Blogs from East, Congo Democratic Republic, Africa - page 3

I broke a promise. Well, the lawyer that still lives somewhere deep inside me (despite my best endeavours to the contrary) would rather say that, actually, I have refined my approach to this particular promise and, while, yes, I did break the existing promise as then phrased, I can now re-cast it more intelligently. Semantics. Sorry, Mum. I walked across the border into the Democratic Republic of the Congo yesterday to stay overnight in the provincial capital of Goma. My promise had been that I would not travel to any country or any part of any country in respect of which the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office at that time advised against either all travel or “all but essential travel”. On a practical level, if the FCO has issued this kind of warning, it invalidates my ... read more

DRC Calling The Democratic Republic of Congo. What a crazy place. We crossed over the boarder early Monday morning and the difference between Rwanda and Congo was incredible. Gisenyi is a peaceful town on the water with a lot of nature and beaches. Goma on the other hand is full of people and chaotic. Goma is like a modern day Pompeii, the is a huge volcano about a 20 min drive (the roads are horrible though so you have to drive at about 30km/hour) which erupted in 2002 covering a large portion of the city with lava. Now there are a whole bunch of house that have been built on top of the dried lava with stone made of lava rock. For the first two nights we stayed in a hotel called Stella which was really ... read more

Every have a 200+lb animal reach and want to touch your leg? Ever share a tent with a man with an AK47 at his feet (Funk, I said AK47 not M16)? Ever walk on the moon? Well, these are just some of my experiences in DRC - Democratic Republic of Congo, and they were all good experiences. On the Moon My first introduction to Congo was the town of Goma. When I first got here I hated it. I think I was scared. Everyone warns you about going to Congo, and yet everyone also says it is safe. My experience was that it is safe in areas and the concern is just that the Guerrillas aren’t completely done fighting. But in and around Goma it seems calm. In the town there are lots of signs of ... read more

As promissed in many e-mails, we did what no one sane would ever recomend. During election time in the Democratic Republic of Congo (first after 30 years) we went to make a little visit to the country. Of course the east side where all the rebel armies are. And to add a little more to the visit we also climbed the active Nyiragongo volcano, the one that destroyed a whole city in 2002 with its water like fluid lava. After passing the Congo border control (very pleasant staff as oposite that what we were expecting), we where told to search for the DGM office to make a little piece of paper that would allow us to come back to Rwanda without having to make an extra visa (which for us Brasilians cost 60 US$). This was ... read more