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.

Destination: Goma

Yo, life is a rollercoaster! Yesterday I went through about a million idfferent emotions in a 12 hour period. Jo and I had kind of rested up the last couple of days. The "news" is over for the moment, the elections are done, but the results are being counted and won't be final for a couple weeks. So we are looking for other stories and the kinds of formats we will have to put them into. It was like hitting a wall. Be creative? Tell stories from a more colorful and deeper perspective, well, I went through all my fears again about being able to do it. But luckily Jo and I have a pretty good communication system and we talked it through, go uncomfortable, then came out the other end. Now we are just moving forward trying not to figure out how it will be but just taking it a step at a time. At the same time, feeling like our time here is now short and we need to get a move on if we want to create anything else.

We are really hoping to go into Kahuzi Biega national park and see the gorillas, and do a story on the park and how it is working with the local communities to protect the gorillas while providing work for the communities.

Also met a sweet teenager with muscular distrophy yesterday who invited us to his home to meet his family. He is amazing and says that since he cannot do labor, due to his body, he wants to excercise his brain and become a lawyer. His mom is raising 4 kids alone and sells clothing on consignment to pay for all their schooling. It was an inspiring and challenging morning with his family. It is amazing to the the challenges put before people and they really bump up against them and push forward.

Then in the afternoon we worked on a story for the UN video department on the work the Chinese Engineering contingent is doing here in the eastern DRC. We went to their base and it was like walking into china! amazing. the base is on a hill, overlooking Lake Kivu, with lots of red chinese lettered signs, and bodega styled sildier lookouts high on stilts. The commander spoke to me in chinese (mandarin or cantonese, I'm not sure) while looking me straight in the eyes for the whole interview, then his translater would translate. But while he was talking to me it was very surreal. Jo and I got a great pic of us on the "friendship bridge."

Gotta figure out the photo part of this blog.

We are going to Goma tomorrow to visit my friend Wim and see Goma a bit. We'll take a speed boat across Lake Kivu. Will keep you posted.

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.

exhausted but ready

Eish - writing a blog is not as simple as I thought. It is so revealing to just put my thoughts and feels and actions out there. I am very aware of they eyes that may or may not read me. So just starting simple. Warm up to it a little.

I leave in a week for the DRC to try my hand at freelance TV journalism. I have radio background, and Masters in Film and Television, but applying it all together? Quite nerve-wracking actually. The conversation of "what the hell am I doing!?" is popping up alot. But at the same time I am excited, curious, challenged, to see what will happen. How will I cope, how with the footage look? Will someone want to buy it? Can I write the stories with integrity?

A camerawoman is coming with me, so the experience, the work, the fun will get to be shared with another person. Funny, we hardly even know eachother, but we do know that we will be able to work together. Sometimes you just have a good feeling about someone and something. Sometimes you take risks.

This is one of those times.

Have to finish up about a million things before I go.

ta.