On Bedbugs and Refugees

Entrance to Nkamira refugee camp in Northern Rwanda.

Mai-Mai, M23, CNDP, FRDC, FDLR, -- I am getting my primer in Congolese Rebel groups and trying to grasp the subtleties of the latest refugee crisis following a new round of political instability in Eastern Congo.  I can say, that while the oft repeated meme “it’s complicated” still applies, I do feel like I have a better understanding of why there has been another spate of violent uprising there.  What surprised me though was how much it has the characteristics of the ethnic conflict (tutsi—hutu) that has plagued other countries in the Great Lakes region.  The fraudulent election of the current Congolese President and the weakening of his political power has contributed as well to the situation.  American and Rwandese interests remain ambiguous but highly suspect.

The reason for my recent interest in the region has been the spilling over this crisis across the border into Rwanda, where the transitional camp at Nkamira (near Goma) has filled up well beyond its capacity of about 3500 to over 12,000 with about 100-150 arriving per day.  Our partners sounded the alarm two weeks ago while we were in Kigali and I agreed to come back a week later to assess the situation and see if there was an appropriate MCC intervention.

My depature to Rwanda this past Monday is a partial excuse for my inability to post a blog last week, but there were other reasons for my failure, some lame, others understandable.  Among the lame ones was the fact that I had to take a very lousy computer with me that mistypes because of a jumping cursor to the point of complete frustration.  The other reason though, is that frankly, while we were greatly blessed to have a whole week of a regular routine, it was actually quite dull in terms of news except for a few bad things that I was not really in the mood to report.

Among the worst of them was the unpleasant discovery of a massive bedbug infestation in the kids' bed.  We had not noticed because they don’t seem to be allergic to the bites so it was not obvious until we turned on the lights in the middle of the night and found them scurrying under cover.  We took the whole bed apart and replaced it with a new one, including the mattress.  We also sprayed the room with a highly effective pesticide whose only drawback is that it is illegal in the US, so probably not good for humans.

After that we slept uneasily for several more nights and finally found to our horror that our worst fears were realized when Rebecca pulled off a pillow cover on our bed only to discover that they had gotten into our room as well.  We did another fumigation after taking apart this bed as well.  We hope we are rid of them.  Here it is a bit easier because of powerful pesticides and the fact we have no carpeting in rooms so there is not a lot of place for them to go outside the bed.

The other disappointment from the week before was watching Oren fail to advance a rank in Karate after taking a test.  In true Burundian fashion their scores were announced aloud and they were lined up according to grade.  He was actually the only one who did not succeed that day.  I felt very bad for him because it seemed that it was actually the language barrier that was keeping him from succeeding.  He did not seem too upset, probably because he did not completely grasp all that was going on.

So with two bits of bad news and no good computer, I just did not have the heart to write down the events of the past week.  The small consolation was that on Sunday night, before my departure, we celebrated Father’s Day.  That is a week early for the US, but that is when they celebrate it in Belgium.  The kids had both made impressive gifts for me at school.  I really enjoyed receiving them, especially right before I would be missing the kids for a week.

Fortunately this week was better and also a bit more interesting.  As I was saying above, I did go up to Rwanda in the car on Monday morning with Felix.  We left right after a morning swim and a short meeting with an interesting person looking to do some projects in Burundi named Niles Sharif.  He wanted to find out about work here and Rebecca and I did our best to give him a bit of primer about the rewards and challenges of working with local partners here.

Felix and I got to Kigali about 4pm, did some banking, then met Annie and Bethany (our SALTers) for dinner.  It was good to catch up with them and when I told them about my mission they asked to come along.  I was glad to have them go.

Asessement team with local pastors

On Tuesday morning, we picked up two of our local partners who work in the Friends Church (our implementing partner) and we headed up the 3 hour road to Nkamira.  We arrived at the camp about midday, but since I did not have authorization, we did not enter.  It was easy to look in though and I had some idea of the conditions the refugees were living in.

We had a meeting outside the camp in one of the libraries MCC supported that was only a few blocks from the camp.  There we met some local pastors who have been intervening with humanitarian aid and gave us some idea of what material aid was needed.

I had decided that MCC would not be intervening with food AID as the UNHCR is providing food in the camp and that would exceed our capacity.

We also met one of the staff of CARE, and NGO that works in the camp as well.  From our conversations with these groups, we got a picture of some of the basic needs in the camp.  They include quite a range of things including, Mattresses, blankets, kids clothes, cooking pots, kotex,  and soap. 

Felix, Annie, Antoine listening to refugee stories.

What surprised me, though is that both of these groups said that one of the greatest needs was not material at all, but conflict mediation trainings and trauma healing (counseling) because people were very traumatized, but also because there is a great deal of interpersonal conflict in the overcrowded camp. 

Since this is a specialty of MCC and our partner the Friends Church, it was decided that this would be one of the best ways for the church to involve itself in the work in the camp.  They would offer services, through UNHCR of conflict mediation training and trauma healing, with a secondary intervention of material aid based on needs assessed by those involved in the training.

We stayed the night up at a guest house near the camp in Gisenyi, then met the next morning with a group of refugees, representing different churches in the camp.  This was one of the most intriguing interviews we did, as it was good to hear their needs first hand, but also get some idea of what their experiences were in Eastern Congo and what the lives were that they left. 

The group was diverse, about 10, some were farmers, small merchants, a teacher, some pastors.  Men and women were represented.  I asked how many of them had had to flee before from their home and most indicated yes.  For some they were actually fleeing from another temporary home to which they had moved in 2000, and had not been back to their real home since the mid 90s.  It was sad to hear their stories, but they seemed fairly resilient.  I also found that most were Congolese Tutsis and when I asked them who they were fleeing they said the Congolese Army.

I was a bit surprised about this because the rebel group that has been causing the disturbance in the region are the FDLR (perpetrators  of the Rwanda Genocide) and the CNDP, a militia that was part of the army but recently mutined.  The FDLR is a hutu group and the CNDP is a tutsi group.   I think that probably the army has been somewhat indiscriminate about what tutsis it is chasing in its pursuit of the CNDP.  I hope that isn’t too much detail. 

I was very grateful to have talked to the refugees and to get a better understanding of their needs from their own mouths.  They strongly agreed with the need for conflict mediation trainings and counseling. 

We left the north about midday and drove back to Kigali.  I spent the afternoon writing a report on the situation for MCC while Felix visited some friends.  By Thursday morning we were ready to head out and after a brief meeting with the Legal Representative of the church explaining our intentions, we headed to Burundi.

It as an exhausting 3 days and I wished I was heading back home, but that was not to be.  We were in fact going to the Hope School for the Batwa where and evaluation for the end of a 3 year planning cycle was coming to an end.  I wanted to meet the evaluator and get some feedback from him, as well as provide him with some information while he was proceeding.

We actually got there just as they were finishing the work in the field and we followed them back to the town of Gitega where the office of our partner is.  I did have a long exchange with the evaluator, who is also a state inspector for primary and secondary schools and was able to give me a lot of comparative information about the Hope School in comparison to other schools in the region.

Felix and I stayed the night in Gitega and finally headed back down to Bujumbura on Friday morning.  We did get back before noon so I was able to pick the kids up from school. 

It was great to see them and Rebecca.  What made it even better though was that as I went to get Oren his teacher came out beaming and told me how Oren had read a book out loud to the class and he had done it so well that she asked him to do it for two other grades in the primary and nursery schools.  Oren was very proud as well.  Apparently he and Rebecca had been working on it together during the week. 

I was thrilled to see such an improvement, especially after the language setback in karate.  I also took him to karate and had a talk with his teacher about Oren’s failure.  He assured me that this was not a serious setback and Oren does not seem in any mood to quit and has actually made more of an effort to learn the KATAs on his own (movement sequences).   I do think failure is often a better teacher than success.

So the ended very well.  On Saturday we went to the Musee Vivant (the little Burundian zoo) and enjoyed seeing the familiar animals.  It remains as interactive and dangerous as always.  (as far as animal interactions.)  We did manage to keep the kids from jumping into the cage with a gaboon viper.  The leopard did take a few swipes at David through the bars of its cage though. 

On Saturday evening we went to a great party at Naja and Thomas’ house.  There were a lot of expat friends there from school and other places.  We celebrated the fact that he had finally succeeded in getting his work visa renewed (after a 4 month delay) and great concern that it would not be approved at all.  It was truly an answer to prayer and means that Oren will have his friends Aviajah and Elias around for a couple more years with him.  There was a huge group of kids at the party and they had a ton of fun playing with our parachute.  I think Oren felt very much in his element because there were both French speakers and English speakers, but he was on of the very few that could communicate in both languages.

We had a nice Sunday with church and small group.  We ended our small group session with a fellowship meal several of us will be leaving for the summer in the next week. 

Despite the very exhausting schedule and the challenge for Rebecca and I of being apart, it was a week in which we really felt blessed and experienced many answered prayers.  We are trying not to count the weeks to our homeleave, but there are only 2 weeks of school left.  )We leave about 2 weeks after that.) We are not exactly sliding into it though.  We have a lot of work and traveling to do with a visit from both our regional director and then the head of MCC US coming to see us in the month ahead.   Keep us in prayer as we prepare to host them.