Blogs from Congo Democratic Republic, Africa - page 14

We trekked through the jungle for about an hour and suddenly heard rustling in the trees and a gorilla shot down and landed two metres in front of us. It was THE most incredible thing I have ever seen. A few minutes later we met Humba the 25 year old silverback who weighed in at a mere 300 kgs, he was absolutely enormous and just as we were all standing there dribbling/peeing ourselves/shaking as he walked through the trees, he made it a bit more interesting and starting walking towards us - the guide said "everybody stand still" so naturally everyone jumped backwards and screeched. We spent the next hour watching as more and more gorillas appeared, and as they moved around, we slowly followed our trackers and moved around with them. We saw 7 including ... read more

The first thing I noticed was the trash. We’d made our way into the Democratic Republic of Congo - past the cheery Rwandan border guards, the painfully indifferent Congolese border guards, the swarms of motor-bike taxis, and pushy guys who wanted to show us around. But we were determined to do this on our own, and our obstinacy led us right into the filthy center of town. The amount of trash was striking, especially compared from Rwanda, which lies literally just a few steps away. In Rwanda the first, second, and third things you notice are the bright green hills. And the fourth thing is the profusion of colorful flowers everywhere. Then you notice that the people are warm, the food is good and cheap, the lakes are stunning, and then maybe, after a few days, ... read more

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 ... read more

December 18th, 2004 Dear friends, I had hoped that my recent experience travelling India would have prepared me somehow for the culture shock inherent in switching continents. But it has only helped me to find out that, besides being completely different from Europe, the feeling of the DRC has nothing in common with the Indian subcontinent. We arrived late yesterday night at N'Djili International Airport of Kinshasa, after a pleasant flight with Air France - they certainly know how to make their passengers feel at home. We were supposed to leave tonight on the MSF charter flight from Lignes Aeriennes Congolaises (a carrier banned from flying to the EU, by the way) carrying medical supplies directly to the airstrip outside Bunia. Some of our luggage had gotten 'lost' and was suddenly 'found' after I left a ... read more