 |
They threatened to charge us a ridiculous amount for taking pictures with this sign.
Here is the free surreptitious shot I got instead. |
It’s now been nearly a month since I came back from my
spring break trip to the DRC with a pit stop in Amsterdam. I dragged my feet in
writing partially because it’s been a heckuva busy time in life, but also
partially because I felt like it would be hard to do justice to the experience.
I’ve decided to break up the posts through a recap of our trip in itinerary
form first, and then follow up with a separate post with overall thoughts.
LAX à
Amsterdam
- Worse leg of the flight. End up with a cramped
middle seat with no leg space and a chatty older lady who keeps asking me to
help her with her in-air TV console controls.
- On the positive side, KLM is generous with the
alcohol selection and the warm towelettes.
Amsterdam à
Nairobi
- In Nairobi, we get to depart the plane through
the ladder and runway walk, and it hits everyone that we are now in Africa.
Sometime around this time Ivan starts singing that Shakira Waka Waka song.
- Electricity goes out a couple times, but overall
things are not bad in the Nairobi airport. Tusker beer.
Nairobi à
Bujumbura
- Kenya Airlines takes the cake for the best
airplane food. Who knew!
- By this time, people are delirious from over 30+
hours of travel.
- Bujumbura airport looks like Tatooine.
Bujumbura à
DRC à
Mboko à
Baraka – Day 1
 |
| Our lovely accommodations in Baraka. |
- After an extremely abbreviated night at the
Hotel Du Lac Tanganyika in Bujumbura, we cross the border by foot and meet the
team of translators and drivers who we would be spending the rest of the week
with.
- It was hard to believe
that we were actually in the DRC.
- Commence extremely long and bumpy land cruiser
ride to the remote village of Mboko.
- The drive through Uvira and Fizi territory is
actually breathtakingly beautiful. We’re along the lake on one side and green
mountains on the other.
- “Welcome to Uvira, where there are goats on the
road.” – Fixer
- There are three general greetings we receive
from passersby: “Jambo!!” (hello! – usually the kids with frantic waving);
“Muzungu! (white person – usually teens and young adults, said with general
amusement); “money! money!” (self-explanatory -- usually also kids)
- This was the first of many long bumpy car rides,
but also the dustiest day by far. By the time we arrived at the village, all of
our belongings were covered in a coat of dirt, and everyone looked like they
had received a bad orange tan.
- The interviews started that same day with
surveys regarding villager’s opinions of the judicial system.
Baraka à
Abala – Day 2
 |
| Fording the river in our Indiana Jones cruisers. |
- Our most grueling day. The night before, we
experienced our first dose of living in DRC accommodations. Inconsistent
running water, general lack of cleanliness, and the weirdly comforting notion
of sleeping under mosquito nets. Early the next morning, it was back on the
road to the remote mountainside village of Abala. The prior night, it had
rained buckets, so the roads were kind of mushy in parts. At one point, we had
to get out of the car so the drivers could rip through and not get stuck.
- We encountered a group of Chinese soldiers
serving in the UN. They were there fixing the roads, and in good spirits. We
both seemed to get a kick out of seeing each other and talking in Mandarin
while in the DRC.
- Abala was our control village, which meant that
there had been no intervention from outside sources since the mass rapes
occurred. A very sad and depressing experience.
Baraka à
Bwala – Day 3
 |
| A joyous welcome in Bwala. |
- By now we started getting the hang of things. We
were also becoming more acquainted with the team of translators, as well as the
other students, which made the various down times more enjoyable.
- This village was situated in the hills with
low-hanging clouds beautifully draping the lush green forests. The land was
naturally abundant and spectacular in most every part of the DRC that we
traveled.
- Here, we received probably our most celebratory
welcome. We walked in to the entire village singing and dancing. The school
kids performed some skits for us. They remembered the UCLA team from years
past, and seemed genuinely happy to see us again. Although things weren’t
perfect here by any means, it was clear that there had been much improvement
compared to the control village.
- On the way back, we inexplicably stopped at an artisanal
gold mine to check it out. It ended up being probably the most
unpleasant/underwhelming/worrying experience of the trip. On the way back, the
drivers were blasting it over the potholed roads, because apparently the area
we were going through wasn’t the safest.
 |
| Ivan trying to stay positive in the gold mine. |
Baraka
à
Uvira – Day 4
- We closed our time in Baraka by conducting a few
more judicial surveys in the main town area. People seemed generally more well
off (ex. Cell phones) in the town center.
- We then had our only real lunch of the week
(every other day we just snacked on packaged goods in the car), and headed back
north along the lake up to Uvira.
- Here, we stayed in what seemed like a really
nice hotel. It was right on the lake, and it looked like a converted mansion.
We had the most down time of any day here, so everyone had a good time drinking
Primus (the DRC beer) and playing various games (including some Congolese games
involving passing smiles and stacking cards on beer bottles).
Uvira à
Kiringye Day 5
- Unfortunately, the hotel (“Eden City” or
something like that) was a typical example of a nice façade and a terrible interior.
The mosquito netting had gaps which resulted in several bites, and our
professor, located right next to the kitchen, suffered through an onslaught of
cockroaches.
- We headed out to the remote village of Kiringye,
which was run by a Catholic priest. Here, we were slated to interview former
combatants and commanders who were part of militias that were perpetrators of the
mass rapes.
- It was very difficult to get entirely truthful
responses from the subjects, as expected. However, we also had some language
barriers that imposed further challenges.
- Most surreal moment: Ivan and I were
specifically called out during welcome introductions for “looking of Chinese
descent.” We were used as a teaching moment that although we were of a
different ethnicity, we were indeed still Americans and ultimately an example of
how in America, different ethnicities are able to work together. Everyone
couldn’t stop laughing as the translator interpreted.
Uvira – Day 6
 |
| The group in Kiringye. |
- We finished our time in the Congo by staying at
our Eden City hotel and welcoming in a second group of ex-combatants and
commanders. It struck me how young some of these subjects were. Some 18-19,
with three years’ experience in militias.
- Again, it was tough to get straight stories from
many of the subjects. However, it was easy to tell when you had someone who was
more genuine, and those surveys were arguably the most interesting surveys of
the whole experience.
- We finished the day by crossing the border back
to Burundi, saying goodbye to our now-friends on the translator and driver crew.
- We all were able to appreciate the luxuriousness
of the Bujumbura hotel a lot more this time around. It was so great to have a real
shower and flushing toilets, not to mention air conditioning. Truly things we
take for granted in the western world.
Burundi à
Kenya à
Amsterdam
 |
| I Amsterdam (said with a Dutch accent). |
- It would have been quite the whirlwind shock to
jump right back into real world responsibilities and school work, coming off
such a loaded and demanding spring break. Fortunately, most of the group was
able to take an extended layover in Amsterdam, where we stayed at the Flying
Pig hostel.
- It was another culture shock to experience the
liberal ways of the Dutch, especially coming off the Congo. There were a few
unfortunate connections between the histories of the two societies as well.
Overall, everyone had a blast walking around, eating great cheeses and cookies,
and unwinding with the perfect amount of time for a mini-vacation.
