We went to Shasha IDP camp, about an hour’s drive on the beautiful lakeside road from Goma through Saki, Kiroshe, to Shasha and then on to Minova. There are IDP camps set up all along this road, and many places where IDP’s also stay with host families (i.e. other poor people who squeeze them into their tiny houses and share their meager food). The camps closer to Goma receive regular, though minimal, help from the big aid organizations. Some have tents (from Heal Africa), but most are the tiny leaf-covered huts, about 2 yards wide and 6 feet high in the center. The lucky ones have tarps to put over them. There is no privacy anywhere, and amazing numbers of people crawl into each hut at night to try to sleep. Oxfam has provided water supply to most of the camps. World Vision has a small school project and has provided latrines for Shasha. Otherwise they have received no aid for about 5 months. (We provided some food and tarps in late ’08, but only for a few families.)
When our delegation visited Shasha last year (Tim was in that group, I wasn’t) there were about 3500 people there, on about 4 acres of land provided by the Catholic Church. Now there are 7500, mostly Pygmy people who have left the forests because of the recent military efforts to track and chase/destroy FDLR groups. There is very little room to grow anything, though a few patches of vegetables are struggling along among the huts. But all around the camp are glorious fertile hillsides and fields, full of corn, bananas, manioc, potatoes, carrots. The IDP’s can work for the local people to earn money to buy that lovely food, but if they have no money they can only look at it. They do heavy, menial tasks, carrying heavy loads, bringing water. Little boys carry huge loads of wood on their heads. But there is never enough to eat.
Hunger and illness are evident everywhere. Children are scabby and weak. There are babies everywhere, and young pregnant girls everywhere. The people were very shy. Once the children realized I would touch them, they were friendly and sweet, holding my hands and chirping giggles from time to time. Of course they expected I’d have candy or something, which I didn’t. I was glad the camera was not working; it would have been wrong to take pictures. We met one family which had just arrived; they were putting up their hut. They all looked dazed and disoriented, didn’t seem to really see us. Pygmy people are so small and compact. I felt big and overly healthy; took off my glasses because they (and my skin) made so many babies cry. Even I, with my great capacity to look at suffering and find it picturesque, was left soul-subdued.
As we left the camp and drove past huge, huge piles of bananas (right on the edge of the camp!) waiting to be picked up by trucks and taken to Goma, and piles of potatoes and sweet potatoes, I wished I could just give a banana to everyone in the camp, at least to the children. We began to calculate, and found it would cost $500 to give each person in the camp one banana. Since I have $17,665 in my whole budget for all our material aid and related administration work in eastern Congo, and was toying with the idea of working with ECC North Kivu to use $10,000 of it for some kind of project, I was a bit nonplussed to realize that I could give each person in the camp 20 bananas for that amount.
On the way back into Goma we jounced and bounced over the lava to visit a Methodist church which is hosting IDP’s from Musawatu. There was a big women’s meeting going on and they greeted me like a long-lost sister. I thought maybe this was the widow’s group that we have assisted, but it wasn’t. It was a Methodist pastor who was hoping MCC would give money for these women to buy sewing machines. I asked Fidèle why he had taken me to that church without explaining to me what it was all about (felt like a set-up) and he said he had seen it just as a chance for me to meet some more IDP’s.
Then we visited the “hangar” (workshop) which ECC had helped the Goma war and volcano widows build with one of our FDMR grants last year. I was shocked to see how big it is and to see that it is nothing but a shell: roof and walls over lava rocks. It is not nearly finished although in the project plan and report it had been budgeted and reported as manageable within the amount of the grant. Major disappointment, although I had not wanted to accept this project for these very reasons and was pushed by Milenge and Dr. Louise into doing it. I didn’t say very much, but it was clear that I was shocked and that I have no interest in working with this project anymore. ***Scratch that off the airplane ideas list! I did buy a bunch of the baskets the group made and which they store in Fidèle’s office at ECC. My checked luggage coming back was three big sacks of these baskets which Rev. Milenge will try to sell from the ECC here.
I was worn out and discouraged by the end of the morning. Found a “multi-prise” plug and am back at the hotel, charging the camera. Coffee, bread and cheese (skip the rancid butter). Aaaaah. I am preparing for a tough afternoon -- how to do something with little. Two little Congolese-German girls are playing in the grassy courtyard. School children next door are making happy noises. Different realities. Had a pleasant visit with the young German mother of the two little girls. Her husband is from Goma and they are here for their first visit after his 10 years in Germany.
Afternoon meeting with MERU, Women and Family, Peace and Justice staff. Fidèle, Mittérand, Josephine, Gogo, Gilbert. (Photo 344 – all reading Seeking Peace!) They came ready to make big presentations. I sort of preempted them by explaining first what we are trying to do with Menno-Paix and being totally honest about what I have to offer. I decided to be totally transparent with everyone on this trip so am putting my cards on the table everywhere I go. A bit risky, but moves things along nicely, usually. I asked what they could do with $10,000, which was all the money I could offer. Everyone agreed that a project to provide food for Shasha was the most urgent and in keeping with the style of project we want to do with them. We worked out the basics and they will work on the details.
Then Josephine and Gogo talked about their work, and Gilbert made one of his flashy presentations. We talked about possible connections and resources. Gogo made a spirited plea for help with women’s advocacy efforts. “We need to have our message about the situation here and the need for change arrive ‘outside’ and for someone to help us follow up on contacts we make that way. We need someone who can be a liaison for us on the national and international levels.” *** Put Gogo in touch with Mary Stata.
Gilbert blustered and criticized us and bragged about his peace and trauma work, and then we closed the meeting. It started late and ended early and I think it was just fine. It was clear I was not happy about the hangar and it was not mentioned. My initial instincts about working with that project are confirmed. The group was thrilled to receive Seeking Peace books and would like to have more. ***Josephine will be in Kinshasa this coming weekend and if possible I will send a carton back with her.
Late in the afternoon Baudouin and his family came to visit me: Mme (forget her name), Junior, and baby Victoire. (Photo 376) Nice visit. We had cold drinks. Mme. asked for “Kingfish” so I thought she was ordering food and was all embarrassed. They said they did not have it and we all drank Fanta. (Later I learned that “Kingfisher” is a local drink, kind of a wine teaser. Then I understood the situation better.) They expected more from me than they got; like I said to JdeD, “we don’t have a lot to offer, but we’re friendly.” (No I did not say that out loud to Baudouin.)
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