Thursday 11 November 2010

The vegetarian's test

I'm quite proud of one of my latest achievements, which I therefore want to share with you.

Albert and I


I was given Albert (pronounced in the French way without the t) when I visited one of the villages - apparently it's very rude not to accept. I therefore became the proud owner of my very first chicken.

Albert and I

After being woken up at 5.30am the next morning by Albert announcing that it was day time, his fate was sealed. I have to admit that I didn't actually do the knife to his throat part (our guard did), but I was there and I now know how to do it for next time. It was much quicker and easier than I thought it would be. I did then help to pluck him and to remove the insides.

Albert and I

And very tasty he was too.

I am now qualified to eat chicken.

Wednesday 20 October 2010

Needs Assessment

We have been thinking about extending our programme into areas of the neighbouring territory. In May-July there was quite a lot of displacement in those villages, arising from various military groups that were looting some of the communities en route. Whilst it’s more peaceful now (i.e., the groups have moved onto a different area) the impact of that looting can still be seen.

I’ve been wanting to be involved in a Needs Assessment for a year or two. It’s always intrigued me about how you can quickly assess the situation in a new community in sufficient enough detail that you can then design (even in rough) a project.

The town that we were heading for was about 100km from our sub-base (itself 100 km from our office). Now in the UK, you can probably do 100km between major towns in about an hour. It took us 9 ½ hours. The situation with the bridges was nothing compared to other bridges that I’ve seen. There were four occasions when our cars fell down where it required significant effort to rescue them. We had two vehicles with us (really not possible with one!), two motorbikes and an 11 person team. The worse bridge required 1 jack, 1 winch, 15 people pushing and carrying and 1 ½ hours to free the vehicle - which first slipped between the logs on one side, and then on the other. I have to admit that my role (and Madelaine’s -the other female on the team) tended to be rather negligible – official photographer only. The guys seemed to quite enjoy this problem-solving team-building exercise, although it was rather stressful and tiring for the drivers.


Approaching the bridge with caution...


No good! Fallen through the logs, having to winch up and put another log in place. Some of our staff get into the river to help.


Precision driving

At another bridge, there was not physically enough space for the vehicle to pass so we had to wait whilst they dug away at an embankment on one side, before laying logs to create the bridge, before rescuing our car that then got trapped within them. It was a rather long day. Then, when we arrived at the town we had to find some accommodation – the place that we were recommended was full – before meeting with OCHA (who co-ordinates humanitarian affairs), arranging a meeting with another NGO and briefing the team.

The next day, the team divided with some visiting some of the surrounding villages, others getting info from the local health services, others doing some technical assessment of the water situation and Benoit and myself visiting various other local stakeholders. We met with the office of the Administrator (first thing to do when arriving in a new place), 2 international NGOs, 2 local NGOs, UNOPS (responsible for logistics), MONUSCO (UN peacekeeping operation), surveyed the local market, chatted to the some of the leaders of the local Church and did a debrief of information with the team. Again, quite a full day from when we were woken at 5am (who does announcements over the public tannoy at that time?!) until we stopped working and fell into bed at 10.30pm.

The next day, we had to head back to our sub-base, stopping at a few villages en route. This time, I got involved with more of the community discussions – particularly with the women. I really enjoyed it, though at times I felt quite a sense of helplessness. Madelaine and myself asked the women what their priorities were in the village (which tend to be different from the men’s!) – in one of the villages this was for NFIs (Non-Food items, such as jerry cans for collecting water, cups, plates, blankets etc) as these had recently been stolen by one of the military groups. Some of the women were sharing about how the group had arrived at about 1am in the morning (when they had no chance of escaping into the forest), forced the women to cook for them before demanding to share their rooms. Early the next morning, the community were able to flee into the forest and hide. When they returned two weeks later, it was to find their houses burned and their belongings (including their seed for planting, their cooking equipment and their livestock) stolen. They have no money, no way of making more, no access to markets, no NGO has helped them and not even any seed to plant in order to grow next years crops. They’re living on ugali and sombe (mealie meal thing and cassava leaves) which is not the most nutritious food around. We saw a few kids who were definitely malnourished, and many others with extended stomachs. Earlier in the year, between January and June, there had been one or two other military groups in the area roaming the forests. This time, they were restricted to staying in their villages, fearing to go and work in their fields (1-3 hours walk away) due to risk of attack. This meant that they haven’t been able to grow their crops. In one of the villages, Apolina was telling us how she’d ended up with physical injuries after being raped – she hasn’t stopped bleeding since. Her husband has abandoned her and married another woman, and she’s been left to care for their children with no form of support. She asked us what we would recommend for her to do in her situation…. What could I say? There are no easy answers and little that I could do. Madelaine did find out more of her story and is going to see if another agency can help her. Whilst there is another organisation who helps women in her situation, they do not have the resources to stop at all the smaller villages along the way.


Talking with the women

On our return back to the base we started collating all the information that we had gathered. This was both by sector (water needs, food needs….) and by geographical area – there were differences due to the location of some of the villages. We identified the three biggest priorities as Water, Food Security/Revenue and NFIs. Health was also a priority but not one that we as an organisation can respond to. As we had a particular donor in mind, we then compared this to what this donor is willing to fund, which is specifically emergency situations. This ruled out one geographical area where the needs are ongoing rather than emergency (rather unfair for them, but we hope we might be able to get some other donor interested). We then ruled out another geographical area where another NGO is working, and another because it’s currently not logistically feasible for us. Again, it’s unfortunate that some of the most needy communities are neglected for the very same reason that they’re needy (that they’re too inaccessible); but when there are also huge needs in more accessible villages where we can help far more people far more quickly then the decision has to be made. To get any cement into the area involves flying it from Bukavu (meaning it’s costing $80 locally rather than $18), then a few hours drive via dodgy bridges and then to the more inaccessible villages it would be a few days walk. Some aren’t even accessible on motorbike.

Anyway, in looking at the needs we decided that we needed to do an integrated project with both food security, water protection and NFIs – the needs in all of the sectors were too acute to not address. We’ve written the concept note (forerunner to a proposal) to see if the donor would be interested in funding it…. Now we just have to wait and see…..

Congo, Rwanda, Kenya....


It’s been a while since I’ve written in my blog… though time seems to pass in a strange way so it’s hard to quantify when or what. Think I haven’t been in a writing mood.

I’m writing this sitting on the banks of Lake Kivu, in Rwanda. I’m on the hotel balcony, watching as the silhouettes of the palm trees fade into the darkness of the water (see the photo for the view early morning). If you haven’t guessed, I’m on my R&R. I’d been in Kindu for 9 or 10 weeks, and was feeling ready for a break. There was a doubt/cynicism that it would actually happen though (very easy for UNHAS to break down again) which meant that it was only when I was on the plane that I realised I did actually have a few days off. Of course, everything didn’t go quite as expected – I was hoping to jump off the plane at Bukavu and go to Burundi on R&R, but the plane decided not to go to Bukavu that particular Friday so I went to Goma and Rwanda instead. That’s actually worked out really well – I enjoyed spending time with Matt (Tearfund colleague in Goma) and my friend James, who I know from uni. Having been in Kindu with limited social interactions for the last 2 months, I was wanting to be sociable rather than introverted this time!

Don’t really have much to say. Am obviously feeling very uninspired at the moment.


2 weeks later: Never got round to posting that. When I returned from Goma I went straight to our sub-base and then directly onto another town to do a Needs Assessment (see next post). Then it was spending time with our visitors from the UK (dairy milk chocolate!!!!) and designing/writing a new project. Now, I’m in Kenya (yes, I know, difficult to keep track of which country I’m in!). I’m on the DMDP (Disaster Management Development Programme) which is a week of training with other people from Tearfund from the North & South Sudan programmes, the Afghanistan programme and a couple of partners. This week is on the Quality Standards, which looks at how to integrate Accountability (giving beneficiaries influence on the programme and the resources to be able to hold us to our promises), Conflict Sensitivity (looking at whether our project is positively or negatively impacting tensions in the area), the Environment and Sustainability. Some of the stuff I know already, through either reading or previous experience – it’s good to have some space to think about how we’re doing with our projects in Maniema though… A lot of the concepts are actually quite straightforward. The difficult thing comes in finding the time/resources/staff capacity in actually implementing them. There are other aspects with are really complex and very situation dependent – they’re really difficult to gauge and it’s a case of making the most informed decision that it’s possible to make.

It’s quite a treat staying at this conference centre. The food is AMAZING – choice of a large buffet of dishes by some excellent chefs, including salads and vegetables. The desserts are slightly weirder and I sometimes avoid them, but that might be just as well considering how much main course I’m eating. Think I’m regaining weight! We went on a bush walk yesterday, where we walked out of the centre and 5-10 minutes later we were watching a large number of giraffe (14!), zebra and wildebeest. I particularly like the giraffe – they’re such graceful animals. It’s also been really good to get to know some of the people from the other programmes – swapping experiences with them and also being able to relax with people of a similar age and culture. There is quite a range of nationalities, but there are 5 or 6 other people from the UK. Wonder how many of the people on the course I’ll end up working with in the future?!

By the way, please don’t think that all this talk of Rwanda and Kenya means that I’m on holiday all the time… It’s true that these weeks came fairly close together, but I do work hard at other times. Honest!

Saturday 14 August 2010

Completely dependant

I’ve just been listening to one of the sermons from Maybridge Community Church – the Church in Worthing in which I grew up. Andy was talking about John 17 where we have a window in Jesus’ relationship with his Father as we hear his prayer. How can we live having the same intimacy with God that Jesus did? ‘Trust him more’ is one answer, but how can we actually do that? Andy points out that one aspect of that is to challenge our habits and culture of ownership.

‘For everything I have is yours’. Do I live and recognise the fact that everything I have belongs to God? If I have ownership of anything, then I am not being completely dependent on God. In today’s culture, there’s such a stigma about being dependent – people associate it with being useless, unable to take care of yourself, being a burden on others. Independence is seen as a pinnacle to reach – to have control and power of your own life, your own finances and your own decisions. It also implies that we have no need of others, and that we can live perfectly ok by ourselves. Actually, I think that devalues community, breaks at the bonds of society and misses the fun and the pleasure of sharing. We should be living in interdependence with other people – where I depend on them and they depend on me. Where my gifts and strengths can fulfil what someone else needs, and my weaknesses can be covered by what somebody else has. I think all of us do like to be able to do something for others – I’m always happy to babysit for example and give people a chance to go out. But if we are trying to be sufficient and independent it means that we then struggle to accept other people doing things for us, and our pride can get in the way of enjoying something that is willingly given. Generally, I’d say that I don’t have too much of a problem with that – during the past couple of years I have not been financially independent (and have been amazed at the provision of money that people have generously given) and relied on other people for transport, food, holidays, support or whatever else. However, I can still pinpoint times, some very recently, when I’ve found it difficult to accept gifts because they seem too valuable for me to repay. My pride and equal give-and-take mentality still insists that I can’t take anything ‘for free’. I wonder how much of that mentality is in Christianity? The whole nature of grace is that it is something freely given, something that we do not deserve and cannot be earned. Yet so many people are trying to live a ‘good life’ in order to pay back something to God because they feel indebted and do not like it. They do not want to be in the powerless position of owing anything to anybody, even God.

The truth is that we do owe everything to God. The fact that I’m alive, the food that I eat, the work that I do, the people that I know, the skills that I use, the ideas that I have. They are all gifts from God. And I want to acknowledge that, and be dependent on God. Interdependent with other people, but completely and utterly dependent on God. There’s nothing that I can do for him that makes him more complete than he already is – he does not need me – but I need him for everything. Therefore, independence in a relationship with God is a complete contradiction as I’d be trying to have a relationship with someone whilst denying one of their essential characteristics; he is my Jehovah Jirah – provider of all things. But this dependence on God is not a burden, it’s not a debt that I have to feel that I need to repay (not that I can!) and it’s not a weakness to feel ashamed of. It’s a recognition of who God is, and who I am, and how God meant for us to live in relationship with him. It’s freedom – there’s no expectations, no worry over performance and no fears over money; I am dependent on God who he is my provider.

I think that one of the areas that I probably find most difficult in knowing that it all belongs to God is in the area of work. Looking back over the past couple of weeks(/years!) I can see that I tend to take on responsibility not just for jobs, but also for the outcome. I believe that me and me alone can do this task properly and that the success or failure for the work is all down to me. Which is pretty egocentric. Yes, I believe that God wants me to take on responsibility and yes, I believe that he wants me to use the skills and intelligence that he’s given me (that’s why he gave them to me). But that does not mean that I should try and take the work out of God’s hands and do it myself! I need to recognise that the work I do is God’s work, that I can do the best I can and that is all I can do and all he wants me to do. It’s in God’s hands when things go wrong and there are problems, and when things are going well God gets the glory! And through it all we can praise and trust and worship him because he is always worth it.

So there’s a challenge. To recognise that I don’t have ownership of anything – not my money, my time, my work or my things – and that I am a dependant on the One who is the Creator of all things. Who else could I depend on?!

Monday 9 August 2010

Liquid Gold

A question for you – what would you give to have clean water?

Think about what you use water for. For drinking water, cups of tea. For cooking your pasta and vegetables. For cleaning your teeth. For washing the dishes. For washing yourself. For cleaning the house. For flushing the toilet (even though it doesn’t matter if that’s a bit dirty). What if you didn’t have clean water? How quickly would you have it installed in your house? How much would you be willing to pay to get it?

I found out today how much money people at the UN get paid, which seemed to me to be very high. The lower positions are paid around $5,000 a month. Mid level managers might be $14,000 a month, higher level we’re talking about $20,000 or more a month. That’s so much! No wonder people want to work for the UN for the salary…. Compare that to the salaries of NGOs and it’s laughable – NGOs pay fairly (particularly when you consider we get accommodation and food provided) but not huge amounts. We’re probably talking around $4,000 a month for a mid-level manager.

In the Water and Sanitation project that we’re currently doing, it costs about $1,200 for the materials and labour for each water source that we protect. That provides improved, cleaner water for about 700 people (SPHERE quality guidelines say one source for 400 people but actually far more than that will use the source). Yet we’re limited in the work that we can do because of lack of funding. In the area where we’re working, there’s a population of about 16,000 people, sharing 24 sources of water. Of these, maybe a third have been improved during the past, but because of the war they have fallen into disrepair. With the money from Pooled Fund, we’re able to rehabilitate just 5 of them. That’ll make a difference to those people, but what about the others? In the town of Kalima, where we have our sub-base, the nearest water source is 7km away – we would love to get a gravity water system up and working there – if we can find the money. We have a vehicle which makes it easier to collect water – how would you feel about walking 14km every time you needed 20 litres of water?! Now there’s a week’s water challenge if any of your feel like taking it up!


Our Watsan Technician, Edgard, takes a sample at the source of Kambili.


The source at Kamundala. This is where families take water for drinking, cooking and everything else.


There’s also a challenge in there for any of us with money. What are we doing with it? When I was chatting to the guys about the UN salaries, my mind briefly flitted over the idea of working for the UN for a year, earning a lot of money and being able to use that to protect a lot of water sources. Then I realised that I can provide the day-to-day management of protecting the water sources which is not something that most people are in a position to be able to do. However, there are plenty of people who are earning the salaries (which isn’t something that I can currently do!) which can pay for the improvement of the water sources. So why don’t you?! Most people believe in giving a little to charity – why not give a lot?! And if money for a whole water source really is beyond you, get together with a few other people and give the money with them.
I’m not sure what the current $ - £ exchange rate is, but let’s say that one water source is £1,000 (to help cover transport, salaries and other overheads as well as the actual materials & labour). £1,000.

My question again - what would you give for clean water?

A few more statistics:
• 30% of people in this area do not make any income – they just about grow enough food to feed themselves.
• Of the 70% that do make any income, the average earning is somewhere in the region of 10,000FC-20,000FC a year (900FC to $1) which is about $10-$20 a year. Food costs about the same as the UK – a kg of meat is 8000FC ($9), rice is 1000FC per kg (just over a dollar).
• In Pangi territory (where we’re working) over 70% of children under 5 got diarrhoea within an 8 month period. Around 10% of all deaths from children under 5 are from diarrhoea - primarily caused by unsafe water.
• Only 1.2% of people in Pangi have got access to clean water.

“Look at what you’ve got. Take from it what you need. What is left is needed by others.” (St. Augustine)

Monday 2 August 2010

Travel in Congo

Sometimes we travel by road...


The first picture is en route to our sub-base in Kalima - we did actually get stuck here, but fortunately only for a few minutes. It's amazing what angles the landcruiser can go at! The second picture is when we were travelling from Uvira to Bukavu over the escarpement route. We came across a large yellow lorry that was stuck right in the middle of the road - no way round, no way to move it. We had to turn round, drive back 30 minutes, leave one of our staff (who doesn't have their passport at the moment) and take a route through Rwanda instead.

Sometimes we travel by river...


Actually, Tearfund staff never cross the river in the same way as the photos above. We normally cross the river in lifejackets on our own pirogue, like this:


Sometimes we travel by plane...


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These pictures include the UNHAS plane that I normally take to Kindu, the airport at Kasongo (it made me laugh, it's not much of an airport. The airstrip is only a piece of grass as well) and a somewhat steep turn we did we did in said plane....

A day in the life of...

27th July 2010

NB: This may not be a typical day. I only returned to Kindu yesterday, and Benoit is away on leave which means I’m in charge of 30 people, 2 projects and investigating an emergency project…

7.30am: Alarm goes off. Walk blurrily to the door and unlock so the house staff can start work.
7.31am: Throw buckets of cold water over myself. My hair is definitely due for a wash – haven’t washed it in about 4 days. Slightly less blurry eyed.
7.40am: Start unpacking my bag which I was too tired to do yesterday. Give the cook a grater, a vegetable peeler and spatulas I bought in Uganda (the potato masher got beheaded en route). Realise I need to wash my underwear.
7.55: Force down some porridge made by our cook.
8.00: Devotions – sing in French and Swahili. I’m leading devotions today (that’s a nice welcome back!) which I do for the first time ever in French. Felix translates into Swahili giving everyone else a second chance of understanding what I said. Then prayers and announcements. My French holds up. Sort of.
8.45: Quick chat about the HIV training proposal with Madelaine.
8.50: Transfer money so Yvonne, our finance administrator can start paying the salaries. Show her how the payslips work. Sign the authorisation for the travel movements for the week.
9.20: Catch up with Jean-Pierre, our PHP (Public Hygiene Promotion officer). Discuss the site selection of our water project and the per diems for BCZ (Government health workers).
9.50: Quick catch up with Arnold (Food Security Management) about the distribution of seeds.
10.00: Notice a load of the animators hanging around in the hut outside waiting for the payroll before they’ll go to the field. Go and give them the photos I had printed in Uganda so they can start creating the presentation boards.
10.09: Bearded by 2 people wondering how to photocopy data when our photocopier is broken. Send them to logistics to arrange to get it copied by someone in the town.
10.10: Meet with Sadok, the Monitoring & Evaluation person. Run through his plan for the week and discuss the different ways he can verify that the beneficiary selection has been done well. Chat about gathering ‘stories of transformation’. Interrupted in the middle by Josephine (our cleaner) who wants to know if the clothes unpacked on my bedroom floor need to be ironed.
10.45: Go hunting for the camera charger.
10.46: Delegate the job to someone else.
10.47: Discuss an issue over payroll with someone – explain it’s pro-rata’d from when the contract starts.
11.00: Receive a letter with information pertaining to an HR issue last week. Read and discuss with Person 1.
11.50: Discuss payroll issue with someone who doesn’t appear to be on the payroll. This is problematic.
12.00: Try ringing two different people at the Bukavu support base to discuss payroll. No answer. Write email instead.
12.05: Go and check emails on the BGAN (satellite internet thingy)
12.10: Return to office. Laptop makes a loud beeping noise and starts declaring that the hard drive is broken. Wonder if it was the 3-4 minutes of sun. Run diagnostics.
12.15: Discuss payroll issue further with our missing payroll employee. Give him a cash advance on his salary instead. Hope I’ve done the right thing.
12.35: Diagnostics still showing a hard drive error. Laptop not working. Pray.
12.40: Another payroll issue with someone who has more children than the infants allowance is showing. Wish the HR Administrator was here to deal with this.
12.45: Meet some visitors who are here to talk to Jean-Pierre. Give authorisation to Jean-Pierre to use the projector at the WASH (water and sanitation) cluster meeting this afternoon.
12.50: Laptop running memory tests. No-one waiting to talk to me. Decide to go and eat lunch whilst I have the opportunity. Finish washing underwear. Rice, ugali, beef, vegetables for lunch – quite tasty but far too much.

Is it really only lunchtime?!

13h15: Return to the office. Reboot the laptop. It’s working! Hooray! Thank God.
13h18: It’s quiet in the office as most people are on lunch break. Read emails whilst I get a chance.
13h25: Continue calendarising budget (working out what month we’re likely to spend what money in) which I started yesterday whilst waiting at the airport. Interrupted by Mama Mkubwa (our cook) with the guard for translation (she only speaks Swahili and my Swahili just isn’t that good) to discuss what food is needed when visitors arrived tomorrow.
14h00: Meet with Person 2 over HR issue
14h45: Ring Betsy, the Deputy Programme Director, to discuss HR issue.
14h50: Finish calendarising the budget. Check out where we’re likely to run into difficulties.
15h25: Write various emails - budget issues, appraisal feedback, donor reports.
16.00: Meet with Person 3 over HR issue
16h40: Meet with Felix, our Logistician, on the set-up of our new sub-base. Interrupted by another person with a question over payroll. Felix leaves to pick up some papers. He’s gone for over 10 seconds and his chair in front of my desk quickly gets filled.
17h10: Arnold pops in for a quick chat on the days work.
17h13: Person 4 arrives to discuss HR issue.
17h19: Wonder if the AC’s role is always so busy.
17h20: Feedback to Madelaine on the HIV budget.
17h25: Continue conversation with Felix on procurement and requisitions. Sign off some purchase requests. Discuss the prices we need to find out for an emergency project for displaced people in Kalima.
18h00: Try ringing our Logs Manager. No answer.
18h01: Read appropriate parts of National Staff policy manual for dealing with HR issue.
18h20: Find Yvonne still working. Suggest she goes home before it gets dark. Arrange to meet tomorrow.
18h25: Write email on logistics and HR stuff.
19h15: Go to send emails. Remember one I’ve forgotten one on security and write that. Send by BGAN
19h30: Officially finish work for the day. Go and eat dinner. Pancakes, fish and vegetable stuff. Give the rest to the guards. Eat an apple. Bit bruised – it did come with me from Bukavu.
19h50: Read through the statements for HR issues with my French dictionary at hand. Wonder whether to write the report now or leave it till tomorrow. Tomorrow wins.
20h15: Start writing a blog entry about what I did today.
20h55: Watch an episode of House and enjoy a piece of (fair-trade) chocolate a very kind person from the UK sent me.
21h45: Go to sleep, perchance to dream.

Sunday 25 July 2010

4 months in (part 2)

Things that I miss
Probably the thing that I miss most is seeing my niece grow up. I lived with her since her birth until she was around 15 months. Now she’s 18 months old and picking up new words every day and starting to do all sorts of new things. With other people, I can sort of make myself believe that I’m not missing out too much – they’ll be pretty much the same when I go back and I can have good times with them then. With Abigail, I’m missing a part of her life which will never come back, and that’s sad. At the same time though, I recognise that there are sacrifices I have to make to do this work – and not seeing family and friends so frequently is the biggest – but they’re worth making. I want to do this work, and I think it’s where God wants me as well, and there are also many rewards.
It’s not just a decision that impacts me though – it’s impacts my family and friends as well. Except they didn’t get to ‘choose’ me to do this work, they just have to live with the consequences of being without my company on such a regular basis!

Things that I’m grateful for
I’m so grateful that I get on with Benoit. Before I left the UK, how I was going to get on with a 40 odd year old Burundian male who was both my boss and my one housemate was the thing I was most worried about. However, the fact that we get on as well as we do, not getting on each others nerves (that much!) but actually enjoying each other’s company is a continual blessing. My life would be much poorer here without him.
Massive gratitude also to Malcolm and Elizabeth, the Australian couple who live in Kindu and have done for a few years. We have a regular time of Christian fellowship on Sunday evenings, and frequently see each other during the week as well for a meal, a chat, a game or a film. They’re our main social life in Kindu and we may well have gone insane without them. They’re great people, wise, supportive, positive and encouraging. Elizabeth is also a very good cook, and her provisions of lasagne, stew, thai green curry and quiche have been a definite bright spot in our otherwise humdrum tedium of food.
I’m also glad that I really like Kindu. Almost everyone (particularly the people who have never been) seems to have something negative to say about it – it’s hot, there are a lot of mosquitoes, it’s remote and you may get stuck there for weeks on end… Personally, I love Kindu. It’s beautiful (particularly at sunset by the river), small and quiet enough to walk around, has got pretty good roads and lovely people. Yes, it’s expensive, logistically difficult and the social life is a bit restricted, but it’s got things in its favour too! Anyway, I prefer living in Kindu to Goma or elsewhere, and don’t find it too limiting. So hooray for Kindu!
I’m very grateful for the lovely people who send me things in the post. Letters, cards, food and small presents get me excited for days. Thank you!
I’m glad of the opportunity to learn French – it’s still slow progress but I’m gradually understanding more and the team have been patient with my halting attempts.
I’m grateful for our team in Kindu. Even with language and cultural differences in the way, I genuinely like each and every member. They’ve been willing to work with me despite my youth, my newness and my attempts at French.
I’m also grateful for our international team – we’re a diverse bunch but we all try to support each other. There are obviously some people I know better than others - and one person who I haven’t actually met yet – it will be good to spend more time with them at the team retreat and meeting next week. There are also one or two people who I get on with particularly well, and am glad that they’re there to share more with and to be friends as well as team-mates.
I’m glad and proud to be working for Tearfund. I fully believe in Tearfund’s mission, values and approach, and have seen and experienced how this is evident in the practical, working-things-out-on-the-ground stuff. We’re not perfect, but the motivation, support and effort are there and the work is making a difference in people’s lives. During the period from last November to February all opportunities seemed to have closed on me, I didn’t know what options I should be looking at or what decisions to make, yet here I am now, in Congo, working with Tearfund. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be, and I’m so incredibly thankful!

4 months in

I’ve now been in Congo for 4 months, having left the UK on March 20th. It’s been good, it’s been interesting, it’s been difficult, it’s been rewarding, it’s been tiring – I am glad that I am here.

I was thinking about how the last few months have been gone, and have started writing my thoughts. Hopefully I’ll be able to continue with ‘Things that have made me laugh’, ‘Things that I’ve learned’ etc. as well!

Things that have frustrated me
Communication has been one of the most frustrating things. It’s difficult to get in touch with the other international support staff – if we both even have phone signal than one or other of us is in meetings, have other priorities or they’re busy at one of the other project sites. Then there’s misunderstandings, different agendas, different timescales, emails not being delivered properly, documents being sent late because it’s difficult to transport them and lots of other things that make life more challenging for all of us. The support staff are there to support, but it can sometimes feel that they just make things more complicated – we need to make a quick decision and they’re not available, so we either go ahead and make a decision (and then don’t benefit from their advice and/or risk annoying them) or we hold-up the project which has already been delayed from this-or-that. In return, they have responsibility to make sure that things are done properly, but project sites are late at planning, don’t inform them of things that they need to know, expect them to be at their immediate disposal and don’t allow them to fulfil their jobs properly! We’re all aware of these difficulties, and try to help each other but the demands of the work doesn’t make it any easier.

Occasionally, I have communication difficulties with Benoit, which tend to be from misunderstandings arising from language. Benoit’s very good at English (certainly better than my French!) but he’s not perfect. So he says or explains something, I clarify and it all seems to be clear. Then 5 minutes / 1 day / 2 weeks / 1 month later I notice Benoit saying or doing something contrary to what he had previously said. Once or twice this has been due to a change of plans that I wasn’t aware of, but sometimes Benoit says that he’s never said anything different. But I distinctly remember him stating something different and then get very confused! We think that in those cases Benoit’s never *meant* anything different, but the words used to express that result in me understanding something different. We’ve also had times when we’ve meant exactly the same thing but think the other is disagreeing with us because of how we’re expressing it – fortunately we tend to discover that if we talk a bit more. Hopefully, if I get better at French we can use two languages to cross-check meanings – as opposed to having two languages to get confused in! However, it’s great example of ‘listen to what the other person is trying to say and not what they’re actually saying’. And to be patient whilst doing so!

Another thing that frustrates me slightly is the lack of authority I have. As a Project Support Officer (and as a volunteer), this year is for learning and therefore I don’t (officially) have any responsibility. Whilst I can understand that, it’s also quite annoying as sometimes it can feel like it blocks me from doing my job. For example, Benoit’s asked me to check some budget lines which involves finance in Bukavu, but they won’t respond to my requests (even if Benoit’s copied in and in agreement) because I’m not the budget holder. That stops me from getting on and checking/sorting even small issues and it has to wait for Benoit who’s busy enough already. It then feels that I’m not able to properly help Benoit and take some of the huge workload off his shoulders. We’ve discussed this particular issue, and have now hopefully come up with a process that everyone’s happy with. Another time I’ve felt limited by my lack of authority to sign off requisitions – every purchase has to be signed off (normally three times, once on the requisition, once for the cash advance and once after the expenditure) and this can only be done by Benoit. So one Saturday afternoon, Benoit’s asleep, we’ve run out of water and the Cook has come to me with a request to buy some more. I can’t sign it, I’m not going to wake up Benoit and I’m getting thirsty. So I have to give her my own money. Again, I understand the processes and the reasons for them but I find it somewhat frustrating that I can’t even give permission for someone to buy water. The funny thing is that when Benoit’s away, I’m acting-AC and suddenly my level of authority increases dramatically! However, the responsibility level does as well – as PSO I have no authority but freedom from responsibility. As AC (either to a certain level now whilst acting-AC or in the future) I’ll have freedom to do stuff but will also have the responsibility that goes with it. I remember Margaret Atwood talking about ‘freedom to and freedom from’ in her book ‘The Handmaid’s tale’ (which is one of the only books that I’ve enjoyed more after studying it) and liking the distinction. As time goes on, I think I’ll start chafing at the restrictions and be ready and wanting to take on more responsibility. However, at the moment, with my current level of experience, I think I’m happier as PSO - without the responsibility or the authority!

Things that have shocked me

This would have to be some of the attitudes of the national staff, and of the culture as a whole. How things that I see as dishonest or unbelievable are normal here. People threatening legal action in response to a standard, contractual, necessary procedure. People taking whatever opportunity they can to hold back money for themselves. People wanting to gossip, spread rumours and destroy the reputations of others. Maybe these things are endemic the world over, and I haven’t been exposed to them before on such an endemic basis. Maybe I’ve grown up in an environment where there are enough checks, balances and social norms that curtail their existence. It’s shocking, but the most shocking thing is how normal it is.

Monday 12 July 2010

Flight Farce

I have to say, I’m quite amazed that I’m even on R&R at all – we’ve had so many issues with flights this week! It wasn’t until Friday morning that it was confirmed that I was actually able to leave Kindu – about 2 hours before I took the plane. Please see below for a long and detailed explanation about why – seeing how much time it took us to sort out, and how it amused me, I’ll write it in full…. Doesn’t mean you have to read it though.

Normally, we fly on UNHAS and there aren’t any issues at all. They fly on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays between Bukavu, Goma and Kindu, and it’s fairly fixed which direction they go on which day. They may leave a few hours earlier or later each time, but that’s not normally a problem. Last week, because of the 50th celebrations, they weren’t flying at all. We had staff due to come back from their leave (national staff who come from other parts of the country receive entitlement to return home), so that was delayed until the Monday of the next week. Then it turned out that UNHAS weren’t flying on Monday. So we sent our two staff by boat up to Goma (UNHAS fly Goma-Kindu-Bukavu on Wednesdays), but then late on Tues eve we find out they’re not flying then either. The plane had to go to Entebbe for repairs, and until they received authorisation from the Government that it was skyworthy they wouldn’t be flying – no indication of when that might be.

This causes us a few problems. Apart from our two staff stuck now in Goma (which we’re paying their accommodation each night), I’m due to go on leave on Friday, we’ve been trying to get a staff member whose contract is finished on a plane home to Goma (again since independence celebrations), we’ve got 3 new staff who are supposed to be joining us and our HR officer is supposed to be going to Bukavu for briefing

So we start looking at options. CAA is a more expensive commercial airline, they’ve been approved by the UK as a second resort to UNHAS though we have to get permission from the Programme Director before we use them. Busy Bee is an airline, which another British NGO charter on a biweekly basis between the more remote villages, Kindu and Goma. However, permission to use them also has to come from the UK. So we contact our Acting PD, who contacts UK, who came back to us with permission to use both CAA and Busy Bee the next day. Was very impressed with their response actually – I thought it might take longer.

So on Thurs we try and work out what we want to do, which was a nightmare of communication. Our logistician was out in the field trying to set up a sub-base. The main Bukavu logistician who would normally deal with flights was in the process of travelling up to Goma. The other Bukavu logistics person who was covering was inaccessible for most of the day. The other NGO office we needed to ask was in Goma, which then involved the logistician from our Goma base. The HR officer in Bukavu was also involved, and was trying to find out information for my flights on to Uganda despite not knowing if I would be able to leave Kindu or whether it would be Bukavu or Goma I’d fly to. Our storekeeper was also involved in trying to find the schedule from CAA here in Kindu. Benoit was the person who had to make the decisions on all of this. He also ended up having to co-ordinate it, made more difficult by the fact that the phone network was pretty bad. About 4pm on Thurs afternoon we discover that the NGO in Goma was saying that they didn’t have spaces/it wasn’t possible to go with Busy Bee, and that CAA were saying that they were only flying Kindu-Bukavu as opposed to their normal route of Kinshasa-Kindu-Bukavu-Goma-Kindu-Kinshasa. And it’s over double the price of UNHAS. That wasn’t good for much of anything, and we were thinking that it didn’t look like anyone was flying on the Friday when we thought we’d check with a UN friend of ours who works at the airport who told us UNHAS was back up and running! Then we heard from another person that it wasn’t running… and then by another person that it was… Then confirmed that it was. Fantastic! OK, we’d had all that running round after the other airlines for nothing, but it solved all our problems.

Except it didn’t.

When one of the logisticians (what’s the collective term for a group of logisticians I wonder? A load? A bevy? A fleet?) then tried to book our tickets, they were told that the organisation was suspended due to non-payment.
WHAT?! That couldn’t be right… They sent through the email that confirmed that as of today, we were banned people from UNHAS flights due to the non-payment of a ridiculously large figure which is equivalent to about a year’s worth of flying. Obviously, the Bukavu office immediately started looking into this and scanning and sending the payment confirmations to show that we have paid – it’s looking like there was a miscommunication between the Bukavu and Kinshasa UN offices which should be sorted out shortly.

Benoit and I had a good laugh about the fact that news of us being banned people had come through on the same day as all the rest of the flight debacle, adding the pinnacle to what had already been a farce. However, as the timing of my leave is quite important in how it ties in with other events, Benoit rang a couple of people he knows and somehow managed to get me a seat on the chartered flight with the other NGO – one of the advantages of being an international staff member as I don’t think they would have said yes for a national staff member. It wasn’t completely confirmed until Saturday morning, so I had to ask HR in Bukavu to hold off booking my flights to Entebbe until then. It amuses me to think how far in advance people book and plan holidays to Africa – whilst I book my flights the day before!

There was even a struggle getting to the airport. Unfortunately, one of our staff members stuck in Goma is our driver. Normally, we have two drivers but the second hasn’t yet been recruited, as we have to wait for the Fleet Manager to visit and do driving tests with them. We have one casual who is authorised to drive, but he was taking Benoit to Kalima to set up our sub-base (Benoit’s trip had already been delayed because of lack of driver). Our logistician, the other person who can drive, was also at the sub-base. So how was I to get to the airport? In the end, it was arranged for one of the pastors that we know to come and pick me up. He then had to leave, and I was left to wait for the other NGO people to arrive. I almost missed them as well – they had gone straight through to the runway, and it was fortunate that one of their guys came to find me, took my bag, whisked me through the registration, and 5 minutes later we were in the air. Quickest check-in ever!!!

The inside of the Busy Bee plan. Pretty much the same as UNHAS except it's blue and got pictures of bees everywhere.


Landing at Goma. Always fun to fly low over the high streets.

Was up at 5.30am today, to cross the border to Rwanda and drive to Kigali to take the flight to Entebbe. I’d planned to ring a couple of people from Kigali to confirm my Uganda plans, but unfortunately there’s no signal on my DRC mobile and my UK number costs £1.25 a minute to even receive calls. Whilst there was wireless internet, this doesn’t replace being able to talk to people directly, which resulted in some confusion and uncertainty. That is really my fault for not clarifying things when I had the opportunity to, but all’s well that ends well and here I am sitting in a luxurious resort! All the rest of the staff are still stuck but I’ll be glad that I managed to get out. It was very much of a ‘Oh what a circus, oh what a show’ and a complete farce though!

Luxuriating in Luxury

10th July 2010
I’m writing this from a rather more elegant location than normal – I’m staying in a rather luxurious resort in Uganda (I’m on R&R), courtesy of my sister-in-laws very kind parents. At first when they offered I was rather hesitant, partly because of shyness at accepting their hospitality, but mainly because I felt rather overwhelmed at the idea of all that luxury – somewhat different from Kindu! Also because staying at a resort means that it’s not possible to walk out the front door and have the freedom to go here or there as you choose. However, after arriving at the guesthouse I originally booked in Entebbe (which I went to due to first due to miscommunication) then staying at this resort seemed a lot more appealing. Entebbe was a lot more spread out than I anticipated, which put me off going anywhere, and my room at the guesthouse wasn’t that much nicer than being at Kindu. Whilst I have been marvelling at the luxury here, it’s also been more normal than I expected – it’s ok to walk around in t-shirt and flip-flops! And when I say marvelling at the luxury, I mean things like ‘wow….hot water!!!’ and ‘mmm….pizza’ as well as being shocked at how much water a toilet uses. I was also slightly taken aback at the tarmac roads, painted lines on the road and road signs when I arrived in Rwanda. So you can see why I was worried about feeling overwhelmed by a luxury resort – fortunately, it’s fairly normal here and it’s ok to meander around in t-shirts and flip-flops. I’m still getting used to summoning over a waiter with a flick of my hand, ready to cater to my every need…. I haven’t found it particularly hard to adjust, though I did find myself boiling water with the kettle and cooling it rather than using the water bottles placed in the mini-bar…and it’s obviously been far too long since I’ve had a shower as I got confused with what to do with one of those non-slip shower mats that you place in the bath – I thought you were supposed to put it on the floor to dry yourself on… I only remembered after my shower what it was!!!
I even ordered Room Service for the first time ever. Most of the time I don’t stay in places with room service, and in those that I have it wouldn’t really cross my mind to get someone to bring me food. But as I’m staying in this rather luxurious resort, the restaurant’s a long way away, I was up at 5.30am and don’t feel like dressing up to go there, I decided to order a chicken tikka pizza and a lemon cheesecake. Sound good or what?! And it arrived as well… 20 minutes later there’s a smartly dressed waiter at my door with a lovely meal under one of those metal things to keep them hot.


Look! Tarmac roads! With white lines!!! OK, in the UK, unlike Rwanda, you wouldn't have all the people walking by the side of the road carrying very heavy things in their head... We saw a couple of people carrying a huge basketful of carrots on their head - don't they know how heavy they are?!

Tis my first time visiting Uganda, it has the ‘African’ feel to it, but is obviously a lot more developed than Congo, or even Rwanda. You can see as you drive along that there are things like playgrounds, a lot more vehicles etc. (Note: added 12/7/10 – doesn’t mean it’s any safer though; you probably saw on the news about the explosions in the Rugby club/restaurant. Horrible. Don’t have particularly good associations with the World Cup – people were watching matches when the oil tanker exploded in Sange in DRC (a village our Tearfund team in Uvira have been working in) and also now in Uganda).



Lots of birds around. No idea what they are but they're pretty strange.

Thinking about being here made me wonder how many countries I’ve been to. I think I make it 26, which seems a lot, but then you remember there’s 195 countries in the world and suddenly it doesn’t seem that many.

Something that I managed to do which I’ve never done before was to ride in an aeroplane cockpit. I’ve got close on the UNHAS plane (mainly because the plane’s so small you’re almost in the cockpit) but not on a proper big plane. I was flying from Kigali to Entebbe, and as I was going to the toilet the door to the cockpit was open so I said hello to the pilot and exchanged a few words with him. Went to the loo, and as I came out he invited me to come and say hello to the other pilot. So I did, and then they told me to sit down, stick on a seatbelt and there I stayed until we arrived at Entebbe. The landing is so cool! During the flight itself, the pilots just have to sit and relax after they’ve set the plane on it’s course. Each air company has it’s own flight route, and then planes going in one direction are at odd altitudes (e.g. 17,000 ft) and planes going to the other way are at even altitudes (e.g. 18,000ft). For landing, they set a limit for the plane altitude, then dip the nose and we start heading down. After radio contact (which thankfully is a lot clearer signal than some of our VHF and HR radios are!) they confirm whether they’re going to do a visual landing or not. Apart from the last minute or two, they don’t even use the steering wheel/joystick things to steer – there’s a little knob that they set to change the angle. Things are quite calm and focussed, and it looks easier than I thought it might be to actually do the visual landing bit – the plane is under very precise control. Then they have their checklist for each of the different sections which they check off to make sure they’ve done everything they need to. I’d always thought that there would be one pilot ‘flying’ the plane, and the other sitting by, so they didn’t get confused. However, they worked together as a team, saying what they were doing and neither person was the ‘main’ pilot. I really enjoyed it, and was quite chuffed that I got to do it!



And the compulsory pictures of sunsets...

Monday 28 June 2010

Great Lakes

Burundi is having elections today for their President. It's uncontested - and turnout is low. Opposition was encouraging people to boycott the polls. (By the way, did you know that voting is compulsory in Australia? It means that there's a much higher level of political awareness, though some wonder about how democratic it is to force people to vote.

Things in Rwanda are looking fairly tense at the moment. A journalist has just been killed, and many think it's because he was looking too closely into the death of a former army chief a few weeks before. There's concern about intimidation of the media in the run up to Presidential elections in August.

Congo is celebrating its 50th anniversary of Independence on Weds. The President has called a holiday tomorrow afternoon, Weds and Thurs, so it'll be nice and quiet in the office.

Friday 25 June 2010

Ephesians

22nd June
Hmm… Haven’t been amazing at updating my blog recently. However, I’ll blame that on the lack of internet access we’ve had. The internet tends to be dependent on the electricity, and when a tree falls on the line somewhere, it tends to be off for a few days. However, due in large part, I suspect, because of the necessity of having electricity to watch the World Cup, the repairs were done remarkably speedily.

In our Fellowship group on Sunday night, we’ve been looking at Ephesians, which has been really interesting. There’s a lot in there about turning from your old way of life and taking on a new way of life. There’s quite an emphasis on truthfulness, which I’ve always taken as being quite a given for anyone, let alone Christians. Yet being in Congo has casted a new light on reading this passage. I think that in the UK we sometimes take for granted our Christian heritage, and what that has meant for the standards and norms in our society. In Congo, truthfulness is not something that is rooted in the society. There’s a general attitude of ‘I’ll say what I need to in order to improve my life’, which, as you can imagine, has quite a wide impact! For example, on CVs people will write what they think the employer wants to hear, not necessarily their experience, and create certificates to back it up. If discovered and challenged, e.g. at an interview, then the response is bemusement that you even have to ask - ‘well how else was I going to get the job?’ In reporting what work has been done or how much something costs, it’s really hard to know whether the person is actually telling you what’s happened or telling you what he thinks will work out best for him. That’s quite cynical, I know, but when you know that it happens it’s difficult to know what you can trust the person or not.

If this was happening in the UK, the people would (hopefully!) quickly learn that ‘creative’ reporting just isn’t done. And if people lied, it would be assumed to be deliberate dishonesty. However, because lying is not widely perceived as dishonest in Congo, it’s difficult to determine their motivations, their awareness that it’s not acceptable, or their character. Tearfund are very clear in our inductions, briefings and processes but you can’t overcome deeply engrained habits of a lifetime that quickly! Not that we’ve had major issues here, but I am aware of how much we expect from our staff in terms of standard of behaviour. It’s reasonable, and necessary (and the norm in the UK), but as an employer I think we’re seen as very demanding! In some ways, it feels as if we shouldn’t be coming into another culture and imposing our own expectations and norms. However, I also feel that things like truth are vital in building a strong society, and that part of our role in being here is not only help 4,500 households increase their agricultural production but to model working with professionalism and integrity.

To return to Ephesians and the emphasis on a change of life and behaviour once you know Christ… I think a lot of people (UK, Congo and anywhere else) see becoming a Christian as a one-off thing – ‘ok, I’ve believed in Jesus, had my sins forgiven, done and finished’. However, Jesus talks about following him, loving him, obeying him – all continuous actions in the present tense. And if we’re living for him that’s got to result in a change our attitudes and behaviour. I believe that some of this comes about naturally, without our design, simply as a result of asking God to work in us. Other things require a recognition that this or that behaviour is not consistent with living for Jesus, and a determination of will that we’re wanting to change (God can then give us a measure of strength to help). If things are so deeply engrained in society, then recognising that a certain behaviour or attitude is harmful is very difficult. I think it’s possible for anyone, through reading and reflecting on the Bible, our behaviour, and the consequences of our actions, as well as spending time with God. However, most people don’t do this and the behaviour continues.

Apart from things like untruthfulness, as mentioned earlier, sexual immorality is also something that’s so engrained in the culture that people don’t even question it. Our friends who teach at the Bible School have described how they teach on sexual purity and highlight all the passages on being faithful to your spouse. For the majority of students, this is the first time that they’ve realised that their behaviour is contrary to the Bible. Cue questions such as ‘that only applies if my wife is well, right?’ or ‘how long does it mean for – after 2 weeks away from home that no longer applies I assume?’ of ‘how do you expect us to go for a whole term without having sex?’ Quite a challenge for them… And if this is true for students at a Bible school, imagine how much more it’s true for the general population. Apparently most of the students do go away and recognise that if they do want to be wholesale for Christ they will have to change their behaviour.

Maybe you’re reading this thinking ‘Christianity shouldn’t be enforcing their own narrow ideas of behaviour on people’. I agree, to an extent – I have no right to enforce my standards of behaviour or ‘what the Bible says’ on another person, though if I can see that someone’s behaviour is harming themselves or others I am going to care about their well-being. But if somebody is actively professing to worship Christ, then I think they have a responsibility to reflect on any behaviour that they discover may not be what Christ wants for them. If, after investigating, reading, spending time with God etc. they come to the conclusion that it is contrary to following Christ then they also have a responsibility to change. Maybe they reflect and decide that actually the behaviour is fine – that may well be true, though I’d also be cautious of how strongly our self-interest can want that to be the case. This is the advantage of having others around us who we trust – they tend to be a more neutral third party!

Paul was a Jew, brought up in a culture where the laws of the land encouraged truthfulness. He was writing to the Ephesians, a culture which hadn’t been based on such norms, which meant it was necessary to write what he did (Whereas when he writes to the Jews it often tends to be about their legalism and lack of grace). I wonder if he found it as surprising as I do to look at the culture and realise that the things he had previously taken for granted were not actually givens. Being here has given me an added appreciation of Ephesians, and a greater understanding into the importance of the things he was writing. Maybe I find it more obviously applicable to the culture here, where there are stark differences. But living in another culture also reveals the deficits in your own – which you haven’t noticed because you’ve always grown up with them and you don’t know anything different. For example, take “Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes or daily food, and you say ‘go, I wish you well’ but do nothing about his physical needs – what good is it?” (James). Africans would be (and are) horrified by our lack of hospitality and lack of community and regard for family. Let’s not deceive ourselves into believing that we’re a civilised society without fault!

So read Ephesians (all of it, but particularly chapters 4 & 5) and reflect on what it really means to put off our old self and ‘live as children of the light’…..

Back in Kindu... a long time ago

12th June 2010
I’m now back in Kindu, and have been for a week. Ended up having 2 weeks in Bukavu for training, R&R (rest and relaxation) and then some work which was easier to do there than here. It was really good to have a change of scene – and I particularly enjoyed the luxurious food. I even got to eat pizza! My passport was still in Kinshasa getting it’s work permit (I understand it’s back now) which meant that I couldn’t exit the country for my R&R. I didn’t actually mind too much – I was happy to stay in Bukavu and not deal with all the stresses of travel and trying to get used to a new place. Bukavu is by the lake and I spent most of my afternoons on a patch of grass reading, and then watching the sunset over the lake and the mountains. I was definitely ready for my R&R – I knew I needed a break but it’s only when you stop that you realise quite how much. For the first day or two I felt really drained, both emotionally and physically, and not at all sociable. Enjoyed the break, and returning to work, though it was a definite shock to the system having to get up at 7.30 again…

The return to Kindu amused me somewhat. We normally can only fly to Kindu from Bukavu on Mondays and Fridays. However, the flight was delayed from Friday to Saturday this particular week because there was a big UNHAS (United Nations Humanitarian Air Services, or something like that, which is who we fly with) meeting down in Kinshasa to discuss the future of MONUC in Congo – you may have seen on the news that there’s been a decision to reduce by 2,000 the number of UN personnel in the country. Don’t yet know if that’s going to be impacting Maniema at all. Anyway, Benoit and I, along with one of the logistics guys, drive to the airport on Saturday morning. We haven’t left enough time according to the time we believe we’re leaving (left the house at 8.40, 45 minute drive, flight at 10.30, supposed to be there 2 hours before… you do the maths) but it turned out not to matter. We lugged out our bags (and box of food…and plastic bag of bread….) and sat in the waiting room along with 12 Egyptian UN soldiers. After waiting a long time for our logs guy to come back after finding out what happened, and no-one else around, we decided we may as well do some work, and got started on my probation appraisal. One official comes by but looks doubtful that there’s any plane to Kindu. The Egyptian soldiers leave on another flight. Then suddenly we’re ushered through the bag check/weighing/check in and left in a bigger waiting room. We get started on my appraisal again. 40 Egyptian UN soldiers come trooping in and sit down. Two minutes later it turns out they’re in the wrong place and troop back out again. Someone comes and tells us that our flights arrived. Benoit and I hop into the back of a landrover, where we find our luggage, and drive out to the plane. Except it’s not our plane – it’s going to Kalembie instead. We get told that we’re the only two people travelling to Kindu today, so we’ll have to wait and find out if there will be a flight. Back we go to the waiting room, and restart the appraisal. Then a cleaning lady comes and asks us to sit outside. We move outside and restart the appraisal. And finally, we get told that our plane (the actual one this time) has arrived – there are 4 others on board who have come from Goma – and we fly to Kindu. United Nations organisation strikes again….

You may be interested to know that we continued my appraisal on Mon evening down at Vero beach, having a drink by the waterside. But then we had to leave because we had to be back before curfew (more on that below). So we restarted my appraisal back here, and pretty much finished, but we’ll probably need a seventh session to finalise objectives. The good news is that I’ve passed my probation and am allowed to stay…

For the past week or so, there’s been a curfew at 7pm. Apart from the case above, it hasn’t particularly impacted us, and it finishes tomorrow. The reason was the election of Maniema Province’s new Governor. The last Governor was really unpopular with people, and basically got chased from town. It took a couple of months of him pleading his case down in Kinshasa, but eventually he got removed from his post and there were celebrations on the streets of Kindu. Yesterday, elections took place for the new Governor. There were two candidates, one of whom is a businessman friend of Kabila. The President of Congo came to Kindu personally to show his support – Benoit and I were having a couple of minutes break after lunch and wondered what all the noise was outside, there was so much cheering and singing (far more tuneful than in the UK). Then a large cavalcade of cars when past our front door, and we learned that Kabila was in town. Didn’t actually get to see him though. Anyway, the vote was taken by the Parliament in Kinshasa, and the favourite candidate was elected. It will be interesting to see whether having a Governor makes a noticeable difference in Maniema – there hasn’t been someone in post since I arrived.

I’ve found the past week quite difficult. I think part of it was returning to Kindu after a couple of weeks in Bukavu, and finding the food quite unappetising in comparison. I’ve also had low energy and been quite tired (which may be linked to the fact that I haven’t eaten quite as much as normal) which has meant that I’ve struggled to find the motivation to work. We’ve also had issues within the team – some rumours going around which have caused friction in relationships, and some work that was not done properly (but very creatively…) which has meant a lot of time re-doing the work and investigating what happened. We’ve got to the bottom of it now, but it hasn’t been particularly pleasant, and my first (but probably not my last) experience here of being disappointed by a staff member that I thought was trustworthy. We’ve now managed to redo all the work, but it’s delayed us by about a week, when we’re already really busy doing recruitment (still). And in recruitment we have to walk the line between recruiting people locally (who may not have the capacity needed) and recruiting people from outside Maniema (which may not go down well with the rest of the team / local population. So likely to have some difficult decisions in the week ahead as well.

Time to go to bed I think. Benoit is watching the Germany vs Australia match – he tells me that I’m going to be seeing quite a lot of football in the next couple of weeks. Apparently there’s some big competition on or something.

Addition: 24th June – still haven’t had a chance to post this. Still finding the food unappetising (though Elizabeth cooked a lasagne on Sunday which was AMAZING) but have recovered some of my energy. Decisions to do with staff issues have been quite difficult, but a decision (which I believe is right) has been taken and the situation can be finished with. Am glad that I’m only in a support position at the moment – I can practice separating my emotions from my ‘head’!

Addition: 25th June – I went to the internet cafĂ© yesterday and was just about to post this when the electricity went. So I’ve come again, and I’d just opened up google when the electricity went. I’ll contact you all some time….

Monday 17 May 2010

Toilet trips

Well, I’ve had my first bout of not feeling well. 35 trips to the toilet later and I was pretty drained! However, despite starting to feel a bit dodgy on Sun night I slept well, and didn’t actually feel ill at all, just physically weak and with no energy. I did try taking a blackcurrant flavoured Oral Rehydration Solution, but it was so disgusting I only managed to drink half! I was much better by Mon afternoon, though it’s taken a few days to get my appetite back. It was my first experience of diarrhoea, but not too bad. Though I could see how awful it might be if you weren’t within 30 second reach of the toilet….

As most of you know, I tend to enjoy my meals with gusto, so it was a new experience for me to look at food and to be physically revulsed by it. I think Mama Mkubwa (the cook) has been slightly concerned at how little I’ve been eating! Kindu food is fine and liveable with when you’re feeling ok, but if you’re feeling a bit dodgy it becomes very unappetising. The lowlight was one evening when dinner was some cold, flabby, oily potato chips and two bits of meat in some sort of fatty sauce. I heated a tin of green beans which made the rest slightly better. I’m looking forward to being in Bukavu next week when I’ll be able to eat a pizza, and maybe even a curry….

It’s been alright without Benoit here. I’ve been learning so much about how the project actually works. Previously, I hadn’t had so much to do with the day to day decisions – difficulties in accessing a particular village, meetings etc. There’s been various situations when I haven’t been sure of what decision to make, so have just had to take a deep breath and make a decision. Nothing seems to have gone horribly wrong so far! Michelle (deputy programme director) is here at the moment, so it’s good to have her company and to do some preparation for the bigger projects. The impact evaluation is going fairly well – we have a pile of 324 questionnaires in our office at the moment. It’s quite exciting to see the evidence of the work taking place! They haven’t yet been entered on the computer – my plan for the entry didn’t work out so I’ll get a couple of people in next week to do it. I spent a couple of hours with Josephine (our cleaner) giving her her first lesson in using the computer. It was quite odd for me to work with someone who’d never used a computer before; not many of those people left in the UK any more!

The first morning after Benoit had left I left the house at 8am for our morning devotions, to find Mama Mkubwa and Josephine sitting patiently by the guard’s hut. It turned out that Benoit always opened the house for them at 7am. I wasn’t so fond of this plan, seeing as I only wake up at 7.45. We managed to work out a compromise that they arrive at 7.30 and I stagger out of bed, let them in and go and snooze for another 10 minutes. I need all the sleep that I can get – whilst I’m sleeping fairly well the heat, the work and not feeling so good has made me quite tired. I had another 3 hour nap this morning (it’s now Sunday). The Inspector Lynley Mysteries is on TV…and we’re just getting to the last 5 minutes and the most climatic point and what happens?! The power goes!!!!!

HR issues

Before I came, one of the questions that I had was how useful I was going to be able to be. Was flying over international staff unnecessary and patronising? The answer is no! I’ve been surprised at how our national staff often do not even think about doing (what is to me) the simplest things. Logic and initiative-taking are things that we take for granted, but actually, if you’re not taught or trained in them then you won’t use them! It means that a much higher degree of micro-management becomes necessary. You can’t just delegate a job and expect it to be done. If you don’t follow up, then you’ll receive a visitor a few days later going ‘why haven’t I got this or that?’ You go back to the staff member and find out that they didn’t complete the job because there was some sort of problem. ‘So why didn’t you do it this way? Or why didn’t you let us know?’ ‘Umm…’. It’s made more difficult to me because I can’t have in-depth conversations in French (and because it’s hard to adapt the trust level) so understanding their reasons is beyond me at present! However, I really like our staff – they’re hard workers and have got a good sense of humour.

HR is a big issue at the moment. Our project year finished at the end of April, and until we get a new budget signed then we’re not able to continue with the work. To make it fairer, the aim was to make all the staff redundant, although many people’s contracts finished at the end of April anyway.

Some positions we’ve needed to fulfil immediately, and had to renew straight away – the cook and cleaner being two of them! For others, like the guards, we need immediately but because we’ve reduced the number of guards (having closed our sub-base) it was necessary to have a competitive recruitment process to make it fairer. And in the meantime we used temporary workers alongside the two guards who had permanent contracts and who we therefore kept on. Then there’s other roles that we’ve needed immediately and we’ve known that we’ve wanted to keep the same people on. So do you just renew their contracts immediately and not go through the farce of having interviews when you know perfectly well who you’re going to hire? Or is it more equitable for everyone to have all positions competitive? But then, by law we’re obliged to prefer the same person on if the role is the same, unless we’ve got issues with their performance. Some people have fixed term contracts, but if a person has two continuous fixed term contracts they’re then on a permanent contract. That just complicates matters!

For the project staff – the agronomists etc – the structure has changed. That means it’s not clear who will take on what roles, so it’s necessary to use external recruitment – though if possible we prefer the people we already know. This whole budget gap feels quite horrible – we have no choice but to wait, but in the meantime people don’t know whether they’re going to have a job or not. They have a few weeks of not earning, with no guarantee of any job. Yet we’re hoping that many of them will reapply and work with us. That would never happen in the UK – people wouldn’t hang around waiting to see if they’ve got a job, they’d be off working for another organisation, planned a couple of months in advance. We as an employer have so much power, because of the lack of good jobs in Kindu and in Congo as a whole. In the UK, having a job is almost a right, with job security being an acceptable part of life. Here, having a good job is a bonus for a lucky few – even if you’re having to wait a month to see if you’ve still got one.

Marriage

It’s ok, I’m still most definitely single. I haven’t even had that many marriage proposals, though a few declarations of undying love. But I’ve had a few conversations about what the marriage relationship is recently, and there are so many differences in perception. I’ve grown up in a culture where marriage takes place between two people who love each other, and want to share their lives together at a deep, intimate level. Increasingly in the UK, I think marriage has become a lot more ‘feeling’ based – I feel ‘love’ towards this person, and if that feeling disappears then I can divorce and start a relationship with someone else – it’s much more about self-fulfilment.

In Congo, marriage does not include a deep sharing of your life. It’s much more of a practical arrangement. Husband works and finds money/food for family. Wife has children, brings them up and keeps house in order. The only time necessary to have any interaction is to have sex. Your deepest relationship is not with your spouse – it would be with friends of your own gender. I think this is partly due to gender inequality, and segregation of roles. If you don’t believe that your spouse has any insight, interest or useful contribution to make to the world of work/home, then you’re not going to share what’s happening. It reminds me of Britain 60 – 70 years ago when the wife’s place was at home, and if the husband was struggling in his role of breadwinner, he wouldn’t worry his wife about it because that was his responsibility. But with recognition that women have a place at work, and men have a place at home, there’s a growing equality between the sexes and a partnership and a sharing can take place.

Women tend to end up working much harder here than men. Previous questionnaires/interviews etc. we’ve done indicates that women (certainly those in the villages) might work for about 16 hours in a day, gathering firework, working in the fields, cooking, bringing up children etc. The men on the other hand might work for a couple of hours but spend time sitting and chatting – not getting involved in women’s work. One of the things that our staff do in mobilisation sessions in the community is to ask both the men and women to share what work they do and how long it takes them – often the men are willing to do more work once they realise for the first time just how unfair it is.

I was watching an episode of Tribal Wives the other night, where a London primary school teacher spent a month or two with the women of a Masai Mara tribe. There, marriage was expected and wanted – you risked not having to live otherwise. And polygamy was definitely a good thing. You wanted your husband to have other wives otherwise you would have to do all the work yourself. Polygamy is common in Congo as well, particularly in the rural areas. Malcolm and Elizabeth were saying that when they’ve stayed at villages overnight, they’re normally given the best house to stay in, and the house of the richest person will likely belong to someone who can afford more than one wife. But with marriage being such a different creature here, polygamy looks different to what we might expect. For example, the four wives will spend all their time together, gathering water, wood, cooking, bringing up children etc. They’re a close group and have a far stronger relationship with each other than any of them do with their husband. After all, they only spend time individually with their husband when he chooses which room to sleep in that night. If I suggested polygamy to anyone in the UK they would hate the thought of having to share their husband and the jealousy and hurt that would provoke – and I believe that that deep intimate relationship should only be, and can only be, between two and no more people.

Serial polygamy is also an issue here. The idea of marriage being for life is a strange concept for people. A man will give a bride price to the woman’s parents, and they’ll marry. However, this is seen almost as a ‘lease’ – the man will write down all the things he’s spent on his wife (e.g., a blanket, some clothes) because if it’s decided that they’ve had enough of each other he’ll return the wife, receive back the bride price and also a percentage of all that he’s spent on her. He’ll start writing this list from the beginning of their relationship so it’s built into the system that they won’t be together permanently! The wife’s family often welcome this system – ok, they got 3 goats for her the first time, maybe this time there’s a chance they can get 5 goats for her… From the sounds of it, it’s not just the man who can say he’s had enough, but the woman can as well. Another odd thing is that if the wife’s father dies, she returns home for the funeral and cannot return to her husband until he pays a goat to the bride’s family. Malcolm and Elizabeth said that they thought it was a joke the first time they heard from one of the students at the Bible School saying ‘sorry, I can’t come to study at the moment – my wife’s with her family and I’m left with the children and I need to earn the money to buy a goat to get her back’. However, since then it’s happened to a number of their students! They also said that in almost 5 years here they had only attended one Church wedding – if you get married in a Church that means that you are married for life, and why would you want to restrict your options like that?!

Whilst the Church has had an impact here, it is still very much mixed with traditional practices, and marriage is one area where it’s had very little impact. It’s interesting to look at marriage throughout the Bible. We have the story of Adam and Eve, which was a partnership between two people. Then throughout the Old Testament polygamy is common, e.g. with Kings David and Solomon (though with all the friction between their wives and children that didn’t work out particularly well…). In the New Testament, we have Paul saying that ‘leaders and deacons must be the husband but of one wife’. It’s not clear why he’s saying this though – is it because the culture of the time was that it was better to only have one wife? Is it because he saw that there was favouritism, jealousy and friction between multiple wives? Or is it because Jesus taught that monogamy was better? We know that Jesus used the parable of the ten virgins – with apparently no comment that it would have been better with only one woman waiting (of course, the story wouldn’t work if that was the case!). Paul definitely uses marriage as a reflection of the relationship between God and the Church, his people. This is particularly evident in Ephesians, where the husband should give himself up for his wife as Christ gave himself up for the Church. That definitely indicates a deeper relationship than a merely practical relationship. And in Revelation (written by John), the Church is seen as the Bride, readying herself for marriage.

So does the Bible teach that marriage as viewed in the West, as a deep relationship of love between two people, is better than marriage as viewed in Africa, a practical arrangement of care between two or more people? Without more study on the subject, I can’t say definitely that it is the former. Leaving aside problems with both (how they can be used as selfish, temporary arrangements!), I do know that I prefer the deep-loving-relationship version. That might just be cultural, but I look at the marriages of my friends (most Christian) and can see something beautiful there. There’s a desire to be with each other and share with each other, and such love. And I think to be known intimately – and to still be loved – is a longing for every person. I do believe that this is a reflection of our relationship with God – or of what God would like with each one of us.

In the UK, most people who are single are people who ‘haven’t found the right person yet’. In the Congo, finding someone to marry is the least worry. For the guy, the only question is whether they have enough money – ‘I think I’ll be ready to marry about next July’. ‘Ah right, who’s the woman?’ ‘Oh, I’ll find her nearer the time’. After all, there are plenty of women who can fit the role equally well. And the women are looking for someone who’s fairly responsible, but there aren’t that many more criteria. It makes marriage and relationships much simpler…..! Not that I have many ‘criteria’ for marriage. I would only consider a guy who was passionate about God and who had a similar vision for what they wanted to do with their life. Seeing as I’m wanting to work overseas in disaster management type work there aren’t many people whose visions and passions would be compatible. If someone fits those criteria (and that’s narrowed the field considerably!) then the only question is ‘do we want to share our lives with each other?’.

For people from other African countries, such as Burundi and Kenya, marriage seems to be a cross between marriage in the UK and Congo. There’s still quite an expectation that marriage will take place, but people marry more for love. However, it would be normal for men to work elsewhere, sending money home to support their wives and children. That’s partly because there aren’t any as many good jobs available at home. So, for example, most of the African guys who work for Tearfund here in Congo are married and have children at home. They would prefer to be at home with their families, but they see it as more important to earn the money so that their families are supported. Even if not in a different country, there are many who work in other towns who see their families every few weeks or so. I compare that perspective to married couples I know in the UK, where the most important thing is to be together, even if that means less money in the family. Is that because there’s still ‘enough’ money? Because there’s still an assurance that children would have the schooling opportunities etc. even if there’s less money? Because of differences in the fabric of marriage? Because the UK is small enough and has enough opportunities for jobs nearby? I could imagine regularly spending a few days apart as a (currently non-existent husband), or a one-off period apart for a couple of months, but not as normal life.

So what is marriage? An agreement between two families? A practical arrangement between two people? Social status so people can see how rich you are? Something that’s good for a few years until you want to spend time with someone else? Outdated? The bedrock of society? A relationship that reflects our relationship with God? An institution introduced by society? Answers on a blog comment….