Hi all -
No internet yesterday and a super busy today. SO SO SO much to share with you. Alas...I am exhausted. Here is a quick teaser of details to come:
- Yesterday bushwhacked into the jungle to spend an hour watching a family of Eastern Lowland Gorillas. Chimanuka is the big silver-back daddy and therefore the name of this family - papa, mama, 2 teenager and a baby one year 7 months old. I have gorilla poop on my hiking gators!!
- Essence Road is the road that leads to City of Joy and Panzi hospital. Bukavu, the city we are in, was built for a population of 50,000. There are currently over 1 million people living here...forced to flee there villages and homes over the years of the war. There are many that live along Essence Road in conditions beyond belief. We drove down the road to get to COJ. Hard to put all that I saw and all that I feel into words.
- City of Joy - so many beautiful women so full of joy in one place. The music, dancing and color that met us as we entered the gates was overwhelming. They loved the bowls and the photos of all of you that helped. It was a true gift. They totally got how much love is infused into each bowl.
- Panzi Hospital - heartbreaking. So many in so much need with so little resources. There are 5 Mayo clinic doctors who came with us to see patients and do surgeries this week. They had been at the hospital since 7:00am this morning. It was 5:00pm when we saw them and they all looked quite shocked, overwhelmed and tired. 4 of the 5 have been here before. The 5th is the doctor that did the surgery that saved Eve's life.
Tomorrow we go to the V-World farm. I am really looking forward to it. Hopefully I'll have time for a newsy post before we leave. Otherwise, I promise to post tomorrow night. We leave for Goma on Wed...not sure if there will be email there. So, I want to share a bunch with you before we head there.
I love the group I'm traveling with. They are good, loving, smart, interesting people.
More tomorrow.
lots of love, ME
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