not-so-unknown territory

Well, feels like amillion years and a minute since I wrote the first entry of this blog. I am now sitting in the office of Radio Okapi, Bukavu, in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a day after the elections, having just danced with with Chinese military at a Karaoke party following filming dancing and chanting Congolese teenagers celebrating the majority vote for Joseph Kabila as President. Surreal but true.

The last two days have been a trip. Yesterday Jo and I started at 5 am. We started in the "popular" neighborhood - or more like the "hood" where people were waiting to vote from 4 am. The polls openned at 6, when we got images of the first voters at this particular polling station. Having lived in DRC for 3 years (before) I have to say I was truly impressed with the calm and organised way it all went. There were more than 450 polling stations in Bukavu alone!

Results started coming in this morning at 3 am, and most postings show Joseph Kabila winning with about 97%. Amazing. In the west, looks like Bemba is doing well. Seems like a case of the grass is always greener. Eastern DRC was occupied by rebels for about 6 years, so they want the government side leader. While Kinshasa, which has always been in the government zone, is wanting a previous rebel leader. Befor eall the votes are in, 2 of the previous rebel leaders are already saying they will contest the votes. We'll see.

Jo and I are filing alot, and it is a much longer and more complicated process than I thought, mostly because of having to send stuff through the FTP, which means we need a fast internet connection. There are a few options in Bukavu, believe it or not, but not many who stay open late. It usually takes us between 45 - 90 minutes to send a story to Reuters.

So that's all the technical stuff. In other news, I had a total breakdown today. I got completely overwhelmed, by being sick (have a hectically snotty cold now, my 4th in 3 months!) and having lots of things to coordinate, including the handing in of my dissertation. Luckily I have great friends in Cape TOwn and a flexible and super kind advisor who have helped my to get a few day extension so that it can be read and approved properly before handing in. I managed to do all the revisions the night before elections, as that was going to be the last moment possible before there was alot of activity here and opportunity to send in footage to Reuters.

Well, gotta run. Will post fotos soon. xoxo.