I finally have an internet connection again...have been without since we left Bukavu on Wednesday. The reason I have connection is I'm on the plane just about 3 hours from San Francisco! More on that...first I want to tell you about my days in Goma and Virunga National Park.
We started the day with an early rise to visit two organizations in Bukavu before we headed to Goma around noon. We went to a place called Centre Olame. They are a less funded City of Joy. They work with women to help them with skills training and education. Matilde, who runs the center, is like a Congolese Mother Teresa. She is fierce, smart, savvy, resourceful and committed. They are in the process of building more dorms for the women to live there while they are at the university. They help girls get educated starting with primary school (a scholarship is $60/year!) through university.
The second organization was called BVES. The help rescue children who have been forced into being soldiers - boys and girls. We went to the girls center. Many of the girls live there for a few months (some come just during the day). They have school classes to help get them ready to go back to full school, trained in sewing and other skills, therapy, etc. Mubashi is the director. He walks on water...his heart is a mile wide. Talk about fierce...he and his staff actually talk directly with the rebel groups to negotiate the release of the girls (and boys). They do so much on so little. The visit was deeply impactful for all of us. The center is beyond bare bones. Small, dark classrooms, rickety fencing around the outside, steep steps that lead down to a dirt courtyard with a handmade tire swing in the middle surrounded by open-air class rooms. Many of the girls have babies or are pregnant when they come, so there are many little children here as well. They desperately need more space and better space.
Then to the boat to Goma. 2 1/2 hours to the very north end of beautiful Lake Kivu. Might I add, the boart was completely orange! Loved it. In fact, orange is everywhere here. No wonder I feel so at home! We were greeted by several of the staff from the Goma office for Human Rights Watch. (Look up the organization...they are doing vital work all over the world for the protection of human rights.) Stepping out of the gates of the boat dock was quite a shock. Bukavu was over-crowded and there were signs of poverty everywhere, but Goma was on a whole different level.
A little reminder about Goma: it sits right on the border of Rwanda, and it is a main commerce hub. So, it has been captured and recaptured over and over again by rebel groups for decades. The most recent of which was the horrid M23. They came in from Rwanda and displaced thousands of people from their villages, raped countless women, forced men into labor and tricked young men into being soldiers. It was just this past November that the M23 was defeated, so Goma and the surrounding areas have just barely started to recover.
In addition, Goma sits at the foot of Nyirgongo, an active volcano that last erupted in 2002. Lava flowed through a third off the city into Lake Kivu. So, it is like a lunar landscape - black lava rock everywhere, very little green.
There is an edge here in Goma. The people smile less, the kids are more aggressive, there is garbage everywhere, houses and buildings are hovels. It was super hard for me. This is what I had tried to prepare myself for coming to Congo and had not yet witnessed.
We first went to the Human Rights Watch (HRW) office for a meeting with the full staff and a film about their work here. Then onto the hotel...let's just say that the contrast between the street scene along the drive there and the setting of the hotel was stark. It rattled me. I felt so angry and disgusted and confused. I wanted to blame someone. I wanted to turn and walk back out of the gates. The hotel was lush and cozy and quiet and utterly picturesque poised right on the shore of Lake Kivu. There were bottles of cold water and a decanter of cold fruit juice waiting for us.
I retreated to my room and called Matt at work. Just needed to download some feelings. It helped. Another meeting that night and then a lovely dinner on the stone patio by the lake. Early to bed for me. I think all of the adrenaline from the trip so far had kept me going, going and now I crashed. Got into bed and slept 9 1/2 hours.
Thursday we hopped back into our green, open-sided jeeps from Virunga that met us at the boat when we arrived. They would be with us all the way to the Rwandan border on Saturday when we headed to Kigali for our flight home. I got quite friendly with Eric and Jean Paul, two of our drivers. The drive to Virunga was breathtaking. I have to say, it was a relief to drive out of Goma and head into the small, lush farming villages everywhere along the road up to the park. So much more remote but less poor and desperate. So much hard work - they have to walk far from where they live to where they farm. There was joy and beauty everywhere despite the arduous work. I long to return and live in one of these villages for a while and farm and play with the kids and talk with the mamas.
It's hard to capture the beauty of Virunga. There are volcanos around and moutains and hills and farm land. The Mikeno Lodge was an oasis in the jungle. Blue monkeys and Colobus monkeys scrambled over head in the trees like squirrels as we walked down crushed lava rock trails to our individual bungalows in the trees. There are big, beautiful hounds dogs that are used for finding poached ivory and a gorilla sanctuary for the 4 orphaned Mountain Gorillas that have been found over the years as a result of their parents being killed.
We spent Thursday hearing testimonies from 3 groups of people who have so bravely come forward to share their stories with HRW in order to hopefully further the efforts for justice. One was a group of 3 women - 2 rapes survivors of the M23 and the other a social worker who supports the women; the second were 2 young men who had been tricked and then forced into being soldiers and Herve who runs a center that helps boys like this; the third was two men who were forced into labor by the M23. The testimonies were devastating and moving and awe-inspiring...the resiliency of each of these individuals is astounding. And, how utterly grateful we are for the work of HRW to end these atrocities.
Friday found us all up and dressed for a trek to see mountain gorillas. There are 5 families in this area of the park. We were split into 3 groups - each group visiting a different family. Each group had a main guide, 3-4 armed rangers, and porters to carry backpacks. We hiked for an hour over the richest farmland in the most beautiful setting. We were quite a sight to the families working in their fields! It started pouring 10 minutes into the trek so we were all decked out in our colorful raincoats, hats and boots and gators. I can only imagine what we looked like to them. Once we hit the border of the park, we shimmied under and electric fence and started the slog up the un-trailed mountain in the jungle. The rangers in the front used machetes to make a passable route. It was wet, wet, wet and very slippery. Many had walking sticks the rangers cut with the machetes others wore gloves and used the plants for stability. After about 2 hours we found the Humba family, named after the big silver back daddy. There are 16 in the family. We saw about half of them. They were not psyched about the rain either. We watched a male and female sit in a nest they had each made to keep their legs and feet dry and wam, hunched over with their long arms wrapped over their bellies. A little later we found a mama and a young baby. Got to hear the baby cry for milk, mama roll over and baby crawled on top and started to nurse. Amazing!
Then came the long, very wet and slippery slog back down the mountain. We had all been soaked completely through (I mean completely) for 3 hours already. So, all of the falls and slides on our butts didn't really matter much. Once we reached the farm fields, the rain stopped and the sun started to come out. It was a total mud fest in the fields but so lovely to dry out as we walked. Overall, we were gone for about 5 hours. One of the groups had to hike for about 4 hours just to find the gorillas and then one of the members hurt her knee. So, they ended up having to hike out of the jungle in the dark and were out for 10 hours. All of us at the lodge were very happy to see them when they got back.
Even though we were all absolutely exhausted, it was hard to go to sleep knowing it was our last night in Congo. I staggered off to bed around 11:00pm. Others in the group stayed up til 3:30am!
The story of the park: it is the oldest national park on the African continent, formed in 1925. There is incredible wildlife diversity there. Many large mammals as well - two types of elephants, water buffalo, hipps, gorillas, etc. There are huge 15,000 foot mountains with glaciers, that lead to lowland jungle, then to savannahs and then to the volcanos. It is a huge area to manage. It has suffered right along with the people of Congo with the endless wars. Emmanuel is the director of the park. His vision for conserving the park is about lifting up and supporting the humanity that borders the park. He is a visionary - creating jobs, inventing alternative fuel options so women don't have to go into the forest to get wood and expose themselves to rape and torture, etc. The projects and ideas he has are my ideal of true sustainable development and capacity building.
It was so very sad for me when it came time to leave Virunga and head back to Goma on Saturday morning. Lots of tears for me...not just about Virunga but for Congo. I have fallen in love with this country and the people here. Warmth and beauty and resiliency abound here. It has gotten inside of me. With all of the driving we've done I never tired of leaning out the window and waving and saying "Jambo" to everyone...especially the women. We would look each other in the eye and hold that waving until we were out of view. It may sound silly and implausible but I feel connected to them in some small way. I have also have connected with several of the drivers (who I've mentioned), a couple of the rangers at Virunga, and one man who works at the Virunga lodge. His name is Cyprien. He is getting married in August to a woman named Ida who is studying medicine. He invited me to his wedding. What a dream to be able to be there...
I miss all of you. I miss Matt and Lucas. And, I am not ready to leave here. I dug in here quickly. My French ability surprised me...so much more in there after 18 years than I ever could have imagined or hoped for. It made connecting with people so much easier. That coupled with my deep desire to connect made for some great conversations, laughs, sharing of language, sharing about our families and countries. As a result, I believe I've had a different experience than most of my fellow travelers. I took every opportunity to engage with Congolese colleagues or guests or hosts. I have loved it. I want more.
I can't wait to share stories, photos and videos with you.
See you all very soon!
lots of love, ME
No comments:
Post a Comment