This is more an apology for the lack of posting than anything else really.
Yesterday I crossed the border into Congo, and am now in Bukavu in the province of South Kivu. There is a lot of fighting here at the moment with UN forces confronting some of the various militias that exist here, some of whom fled Rwanda after taking part in the genocide there.
On our first day we were sat in a cafe after I arrived only for some drunken Congolese policeman to come barelling in to the cafe and demand $100 from me, because he said we hadn't paid enough road tax. After lots of negotiation we sent him away with $10 and a pack of cigarettes. Such is life in Congo. There is little or no security here and what does exist comes from the UN forces. I am sitting just down the road from one of their army camps. Think of that next time people criticise our police.
The war here has claimed over 5 million lives in the last few years alone and yet is one of the least reported in the West.
Anyway unsurprisingly perhaps this means maintaining the blog for the next week is going to have to take a back seat. I am typing from a dark room with no lighting, running water or air conditioning (it is plus 30 degrees here) or other things you might take for granted in England. I am also being attacked by some ferocious mosquitoes! Bizarely it does have an intermittent internet connection though, hence this posting.
I cross back into Rwanda in a week and from there back from this bush to the W12 Bush - and I can't wait. Till then dear reader.. au revoir and take care
[...] at times like this I really appreciate how lucky I am to do the job I do – but also how lucky we all are to live in the Bush. There are worse places to be. Much [...]
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