A Pickle..

This is kind of a pickle. I just finished a Saturday afternoon meeting with our Concern and MSF counterparts regarding the current security situation and the plans for dealing with potential uprisings during the election at the end of the month. The others have been quite free with their information and the plannings and it is clear that the others are preparing themselves well. Sadly; I don’t have much to add – I am quite in the dark regarding our existence here and any strategies destined for the future. It is hard not to sound like an idiot while the others plan escape routes by plane, car and boat to destinations in Congo and Zambie…

Again the vision of the bucked-tooth hamstrung little brother raises its ugly head. Can I play in the sandbox too?

I have been playing a bit of a waiting game during these last two weeks, waiting for some communications to indicate our future here. It is kind of a test of the support we can expect and to see what comes out of that. Meanwhile that is not to say that I have been wasting time – it has taken me this long (due to my weak French) to get a handle on the staff, the office, the logistical planning and finally the programs and our interactions with partners and beneficiaries. There is a lot to do in order to dress up our situation following the slump caused by the departing expats some three months ago. The staff is keen to move on, suitably motivated and enthusiastic regarding our recent success in construction and renewed CdB support. Now all we need is a CdB that can figure out what the hell is happening at the upper levels! It is getting time to act…

We need support in terms of program strategy, security strategy, logistic strategies and ultimately an open and flowing supply line before the rains come.

I have taken the isolation of poor communication to focus internally on our various needs – on the other hand the crappy connection with the Iridium phone to cellphone (in Lumbu and Kin) is problematic, but more devastating is the newly recognized virus on our ancient computer which has caused our telex system to crash leaves with only the spotty Codan radio to Lumbu for contact – only when there is a radio operator on the scene in Lumbu. All this to say that there is no real communication even if it was desired at either end of the line.

So what is there to do? The last message I received from someone was the new NYC desk officer on her tour through the Congo I had met in Lumbu. She said that it was business as usual. This is my only ‘strategy paper’. Interestingly I just heard though the grapevine (read: not from our internal sources) that KIN met with our main donor ECHO last month and it was clear at that meeting that ACF had no intensions to continue with the program here in Dubié. That seems to match the sentiments I felt while in KIN; it was clearly obvious to me during my time in KIN in the opening weeks of my contract that there was an overabundance of promises of contract extension – the kind of empty promises of bright futures which predict the inevitable demise. At first I thought to take this to the end and to go down without a fight and to maximize my experience by enjoying the countryside and learn my French. Of course that is not really in my nature and now that I am here I can see the work ahead (quit or not) and have taken the challenge. Forward ho and all that stuff. The construction is mounting we are advancing.

We heard on Friday that the Head of Mission was on his way down from KIN to come and visit us on Monday. This has been promised before as well so we wait with bated breadth. We all will be happy to see him here so that maybe we can show our troubles and maybe get some help and support. This is a fine line to draw – put on a good face but not too good. In this way I have allowed the computer virus to keep the communication poor in order to pressure the situation. This was his only command to me, to ensure at all costs that the weekly sitrep gets sent to him. Bummer we had such problems with our equipment and thus there was no sitrep for last week. Or this week either. Will that spur him on?

While we struggle, for example, with our ancient dust bound virus clad computer and telex, both the other NGOs here have installed BGAN satellite email systems. I am waiting for Lumbu to get sufficient money from KIN to be able to go and buy me some batteries and a charger/inverter so I can have electricity. Maybe next week I can get some water piped into the house and office? Concern brought in two brand new vehicles and we hobble with our 200 000km Toyota with no radios or brakes. OK OK there sure is lots of work to do but let us not forget we have advanced quite a bit these last two weeks: we have constructed a demi-wall around the shelter housing the caregivers to the sick children in the CNT and we have finished the upper walls with roll-up tarpaulin. We have started and finished the construction of a new warehouse to house the logistic and CNS supplies thereby freeing up several rooms in the bureau to create office space for our teams (the warehouse continues to wait for the tin to complete the roof, come on lumbu!), we finished the roofing of the warehouse destined to hold the food security stuff – the seeds and tools for distribution. We finished a long overdue construction of a latrine at our Food Warehouse. I installed our two new solar panels and rewired the tangle of wires to our radio system for permanent and separate power. We took delivery of 19 tonnes of food and our warehouse is looking full just in time for the rains. I have had the boys clean up the house and office grounds to give a bit more professional look to things. Furniture, doors and windows are under construction tho it seems that that list is endless and the delivery slow. I have put another guard on contract to partner up for the night duty at the house – there has only been one lonely guard working the night shift all these months so it is no wonder he has been sleeping his shifts away. I have forced the arrival of our Lumbu Nutrition expert to come for a visit here and assess the program and renew and expand our links with our MSF med team to ensure sick kids do not die needlessly.

In other news, the ICRC spent last week in Dubié to do a bit of spying (they called it seeds and tools distribution) and maybe it is going to work out – the local military sometimes takes advantage of the displaced folks to the ire of MSF – and rumours are that the head of the police here in Dubié will be changed in the near future. The local attachment of the Air force has demanded the village here surround the runway with fencing to keep the ever-present farm animals out of the way of the airplanes. The village held a meeting begging the users, vis-a- vis to do the construction and the payment. Sadly this is a government structure run by the army so it is out of our hands … the village threat of closing the aerodome is vacant. To me the equation is obviously simple: Close the airstrip and the NGOs go home. Meanwhile the Air force has instituted a new law that any animal on the strip will be killed directly. Not really a way to keep everything calm. Also, there is a claim that the mai-mai are on the move some 120 km north of here but that they are moving (with families and guns?) towards the demobilization centres. But maybe this is just a smokescreen movement for placement in time for the pending elections. We have heard weak rumours one demobed fellow is preparing to form a new cadre of mai-mai. The village of Mutabi (the location of the air strip and thus the centre of the NGO facilities thus not really Dubié) declared a moratorium on working last weekend as all able-bodied folks were needed to search the countryside and the nearby hills for the fellow who ‘disappeared’. He was not found and it seems that the rumours that he was already found in pieces is more likely true as evident by the body language of the nearby villagers when questioned. There were loud screams of terror coming from the military compound the Saturday following the disappearance but now it seems that the terror was not our missing man but a member of the army who wanted to ‘tell the truth’ and wanted audience with MSF. He has been ‘posted’ elsewhere in Congo. What do you think that means?

And maybe the HOM will descend upon us for the first time ever. That could be good. It could be bad. He could be here with bad news, news of closure but that seems too early to give us that info… he needs only to give one month warning. It could be better – a new CdB could invigorate the program sufficiently to consider accepting ECHO’s offer to extend the term of the contract. Maybe he will just come for a visit with our newly arrived Program Manager to get a true handle on the programs… but maybe that is wishful thinking.