Tess: Time for a lock down….

So we are eating out of tins and eating sweaty warm cheese and our beloved fridge is broken! After the luxury of having ice, milk and butter, the fridge decided to die. The guy came to fix it… then it broke…. Then he fixed it…. Then it broke. After the guy coming several more times and gassing out the house twice it still wasn’t fixed! We’re hoping for one last try, but he can’t come at the moment as the electricity is very poor at the moment. Whether it is to do with the elections or not, we’re not sure. But a lot of Goma only has power for a few hours a day. Our biggest problem is not being able to have a brew in the morning!

For the past two weeks, we have been attempting to prepare for any trouble there may have been with the election results. Some people are evacuating the country to Rwanda, but most of the NGO’s have curfews for the period of the election, and lock downs for the day of elections. We have no orders, so just our common sense! The official date for the announcement was 19th Nov, but we were told the results would be released before then. We bought for ourselves food that would keep, in case we couldn’t go out. It didn’t seem to work too well, as soon as we bought it we ate it! The pantry is overflowing with potatoes, courge and Avocado, a precaution for the chimps food, in case we couldn’t buy anything. The results came out on 15th Nov, and as yet no trouble in Goma. Kabila, the previous president has won, which is good news for Goma as this area supports him. The bulk of the trouble will be in Kinsasha, the Capital, where the population supports Bemba, the losing candidate.

Braam has been working in Kinsasha for a while now, so we were a little worried about him being there. Weeks before the election results there was some trouble, so it was hard to imagine what trouble there would be when the results are aired. After some cryptic and confusing text messages from Braam asking us if we had an coffee left in the house, we opened the door to find him standing there! A very nice surprise and welcome relief to have him back in Goma. Time for a celebration of course! And it a Wednesday….. So thankfully he is safe in Goma with us and out of the craziness in Kinsasha.
On the day that Braam surprised us, the second he arrived I had to leave to go to the bank with Anne-Laure in Rwanda. Sitting down at the desk in the bank, me being 23 years old and Anne-Laure being 28, the man behind the desk asked Anne-Laure the insulting question of ‘Is this your daughter?’ I know I look young but surely not that young! After realising I spoke English, he decided to keep digging and insult me – ‘You’re very simple aren’t you?’ was the first thing he said to me! After Anne-Laure’s translation of the meaning of simple, he became very embarrassed and told me he meant ‘quiet’. He was pretty quiet for the reminder of the time we were there!!