Australia


I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror
The wide brown land for me!

Dorothea Mackellar 1908

It's taken me a long time to get this blog page up - for my first two months in Australia I didn't touch the blog, and once I was in the mood I began having problems with Blogger; it's taken literally days to upload all the photos. Since I have a good internet connection and I've ruled out computer problems, there must be something going on at the Blogger end of things. Very frustrating indeed!

A quick review of March and April: arriving in Melbourne I found that the stopover in Hong Kong did nothing to alleviate jetlag. For over a week I was asleep and awake at all the wrong times and hungry whenever it was mealtime in both Melbourne and Amsterdam, i.e. most of the time! For several weeks I was kept busy with visits to doctors, a knee operation for a torn cartilage (still not fully recovered), spending time with family, and meeting up with old friends. My travels around Australia on this visit included Geelong and Torquay to the south of Melbourne, Sydney, and northern Queensland (Cairns, Port Douglas, Cape Tribulation) - my first time up there.


Torquay, a surfer’s paradise south of Melbourne, near Geelong, where I spent several days over Easter with old friends from East Timor.


Ayries Inlet lighthouse near Geelong, on the Great Ocean Road

Melbourne is burning up under a seven-year drought. Front lawns have been replaced by sandy areas with a few tufts of yellowing scrub. On hot days (temperatures getting close to 40 degrees Celsius) curtains are drawn, shutters and blinds closed, and occupants stay indoors in the dark sheltering from the oven heat. And then, from one day to the next, cold air swoops up from the Antarctic and the temperature drops 20 degrees and I’m once again complaining about how cold it is in Melbourne.

Last year when I was in Melbourne I visited Healesville Sanctuary, home to koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, and many other animals unique to Australia. Here are a few photos – after all, no blog entry on Australia would be complete without them!


Large grey kangaroo


Pygmy Wallaby: kangaroos and wallabies come in a wide range of sizes and type; some of the wallabies are so small they look like large rats; there’s also one that lives up in trees, the tree wallaby.


Some of the kangaroos and wallabies in the parks become quite accustomed to people…


This kangaroo has a “joey” (baby kanga) in her pouch


Wombat: much loved animal, though less well-known outside of Australia.


Sydney Harbour Bridge

There’s a thrill to crossing Sydney Harbour that never fails to catch my attention. The iconic sight of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House across the water, seen in so many photographs around the world, always make coming to Sydney an event to appreciate and savour.


Sydney city skyline seen from the Greenwich ferry

This time I stayed a week, house-sitting for my brother and sister-in-law who took off to Tasmania to celebrate their 15th wedding anniversary. I was left in charge of two young internet-addicted teenagers, a friendly labradoodle called Cody needing an awful lot of exercise and a thick furry cat who never responded to the name of Coco. And a fabulous view of an area of the upper harbour called Lane Cove, at Greenwich. Walks with Cody took me on wooded paths by the water’s edge and to small parks from where I watched boats and ships of all sizes, from tiny row-boats to luxury yachts to Liberian-registered oil-tankers, coming and going around the harbour. From the house, too, I could sit happily on the terrace and watch all the water-borne activity below my perch.


Kookaburas abound in the trees around the harbour, and the early morning chorus is filled with the sound of their distinctive laughter. Quite a change from the birdsong elsewhere!

From Sydney I took a flight up to Cairns in tropical northern Queensland, and from Cairns a bus took me one hour further north to Port Douglas. This is a holiday that I’ve been thinking of taking for several years, and it’s one of those “once in a life time” activities – because it’s so expensive up here! Which is why I ended up staying in a rather noisy “backpackers” lodge rather than getting a small self-catering studio, which, for a single person, would be considerably more expensive. Although Port Douglas is more expensive, I would advise just about anyone to avoid Cairns at all cost – it must be the tackiest seaside resort anywhere on earth.


Four Mile Beach, Port Douglas

Port Douglas is known for its wonderful long beach, which at low tide is wide and welcoming for beach walkers. In the late afternoon individuals, couples, friends, and families walk along the beach, some with their dogs, some walking the entire length of the beach, and some taking a gentle stroll. At the furthest end of the beach, near where mangroves begin and a creek works its way towards the sea, there are crocodile warning signs. The other main danger during the months of November to May are the stinging jellyfish, known here as “stingers”, which can leave you hospitalized or worse.


Four Mile Beach from the hill

This still being “stinger” season, even though few are about, meant that when going snorkeling we had to don nasty bright blue nylon stinger suits from head to toe, making each and every one of us look quite ridiculous. Northern Queensland bears many resemblances to Hawaii, but when you throw crocodiles and stingers into the mix Hawaii comes up looking a little more inviting!


Estuarine crocodile (the more dangerous type) at Rainforest Habitat, Port Douglas


7-year old freshwater crocodile at Rainforest Habitat (note the mouth firmly taped, even though this type is not particularly dangerous)


Croc tail

The Rainforest Habitat at Port Douglas is a small zoo with three different habitat areas featuring creatures specific to this region, especially a large variety of birds. The most famous and most endangered bird in the area is the Cassowary.


Cassowary at Rainforest Habitat

The Cassowary is a large, flightless bird that can also be found in Papua New Guinea. Driving up to Cape Tribulation early one morning with friends, we came across an adult cassowary with a chick at the side of the road and excitedly took as many snaps as we could before they disappeared again. Such sightings are rare, so we felt quite pleased with ourselves!


Cassowary near Cape Tribulation, the chick is the brown blur in the foreground. Apparently it’s difficult to tell the males and females apart, though the females are slightly larger, and although the female lays the eggs, it’s the male who then has the job of caring for the young.


Cape Tribulation and Daintree Rainforest



This is a stunningly beautiful part of Australia. Forest-covered mountains form an impressive backdrop to the Coral Sea, where the Great Barrier Reef awaits divers and snorkelers from around the world. The Daintree Rainforest is the oldest rainforest in the world (older than the Amazon, and much more accessible!) and along with the Reef has been designated as a World Heritage site. It’s the only place in the world where two World Heritage sites exist side by side. Once the logging stopped (thanks to a bunch of hard-working hippy activists in the 70s) people became much more environmentally conscious, and forest activities today are done with an eco-friendly attitude.


"Danger Mouse" (aka yours truly) jungle surfing!!

I got talked into “jungle surfing” (it didn’t take much!) – which involved getting strapped into a harness and hooked up to fox lines, then swinging from tree platform to tree platform, Tarzan style. I had to take a few deep breaths before sliding off the platform and allowing myself to glide an awful lot of meters above the forest floor. I couldn’t decide if it was scarier to be on the high platform fastened around a slender tree-trunk or swinging down the fox lines held on by a metal hook. Not for those with a fear of heights!


Jungle Surfing


One of the platforms


With my jungle surfing buddies, Gordon and Brett from Sydney

This all takes place high up in the forest canopy. It’s worth taking a walk around the forest at ground level first to gain an appreciation of height and what’s happening on the forest floor.


Daintree Rainforest

Aside from the more spectacular activities, it’s also possible to enjoy well-designed boardwalks through the forest, either with or without a guide.


Here’s a large sunbathing lizard (there must be a fancy name for it…) we spotted while taking a walk.


Roy, a leading member of the local Kuku Yalanji tribe whose home is the rainforest, giving a guided tour at Mossman Gorge.


Local kid taking a dip in one of the many creeks in the Daintree. Places like this are croc free because the water is too cold for the crocs.

The larger Daintree River, on the other hand, is home to plenty of crocs:


Ferry over the Daintree River, with croc warning sign


Young turtles sunbathing at Mossman Gorge


A 1,000 year-old strangler fig at Mossman Gorge

The most common bird around here is probably the lorikeet, a small, colourful parrot often found in pairs and in large flocks of up to 60 birds. At dawn and dusk they gather in trees around town and make a screeching racket so loud you cannot hear anything else. The pairs always seem to be squabbling, and when they fly they swoop and dive amazingly fast.


Lorikeet at the Rainforest Habitat

Another less-commonly seen bird is the Eclectus Parrot. The male is green, and the female is red. They look so different that they were originally thought to be two distinct species.


Male (green) and female (red) Eclectus parrot, Rainforest Habitat (with thanks to "Anonymous" for the correction!)

Other sights around Port Douglas:


The Port Douglas marina is the starting off point for many boat trips to the outer Great Barrier Reef – a 2-hour trip by motor-boat – and to closer places such as the Low Isles (inner reef) and near-by creeks.


One of the boats headed out to the Great Barrier Reef in the morning

There isn’t much of note around Port Douglas with regards to architecture – it’s mostly modern resort developments and a few older “Queenslander” houses built on stilts (and remarkably similar to houses in Hilo, Hawaii); however there’s an attractive small church that has been relocated to a delightful spot near the shore:


St Mary’s church, Port Douglas

and one old hotel:

Court House Hotel, Port Douglas

Last but not least, I strongly suspect that there are some contentious issues in local politics (probably related to development):


Marker at Four Mile Beach, Port Douglas


Clearly this is no longer a Congo blog. I’m looking for a new name. Since I’m probably going to be traveling for a while I thought “Nicky’s Itchy Feet Blog” might do. Any other suggestions? I could just begin a totally new blog, as some people have done, but I like continuity, and would prefer to keep this site. Apologies for giving you so much to look at all in one go! I’ll see if I can do better at keeping up on a more regular basis.

Now coming to you from Hong Kong!

This posting comes to you from the Regal Airport Hotel, Hong Kong, courtesy of Cathay Pacific. How did I get here? And what day is it, anyway?!

I was scheduled to leave Amsterdam at 10:40 am Wednesday on a flight to Melbourne via London and Hong Kong (briefly!). But I was thrown off the London flight because the baggage system at Heathrow Terminal Four was broken and they had no means to deal with bags for transfer flights. So anyone flying via Heathrow had to be re-routed. I was put onto a Cathay Pacific flight direct to HK, departing at 13:10 pm. Not bad - much better to fly direct, and it would give me plenty of time to browse the airport bookshops and find a good book for the flight. 

Two good books stuffed into my carry-on bags later, I turned up at the gate, went through security, and waited to board. And waited, and waited, and waited.... eventually we were informed that a member of the cockpit crew hadn't turned up and they needed to find someone else. The flight was rescheduled for 19:00. Lunch vouchers were handed out. Fifteen euros sounds like a lot, but it doesn't go that far at Schiphol Airport: one salad, one fruit smoothie, a capuccino, and a small bottle of water. I read one of my new books and walked around a lot - at least Schiphol is a lot bigger than Nairobi airport! But I was feeling slightly homesick for the Java House Cafe with it's select atmosphere of aid workers and journalists heading off to dangerous places....

By the time dinner was served and we were well on our way to Hong Kong I was exhausted and slept unexpectedly well almost all night, arriving reasonably refreshed. Ground staff in HK are very efficient and we soon had new boarding passes, through immigration, and into the Regal Hotel all without stepping outside. Now for a good hot shower, rest, Chinese dinner, and on to the next flight. Arriving after midday in Melbourne, via Sydney a day late - not a problem! It makes adjusting to the jet lag a bit easier, and a 22 hour flight broken into two segments with a seven hour break in between much more bearable. 

Back in Rwanda

I successfully arranged the shipping (or rather, air-freighting) of my baggage out of Kigali on Monday morning - something that I wouldn't dream of trying from Congo! That gives you a hint of the difference between the two countries. In Rwanda things generally function and they function without the need for any "palm greasing". There's a lot to be said for that. Rwanda is still Africa, so of course service can be slow, there's an occasional power outage, and people try to sell me phone cards and maps of Africa on the street. But the streets are amazingly clean, there's a new supermarket and coffee bar with wireless internet in Kigali, and a general air of purpose to the people moving around the streets.

Monday afternoon was spent horizontal, recovering from earthquake shock and the long drive. Monday evening enjoyed dinner out with former colleagues from Concern in a new Chinese restaurant - delicious food, and what a superb addition to the choice of restaurants in Kigali! On Wednesday morning I took the Volcano bus down to Butare, where I used to work. Even Butare has changed: buildings along the main street have a new coat of paint, new businesses are open, an old decrepit building in the centre of town has been totally renovated and now houses a training centre for the Rwanda Revenue Authority (no more cheating on taxes!). Other things remain the same: the street children are still there begging from passers-by, the Ibis Hotel still caters to a surprising number of foreign visitors on the covered terrace, the tall, carefully dressed arrogant young university students stroll along the main street.

This afternoon I'll take a mini-bus up to Gikongoro to stay the night with a Dutch friend first met here in 2003, and then tomorrow I'll head back to Kigali, via Butare, for a weekend seeing friends.

From the Sydney Morning Herald
February 4, 2008 - 6:31AM

Earthquakes struck Rwanda and neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday, killing at least 30 people and seriously injuring 350 more, officials said. The two quakes were in Africa's Great Lakes region along the western Great Rift Valley fault.

The first quake, with a magnitude of 6.0 and its epicentre in Democratic Republic of Congo, occurred at 10:30am (1830 AEDT) and was followed by another 5.0 quake in densely populated southern Rwanda at 1:56pm (2156 AEDT).

"The death toll has now increased to 25 from the earthquake. Two hundred have serious injuries," Deputy Rwandan Police Chief Mary Gahonzire said. "Rescue efforts are underway but the number of dead could rise, as so many people are trapped."

The acting governor of Congo's South Kivu province, Bernard Watunakanza, told Reuters by telephone from the eastern town of Bukavu that aftershocks were happening "every 20 or 30 minutes". "Up to now there are five dead and 149 seriously injured. Many people are traumatised," he said.

An official from Congo's UN peacekeeping mission, known as MONUC, said buildings had been destroyed in Bukavu. "There is lots of damage. Many buildings have been hit. Lots of houses have completely collapsed," said Jacqueline Chenard, MONUC spokeswoman in Bukavu.

Earthquakes are common in the western Great Rift Valley - a seismically active fault line straddling western Uganda, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and neighbouring Tanzania.

In 1994, a magnitude 6 tremor in the foothills of western Uganda's Rwenzori mountains killed at least six people. In 1966, a magnitude 7 earthquake killed 157 people and injured more than 1,300 in the Semliki Valley, also in western Uganda.

Reuters

Goodbye Bukavu!

It was snowing in my room, tiny white and grey flakes tumbling from the ceiling. I needed to remove my mosquito net from the high ceiling and had just placed a tall bar stool onto a coffee table, ready for me to climb up onto, when the room began to shake, hard, much harder than anything else I'd ever experienced. I stumbled for the security of the door frame, not daring to think I could make it safely downstairs. I thought it wouldn't stop, but eventually it did, and I dashed down the stairs in a shaky daze, out onto our strangely sunny courtyard; a calm, bright Sunday morning suddenly transformed into fear and chaos. The guard's radio barked urgent messages relayed from house to house checking how we were, then the phones began ringing. My legs were wobbling so bad I could only sink onto the warm concrete laughing and happy that we were all OK. But every time I got up to go inside and recommence my work, taking down the mosquito net, carrying my suitcases and boxes downstairs, the ground rumbled and shook again, over and over, every five or ten minutes.

When I eventually forced myself inside, up the stairs, and faced the stool on the table, gazing up at the mosquito net hanging from the high hook, I wondered - am I being brave or just stupid? I had planned to leave at around 9 am and was already late. I wanted to take down the mosquito net to give to friends who could use it; I had to get the boxes down the stairs, and there was also a dresser to get down the stairs. Together with Laura, my colleague and housemate, we eventually got it all done. But every time we went back into the house it went against every instinct to stay out of a building, and it seemed like every time we went back in and headed up the stairs, the earth shook again sending us dashing for the front door laughing and shaking and wanting to cry all at the same time.

The cats hated it; very frightened, they took shelter in the generator shed and only reluctantly stuck their heads out the door when I called them, every after-shock sent them scuttling back into their bolt hole.

Our guard heard that his son had been injured, but couldn't get treated at the hospital because there were too many people already there. He left to be with his family. We waited for a new guard to arrive, taking and making phone calls to check with others. I went up to my room for a final check, flecks of plaster covered the tiled floor and tiny cracks ran along the edge of the ceiling. I was very glad I wouldn't need to sleep there again. The after shocks kept coming, and even when they didn't I imagined them anyway (and am still imagining them from time to time when a truck rumbles past or I hear an unfamiliar noise). Finally, all the bags and boxes and suitcases were loaded, and I left Bukavu for the long 6 hour drive up to Kigali.

Along the road in Kamembe and beyond on the Rwandan side of the border we saw collapsed buildings and walls, crowds of people standing around looking at the damage. In the final count it looks as though around 35 people were killed in Kamembe, many of them in a church that collapsed during the Sunday morning service, and maybe 6 people in Bukavu with many more injured. Although in Bukavu the damage to buildings was significant, it's possible that on the sunny Sunday morning many people were outside their homes and no children were in the schools that collapsed.

My expat colleagues in Bukavu spent Sunday night sleeping out in the open, as I probably would have done, had I not been in Kigali already, where they had felt the earthquake but not as strongly as Bukavu/Kamembe which had clearly been the epicenter.

Contract over, I'm spending a week in Rwanda seeing friends in Kigali and Butare (now called Huye, but to me the university town once known as Astrida will always be Butare). After that I'll be in Amsterdam for a week for debriefing at HQ and a few days to see friends and visit museums, and then a very long flight down to Australia where it is now summer. I had two excellent good-bye parties and will post photos of those when I'm in a place with much faster internet access. Goodbye Bukavu! Goodbye DR Congo!

Shaanti Holistic Health Retreat

I’m back in Bukavu for the moment, but I left wisps of my soul sitting under the palms at Shaanti gazing out over the Indian Ocean. I’m writing this piece enthusiastically recommending Shaanti, and the Kenyan coast in general, firstly because Shaanti is truly a haven for burnt-out workers (those of us working in the non-profit as well as the for-profit sectors) like myself, but also because I want to do whatever I can to rebuild the image of Kenya that is taking such a battering at the moment.


Beach-side entrance to Shaanti

What has stayed with me is the utter peace and tranquility that one finds at Shaanti. Resting on a quiet area of a long white-sand beach fringed with palms (from the ocean you barely see the outline of low, creamy thatched-roof buildings tucked behind the trees), you are far from any road and during my entire stay I never heard or saw a car. The only sound is the wind rustling the palms or rushing through the ironwoods by the shore and the gentle roar of the ocean as it crashes over the reef many meters from the beach.


View of Shaanti from the beach

Heaven for me is freedom from mobile phones, other peoples’ radios, the sound of generators, piped music… you will find none of this at Shaanti. Friendly staff greet you quietly in the morning with your tea or fresh squeezed juice arriving on your private terrace at just the hour you requested; guests murmur while savouring every bite of the delicious food; Dayananda the yoga instructor gently encourages you to “breathe deeply, exhale completely” while you fall into a meditative trance cradled in the softly buffeting ocean air. Wild life in the Shaanti gardens includes monkeys, the occasional baboon, ibis, and the remarkable silvery-cheeked hornbill (which I identified using my Field Guide to the Birds of East Africa!)


Room with a terrace (at 6 am!)


Male Silvery-cheeked Hornbill

Small, and family owned, the management of Shaanti treats visitors like friends. Tasreen, the general manager, finds time for a quick word with each guest during the day to see how they are and if anything is needed. The day I was due to leave turned out to be the day that demonstrations erupted in Nairobi and Mombasa. Tasreen came to my table where I was enjoying the divine breakfast of fresh fruits and light pancakes made with coconut milk, to let me know that she could not let me leave when the situation was so uncertain. She arranged for my Mombasa to Nairobi flight to be re-booked, and when there was no flight available for two more days, she said that I would not be charged for the extra nights. I had tears in my eyes when thanking her – the feeling of being taken care of and cared about touched me deeply.


Early morning yoga class


Dayananda, patient and friendly yoga instructor with over ten years teaching experience

Shaanti is especially popular with women traveling alone and needing a place where they can retreat from all the usual discomforts and annoyances of being a single woman in a (still) male-dominated world. We spend so much of our time being concerned for others, taking care of others, paying attention to the details of our work and our working and home environments that we forget what it is like to have others take care of us. At Shaanti I felt relaxed and cared for under the all-female management team; there is no bar, although you’re welcome to order a glass of wine with your meal, and this also ensures a quiet and relaxed atmosphere. There are massage therapists offering a variety of treatments, including reflexology, aromatherapy, and even facials using fresh fruits!


Secluded treatment rooms

The ocean is refreshing and protected by the reef, and there is also a good-sized pool under shady trees where I swam laps and watched the monkeys scampering across overhead branches. I always had the pool to myself, and indeed often had the “tree-house” to myself where I lounged with a book on the comfy sofa, every few minutes resting my eyes on the delicious blue-green ocean hues and wondering how I could possibly bring myself to leave.


The shady pool


Cozy sofas in the tree house

But leave I did, and for anyone concerned about traveling in Kenya I would like to assure you that everyone you come into contact with is also concerned for your comfort and safety. My taxi driver took care to ensure that we left the hotel in plenty of time before dark, and that we drove through a quiet part of Mombasa to reach the airport. Kenya Airways provided us with a free drink and snack at the airport when our flight was delayed a couple of hours, and arriving late in Nairobi with no connecting flight until morning, the airline also provided me with free hotel accommodation at a five-star hotel near the airport, including breakfast and transport to and from the hotel. Can I say anything more about what a wonderful holiday destination Kenya is? There is still so much that I haven’t seen and that I plan to see in the future: a safari to one of the famous parks (the Masai Mara, Tsavo East & West, Aberdare, Shimba Hills, Marsabit, to name a few!) and most certainly a vacation on the car-free historic Swahili island of Lamu.

Here are a few more photos from Shaanti. I'm sure you'll understand why several guests return regularly and why I also intend to return!


View from my room

Watching the traffic…







View from the yoga mat…


View from the tree house…




Local architecture (Buddha on the Beach seafood restaurant at Shaanti)


My favourite windows…


The tree house


Oyster bar!

For more information about Shaanti take a look at their web site: http://www.shaantihhr.com/

Visit Kenya!

Fabulous never-ending palm-fringed white sand beaches, the bluest of oceans, scrumptious sea-food, friendly and efficient hotel staff: just a few reasons to visit Kenya! And that's just the coast...there are the famous safaris too! The animals are lonely without you; you are missing experiences of a life time by not coming. My wonderful stay at the Shaanti Holistic Health Retreat (http://www.shaantihhr.com/ more details and photos to follow!) was extended by a few welcome days, courtesy of the Nairobi and Mombasa demonstrators. Kenya is safe for tourists - no visitors were ever in any difficulties or dangers during the recent problems. Kenyans welcome tourists and many rely on tourists for their livelihoods. Tourists who cancel their trips are missing out on all that Kenya has to offer - it is their loss! I was treated so well by everybody during my recent stay - especially the hotel management and staff and Kenya Airways - that I sincerely hope that the tourists will soon return to this wonderful country. Do not let political problems distract you - they do not affect the visitors. But your absence does affect the lives of many!

Last Post for 2007

To rejeuvenate body and soul come here to Shaanti! I was going to write a lot more about how fabulous it is here, but events have taken over. Post-election violence has affected cities and towns across Kenya, due to allegations of vote-rigging and heavy disappointment at the apparent re-election of Kibaki. The main contender, Raila Odinga, is believed by many to be the true winner of the election. Here on the beach (my room is just yards from the Indian Ocean) we are only marginally touched by events, with a few guests unable to leave when planned, and others unable to arrive. For more details of the news the BBC and CNN websites carry full reports.

We are having a sea-food feast here this evening, all the guests together, but it will be a muted event. Many Kenyans will not be celebrating; too many have been killed; too many affected by the violence, burning and looting that has been taking place. Kenya has so much going for it: a beautiful country with a thriving tourist industry and much to offer, increasing commercial agriculture, increasing industry, a large number of well-educated people, and a strong desire for peace.

Wishing you all peace for 2008.

Do They Know it's Christmas?

The crime rate here jumps at this time of year because people are desperate to provide something extra to meet their families' expectations of new clothes and good food on the table. There aren't really any signs of Christmas in the same way you see lights and other decorations in the over-developed world. My favourite local restaurant, Gerda's, (run by a Belgian woman and mentioned in a previous post, March 2006) however is all lit up with fairy lights, Christmassy table mats, a well-decorated tree, red glass baubles and tiny shiny stars swimming in glass bowls on the tables, and a special menu with Coquilles St. Jacques - a delicious addition to an already pretty good menu.

People in North Kivu won't have much to celebrate this year, with hundreds of children being forcibly recruited into the various armed groups who even take children from schools and IDP camps. An estimated 800,000 people are now internally displaced in North Kivu: equivalent to the entire population of East Timor when I lived there in 1997. Fighting goes on. The BBC website (http://news.bbc.co.uk/) has been providing decent coverage of the war, and the recent visit by the head of UN High Commission for Refugees also brought the crisis to the world's attention for a few seconds for those who were tuned in at the right time. The city of Goma appears to be relatively safe and the residents calm, which allowed us to send two of our team this week for a monitoring visit, to see how staff trained last month to work with children in the camps are progressing.

Work slows down considerably for most of us during this time, and I'll be taking two weeks off. First stop is Kigali where I'm looking forward to spending time with good friends, and after that I'll be at the inviting Shaanti Holistic Health Retreat (http://www.shaantihhr.com/) on the Kenyan coast near Mombasa for a week. They offer special rates for those of us working in Africa, and I'm hoping that meditation and yoga twice a day will restore some of my sanity. This is a crazy world where so much luxury and so much poverty exist side by side. I'm grateful for the opportunities to be aware of both and to have the freedom to move from one world to the other. Most people are trapped by circumstances totally beyond their control.

Before I go, a few more photos to show you how beautiful it is here (yet another contrast: the beauty, the poverty, the violence...North Kivu is even more beautiful than South Kivu, where I'm located).


Daybreak over Bagira: Bagira is a suburb of Bukavu, purpose built for government workers by the Belgian colonial government in the '50s.


Taken from the second-floor of the house where I live, near the lake shore. This one looks straight across at Mount Kahuzi and the Kahuzi-Biega National Park, home to some of the few remaining mountain gorilla families. The small buildings on the opposite shore is the MONUC camp for the Uruguayan and Chinese military who patrol the lake. The international border between DR Congo and Rwanda runs the length of Lake Kivu and Congo is sensitive to the possibility of infiltrations by Rwandan military.


My favourite: a rare good sunset over Lake Kivu.

Bukavu Central Prison
Our project provides psychosocial support to boys in prison and when the Clowns Without Borders were in town we invited them to perform for all the inmates. People in the prison are a mix of those who are awaiting charges and those who have already been sentenced. Some may be there for good reason; others may just have been in the wrong place at the wrong time and unable to pay a bribe to get them out of trouble. The entire justice system barely functions; lawyers are beaten up by police; rapists rape with impunity. Women often bring their young children into the prison with them. The government provides almost no food for prisoners, and the majority of boys in the prison were recently found to be suffering from malnutrition, two of them severely. The food issue is a serious conundrum for aid agencies: if we provide food then the government is never likely to take over its responsibility in this domain. Most international agencies here are working more towards long term development and do not have a budget for food aid.


This person with deformed legs – he’s unable to walk – allegedly allowed his house to be used for storing weapons.


Almost everyone enjoyed the clowns’ performance; however these two were clearly uninterested!


This is the gate between the main area of the prison and the boys’ quarter. However as the prisoners themselves control what goes on inside the prison, it is unclear who controls access to this section, and the padlock has to be replaced frequently. Anyone who knows anything about child protection and prison systems knows that children under 18 should be kept separate from adults.


Sometimes aid agencies will provide items for the boys, such as these new clothes, sandals and the football in recognition of the International Day for Children’s Rights. Unfortunately assistance to the children doesn’t last long- much needed items such as mattresses, towels, and soap are snatched away from them all too quickly.


This is the main gate where we entered. The photo is taken from inside. It looks as though anyone can come and talk to the inmates through these bars; however there are soldiers on guard at the outer gate.


There’s a small yard: the covered area on the left is where the men can sit and eat – if there’s food. The area to the right seemed to be dominated by laundry.




Laundry is scrubbed on stone benches, and then the clothes are hung wherever possible to dry.


This tap was broken, and the water poured out continuously. It rains for nine months of the year here, so no one is particularly worried about water shortages. Dark clouds over the courtyard and a dark, dungeon-like interior make this prison a place I was only too happy to leave.

Back of Beyond

You may well imagine that Bukavu is one of those out of the way places, the back of beyond, that no one’s ever heard of and certainly no one who is anyone at all would ever think of visiting. Can you locate it on a map of DR Congo? I doubt that I could before I first came to East Africa four years ago. It’s a surprise to find out the number of people that visit – and I’ve probably only heard of a few.

Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues, was in town on November 25th to lead a march, which she had organized, of thousands of women dressed in black marking the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Also in town last week were a number of Congressional delegates, the fact-finders, researching information about the Great Lakes region conflict on behalf of members of the US Congress. Along with them (possibly just a coincidence, I don’t know) was GW’s former speech writer, the one who coined the term “axis of evil” (used by Bush in his State of the Union Address on Jan 29th, 2002). We were all hanging out (at separate tables, of course!) having drinks and dinner at The Orchid, described by John Le Carré (he stayed here in April 2006 after finishing work on his latest novel, The Mission Song, which uses the war in Eastern Congo as a backdrop) as one of those quintessential places where you find a mélange of expatriates gathered together around the bar*. I was quite perturbed in fact when a friend came over to where I was having a working dinner with a couple of colleagues, and in whispered tones informed us of the identity of the chap in the blue shirt just a few feet away. Had never in my life expected to get this close to the axis of evil!

Yes, Bill Gates has been here too. Haven’t seen much sign of his beneficence yet. And yes, they’re still fighting in North Kivu, barely 100 km from Goma. No end in sight yet.

*”In every trouble spot I have cautiously visited, there has always been one watering hole where, as if by secret rite, hacks, spies, aid workers and carpetbaggers converge. In Saigon, it was the Continental; in Phnom Penh, the Pnom; in Vientiane, the Constellation; in Beirut, the Commodore; and here in Bukavu it's the Orchid, a gated, low-built lakeside colonial villa surrounded by discreet cabins.” http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061002/lecarre

International Children's Day

I haven't been posting many photos recently, so today is an attempt to make amends! The 20th November is International Children's Day, when we commemorate the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Children's rights are widely ignored and unknown around here, so part of our work is to raise awareness of, and advocate for, children's rights. In Bukavu this year our primary activity was to give children a voice: we provide radio and TV time, and the children use that time to hold discussions and put on sketches concerning their rights. Children have the right to freedom of expression and the right to give their opinion, so this activity permits them to put this right into effect.



Children also have the right to free primary education. These two photos were taken in a small primary school where classes take place in a deserted house formerly inhabited by a tea factory manager in a rural area. The classrooms are almost empty of children because the teachers sent the kids home for non-payment of fees. Fees are paid monthly and this happens about two days out of every month. Trying to explain to the school director that the kids aren't learning much if they're not in school elicits a shrug of the shoulders, "One of our teachers was sick last week from lack of food, how are they to eat?"


Clowns and Magicians Without Borders from Belgium (www.cmsf.be) are in town this week, and we took the two women and one man with us into the rural communities in Walungu, only just beginning to recover from the war, to perform for the children.


Some kids loved it, others were clearly not sure what to make of these weirdos from Europe!


The favourite moments were when the clowns invited a member of the audience up onto the stage to perform some "gymnastics" with them - which had the other kids roaring with laughter at their hapless friend.

I've just run out of time for today - the Americans in town are celebrating Thanksgiving this afternoon so I need to get home and start cooking! And congratulations to Australians out there for holding peaceful democratic elections!

North Kivu

Visitors from HQ, trainings, orienting a new colleague, meetings with partners, reports to write...work goes on! Last week I took the boat across the lake for the second time since I've been here and stayed three days in Goma to monitor a training that my local colleagues are providing to "animateurs" who will work with children in the IDP camps. The offensives in North Kivu continue (see BBC World Service or Relief Web for more details) and no one expects the fighting to end soon. Somewhere in the region of half a million people are now displaced and are moving into 20+ IDP camps scattered around North Kivu. UNHCR and other INGOs such as the Norwegian Refugee Council, World Vision, AVSI, and Save the Children are working to provide services to people in the camps - although not all camps can be safely reached due to the presence of various armed soldiers, militias, rebels, etc.


IDP camp in North Kivu

For me North Kivu and Goma itself are places of vastly conflicting feelings. There is a vicious war going on, yet Goma bears a strong resemblance to Kona, Hawaii, and the whole surrounding area is so similar to different parts of the Big Island of Hawaii, that I feel quite at home and totally foreign all at once. The presence of active volcanoes, the lava rock walls, the black sandy lanes, the lush bougainvillea, hibiscus and plumeria blossoms, the road along the water-front clogged with traffic...all these typical of both Kona and Goma. Allow peace to prevail, the rich mineral resources to be exploited in a legal manner with taxes paid and investments in the local area made, and this could be a popular international tourist destination. The actuality is rough roads, thousands of unemployed and underemployed people milling around scraping together whatever they can in order to survive; buildings destroyed by the lava flow of 2002 never rebuilt; poor water and sanitation facilities; and piles of black lava rocks left scattered throughout the center of town giving it a grim, dirty look.


Boy in an IDP camp, North Kivu


In the IDP camps people build their own rough shelters with local materials: sticks and small branches, covered with banana leaves. These small, rounded huts are then covered with the UNHCR plastic sheeting ubiquitous to this part of the world. The ground is rough with lava, I don't know what people place on the floor of their huts to protect themselves. Water and sanitation facilities are provided as quickly as possibly, depending on accessibility of the camp to aid workers. The camp I visited had a local president, a member of the displaced community, and local aid workers running the camp. I saw wood for cooking being distributed in an orderly manner. Apparently there had not yet been any food distribution, although they people had been there for about a month. There was an informal market set up on the ground near the entrance to the camp. The camp president told me that people were hungry, but also his other concern was that they could not work and thus had no income to buy units for their mobile phones - a sign of changing times and expectations!


There isn't very much for children to do. Aid agencies are setting up emergency schooling programs for those who would normally be in school. Other programs are gradually being set up to provide recreational facilities (soccer balls, various toys for different ages, trained workers, tracing agencies for lost children, etc.) and games for children.


Some children have never seen a camera before, whilst others love to ham it up in front of the lens.


I went to the camp with a group of trainees who were there to practice their games with the children. These are special games designed to encourage children to feel more self-confident, to have trust in each other, to cooperate with each other, to accept each other, to be creative, and generally to have a good time and enjoy themselves, relieving some of the stress of being displaced from their usual homes. It was great to see the kids running around laughing and dancing, and also to see mothers passing by with loads of fire-wood or water on their heads, smiling to see the kids happy. Seeing happy kids can be quite a rare event around here.

Sunday in the park in London

Regent's Park was glorious in the Sunday afternoon sun and Londoners have taken to sidewalk cafes and Sunday shopping like ants to the sugar bowl. These pleasures didn't exist in England when I was young! Mid-October and the weather here is sunny and warm enough for just a light jacket. The parks on Sunday afternoon were filled with people of all languages taking their dogs and children for a walk, the leaves are turning yellow and beginning to fall, but still plenty of green trees and colourful flowers abound.

After enjoying coffee, the Sunday papers, and the company of various scotty, dachshund, labradoodle, and other designer doggies in Regent's Park, I walked down Baker St (stopped only by eastern european tourists " excuse me, are you a local? Do you know where the Sherlock Holmes museum is?) to Oxford St, jammed with crowds of Sunday shoppers. For the first time ever (and I love this about London - there's always something new to discover) I chanced upon a crack between the shops that led to St. Christopher's Place and discovered aromatic sidewalk cafes with southern european street musicians and a relaxed mediterranean atmosphere of Sunday afternoon lingering over coffee and conversation. How England has changed!

My shopping mecca, Marks and Spencer, disappointed. In the children's section I found clothing targeted at 3 - 5 year old boys, military fatigue-style with " Little Soldier" emblazoned across the front of khaki-coloured t-shirts. I doubt the designers and marketing folks at M&S know what the life of a real " little soldier" is like...I am tempted to go and talk to them about it.

Time for a break

Those of you keeping up with the news in this part of the world will know that fighting in North Kivu has been going on for some weeks now. The effect on the local population is disastrous. One aspect among many is the forced recruitment of children, girls as well as boys, to fight and work for all sides. The article below comes from Reliefweb (www.reliefweb.int) where you can sign up for regular updates of the situation here, if interested. I also recommend an insightful analysis of the situation published by Enough (www.enoughproject.org). Bukavu itself remains calm, though many of us are involved in some way assisting relief efforts in North Kivu.

On a personal note: this Friday one of my close friends here is leaving, her mission in DR Congo at an end for the moment (one never knows what the future holds!): good luck for the next mission, Astrid! In a place like this good friends are a life & sanity saver and the departure of one leaves a gap. Fortunately I'm off to London for a week's R&R - much needed!

DRC: Thousands of youth risk forced recruitment into militia

GOMA, 8 October 2007 (IRIN) - James Mapundo, who just turned 18, speaks French, English and Swahili and would really like to go back to school to learn another language. Instead, he is stranded in an expanding camp for displaced Congolese called Bulengo, now home to 13,000 people in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo's North Kivu province.

Mapundo is one of an estimated 370,000 civilians to have fled their homes since hostilities resumed between dissident general Laurent Nkunda's National Congress for the People's Defence (NCPD) and the Congolese army in December 2006.

He, like thousands of other young people, is now at risk of forcible recruitment into armed groups who control much of North Kivu.

"[The NCPD] kill people and they take the young to go into the military formations," Mapundo told IRIN. "They asked me to go in the military, but I refused."

Despite his precarious situation, Mapundo is one of the lucky ones. Many other children have not escaped armed groups, though statistics are unclear because access to most of the population is hindered by ongoing fighting.

Humanitarian workers, though, say recruitment of children into armed militias has skyrocketed since the latest bout of fighting erupted six weeks ago.

"Organisations working in child protection have noticed a dramatic increase of the recruitment of kids into armed groups," said Patrick Lavand'Homme, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Goma.

Protection workers note that other disturbing trends have emerged since the current flare-up began.

"[The militia groups] are targeting schools," said Pernille Ironside, a protection officer in Goma with the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF). "We have had numerous reports of secondary schools and technical schools being targeted, and children generally over the age of 15 being at greatest risk of being recruited."

Girls targeted

While the focus is often on boys who have been recruited into armed groups, the situation for girls is equally critical, protection workers say.

Girls who are abducted are forced to become "wives" to the military commanders - relegating them to the role of sex slaves.

Unlike boys, girls always remain behind the scenes in rebel camps, making it more difficult for protection workers to gain access to them.

"It's always been a grave issue," Ironside told IRIN. "The difficulty is that girls who are kidnapped by armed groups . in some cases develop a tacit acceptance of their situation. They know that were they to go back to their home community they would be stigmatised as a result of the fact that they have been raped and borne children by an opposing group."

The forced recruitment of children has struck fear into the hearts of many of the displaced who say they will not leave the camps and return home until their security can be assured.

"I have heard of a lot of children being recruited, even the little girls," said Ame Muhima, the president of a grouping of 4,000 displaced families waiting to be integrated into formal camps for the displaced outside of Goma.

"There were 17 children who have escaped and come back to us here," Muhima said.

Protection workers say children are no longer being recruited by the Congolese army but by any one of three main militia groups operating in the region; and they face the risk of recruitment in more ways than one.

Mayi-Mayi militia groups tell children it is their responsibility to fight to protect their villages from other armed groups. Spurred by a sense of duty, children often volunteer themselves for service. Those who resist are "volunteered" by their parents.

The Forces Démocratiques de Liberation du Rwanda (FDLR), an ethnic Hutu militia group with links to the perpetrators of Rwanda's 1994 genocide, employ a different tactic.

'The FDLR are known to sweep into a village and literally scoop up all of the children of a certain age and march them off into the bush," Ironside told IRIN.

If caught, children captured during the recent eruptions in violence are held in squalid prisoner-of-war (PoW) camps by the various armed groups. Forces loyal to Nkunda are widely reported to be holding underage PoWs.

Civilians caught in crossfire

Humanitarian workers hope for a cessation of hostilities but say they believe the situation in North Kivu could instead deteriorate, citing increased military activities in the region.

Resource-rich eastern Congo has long been a simmering cauldron of conflict as rag-tag militias aligned along ethnic lines fight for control of the region.

A 1998-2003 war pulled in seven neighbouring nations and cost an estimated four million lives, mostly from hunger and disease.

Humanitarian workers note that civilians, including children, bear the brunt of the fighting and will continue to do so as the conflict rages on.

Outside the Bulengo site, 13-year-old Gusanga spends his days wandering among the hastily constructed straw huts asking for someone to give him a pen.

Proud of his fluent French and Swahili, and mature beyond his years, the boy volunteers his services as a translator to visitors.

One month ago, he fled the risk of recruitment by FDLR militias in nearby Kitchanga town.

"Everyone who is 15 or older has to join them in the fighting," Gusanga told IRIN. "When I'm 15, I would prefer to be in school; but when we turn 15 then they catch us."

Source: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN)

Date: 08 Oct 2007

The International Rescue Committee

Many thanks to Rick for bringing my attention to The IRC's campaign against sexual violence in DR Congo. The IRC is a respected international NGO working here in South Kivu and other areas of the DRC. Several of the IRC expatriate staff here are good friends of mine, so I have no hesitation in recommending their work and also in recommending that you, dear reader, go as soon as possible to www.ircuk.org, under the title "Stop the Violence" click on "Add Your Voice" to send a message to the EU about the violence in eastern DRC.

International Peace Day celebrations went well, although the VIPs from Kinshasa never made it - something wrong with the plane (typical!); somehow I don't think they were missed.


"Girls demand peace and say no to sexual violence!"



There was some terrific drumming and traditional dance by teenagers from a local NGO called ASO. The kids are all marginalised from society in some way, either they're former child soldiers, rape victims, orphans... they are doubly victimised, first they are raped or forced to fight or their parents are killed, and then society rejects them because of what has happened to them. Local organisations are able to help a few such children get an education and get back on their feet - but far too many kids still end up on the street.


And of course a whole contingent of riot police was needed just in case all the children decided to attack the visitors!!

No good news

Apologies if you were looking for something cheerful to read - but this issue (below) is so important, and so ignored! Will do my best to post some interesting photos soon. Next Friday, 21 September, is the International Day of Peace, and we'll be holding celebrations here with lots of visiting ambassadors and various UN VIPs.

AIDS activist accuses UN, western nations of ignoring Congo sexual abuse
By Nick Wadhams
Nairobi

The chairman of an anti-AIDS group has accused the U.N. Security Council and the West in general for ignoring what he calls a litany of horror against women in eastern Congo. For VOA, Nick Wadhams has the story from Nariobi

In a blistering statement, Stephen Lewis, a former U.N. envoy on AIDS in Africa, said sexual violence against women and girls is endemic in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where millions of people are still suffering from the aftershocks of years of civil war and unrest.

He cited thousands of rapes each month, as well as torture and killings by militias, and the miserable funding of limited health care in eastern Congo. While the crisis in Sudan's Darfur province has received attention from both the U.N. and Hollywood stars, the plight of women in eastern Congo has been largely ignored despite numerous reports, journalist accounts, and visits by diplomats.

"The entire world is preoccupied with Darfur, understandably," Lewis said. "But it must be said that between ten and twenty times of the number of people have died in the eastern Congo as have died in Darfur. There are more displaced persons in the eastern Congo than in Darfur. Darfur has been going on for four years, the eastern Congo has been ravaged for ten. And nowhere on this planet is there such a holocaust of horror visited on women and girls."

Lewis, who is Canadian, heads his own foundation which works to fight the spread of AIDS across Africa. He spoke after a trip to the region. His comments came days after the U.N. emergency relief coordinator, John Holmes, relayed similar concerns after visiting Congo.

Some analysts fear that Congo is on the brink of a new civil war. Tens of thousands of people have fled the east in recent months because of fighting between government forces and various militias that have taken shelter there.

Lewis said the ongoing violence against Congolese women, including sexual assault and murder, proves how badly the U.N. has failed to confront the country's problems. He said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon must press the International Criminal Court to declare rape a crime against humanity and indict suspected war criminals on charges of committing it.

"Neither the United Nations nor the international community has the faintest idea what to do about the catastrophe for women in the Congo," Lewis said. "Where the Congo is concerned, all the Security Council is really concerned about, as evidenced in their most recent discussions, is questions of troop numbers, arms embargoes and sanctions. Rape is not on the agenda."

Lewis argues that the world's leaders, mostly men, have applied what he called a "spectacular lack of energy" in ending the abuse of women in Congo. He suggests it is time these men turned to women to solve the problem.

Source: Voice of America (VOA)

Date: 13 Sep 2007