Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!! (These are my two pumpkins that I never found the time to carve. At least this way, though, I can keep them as decorations until Thanksgiving!)

Continued crisis in DRC

Rumors from the Congo are that even though a ceasefire has been declared, it has only led to an increase in looting, pillaging, raping and civilian killings in Goma as the catastrophe there worsens. Below is an updated article from the BBC.

'Human catastrophe' grips Congo
BBC News, 31 October 2008

Fierce fighting between government and rebel forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo has caused a humanitarian catastrophe, the Red Cross says.

Diplomatic efforts are under way to end the crisis, which has threatened to spill over into neighbouring Rwanda.

A tense ceasefire is holding in the eastern city of Goma, where tens of thousands fled as rebels advanced.

But rebel leader Gen Laurent Nkunda has threatened to take the city unless UN peacekeepers guarantee the ceasefire.

Killings and rapes have been reported in Goma and aid has not been reaching the displaced.

Oxfam and other leading international aid agencies have suspended operations in the city, where a main hospital as well as numerous businesses and homes have been looted.

The Red Cross's Michael Khambatta told the BBC the priority now was providing the vast numbers of civilians forced from their homes with food, medical aid, shelter and some sort of security.

After several days of fighting, Gen Nkunda declared the ceasefire on late on Wednesday, and his Tutsi forces are positioned some nine miles (15km) from Goma - the provincial capital of North Kivu.

He said he was opening a "humanitarian corridor" so aid could reach the thousands of people trapped between his forces and UN soldiers backing up government troops in the city.

Much of the looting has been blamed on retreating Congolese troops.

The UN is considering redeploying some of its 17,000-strong force in DR Congo - the world's largest - to bolster around 5,000 peacekeepers in the city.

As the tense ceasefire held early on Friday, a multi-pronged diplomatic effort was under way to resolve the crisis.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon sent envoys to both DR Congo and Rwanda as each accused the other of launching cross-border incursions.

The African Union is to hold crisis talks on Friday and EU efforts have been ongoing to bring Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Congolese President Joseph Kabila together.

The EU is also to discuss sending troops to the area to aid the humanitarian effort.

Meanwhile, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer has held talks with Mr Kabila in DR Congo's capital, Kinshasa.

Many in DR Congo say Rwanda supports Gen Nkunda's forces - something Rwanda denies.

In the past two months, more than 200,000 people have been driven from their homes across eastern DR Congo.

While thousands have sought refuge in Goma, many thousands more have fled into the forests, where the militias cannot find them, and the aid agencies cannot help them.

Gen Nkunda has told the BBC his goal was to protect the Tutsi community from attack by Rwandan Hutu rebels, some of whom are accused of taking part in the country's 1994 genocide.

Correspondents say a race for the area's mineral wealth is fuelling the conflict as much as ethnic enmities.

There are growing concerns for the welfare of 39 wildlife rangers who were forced to flee into dense forest after their headquarters in eastern DR Congo were stormed by rebels.

Serious trouble in DRC

Comparisons between the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and the current situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo have begun. Over the last week, the situation around Goma, which has been a humanitarian crisis for years, has escalated significantly, and it is continuing to worsen by the day, if not the hour. A search for "Congo" on Google News will find numerous articles about the situation. One from the New York Times found here gives background; below is another from the British newspaper, The Independent, that is even more disturbing.

Ominous echoes of genocide
The Independent, Thursday, 30 October 2008

We have been here before. There is a disturbing déjà vu to the reports of thousands of refugees on the move with their mattresses and cooking pots in the border area between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

This latest outbreak of fighting follows a familiar pattern, for it has its roots in the Rwandan genocide of 1994 in which a minority of Hutus massacred 500,000 Tutsi in Rwanda under a Hutu-dominated military government. When that regime was ousted by a Tutsi force, two million Hutus, fearing reprisals, fled into eastern Congo, where large numbers remain. The area has, in the years since, remained a powder keg in which the two ethnic groups have co-existed uneasily, with frequent outbursts of violence. What makes all this worse is that the Rwandan government gives covert support to Tutsi militias which are in open revolt against the Congolese government. Conversely, the DRC government gives succour to the Hutu militias that oppose them. The two capitals deny this, but the truth is plain enough in an area which is rich in gold, coltan and other minerals.

The Congo, which is as big as Europe, is home to the world's largest peacekeeping force of 17,000 United Nations troops. There have been calls, by the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo and within the UN, for more troops to be sent. That is not the answer in a country which once absorbed armies from Angola, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Sudan and Chad to no avail in a conflict which has cost five times as many lives as the Rwandan genocide. The UN troops are often ineffectual, occasionally finding themselves stoned by locals frustrated by their ineffectiveness against the militias.

The UN Secretary General has sent envoys to the presidents of both the DRC and Rwanda. What they need to press for is round-table talks which involve not just both governments but also both rebel militia forces, something the DRC has until now opposed.

The international community, and most particularly the African Union, needs to push for face-to-face talks between the four parties. It failed to act early enough in 1994, and it must not make the same mistake again.

Something fishy

In an effort to keep myself from adopting one of the many cats and dogs running around the streets of Cairo, I bought a fish today. I had names picked out for two (I was planning to buy a pair), but neither works well for a single fish, so I'm going to have to think up something else. I'll let you know when I do. For now, though, here's a little clip of what he looks like.

Spirit of Giving auction

On Friday night I attended the annual Spirit of Giving Charity Dinner Auction, hosted by St. John's Church. The event took place at the home of the deputy director of USAID (that's my new dream job, by the way, just based on the house) and approximately 300 people attended. There was a silent auction, blackjack, a live auction, a delicious Thai dinner (with amazing dessert!), live entertainment by a bluegrass band (who would have thought!?) and an open bar serving wine (which I only mention because of the difficulty of finding decent wine in this country!). It was such a fun night and such a successful fundraiser! At church on Saturday, our pastor reported that the event had raised somewhere between $30,000 and $35,000. All of the money raised will go to ministries here in Egypt that serve refugees, children, women and other vulnerable populations.

Home sweet home

I finally got around to taking some pictures of my flat in Cairo, so here's a brief tour of my new home. This first picture is the outside of my building. I live on the third floor. (I think there are five floors total.)
When you walk into my flat, you first enter a sitting area. The chairs are really small and kind of odd, so we're trying to figure out something else to do with this space, but, for now, we've left it just as we found it, like it is in this picture.
The floor plan is pretty open, so just in front of the sitting area is the living room. If you walked into the living room and turned to the right, you would see the dining room. These first three rooms are all open to one another so they basically form one large 'L'-shaped room.
From the dining room, if you turned back toward the front door, you would see a small bathroom. (It shares a wall with the sitting room.) Technically it's a full bath (see the shower head behind the light?) bt we use it as a half bath.
In the corner between the small bathroom and the dining room is the kitchen.
I'm so excited about the dishes and everything that I found for the kitchen that I had to take a picture of them too. I actually have matching plates and bowls and glasses and mugs!
Back out of the ktichen, along the outside wall of the living room and the dining room, is a narrow porch that looks out over the street. If, when entering the apartment, you had turned left just past the sitting area, you would enter a small hallway with two bedrooms and a bathroom. The bathroom would be directly in front of you. (I guess it's technically our laundry room as well. You can see the washing machine in the bottom left corner of this picture.)
My room is on the hallway to the right, sharing a wall with the living room. It's a good-sized room with a huge king-sized bed in the middle, two wardrobes, a dresser, a small chest of drawers and a door out to a small porch.
I think that's the end of my online open house. I know the flat is pretty bare but I can guarantee you that I'm working on that. Over the next couple months I'll be shopping for art, fabric, plants, pottery and furniture, and I'll bring some more decor back with me after my next trip home.

A church home

I am very thankful to be able to report that I have found a church home in Cairo. Last weekend I attended a couple different worship services in Maadi, the section of town where I live, and I really enjoyed one of them. It was at the Church of St. John the Baptist, which is an interdenominational church that follows an Episcopalian/Anglican tradition. The church itself was simple but beautiful; the minister's message was powerful; the music was wonderful; the service was familiar and comforting; and the congregation was very welcoming. I thoroughly enjoyed the first service there - probably helped by the fact that it included my favorite scripture reading and one of my favorite hymns - and look forward to attending again this weekend.

(Both pictures are borrowed from St. John's website.)

Falucca ride on the Nile

This afternoon, we decided to take a boat ride on the Nile. We left just before sunset and spent about an hour sailing on the river. A few views of the city from the water are below.

Multilingual computer

When I was in Rwanda, my computer started speaking to me in French. I would click on familiar websites like Google and they would load saying "Bienvenue" instead of "Welcome". It was annoying but manageable. Now, however, my computer has switched to Arabic, which is just plain impossible.

Around Cairo

I snapped a couple pictures out the window of the taxi on the way home from the bus station where we were dropped after our trip to Dahab. They're definitely not representative of Cairo as a whole, but they show at least one section of town.

Camel portraits

They're just such funny animals...

Camel noises

If you ever wondered what an upset camel sounds like...

Ras Abu Galum

On our second day in Dahab, we decided to take an overnight trip north to a Bedoin village called Ras Abu Galum. We left around 8:00 in the morning and drove north to an internationally renowned diving spot called the Blue Hole.
From there, we loaded up camels and rode for an hour and a half along the coast to Ras Abu Galum since there is no road available to reach the village. The views along the ride were absolutely amazing.
After a long ride, we arrived at Ras Abu Galum, a very basic Bedoin village on the shore of the Red Sea. There were only a few other people (and a number of camels) there. We settled into our hut and spent the next two day snorkeling, lying on the beach, walking along the shore and dining on delicious, traditional Bedoin meals, not to mention watching millions of stars above us once the sun set.