Masisi, Thursday 13 November 2008
Concern’s first day back to full implementation activities, the day started at five am, with the sounds of a child’s deathlike wailing just outside my window, someone banging nails into a piece of corrugated iron, and a very fervent Pentecostal prayer meeting within a range of less than ten meters.
Life is pretty normal in Masisi !
To my astonishment, my lean mean logistician was already up, bristling with enthusiasm and pride in the fact that he had just taken a cold water bath, he hit the ground running an hour later and spent the day in the most masculine of pursuits: washing and drying clothes which the next day are to distributed to the IDPs. It seems one of the warehouses sprung a leak during our absence and some of the cloths got a bit grungy. What is remarkable about our recent evacuation(s) is that none of the stocks of supplies which we were about to distribute were robbed, and none of our warehouses pillaged; maybe an indicator of the long term relationship that we have built with the people in Masisi.
My first job of the day was to sit down with Olivier, our chief security guard, and have him teach how to get by in KiHunde. The Hunde make up the majority of the population in Masisi. I was well pleased with the results, which made nearly everyone grin at my very poor pronunciation. After a brief intensive language session I set off to spend most of the day with Robert, Concern’s wonderful, pacific one legged agricultural technical advisor. We drove back down the dirt track (which is, in fact a leg of the Route Nationale 1 of the DRC), to Katale, the last town held by FARDC before you enter CNDP country.
Along the way, we were greeted by groups of women digging and pounding the road. Despite the insecurity, in the last month, Concern has worked with IDPs living the camps and in the communities to rehabilitate fifteen kilometers of road, the leg from Katale to the village of Mashake being one of them. Then as suddenly as the good road had started it stopped, and the road to Mashake resumed its previous long suffering identity as a dirt track, barley wide enough for a motorbike, let alone a 4x 4. We walked for about 2km, greeted occasionally by passing Mamas carrying heavy sacks of coal and beans, often with a baby tied around their backs as well with a Pagne.
Finally we arrived at Mashake were we took a look at a vegetable garden which had been supported by Concern, Leeks, Onions, Cabbage all revelling in the fertile soil. I very excitedly brought out my new KiHunde phrase book and greeted the people. They responded with smiles:
“You are speaking in KiHunde? Sorry, here we speak KinyaRwanda!”
Just five miles away from Masisi and I find myself with a totally different language group. No wonder the Kivus are so complicated!
We spoke with a group of ten women who had been selected by Concern with the communities as beneficiaries, they had all been displaced from their homes, many of them were widows. A woman explained that with the money that she would make by cultivating seeds given to her in the project, she would be able to rent some more land and plant more.
We ended the day in Lushebere IDP camp, very tired I listened to the camp committee, who told me about new IDPs fleeing the CNDP to Masisi, they gave me lots of new ideas about how we can work to support them better. I met a woman in the camp who was involved with the Cash for Work on the roads. She told me that she had used the money to pay the school fees for her children. A small step for her, a great leap for Concern as we win victories in the lives of very poor people. Just as I was leaving the camp a man sneered at me:
“Look at these children! They need new clothes! Will you look at the state of them?!”
I smiled to myself and said,
“Give us a couple of days, my Logistician is just doing the laundry!”
On Saturday, November 15th, Concern distributed clean underwear and sanitary towels for women and second hand clothing, for the 13,000 residents of the four IDP camps in Masisi and Lushebere.
Life is pretty normal in Masisi !
To my astonishment, my lean mean logistician was already up, bristling with enthusiasm and pride in the fact that he had just taken a cold water bath, he hit the ground running an hour later and spent the day in the most masculine of pursuits: washing and drying clothes which the next day are to distributed to the IDPs. It seems one of the warehouses sprung a leak during our absence and some of the cloths got a bit grungy. What is remarkable about our recent evacuation(s) is that none of the stocks of supplies which we were about to distribute were robbed, and none of our warehouses pillaged; maybe an indicator of the long term relationship that we have built with the people in Masisi.
My first job of the day was to sit down with Olivier, our chief security guard, and have him teach how to get by in KiHunde. The Hunde make up the majority of the population in Masisi. I was well pleased with the results, which made nearly everyone grin at my very poor pronunciation. After a brief intensive language session I set off to spend most of the day with Robert, Concern’s wonderful, pacific one legged agricultural technical advisor. We drove back down the dirt track (which is, in fact a leg of the Route Nationale 1 of the DRC), to Katale, the last town held by FARDC before you enter CNDP country.
Along the way, we were greeted by groups of women digging and pounding the road. Despite the insecurity, in the last month, Concern has worked with IDPs living the camps and in the communities to rehabilitate fifteen kilometers of road, the leg from Katale to the village of Mashake being one of them. Then as suddenly as the good road had started it stopped, and the road to Mashake resumed its previous long suffering identity as a dirt track, barley wide enough for a motorbike, let alone a 4x 4. We walked for about 2km, greeted occasionally by passing Mamas carrying heavy sacks of coal and beans, often with a baby tied around their backs as well with a Pagne.
Finally we arrived at Mashake were we took a look at a vegetable garden which had been supported by Concern, Leeks, Onions, Cabbage all revelling in the fertile soil. I very excitedly brought out my new KiHunde phrase book and greeted the people. They responded with smiles:
“You are speaking in KiHunde? Sorry, here we speak KinyaRwanda!”
Just five miles away from Masisi and I find myself with a totally different language group. No wonder the Kivus are so complicated!
We spoke with a group of ten women who had been selected by Concern with the communities as beneficiaries, they had all been displaced from their homes, many of them were widows. A woman explained that with the money that she would make by cultivating seeds given to her in the project, she would be able to rent some more land and plant more.
We ended the day in Lushebere IDP camp, very tired I listened to the camp committee, who told me about new IDPs fleeing the CNDP to Masisi, they gave me lots of new ideas about how we can work to support them better. I met a woman in the camp who was involved with the Cash for Work on the roads. She told me that she had used the money to pay the school fees for her children. A small step for her, a great leap for Concern as we win victories in the lives of very poor people. Just as I was leaving the camp a man sneered at me:
“Look at these children! They need new clothes! Will you look at the state of them?!”
I smiled to myself and said,
“Give us a couple of days, my Logistician is just doing the laundry!”
On Saturday, November 15th, Concern distributed clean underwear and sanitary towels for women and second hand clothing, for the 13,000 residents of the four IDP camps in Masisi and Lushebere.
posted by Gabriello Princip at 10:09 AM
1 Comments:
Good for your logistician! That made me smile and there cannot be that much to make you smile at present....:-) Max
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