Kinshasa - full circle

I cannot believe that it is already 10 days since my last posting! Time is really flying.

Well, Jo and I went to Goma and covered the fighting that happenned in Sake. For both of us it was exciting, but I think it was particularly tough for Jo to be in a situation where we were surrounded by men in uniform with AK 47s, grenade launchers, etc. About a hundred I would say. I have been a bit desensitized from my time in Congo before, and I had confidence that nothing would happen to us in such a public setting.

We rode around on motorcycles that we hired for a couple days - with drivers of course. After just a couple hours our faces were covered in volcanic dust. After the volcano erupted in Goma in 2002, the lava covered 30% of the city. After it cooled off, the roads were rebuilt and now, with all the cars, there is a constant dust in the air.

Being back in Goma was great, and we had a ton of work which we weren't expecting. We met a great woman named Cecile and she was kind enough to put us up for the whole weekend. At the end we were so glad to have met her and we decided she's a keeper!

Back in Bukavu afterwards we went to the Kahuzi Biega National park to see the Gorillas! Our guide hacked through the outrageous rainforest growth until we found the male gorilla who was actually quite shy - as long as we didn't get too close. Then we went to look for the femailes who were less interested in having us stare at them.

Now I am back in Kinshasa. Jo left yesterday and it is strange to not have her here! We had such a great time, and we didn't fight once! a few brief" discussions" to work stuff out, but I swear, we worked amazingly well together. And well, we became friends. We hardly knew eachother before. When you can laugh as hard as we did after being totally emotional about something. That's a good sign!

I head off tomorrow for Johannesburg. Then Cape Town on Monday night.

Sorry that this is such a factual entry, but that's about where I am at at the moment. Tired but content.