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Published: March 29th 2006
As if Africa didn't have enough problems, the continent came with volcanoes. Imagine facing poverty, disease, and war, and then one day a wall of lava comes and swallows up your home. This was a reality for residents of the Congolese city of Goma when the neighboring volcano, Mt. Nyiragongo, erupted in 2002 and destroyed a large part of town. People were forced to flee to Gisenyi on the Rwandan side of the border as lava passed through restaurants, churches, schools, and houses.
Now, four years later, locals are still rebuilding their homes and their lives atop the jagged lava rock that blankets half the town. Though the DRC's not exactly a tourist destination, with ongoing civil war and instability in parts of the country, we visited Goma for a day and were amazed to see the way the community is thriving among the rubble. People break up the hardened lava and use it for everything imaginable: roads, fences, houses, furniture. We saw children playing barefoot on the rocks and motorcycle-taxis bumping along lava streets. At a huge open-air market, vendors spread out their wares on heaps of black rock and go about their business presumably much as before.
Volcano Church
A church built in the shape of the volcano was subsequently destroyed by it. The decor features murals of people dancing in fire.We ventured off the road into a field of solid lava that had been left untouched since the eruption. We could actually see how the molten rock had dried in thick swirling ripples like charcoal-colored cake batter. At one point a soft-spoken stranger said we were standing where a school used to be. Sounds of children playing drifted from the new school, built just 50 meters away on top of the rubble.
The lava came in all different shapes, colors, and textures. Some pieces were porous like Swiss cheese, others were like petrified wood, or fine granite; they were red, gray, and jet black; shiny as if wet, or rough to the touch. The children lingering in our wake saw us examining rocks and decided to help, handing us rock after rock for the rest of the day.
Maybe it was just the mystique surrounding the Congo, but everything in Goma seemed bigger and somehow surreal: chapati the size of a Frisbee, avocados the size of eggplants, roads twice as wide as those in Rwanda. One lunch plate was big enough for three people. Adding to the eerie atmosphere was the fact that the active volcano loomed in
the background of every scene, casting a shadow on the town it had destroyed.
Back on the Rwandan side that night, we could see red lights illuminating the smoke above the volcano in the distance. From the dark streets of Goma, the volcanic lights must be quite a sight to behold.
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Art and Joan Guillet
non-member comment
Wow!
You know, you two are having a lifetime experience that many of us dream about. Good for you! My heart goes out to many of these people, especially the children. Thanks again for sharing. Joan Guillet