Thursday, 29 July

Lubero.

This morning I reluctantly left Lubero and caught the flight back to Beni. It was good to get back home, though – I had spent two days on what was supposed to be a 6 hour journey. The journey was interesting – especially for all the people I met. Upon my return I found a big crisis waiting over the cancelled flights. I was not the only person to be inconvenienced by the situation – there were also shortages of important supplies.

Wednesday, 28 July

Lubero monastery.

In the morning I called Air Operations to find out whether the flight would go to Beni as planned – only to be told that it had been cancelled again. However, I was later told that the flight would go. So I went to the airfield and got on the helicopter. However, when the helicopter arrived, the helicopter landing pad was occupied, so we flew on to Lubero – the next stop on the regular flight from Bunia to Beni. Lubero is a small town in the mountains, around 60km south of Beni. As the next scheduled flight back was not until the following morning, I spent the night in the town. I stayed in a monastery called Mulo run by a couple of Dutch priests. The place is really nice, with very nice scenery – mountains, forests and very green. The climate is very cold due to the altitude – it reminded me of England or northern Europe. They call this place the Switzerland of Congo. Here they have a lot of food that is not common for Congo – cheese, milk, yoghurt and honey.

Tuesday, 27 July

Village from the air.

Refugee Camp.

This morning I went to the medical centre to get a vaccination. The nearest UN medical centre is in a town called Bunia, around 100km north of Beni. To get there I had to make a 45 minute flight by helicopter – the roads in Congo are not very good. This makes air operations the biggest UN expense in Congo – 25% of the total budget. I got to the town, got my vaccination at the Moroccan military hospital, collected my pay check and went to the supply office to chase up some requests (in Beni there is no finance or supply office either). I also called by my colleagues in the Political office. It was soon time to return to the airfield in time for check-in. However, the helicopter had already left half an hour before – even though I had arrived an hour before the advertised departure time. It turned out that the helicopter had left early to avoid a heavy storm. I spent the night at the house of a Russian colleague called Alexander from the political office. It seemed that his house was full of Russians - they all live together in that town!!

Monday, 26 July

Beni market

Today was a quiet day compared to last week - I even had time to go shopping in the market. You can buy all sorts of exotic fruit. It is a good place just to look around - it is very colourful and the people like to talk. Most things are very cheap (at least compared to Europe) and it is quite common to barter, which I am not used to yet!

Sunday, 25 July

If anyone reading this is still not sure exactly where I am, I have marked my location on this map (see the red spot). As you can see, it is just north of the equator and close to the Ugandan border.
The party at the MSF house last night was fun - lots of people, music, food and drink. I will try to organise something here - we should fly in DJ Whistle Punk especially - he did a good job at my leaving party in Paris!!

Saturday, 24 July

At last I have got some time off. This evening we are going to a leaving party for someone from the French NGO, Medcins Sans Frontieres. Here is a picture of the sunset this evening in Beni. This is also the view from my office, although I am not doing any work today!