Fighting continues in the DRC

The U.S. election day and election results may have erased the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo from news headlines for a few days, but don't let that make you forget. Gunshots and explosions from militia fighting have begun again, despite the ceasefire; aid workers have been forced to withdraw from the area; thousands of refugees are on the run yet again; and child soldiers are being recruited to fight on the front lines.

The road to work

Since I live on the south side of Cairo and work in the north part of the city, I have a pretty long commute to work every day. Usually it takes about half an hour each way, during which we pass the City of the Dead (sort of like a giant cemetery, I'll write more on it later), run-down apartment buildings, the ancient citadel, mosques, a giant quarry, brand new buildings, gas stations, shops and just about anything else you can think of, even pyramids in the distance. I took a few pictures along the way. Apologies if they're fuzzy; since I ride in an armored vehicle to and from work, the windows don't roll down.

Flooded roads

A section of the drive to work that normally takes about 5 minutes took over 40 minutes a few days ago. After waiting that long, we finally found out what the problem was - a water main had busted and the road was flooded. I'm amazed that some of the cars could get through; even in our Chevy Suburban, we were a little worried. I caught a short video at the very end of the adventure.

Vote

I saw a video similar to this one a few weeks ago encouraging people to register to vote, and tonight I ran across this one. I thought the first one was clever and this one is pretty good too so I wanted to share it.

Halloween fun

A friend had a BBQ last night for Halloween and a few of us were creative enough to come up with costumes...a bee, a ninja and a witch.