think of all the money we could save on stop lights, fights about red-light cameras, etc. OK, maybe not every idea is a good one….

The restaurants here are interesting too. Last night we went to one just outside of town. I was beginning to think we were lost, as our host headed outside of town, and then turned onto a dirt “road” off the side. No street lights, no house lights, nothing. We drove for a little bit, and then off to the right was the brightly lit restaurant. Literally in the middle of nowhere! We had a great meal, but you wonder why they would choose to build it so far away from everything with no signs. Can’t even see it from the road.

Then today after church, we went to another one, this one further out from the one above. This one included a hotel. Again, it was way off the road, but the owners told us that they are frequently completely full, mostly with people from the mines. During our lunch, we saw people from China, India, Pakistan, and England (guessing by language and accents). Again, just seems out of place, but fascinating to find people from so many different places in such a remote place.

Last thing for today – church service. Let’s see…. Where to start. First of all, there is nothing like an African church service. Very long, with lots of singing and dancing. Second, there was nothing like this one. The music was so loud, I think some of my internal organs actually vibrated to new places. When I got back to the hotel, I’ve sat in complete silence for about 3 hours, as I don’t think I could have heard anything anyway. They had guest groups singing and dancing, people dancing in the aisles, shouting prayers throughout the service. At one point, I think we had about 3 different songs happening all with different beats. Quite confusing, and more so because it was all in either French or Swahili (depending on who was shouting). The service actually started at 7:30 in the morning. From 7:30 to 9:00 is a prayer time. We joined at 9:00 for the formal service, and that ended at 12:30. Nothing like being shouted at in French and Swahili for 3 ½ hours! It was fascinating, but I think I’ll be glad to go home and go to a slightly quieter service.

That’s it for today. Tomorrow we’ll visit some communities, and then begin the long drive back to Lubumbashi. I’m guessing it will take 7 to 8 hours to drive the 300km (about 190 miles) back. Hopefully there won’t be too many trucks, so we can keep the windows down. There is no A/C or fan in the truck, so manual a/c it is! But when there are other trucks or cars on the road, or when the wind picks up, it turns the area into a huge dust cloud and the windows have to be closed. The dust cloud is so thick, you can hardly see. This is dangerous as there are many pedestrians and bicyclists along the road, and they don’t always watch for the cars.

More to follow tomorrow!

Ferris Wheels

Thought I’d give you a quick update on our travels for the last two days. We’ve spent time meeting with government officials and learning about the customs clearance process here. They have quite an involved process, but everyone seems to be working quite well together. The officials we met were all very welcoming and very friendly.

The customs clearance area is quite amazing. Trucks everywhere! They have to stay at the agent until all the appropriate processes are completed, so drivers may need to stay two or three days with their trucks.

Yesterday, we ventured out to a community about 35km from Lubumbashi. This is really our first trip outside of about a 3 mile radius. I’ll tell you more about who we met with in the next post, but a few general observations quickly today before I lose my internet connection.

First, they seem to drive here generally according to general rules of the road. That said, I can’t figure out the placement of stop signs and stop lights. People obey them, but they seem to be placed at non-busy intersections. At busy intersections, they have either a ½ roundabout – it’s a roundabout on one side and straight on the other – very confusing. Or they have a policeman who stands on a box in the middle of the intersection directing traffic. He has a whistle, that he blows seemingly continuously, and he waves his arms a lot. The first time I saw this, the policeman seemed to be pinwheeling his arms. I thought maybe he was about to fall of his box, and he was trying to catch his balance. But in fact, he was directing traffic. Somehow everyone either knows what the pinwheeling means, or they are just ignoring him and somehow making it through the intersection.

Mining is a very big industry here, but with the financial crisis of the last few years, many of the mines have closed. This has left communities which were once doing fairly well, suffering. The community we visited yesterday is one of these. You can see evidence of well laid out streets, community parks, markets, etc., but much of that now is in disrepair. I did see one thing though that was very different. We were driving down a dirt road, when off to one side, we saw many buildings. Then we saw a diving board next to a swimming pool, basketball courts, and a ferris wheel. Can you imagine a ferris wheel and a swimming pool in the middle of what seems to be nowhere in the DRC? We asked about that, and were told the mining company wanted to make something fun for the children, so they built this entertainment complex. Although the mine is closed for now, the community has managed to keep this entertainment area open to some degree, and children can visit on the weekends.

One more thing – since I frequently post about the food we eat – lunch yesterday – antelope, goat, tilapia (comlete with head and skin), spinach, nshima, rice, and potatoes. Very good!

More later. May not have an internet connection for a few days, but will type up notes, and post when I can.

Day 2 in DRC

Spent today in the office on various work tasks, so not a lot to report. We did learn a bit about the country. DRC is about ¼ the size of the US, so it is a very big country. To go from Lubumbashi to Kinshasa, the capital city is over 3,000km or about 1800 miles. To go to the very northern part of the country would be even farther. The road system here outside the city is not very good. It is almost impossible to go from here to the west, east, or northern portions of the country by road. When your job is in logistics, it makes for an interesting puzzle to figure out how to get things from one area to another quickly, safely, and economically!

Other general observations – the roads here are much less crowded than other places I’ve been in Africa. People generally seem to follow the rules of the road. I actually saw people stop for traffic lights, stop signs, AND pedestrians today. That is really unusual, but definitely comforting. Some places, just riding a mile in a car on the roads can be extremely exciting, and not in a good way. We’ve only seen the area from the airport to our hotel, and then it’s only about 2 miles from here to the office, so our exposure so far has been very short. The weather here has been very cool. This morning, we spent about an hour outside in a tent for our first meeting, and I was actually wishing I’d brought my sweater! I’ve never been cold here before. We’re told the weather is unusually cold. I can only imagine if I’m chilly, what the local folks must feel!

More to follow tomorrow!

Arrival in DRC

Arrived in Democratic Republic of Congo today. What a long trip! 21 or so hours of flying and 11 hours of layovers. I am glad this is supposed to be my last international trip this year. I’ve really added up the frequent flyer miles!

The arrival at DRC was interesting. Plane lands, they roll up the stairs, and you exit the plane onto the air-field. Everyone then heads towards the airport building to clear customs and collect bags. Normally, when you exit the plan outside, there are people to guide you, and they force you to stay in a single path, and to go to a specific area. Here, people just disburse all directions. Makes it a little hard to figure out what you are supposed to do.

As we walk up to the building, we immediately find a person holding a sign with our names on it. This is the customs building, so we assume he will walk with us through customs and out the door. Instead, he directs us to leave the building, and we go to a small lounge in a building next door. We meet our host, and after many questions, finally figure out that the first person is an agent they’ve had to hire to help visitors get through customs and collect their bags. We surrender our passports and bag tickets, and the agent leaves. About 1 ½ hours later, he returns with our bags and our passports and we’re allowed to leave.

We were told they started using the agent as the officials in the airport were causing problems for some foreigners. While the agent charges a fee, the entry process is much safer for us, and also much less stressful. Bottom line is we were able to enter, and there were no issues with our bags.

When you arrive, the first thing you notice is the dust. This is the end of the dry season, so there is dust everywhere. It is also very flat in this area. I’m not sure where we are in the town, but so far I’ve not seen the type of village center I’ve seen in other larger cities in Africa. I’m sure it’s just because we haven’t gone that way yet.

DRC is a French speaking country. I speak no French, so ordering a bottle of water today at the hotel was an adventure. The nice gentleman in the restaurant figured it out, and has decided I need to learn some French words. He gave me several words (bottle of water, receipt, sign), and I had to repeat back. We’ll see what I learn in 4 days. Hopefully dinner will be less of an event.

Not much else today, just sit in my room, rest, and get ready for the work week ahead. The room is nice – it has hot water, air conditioning, indoor plumbing, and internet. I’m set!