Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo

We made it. After 118 miles of driving the same roads that the Hutu rebels fled into Congo 20 years ago, we arrived at the boarder. Along the way we got to see an amazingly resilient and resourceful people that are Rwandans. To an ignorant person as myself it didn't matter if they were Hutu or Tutsi, it was just that they were walking on the side of the road, carrying water back to their home or riding a bike carrying a bale of straw larger than themselves to make some rope or cultivating a field in a small coop on a plot of land. The countryside which was vast with many steep hills were all being used for agriculture. It seemed like every inch was being used. We have since discovered that his is actually one of the continued pressures on the Congo. Rwanda need more land. I will try to find a way to describe all these details better later. It really can be confusing so I want to do it right when I know more.  The drive was actually quite scary as our our van had no seatbelts, the doors operated only with a lot of persuasion and my bench seat was missing some bolts that secured it to the floorboards. To add to that, the driver drove the windy hilly roads very fast and it rained nearly the entire time. (Sorry for these details, Mom)

We were welcomed at the boarder of DRCongo by Esther, one of our hosts.  One quick observation was that the roads ended in Rwanda. Goma had no paved roads. They were all destroyed by the volcano eruption in 2002 (I think). So now the "roads" are covered with mud and lava rock. Esther and her husband Camille are amazingly welcoming and generous. At the boarder Esther identified that she prayed it would rain when she picked us up. She said the rain scares the Congolese. Half joking, she said said that no one does anything, even goes to work when it rains. So as a result, the border was under staffed and they didn't want to go through our luggage.  Otherwise, she said it would have been a long time with them going through every item.

We got to their house, through their guarded gate and were met with a wonderful home cooked lunch. From their we went to their leadership school for kids and interviewed a few students. To give a sample, there was a 15 year old girl who lives alone with her brother and sisters because her parents we're poisoned. She describes everything with a very calm and matter of fact accounting of the events. Then, we had her recite a speech that she wrote for her class about her vision of Congo, and she began crying. A 15 year old who has this kind of passion for her country is something I was not expecting.

We then checked into our "hotel" which is the Heal Africa Guest House. It sits right on Kivu lake, one of the Great Lakes (the other Great Lakes). It is owned by Dr. Joe, who is a rebound surgeon in Goma and actually was in Kinshasa Rwanda when the genocide broke out there 20 years ago. We had dinner with him and a fabulous discussion of the state of Congo.

Tomorrow we were invited to Camille and Esther's church, so I need to get some sleep. Something tells me every night will be like this.