This is my thigh!! I lost in a grapefruit war with Nicole. I think she was trying to cancel me considering I am a shitty, control freak boss. But, nonetheless, the girls here are doing pretty well. Last week we were invited to dine with some South African military, air force and communication system technicians (!). After the evening and all of us thoroughly drunk, we were $550 up on donations!! Thanks guys, you are stars!!!I know my news has not exactly been riveting lately, but here are some good ones. Just before I left for Bukavu last week, I heard from the JGI driver that there were witches taking people's blood in the town. I asked him what the story was, and here is his version.On Wednesday night at about 1 am, there was noise throughout Goma. It was heard all over the place (he phoned his friend on the other side of town who heard it too). It was an eerie screaming and wailing and most people understood that witches were there to extract blood from the people of Goma. The noise was above and everywhere and didn't stop till 4am. (We were partying at Chez Nono so didn't hear much of these witches).The day after, we heard the real story. It's more like this .....A woman in one of the villages had a cassava overdose and her tummy wasn't feeling too good. She had an uncomfortable night and a bad dream about witches coming to draw blood (they are VERY superstitious here and talk about it all the time). She awoke and cried out to everyone the evil tidings, after which everyone took up arms against the demons and started burning tyres, banging drums, wailing, screetching, whistling..... making as much of a noise is required to chase said demons. Other people saw the smoke and the burning tyres and thought the volcano was erupting and there was MORE wailing and screaming! After everyone was completely exhausted but sure the demons were gone, they stopped.I came to Bukavu at the end of the week. Lwiro is still fine but we have yet another baby chimp, picture above. The cages are looking a bit better than when I started and now we can start on the big building of the sanctuary. There is a small area close to the CRSN building where there is still a forest. I have big plans for this little forest and I think all is going to be great when we are on our way.As for the elections.... nothing much in Bukavu or Goma but lots of presidential tiffs in Kinshasa. The other day, I was going to Lwiro and the gate guard came to tell me they were going to march on the streets of Bukavu to protest the violence in Kinshasa and that I should stay at home. I said I didn't have time to stay at home and asked David, my cheecky moto man, if the streets were OK. He said yes, so we went. In my minds eye, I imagined the spot in the town where there would be problems. As we approached there, everyone and everything stopped (on the way, my MP3 was playing a song called 'You picked the wrong day', but I am not superstitious). All the cars and people stopped and I thought there was like military oaks going to blast through the streets and there was military music playing somewhere and then everyone started again. It happens every day - they play the national anthem and everyone has to stand still. Very moving, on my nerves!Anyway, I am going home to SA on the 30th. Hoping that Nicole will keep you up to date with what is happening in Congo.
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