a kanga in the bush is worth how many hours of sleep?

If I were a Kanga…
So, my prized Guinea Foul, purchased yesterday for thanksgiving (america)…they’ve gone missing. We clipped the wings yesterday to be sure they wouldn’t “fly away”, but they fled immediately, one to the back of my house, the other underneath the guard shack by the second gate. Apparently the little monsters are delicious and benny the dog is afraid of them. I think they’re too big for the cats and a hawk would have trouble carrying it off. Not quite as big as a turkey, but larger than a chicken, they have speckled feathers, grey, and they move gracefully, like a big grey box sliding through the air. The weird thing is that they’ve got this horn on the top of their head and their morning wake up call is an ethereal, bone chilling fusion of a chicken clucking and the screech of a pig about to lose its life
Screeeeeeeeeeeeeech
Cluckcluckcluckcluck
Both, at the same time.

Yes, I’ve lost the Kanga twins, but I will gain the resentment of my colleagues when, tomorrow morning (say 5am?), they emerge from their hideout and sing for their breakfast… 

Kabila, Kapita, and the Kanga twins, pt 2

This is part 2 of a two part summary of my wild and crazy week...the page didn't load properly, so you might want to begin with the next entry below...
C



12:30…our business day ends at 16:30, which left me 4 hours to work out all my arrangements and of course, beat the Bukavu Bureaucracy---liberating cash from finance, arranging transportation with Logs, and getting permission to travel international. Well, in short, I pulled it off…only took one extra day and a bout of food poisoning! In those precious four hours, managed to make arrangements with IRC-Burundi to assist with my transportation from the Rwandan border and accommodation while I staged from Bujumbura (the capital), which happens to be directly opposite Uvira, 30km as the crow flies; made arrangements with OCHA-Uvira for a vehicle to meet me at the DRC-Bur border to ferry me around and to organize a meeting of stakeholders for the latrine work; made arrangements with logistics to drop me off at the Rwanda-Burundi border; secured cash for the trip (amazing ,given recent challenges), justified all outstanding cash advances in order to release those funds. And at the end of the day, my boss was satisfied that the arrangements met the conditions and I was cleared to go… 3 countries, two IRC offices, 1 night, and with both countries security restrictions, mere hours to get a whole lot of work done.


Now, nothing happens as planned, we’ve established that already, no? The border crossings—all four of them the first day—took more time than usual...on the DRC side, everyone is worried about losing their jobs when the election is sorted and new individuals are appointed (with their buddies) to key admin posts…in Rwanda they’ve computerized the immigration dept. but their new machine had difficulty reading my old-school “not Machine Readable” passport; no one could find the functionary at the other Rwandan crossing; and at the Burundi crossing, I was caressed by the immigration officer, who (in all seriousness) circled me like a predator, whilst touching my arm and commenting on my skin while his colleague issued my entry visa—bringing to mind a thought that I hope I had at least mentioned in this blog (perhaps the Ethiopian entry?) where a colleague had made the comparison of the experience of harassment suffered by women with that experienced by humanitarians. My Satphone wouldn’t work, couldn’t inform my colleagues in Congo that I would not make our rendezvous, and IRC-Bur security restrictions ensured that there would be no way I could return to Bukavu after work the following day, thereby adding an additional night to what was suppose to be an overnight trip. Arrangements were made anew, a security check made first thing (9:30!) the next morning, and I was off…two more border points, a 2nd visa, a long walk across no-man’s land, and by the time I made it to the other side, I had no more than 3 hours to get everything done, including hike up the mountain to the school site, pay the labourers, and coordinate the latrine project, before getting back into Burund in time for their travel curfew! Unbelievable.

First stop, the school…sent two fellows to get the Kapita and all the carpenters together (not a bright idea) and then I made straight up the hill for the school. Busted my ass to get up there quickly to inspect the structures before the Kapita and the guys got together back at the base of the hill…well I nearly flipped out when I made it to the site! Already a day and a half behind schedule, only one of the structures had actually been built, no latrine pit, half the other structure, no desks, no tarps…Blown away, I was totally blown away, I saw the community come out in strength and enthusiasm to start this work, the kids were accommodated in other schools for the time being, and I had thought I had seen community initiative/mobilization in the initial attempt to reopent the road (I found out later that I had been mistaken)…but no, it was as though when my engineer left for Bukavu (as per security restrictions), work stopped and all that creative potential went into figuring out how to swindle us…essentially, our aggrement in principle was broken, and it was all I could do to not lambaste the community authorities for their willingness to squander assistance for their children…they aimed to add 2x the number of labourers and double (at least) the amount of time invested in the overall project…blown away, and as the crowd of (unpaid) young men started to gather and make their complaints about this and that (wood is insufficient, we haven’t been paid, etc)…I walked away, Kapita in one hand, and the head of the parents committee in the other...They were obliged to escort me back to the truck waiting for me, and I explained to them, in no uncertain terms, that I would give them one day’s notice before returning to settle accounts, and that their opportunism had better be overtaken by a community driven will to complete the school before I get back…
Then I was off, a bit of sunstroke brewing in my dehydrated brain…the latrine thing went off well and I got out of there with minutes (literally) to spare before I’d have been subject to the wraith of the IRC-Bur security officer. And once I had settled into the front seat of our yellow hilux, I pulled a ham sandwich out of my sack and ate half, sharing the other bit with the driver.

I puked all night….he did not.

That night, Kabila was declared the winner of the elections…Bemba was not.

But for all of the drama, obstacles, and deviations (of border guards and otherwise), I got back to Bukavu , safe and sound…

Some less wordy miscellanea to follow, as we continue to be restricted in our mvt’ this week.

Peace
C
Pics—some kid…another kid…action shot—talking to kids! 

Kabila, Kapita, and the Kangas twins…pt 1

For those of you who don’t have time to read everything below (which I’ve split into two parts), here are the “Grandes Lignes” of my week:

1.Kabila won the elections, Bemba is contesting the results
2.I somehow managed to get to the field this week to find that the people of Kigongo had managed to do next to nothing about the emergency primary school
3.I ate a bad ham sandwich

Soundtrack—Pinback, summer in abbadon…and a little bit of “Fat Freddy’s Drop”—a bit of slow jam New Zealand soul


This week, as is so often the case in Congo, nothing happened according to plan…Though given until the 19th (today) to declare the official results of the presidential run-off, CEI decided to announce the election results on the 16th, while I was still in Burundi, wretching from a nasty little ham sandwich… Kabila, came in with 58.05% of the vote (bemba, having scored app20% last time, came in with over 40% this time around)…effectively becoming DRC’s first democratically elected (universal suffrage) since independence. The supreme court has to endorse the results, and this wont happen until after they’ve judged the validity of Bemba’s legal challenge (raised against something or other)—bow to stern the process must be concluded within 10days from the date of the announcement…Bemba promised to pursue his case through legal means and forego violence, for now, but the election results—as I’m sure you’ve all seen on the BBC (or maybe Al-Jezeera’s new English broadcast?)—show a marked division between the east and the west of the country (the former Lingala-phone, the latter Swahili-phone)… lots of speculation, lots of talk, a little bit of manacing, but for the time being everything is calm and Kabila supporters are celebrating… The big catch is that Bemba has been indicted for War Crimes in Central African Republic—we’ve been discussing the international legal ramifications of this, and little fishy on the details, but essentially, Bemba has evaded extradition to the Hague by virtue the protection/immunity offered by his position as VP…were his status in Gov’t to change, or if Kabila thought it best, he would eligible for an indeterminate holiday in the Netherlands. So there’s a lot on the table, and again, lots of speculation and talking (frankly, I’m quite tired of it!)…would Kabila pull him into his cabinet, would he move against him immediately, would Bemba’s military apparatus be able to react in the absence of the personality and the wallet of its patron, would Bemba accept anything less than becoming the new president “elect”? Who know’s, and we certainly wont find out any more before next week…



Now, about the Ham sandwich. As I mentioned last week, we’ve been terribly restricted in our movements. As a general precaution, during the actual election, the period comprising the suspected/determined date for the announcement of the results, we’ve been forbidden for spending nights in the field. The implications for my department were paralytic—There are very few places in South Kivu were my team has work that can be achieved, even in-part, in a single day. But the decision was sweeping, was applicable to all departments, and in the absence of any certainty regarding the results or the candidate’s reaction, the measures would hereforthwith be maintained until further notice! But not to be outdone, we managed to negotiate an emergency trip to Kigongo/Uvira for a small response with regards to the damaged school and a few flood-affected families (I’m not online at present, but I’m pretty sure I wrote about this previously) Well, seeing that we couldn’t conduct any of our planned activities last, I sent everyone home for holidays, and set myself to the task of trying to convince my bosses to let me out for a couple nights—to verify completion of the emergency school, to settle accounts with the labourers involved in its construction, confirm the NFI distribution had been successful (conducted remotely with the assistance of TearFund), and argue the toss regarding the financing of emergency latrines at a military camp that was swiftly become a vector for another cholera epidemic in Uvira…Monday, 12:30, I got permission from the Country director (at present, my direct supervisor) to hurry down to Uvira to complete the above mentioned activities, but only if the following conditions were met:
1.no travel to the site through the DRC (the route can be a little sketchy) and I was not permitted to spend the night in the field(as already mentioned)
2.no National staff, No IRC-DRC vehicles—Just me, my satphone, and a list of possible car-pooles!
3.confirm all arrangements prior to departure—EVERYTHING had to be in place before they’d let me out.
the pics--my buddy the Kapita with all his buddies...the interim solution to the "rocks everywere" problem, saw the first big lorry get through(had to drive through the old school's yard...action shot--me and haile walking down the other side of the nice new ramp

see below for the next instalment

C 

The asperagus tree and the landslide

The asparagus tree—still don’t know its official name, but did manage to learn one curious fact about this enigmatic plant…like pacific salmon, the plant’s reproductive process is in fact a swan song—the plant grows, matures, flowers, and promptly dies. The “flower”, for the lack of a more technical term, is full of mini asparagus trees and at the appointed time, drops its little clones all about the base of the plant where they take root (of course) and begin the process anew...I'll see if I can't capture the moment in film.

for the time being, enjoy these shots from the "landslide" in kigongo...mud in the classrooms...the fissure--the rocks came from this little canyon...one of the biggest rocks in the field...more when I can, I have to get down there and back before the election announcements.
peace
C


 

Elections and Landslides (one might hope)

Alright, for all you democracy-philes out there, all reports from Bukavu indicate that the run-off elections for the presidency have passed without major incident. I’ve heard of tension in the deep south of this province, and country wide, as expected, Kinshasa is tense (we withdrew all Kin staff to Bukavu), and there were a few delays/problems in Bunia and the Ituri district.








So, all that to say…things are quiet, no emergencies, and even if there were, security precautions at present dictate that these emergencies must kept to within a days drive (aller/retour)! So this week, I’ll share with you all a little miscellanea, a touch of trivia…Congo river vs Darwin’s nightmare….Kierkegaard’s brainbeats…the positive attributes of cholera outbreaks…Gustav the gator…and new technology less attention.

Let me leave you this week with a picture of the destruction caused these last few days by heavy rains south of Uvira…I haven’t seen the film footage, but from what ACTED caught on tape, the river/runoff from the haut-plateau rose to 3m above normal…the rocks it brought down the mountain…some well over 2m in diameter, are spread across, ontop, and all the way down the main north south axis for nearly 100m—a fact not evident in the pictures….no road access south of uvira for the next 2 months at least.

Happy Monday
C

pics--the rock slide that wrecked my week's plans...1/3 prov now no longer accessible by road....a bunch of IDP students super happy learning super things, while their super parents go off to less than super fields to cultivate in relative insecurity. 

Can you see the mustache?

alright, zoom in, zoom in a close as you can...the biggest mustache in Congo--a pakistani of Baluchistan....the wildest mustache I've ever seen in africa...