Tuesday 30 March 2010

Of black mud and soap

I’m currently writing from Goma, which is in North Kivu, just across the border from Rwanda and Uganda. It’s weird being somewhere that you’ve heard a lot about – and seen on the news – and then realise that you’re actually there, actually here, and that the things that happened massively impact the person who took our money at the shop, or the guard at our gate. Due to the massive volcano right by Goma (which erupted in 2002 and does so every 20 years or so) it’s a very black place. The mud is all grey-black, which is in direct contrast to Bukavu which was red. The traffic is a lot worse in Goma as well (though slightly better roads), with motorbikes and landcruisers all trying to weave round each other, turn, and avoid the potholes. I was glad that I wasn’t driving!

We travelled up from Bukavu this morning – I started the day with a cold bucket bath in the dark at 5.15am. Tis a great combination ;o) Then a drive to the port, where we had to go to the luggage station, the ticket station, the immigration station and the health station before getting on the boat! We were on the quick boat, which makes the journey up Lake Kivu in about 2 ½ hours (the slow boat takes 6 hours). The lake is huge – at some points you can only just see mountains in the distance in all directions. Stunning scenery, with skulking mountains diving steeply into the lake. Imagine cruising along Lake Windermere in a speed boat for a couple of hours and you’ll pretty much get it.

I’ve now met Benoit, who’s the Area Co-ordinator for Kindu. I’ve been eager to meet him as he’s going to be the person that I’ve both living with and working with – an important person to get on with! I think we’ll be ok – he’s an optimistic person who is serious about what he’s doing and why, and who has been open about the positives and the negatives! Am really glad that he’s someone who’s willing to communicate and discuss things – it will make it a lot easier for me. We had a bit of a laugh when we were talking about personalities and planning – he was saying that he was an ENFP (Myers-Briggs) and I said that I’m not sure how well I’d complement him then as I’m also an ENFP. However, we might have more similar working styles! We spent quite a lot of time chatting about the programme, and where it’s likely to go in the next year or so – more discussion still to take place but I’m getting more of a grasp on what’s happening.

Had a short shopping trip as well. Kindu is really remote – the only real way to get things in or out is to fly them. By road takes a good 6 days, with a risk of banditry. That means that all project items have to be sent by airfreight (which is quite expensive…) along with various food items. We can get rice, cassava, bananas, meat, chicken and fish locally. Some vegetables (particularly since we’ve been working to increase vegetable growth in the area!) but everything else has to be bought in Goma and flown. Apparently the diet is quite monotonous even so…. The supermarket we went to had quite a good choice of things (probably about the size of our lounge/dining room at home) but lacking in certain types of stuff. The only thing that there was a LOT of variety for was the soap. I counted at least 50 different makes…!!!!

Tomorrow I fly to Kindu, which is about an hour’s flight in a small plane. Once in Kindu I’m not going to have as much internet access as I have had so far. In the office we have an RBGAN, which is satellite internet. It therefore has a good connection but costs about 10 USD per MB downloaded. So strictly limited use! However, there is an internet cafĂ© which has a local provider which is slow, but obviously a lot cheaper. I’ll use that sometimes, but don’t know when/how often. Just because I can’t check my emails as obsessively as normal doesn’t mean that I don’t want you to contact me. It just means that I expect to have lots of mail when I finally do ;o) So here’s my general ‘hello! How are you? Hope you’re doing well – what have you been up to recently?’ to cover contact for the next few days!!!

Sunday 28 March 2010

Life is no brief candle

I like these words of George Bernard Shaw, which I've just been reading. I don't completely agree with them, but enough to share them with you!
"This is the true joy in life - that being used for a purpose recognised by yourself as a mighty one. That being a force of nature, instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die. For the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me. It's a sort of splendid torch which I've got to hold up for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations."

Saturday 27 March 2010

Working Remotely

Apart from induction, I've been able to do some work - mostly looking at project spending - as well as a couple of meetings. Most of the work will have to wait till I actually start in Kindu. Yesterday, I went to an NGO co-ordination meeting. I won't say that I participated in it because I really did - I sat and listened and tried to understand what was going on. Naturally, it was all in French. And French spoken slowly on a one-to-one basis is very different from the full-speed-ahead-spoken-by-natives-in-business-mode French. At least I managed to catch odd words and get the gist of some of the conversations! Am using my evenings to study either French or Kiswahili - I will get fluent even if it takes a while! The staff here are being very good at helping me, teaching me new words and working out what I'm trying to say.
We were sitting talking at this NGO co-ordination meeting and it was getting dark. Suddenly, all the lights went out. No-one turned a hair - obviously a normal occurence in Congo! After a few seconds the generator was switched on and the light returned - conversation continued as normal. It amused me because in the UK if that ever happened it's a major event and, particularly if you're with young people, there are small screams of dismay!!!

I leave for Kindu in a few days, taking the boat up to Goma on Tues and then the plane from Goma to Kindu on Weds. Whilst there are direct flights from Bukavu to Kindu they only leave on Mondays and Fridays. On Wednesday, the flight goes the other way round from Goma - Pangi - Kindu - some other place - Bukavu. I'm looking forward to it - apart from the flight itself the boat ride up Lake Kivu will involve incredible scenery, and it means I'll get to meet our team in Goma and see the town itself.
I find it quite amusing to think that it takes 3 planes, 1 boat and 1x6hour drive, over 5 separate days, to get to Kindu. Not a place you can just turn up at with no planning! I think in all the total travel time is 24 hours (that's time actually moving, not the waiting time at airports etc.), but it all needs to be done in stages. However, I can still have a telephone conversation with people on the other side of the world!

More photos!


View over Lake Kivu - the houses in Bukavu are nestled amongst the trees you can see as it rises up into the hills.



The front of our office building.



The reception.



The back of our team house - you can see the balcony where we do our early morning exercise.

Thursday 25 March 2010

Early morning exercise

I decided that it was about time that I started getting some exercise here, so went out with my skipping rope onto the balcony at about 6.45am this morning. Seeing Eric there, I thought ‘oh good, some company’. That was before he started insisting that I start doing press-ups, sit-ups, burpees, star/frog jumps and other hideous activities. Not sure why some people actually want a personal trainer…

A rough day here, in case you’re interested is:
6.45am – wake up, exercise, shower (sometimes even with hot water) and breakfast (toast, honey and a banana (yes, a banana) for me!)
8.00-8.30 – devotions with the whole team, in a mixture of Swahili, French and English with various translations and drums and shakers.
8.30-1.30 – work. It’s quite a long morning and I’m definitely hungry by lunch.
1.30-2.30- lunch. Main meal of the day, often with soup for starter, then either rice/pasta/potatoes/sweet potatoes with meat/fish/chicken and a vegetable accompaniment.
2.30-5.30/6 – work. Note the fairly long days (and work on Saturday too!). It’s all this extra work which means that we get our R&R (rest and recuperation) long weekends 4 times a year.
6 onwards – chat, watch TV (Bukavu has got satellite), eat, learn Swahili. Sometimes people go out and socialise, but so far neither none of us have (there’s only 3 of us at home at the moment).
9ish – bed. Tuck in my ‘Princess net’ and remove the blanket with which Suzanne continues to make the bed with every day.
Night – sleep soundly.

Mungu unabarika! (Which means God bless you)

Tuesday 23 March 2010

Some photos!

Should give you a flavour of where I am...


Driving through Rwanda - snapped from car window.



Eric (Programme Director) in our luxurious living room!



Myself and Martin (Finance Director) eating lunch.



The said lunch - a traditional meal of fish and chips!



The view from our office over Lake Kivu - the rain making everything slightly hazy. Tearfund's vehicles in the foreground - the big antennae are for the VHF radio.

Rain on the roof

Eve of 22/3/10
The rain is pounding on the metal roof; an indication that we’re definitely in the rainy season. I’m sitting in a luxurious living room in Bukavu in Congo, having eaten some lovely ‘ng’ombe’ (beef), ‘wali’ (rice) and cabbage (the Swahili for which I haven’t yet learned).
Eric (the Programme Director) and I had a five and a half hour drive from Kigali in Rwanda to Bukavu. Most of this was winding through villages and small towns – Rwanda is very hilly and the road follows the contours! For about an hour and a half we were going through Rwanda National park, which is dense forest over steep hills (nowhere for people to live) although that also means that the chances of seeing the gorillas that inhabit it is very low.
Crossing the border was fairly straightforward. Went into the office, they wrote our names and details in a book, stamped our passport and we were out. The Congolose side of the border was a noticeably worse road – whilst the Rwandan side was tarmac with recently filled in potholes the Congolese side was tarmac with unfilled in potholes. Makes a big difference!
The Tearfund accommodation overlooks the lake (seeing as everything is on an incline it all overlooks the lake!) with views to the mountains in the distance. There’s a spacious lounge/dining area, with slightly odd shaped sofas which are comfortable enough in you’re curling up but less so if you’re just sitting. I'm staying in another staff members room, who is currently out on leave. Most of the other international staff are either on training or on leave at the moment.
I have met a number of the national staff when we went over to the office this afternoon. It’s about 15 seconds walk down the road, with different rooms for the various teams. We communicated in a mix of languages – English/French/Swahili but we did manage to communicate! My briefing proper starts tomorrow.
Now, the rain’s stopped and I’m off to bed. It’s only 8.30 but I’m tired after my long day!
Bon soir,
Anna

Sunday 21 March 2010

African sounds from the window

I find it incredible that I’m sitting in my (very nice)guest house room listening to birds tweeting in distinctly unusual languages, with strains of gospel choruses sung below, as the sun sets over the Rwandese hills – yet I can just open up my laptop and connect with people round the world.

No problems with the flights at all, though there was about an hour stop over in Burundi. Unfortunately, the plane air conditioning didn’t work when stationary – so you can imagine the 150 odd people stuffed into this metal container doing Wizard of Oz impressions ‘I’m melting! I’m melting!’ It was a relief to get out into the 29 degrees heat outside! The views over Burundi and Rwanda were amazing – flat green valleys surrounded by mountains, all green.

Had a bit of an issue meeting up with the person I was supposed to at the airport – mainly because there were two sets of people to meet me and I went with one of them (the obvious one holding ‘Anna / Tearfund’) and then had a bit of a comedy act trying to get in contact with the other. All ok now though, we’ve met up and everyone knows where they are!

Breakfast at 1.30 in the morning

Travelling through time always creates some weird consequences. I ate dinner at about 10.30pm, 3 hours later I ate breakfast at 4.30am. 3 hours of the day have disappeared (although I claim one of them back later) and my body isn’t operating at either 11am or 8am – it just is.

The landing was very odd as well. We took off in the dark and we landed in the dark. We came down through cloud and rain, seeing lights about 15 seconds before we landed at 9,000 feet. I’m glad that modern tracking equipment is able to pinpoint out location with such preciseness!

I’m currently in the Transit lounge at Nairobi airport (though by the time I post this I’ll be elsewhere) where I’ve managed a couple of hours of kip on the hard chairs, along with numerous other people. There seems to be an unspoken rule that you can only claim 3 chairs each, with many faces unable to be seen under swathes of material. Judging by the snoring coming from one or two people they managed more sleep than I did. Though my travel pillow is definitely getting a tick under ‘useful items that one must carry around with you’!

Saturday 13 March 2010

1 week to go!

In one week's time I'll be flying out to Congo (via Nairobi and Kigali) and starting what will be quite a different life to what I'm currently leading. I'm in the middle of my briefing at the moment, which means that I'm discovering a lot more about the place and the programme.

I'm going with Tearfund (www.tearfund.org), which is an amazing organisation. I've worked with them before in the UK, and love their values and the way that they're always seeking the best way that they can serve the people that they work with. I also trust them, which is a big factor when about to go and work overseas for the first time. I suppose I should start saying 'our' and 'we' now that I'm part of the organisation!

The place I'll be based at is called Kindu, which is a town of about 200,000 people right by the river Congo. It's in Maniema province, which is more central than North & South Kivu but still in the East. It takes about 3 hours to fly there from Bukavu/Goma - hopefully over some gorgeous scenery!






My role is as a Project Support Officer, which is a support role to the Area Co-ordinator. It's a training role, where I'll be able to get experience in many of the different aspects of relief work - from logistics, HR, donor proposals, budgets etc. The Kindu team is quite small, with only one other international staff member and about 21 national staff members. Communication is something that I've feeling quite apprehensive about - I have some French and although I've been trying to learn Swahili the first couple of months are going to be tough until my language is at a good enough level. I've found before though that you can have a very good relationship with someone even if you can't speak the same language - after all, 95% of communication is non-verbal! It also means that in a year's time I'll hopefully be fairly fluent, which will be very useful for any future work.

The food also sounds like it'll be quite varied. Apparently, there's a lot of fish and meat, with rice, sweet potatoes, chapati and, I imagine, manioc. Fruit sounds fairly plentiful (I'll have to learn to like mangoes and bananas!) although vegetables might be harder to come by. I'm glad that the food will probably be ok, I like looking forward to meals rather than struggling to eat them! There's a couple of restaurants in the town, as well as a bar, so it sounds like there's some social scene.

All will be a lot clearer in a week or so when I'm actually there!!!

Friday 5 March 2010

The journey starts...

The next part of the journey is just beginning.

In a couple of weeks time I'm flying out to DR Congo as a Relief worker. It was two and a half years ago that I first started considering the world of humanitarian aid, and now it's finally happening.

Nervous anticipation.

Many unknowns.

Determination to see this through.