goldengreenandbluedays: DRC...

Been back in the US just over a week now and my body, mind and spirit are slowly coming back into some sort of alignment after the blitz and buzz of warp speed travel. But that is the way of it. Now it is time to slow to a stop and regain a sense of self in one place for a time. Take some deep breaths and long walks and pour back through the many miles and moments of the past 11 weeks... People have asked me what I learned in my travels. And while I am keenly aware that I have come away with a bundle of stunning gems, I am not sure yet how to answer that... with a sweeping, gushing generalization of a glorious adventure? Nonchalantly toss them one or two of the bright shiny stones... "Eh, you know... it was great."

As I look down at my hands full of color and sparkle- I am a bit stuck for words. I don't yet know what the sum total means, or even what each individual piece means. I feel the need- over an extended period of time- to pick up each one of these gems, these experiences, conversations, sunsets and bus-rides, examine it closely, turn it over in my hands, hold it up to the sunlight... and absorb its color and intensity into my being. And at the end of that... I don't know if I will be any closer to grand discovery. But this blogging process, goofy as it may be, seems in a small way a part of this- both for myself, and for you, dear and loving friend. So let me see... ah yes, this small intensely deep emeraldgreen oval one... Congo... Let me tell you a bit about my travels into Congo.

From Lake Bunyonyi Kara, Sarah and I took a boat-taxi-bus-matatu-taxi to Kagando Hospital very close to the Uganda/Congo boarder where Sarah is doing her internship. Kara stayed on with Sarah several days visiting and 'advising' her, while I connected up with a vanful of UCBC folk heading to Beni the following day.

Sarah and I doing mandalas at the Kagando guest house.

Kagando is at the Uganda-side foothills of the Rwenzori mountains:

Crossing into Congo at the boarder: (Our van was loaded down to be sure... but this poor truck, one of many... was REEEEEEEALY loaded down...) Beni is only 80 kilometers from the boarder, but it took us a good 3 hours to get there. Once in Congo... the tarmac ceases and the graded roads are, well... not so great.

Driving into Beni:

Both of my parents were born and grew up in different parts of northeastern Congo... and my sister, brother and I grew up visiting my grandma where she lived and worked in Adi, and my grandma and grandpa at their home in Itendey. I had never been to Beni- though it is not much farther south.

Congo is an immense and immensely complicated county; one of the richest places on this earth in terms of mineral resources, and yet it is that mineral wealth and the exploitation of that mineral wealth by the rest of the world that has kept the country in a constant state of conflict and civil war for the last 15 years. Beni has been/is a fairly stable place; many have fled conflict in other regions to be there. For a little more info on Congo here is one link, and another.

I/we went to Congo, and to Beni specifically to visit UCBC- the Christian Bilingual University of Congo, a university that is just in its third year of running as part of The Congo Initiative (or CI). My parents have been involved with CI since its very small beginnings- it is what has grown out of the dreams and visions of family friends, the Kasalis, a Congolese couple who want to see their country and its people liberated and transformed through the education and opportunity. The university, UCBC, is the first 'piece' of that initiative. In its third year running, and only a fraction of what it will someday be... but there are some 300 students currently enrolled, and it is a glittering pool of hope and optimism and hard work, amongst what are for most students, extremely hard circumstances.

Eventually there will be an Arts center and a Pubic Health center/clinic... so much of our (Kara and my) reason for going was to see, to feel, experience and imagine what could be.

The main building at UCBC: Unfinished, but complete enough to hold all classes.

Looking down towards the community center that is being built at UCBC, which will eventually house the art program:

The grammar II class I taught for a few brief days(yes I did say grammar II, you can chuckle if you must...). And yes, most of the students know more english grammar than I do. Hmmm, I wonder how many grammatical errors are in this post?? I like to call them liberties, bytheyway.... An intentional breaking of the rules, AKA artistic license... :)

Driving to Oicha, a town about an hour away where my mom was born.

The beautiful Rwenzori Mountains coming through the clouds:

Dinner with Aline and Justan: We knew Aline from growing up, she is the daughter of Mandro- a dentist who apprenticed with my grandpa at Itendey. Justan and Aline are both doctors working at the hospital in Beni, and were recently married. Dinner with them was not only DELICIOUS (see all the fried bananas, boiled bananas, chicken, fish, avocados and pineapple?? Oh, what a generous feast...!) but one of those beautiful moments of connection and belonging with good people.

The big skies of Congo:

After ten days, we bumped and bounced our way back to the boarder in a speed-demon taxi car, where we got on one of the local buses bound for Kampala. We left Beni at 8 in morning, and arrived in Kampala around 11 that evening. The roads in Uganda are pretty good, but it is far and the bus stops what seems like every ten minutes to pick up and drop off fellow travelers. We spent a day recuperating at friends' in Kampala before the next 12 hour bus ride from Kampala- Nairobi.

The Akamba bus to Nairobi was maybe the best bus ride yet on this trip of never ending and endless bus rides... We had the equivalent of bulkhead seats- RIGHT behind the driver, so lots of leg room and a panoramic view of the road ahead *which, was lovely except that Akamba busses have a bit of a reputation- a most accurate reputation (we had front row seats to the show!) for being road hogs/bullies... barreling along at break-necking speeds on 2-lane highways where there is no shoulder, passing other cars and busses with impossible margins... ah but we lived to tell the tale... another day another bus ride. And actually, this first of our two drivers was incredibly sweet... he reminded both of us of our friend Greg and the prayer he prayed (every bus we rode in east africa took a moment for a prayer before departing)- was one of the very sweetest prayers...! I was instilled with great confidence, and despite all craziness rather enjoyed the ride.