Getting to know the DRC better (Part 1)
Some background info on Masisi, much of the same problems as northern Uganda. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5213996.stm
Everyone that I’ve been introduced to has been out-of-the-way friendly. I’ve seen lots of NGO operations and have been impressed with many. The opportunity was presented to travel with one NGO, HEAL Africa, out to a place called Masisi. Masisi is a good ways outside of Goma which makes the roads not the safest in the world, but one can’t spend all their time in one place, so the decision to go was not a hard one.
Both Adam and I woke at six in the morning to meet our driver and the people heading out there for research. After blasting down the sorry excuse for a highway, which was more over ran by people walking and riding bikes than cars, we come to the end of it. Blocking us from entering the dirt road that the highway turned into was a few Congolese military. Trouble was not given because we were traveling with HEAL Africa which has a good reputation in the surrounding area. At least we had the Congolese military on our side—the well disciplined ones that is. Our traveling continued for a good three hours up the dirt roads filled with pot holes that could eat a car. A traffic jam was encountered every so often and we would have to wait for it to pass—yes cows and goats acted as if they owned the road.
The view of the countryside is something that cannot be put into words. The whole dichotomy of the place, if nothing more, wet my appetite to what the Congo truly is; that of a beautiful flower that draws its unsuspecting victim in unknowingly to the poison that waits. I knew rebel groups were out in the same forest my eyes were indulging on. But that at the same time shouldn’t be the complete view of the place, because there are so many good things happening here that are not given the attention they deserve. I’ve never been to a place, including America, which has shown more hope in the face of where there is perceived to be none than here in the Congo. After being rattled around in a range rover for about three hours we reached what the people from Goma call the, “Switzerland of the Congo.”
We were there to gather information at the local clinic for HEAL Africa. After getting a tour of the clinic by one of three doctors on staff (taking care more than 350+ patients), we talked with the doctors about what was desired for the clinic in ways of supplies marriage along with some research on a relativity new drug on the market that helps prevent mother to child AIDS transmitting. Here are a few pictures of the hospital including one of a mother that just gave birth to triplets days before. The other is of the only medicine cabinet for the women’s side of the hospital.
Will continue the rest tomorrow.
Cheers,
Scott
Everyone that I’ve been introduced to has been out-of-the-way friendly. I’ve seen lots of NGO operations and have been impressed with many. The opportunity was presented to travel with one NGO, HEAL Africa, out to a place called Masisi. Masisi is a good ways outside of Goma which makes the roads not the safest in the world, but one can’t spend all their time in one place, so the decision to go was not a hard one.
Both Adam and I woke at six in the morning to meet our driver and the people heading out there for research. After blasting down the sorry excuse for a highway, which was more over ran by people walking and riding bikes than cars, we come to the end of it. Blocking us from entering the dirt road that the highway turned into was a few Congolese military. Trouble was not given because we were traveling with HEAL Africa which has a good reputation in the surrounding area. At least we had the Congolese military on our side—the well disciplined ones that is. Our traveling continued for a good three hours up the dirt roads filled with pot holes that could eat a car. A traffic jam was encountered every so often and we would have to wait for it to pass—yes cows and goats acted as if they owned the road.
The view of the countryside is something that cannot be put into words. The whole dichotomy of the place, if nothing more, wet my appetite to what the Congo truly is; that of a beautiful flower that draws its unsuspecting victim in unknowingly to the poison that waits. I knew rebel groups were out in the same forest my eyes were indulging on. But that at the same time shouldn’t be the complete view of the place, because there are so many good things happening here that are not given the attention they deserve. I’ve never been to a place, including America, which has shown more hope in the face of where there is perceived to be none than here in the Congo. After being rattled around in a range rover for about three hours we reached what the people from Goma call the, “Switzerland of the Congo.”
We were there to gather information at the local clinic for HEAL Africa. After getting a tour of the clinic by one of three doctors on staff (taking care more than 350+ patients), we talked with the doctors about what was desired for the clinic in ways of supplies marriage along with some research on a relativity new drug on the market that helps prevent mother to child AIDS transmitting. Here are a few pictures of the hospital including one of a mother that just gave birth to triplets days before. The other is of the only medicine cabinet for the women’s side of the hospital.
Will continue the rest tomorrow.
Cheers,
Scott
posted by Scott at 7:13 AM
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