Thursday, 24 June

Children in Mbau Originally uploaded by jweatherlake.

Village near Beni Originally uploaded by jweatherlake.

I went on a visit to a village called Mbau to establish some contacts in the region around Beni. Whilst there I met the village chief, the police commissioner and went to see the church and medical centre. Most houses in the village are made from mud and living conditions are really difficult - even without armed militia operating in the area. The United Nations are very popular in this area - much more so than in Kinshasa, the capital. This is the part of the country with the most serious problems and where the UN can provide the most help to the population.
This afternoon we had a communications failure - the satellite connection stopped working leaving us with no internet or telephone. They even resorted to asking me to try to fix the problem - however this is not the same as the satellite receiver that you have to get TV. We are now waiting for an engineering team to fly out to fix the problem, however, the next flight is not until tomorrow evening...These are the sort of problems we have working in a remote location.