I am sitting on the floor of the transit lounge in the makeshift UN terminal at Bukavu. I had no idea that I’d be sitting here today. I’m flying from Kinshasa in the west to Kisangani in the center of the country but today’s flight plan has me on a grand circle tour of the Congo. (Kinshasa – Kananga – Bukavu – Kisangani) The good news is that in a few hours I should be back in Kisangani settling back into my routine there.
I just spent the weekend in Kinshasa where I was able to have some helpful work conversations with my coworkers and get a haircut. A friend who works for the Red Cross did a great job cutting my hair nice and short. I feel like a new man. As of now the temperatures in Kisangani have eased a bit but the heat and humidity should be extra oppressive again very soon, so the haircut was important.
These days the weather in Kinshasa is calm and it’s a good thing since the election results are expected any day now. Hopefully the cool-ish weather will help to cool emotions. The main concern is in Kinshasa where Kabila is not favored. If he wins a national majority or plurality, the citizens of Kinshasa may protest violently. The opposition candidate that is favored has a colorful history and still has his own militia. He’s at once assuring everyone that the political process should be protected and he’s claiming victory before the results have been announced, trying to build a coalition of all of his major opponents, save Kabila and his close allies. It’s interesting to watch the engineering of political power and the sways of public opinion in a country where it’s less than subtle.
Up to now, I have been somewhat discouraged that the church has not been proclaiming peace and calling the faithful to keep any protests from turning violent and descending into burning and pillaging. The association of major Protestant churches in Kinshasa has recently issued a statement on television urging peaceful reactions to the election results and I am thankful for that. If there will be troubles, it’s more likely to be in Kinshasa than in Kisangani because of the political climate and strongly contested elections.
I have experienced multi cultural situations, but traveling with the UN is a unique situation. So far today I have seen personnel from India, Pakistan, Egypt, Malawi, Senegal, Kenya, Belgium, Zambia, South Africa, France, Bangladesh, Canada, Uruguay, Romania, Paraguay, Benin, China, and Congo. And those are just the ones that I could pick out by the flag on their shoulder.
There’s a little food service counter in the corner of this lounge but it’s mobbed with people, the prices are usually expensive and the service is quite slow. I paid $3 just now for a sandwich and it came very quickly. There were no beverages available at all, they’re sold out. The two men staffing the cafeteria are serving a crowd of people with about four coffee cups and three plates. I’m glad for them that the water in their sink is running in the middle of the dry season.
In the past four days I have received two joyful announcements of staff weddings that will be happening soon. I am excited to attend my first Congolese wedding in a few weeks. I have also heard about two untimely deaths. One death was the sister of a staff member in Kinshasa who required an emergency caesarean section and it went wrong. The other one is the year old daughter of a Nazarene pastor here. I don’t know yet know the nature of the illness that struck the small child in Kisangani. I got a call saying that she was sick just as I was heading to the plane to fly out for the weekend and then I got a call from her father on Monday saying that she’d died at 9AM on Sunday. I’m again reminded by this news that God is present in both the joys and sorrows of life.
Kin-Kan-Buk-Kis? Didn’t anyone tell u that they don’t give frequent flyer miles on UN flights? (Frequent die-er miles maybe…oops, I forgot…your mom might be reading this…). Glad u got home eventually.
Onec, I got on a flight scheduled to leave at noon from Harare, Zimbabwe and land in Nairobi at about 4:00. I would then have a short layover before connecting on a 6:00 flight to the U.S. The flight from Harare took off on time, but then they announced “Welcome to Flight 123…We’ll be making a brief stop ON THE WAY to NAIROBI today, in Dar es Salaam”. I asked what time we’d arrive in Nairobi after this “brief stop”. 7:00, I was told - AFTER my connecting flight - the only one of the day, departed.
Frustrated at being “hijacked” in this way, I tore a map out of the in-flight mag and asked the flight attendant to give it to the pilot, requesting that she explain that Dar is NOT actually “on the way” to Nairobi. She look perplexed, took it to him, and then came back later saying “The pilot says thank you; he realizes that Dar is not on the way but he’ll use maps that he has…”.
Dave
bonjour, moi j’ai mal car english for me is very difficult
good things.