The Disappearing Dock

We had a dock. It was a nice, simple dock commissioned by our previous Country Director. I haven't been swimming in the lake and have only been down to the dock once since I came to Bukavu, but lots of others do and our dock was used as a popular swimming point. Our current CD has also been using the dock in the mornings to launch his kyak from. Slowly the dock has been disappearing. The wooden slats were stolen one by one. Now...the dock is gone.

This isn't a great picture, but you can see I am sitting at the end of the dock (Pic taken January 09)


This is all that remains of the dock as of July 2009.

What does it say about the state of things in Bukavu that the wood from a dock are worthy targets to be stolen in broad daylight?

Christmas in July

When I was in Kampala in May I bought a whole bunch of stuff to bring back to Bukavu. Stuff you can't buy here or you can if you are willing to give up an arm and a leg. Things like cereal and cat food and yarn and jam and ketchup and pasta. The list goes on. Plus, my mom sent me a ton of stuff with my dad: books and yarn and cotton face pads, etc. I can only carry 30kg on the Rwandair flight from Entebbe to Kigali to Bukavu, so I left a box, a large duffel bag and a smaller bag at the FH Uganda office as FH DRC had a 4 ton truck to be picked up in Nairobi and driven to Bukavu. Joel, my housemate and our head of logistics, said the truck would be coming through in about 2 weeks (that would have been 2nd week of June). A month and a half later....the truck arrived with all my goodies. The celebrations started on Monday when Joel brought me the smaller bag...there were good things in there. But the real show was last night when I opened the box and large duffel bag. I could tell you how much fun it was, but I would rather show you.

Opening the bag and box


Look at all the great stuff


Excited to be able to make Rice Krispie Squares


I think Q likes his new basket


Three housemates celebrating their haul

Avacodo on Steroids

The term coined by my dad to describe the avocados in Kampala. I think the term also fits for the avocados in Bukavu.

As seen here....

Sunday Excitement

It's Sunday...and I am sitting in my usual Sunday place, watching a little television and doing a lot of crocheting, when I hear a pretty unusual noise. It was coming from the lake side of the house and sounded like maybe the hill had given away. (Except there was no splash of water...so what was I thinking) I looked out the back windows to see if the guard had heard it...he did...then proceeded to the balcony off my bedroom to check out what had happened.

Turned out that part of the massive eucalyptus tree in the MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières - Doctors Without Borders) compound next door had fallen over the brick wall into our compound. It was kind of comical. There was no wind, no warning it was going to fall. And it was huge. There is a gate down to the lake...but you wouldn't be able to tell from the photo's.

MSF is going to help with cutting the tree off of the wall, but our guard, Maxime, spent the rest of Sunday afternoon cutting the tree away from the far back wall. He was concerned that if it stayed that way, it could be used by someone to climb up over the fence and into our compound. I love that our guards care about our safety. It's such a blessing.

Here are some shots of the tree from the balcony of the house then from ground level.

Oh and while I was down checking out the tree, I took this great photo of the house.

A Good Photo Op Gone Bad

When you have kittens there are lots of opportunities for cute photo's. And sometimes, that opportunity passes very quickly.

Case in point....


I'll leave it to you to imagine what the picture was supposed to look like.

What's New with FH Congo

I find that working in Finance does not give me a lot to blog about. Sure I could tell you about the new spreadsheets I am working on or the Access Database that I am trying to create for Human Resources...but hey, who really wants to hear about that?!?!? However, since you sent me to "work" with Food for the Hungry, I guess I should keep you updated on what's going on in my "work" life.

Last month was particularly difficult for FH Congo. There has been increased violence in North and South Kivu due to renewed efforts by the Congolese Army (FRDC) to push out the remnants of the Rwandan Hutu Genocidaires (FDLR). The FDLR "... have been operating out of eastern DR Congo since the aftermath of Rwanda's 1994 genocide by Hutu extremists against the Tutsi minority. Some of its members are accused of being among the main perpetrators of those massacres." (AFP - May 13, 2009) This increase in violence has forced us to shut down operations in South Kivu and suspending the contracts of our staff in these areas. This, however, affects our overall funding and means that we have less money to operate our main office in Bukavu. The result was that in June, we suspended the contracts of close to 15 Bukavu based staff.

So what does it mean to suspend contracts? Well, we secured what is called a Force Majeur. It is a document issued by the Provincial authorities stating that due to unforseen reasons (WAR!) we can no longer continue safely operating in the South Kivu region. Under the Force Majeur, we can suspend the staff contracts for 2 months. If after those 2 months the situation has not improved we can then terminate the contracts.

As you can probably imagine, this suspension of contracts did not go over so well with the staff in Bukavu (the staff in the fields completely understood the situation). Times are tough, and not getting a paycheck really hurts. The problem is further exacerbated by the fact that all NGO's are unionized here in South Kivu and that there is a central Union as well. It has been very uncomfortable for those of us who are still working. The biggest problem is that the actual organized push against the FDLR has not started, so there is no chance the situation will have changed at the end of the 2 months.

In a related news, we moved the office. By related I mean we drastically have to reduce our overhead spending. This is a source of much joy for me for many reasons:

1. It is only 5 minutes away from our house.
2. It is on the lake.
3. It is very QUIET
4. It is not located next to an elementary school (see #3)
5. It is not located on the main road (see #3)
6. There are no endless car horns (see #3 & 5)
7. There is no clinking of pop bottle openers against glass pop bottles (see #3 & 4)

There are lovely views of the lake from some of the offices...but not mine. Here's a pic of my very tiny office and of the views from the balconies.

My New Obsession...

...is crocheting. Yes, crocheting. I am addicted. It's getting a bit crazy!

While I was home at Christmas I had my mom show me basic crocheting. I practiced chaining and the single crochet, bought some yarn, bought crocheting for Dummies and off I went back to Congo with the pattern for an Afghan. Once I was settled in, I pulled out the Dummies book and started practicing the basic stitches. And I sucked. I got so frustrated I put it all away and didn't look at it again for 2 months. When I finally got up the courage to try again, I was able to figure out several stitches with the help of the Dummies book and the internet. Next problem, I so did not understand the crochet pattern for the Afghan I had chosen. No big deal, just search for a new pattern? Yeah, tried that too. In the end, I settled on making a striped blanket using just the double crochet stitch. (It's my favorite!) Over the next 4 mpnths, with lots of starts and stops and ripping out stitches, I finished my first ever crochet piece. What an awesome feeling.


Next I tried baby hats. My friend Holly gave me some baby yarn she was going to knit with...and voila...baby hats! And so the obsession started.


When the team from Cap Church came to Uganda in May, the brought with them cotton yarn my mom had sent with me. I was to use it to make a mesh bag. But, without a pattern, this proved too hard for me. See, I can't cook or crochet without a pattern. I am just not that creative! So I found a pattern from the Lions Brand Yarn website for a very cool Market bag. As you can see, the bag rocks! I love it!! This one is the first, I have since made 2 more and am now busy trying to figure out how to get more cotton yarn sent to Congo.


Now the title of this blog is, "My New Obsession." Why obsession you ask? Cause it is all I think about and do. I have spent hours (weeks of hours!) searching for and bookmarking crochet patterns and blogs. I come home every evening after work and spend the rest of the night crocheting. Every night...and all weekend. It is getting crazy! But I have figured out so many neat things and have even made small pouches with the remaining cotton yarn. Just waiting for cool buttons to finish them off. My goal is to make a handmade gift for each of the staff members here at FH Congo (Bukavu office only) to give them when I leave next year. I will need at least 60 gifts...6 down, 54 to go!

And I'm Back...

OK...I know it has been ages since I have posted. And I promise to post once a day to catch you all up on all the good things that have been going on in my life since March (If I can remember...getting very old!).

But to tide you over, here is one of my favorite photos...me and my dad in Kampala before going to see The Little Shop of Horrors put on by the Kampala Amateur Dramatic Society and a special after show visit to the Kampala Serena Hotel for appies and drinks. It was a wonderful evening in it's normalness. Because for me, life in Africa is normal (as normal as insanity on a daily basis can be!). Kampala was and always will be home for me. I am not a tourist when I am there; I wanted the time spent in the city to be like being at home. I think it worked. We watched tv movies on the computer, made dinner, visited with friends, walked to the mall, ate ice cream and saw a movie. Nothing touristy about that!