Irene

Irène

My bag is packed, I hope that everything is in there. I’m looking forward to going to the field, an opportunity that doesn’t occur every day for us who are working in communications. At the same time I have a lot of respect for the task lying in front of me. Yesterday I’ve searched for Dungu on Google Earth together with my two sons. While we found many pictures of Kampala, and some of Bunia, the next stop on my journey after Kampala, the location where Dungu is supposed to be is covered with endless green. That’s it from the preparations. Tomorrow at 6.50 I’m boarding for Amsterdam.

Goodbye

April 1st, 2009
Blogs, Irene
Friday, 27th February Back in Bunia, which appears almost like a metropolis with its motorbikes, UN-cars, pedestrians. It has an urban atmosphere that was completely absent in Dungu. Before, Susan, the photographer, and I were joking that Bunia reminded us of a Wild-West-City with its dusty main road and its rundown houses… I miss the remoteness, the [...]

IDP Camp KK2

March 31st, 2009
Blogs, Irene
IDP Camp KK2
Wednesday, 25th of February Finally I have the opportunity again, to accompany the team. MSF was informed that many displaced people have settled an hour north west from Dungu, at a place with the strange name KK2 (KaKa Deux). We want to know more about their access to medical care and their sanitation conditions and look [...]

Congo Calling

March 31st, 2009
Blogs, Irene
Congo Calling
Tuesday, 24th of February Office routine and rainfalls. We planned to go to Faradje today, one of the villages hit worst by the LRA terror and where MSF is supporting the health center. But there are problems with the plane, so we have to stay in Dungu. Also in the field, there is something like office [...]

Lack

March 30th, 2009
Blogs, Irene
Monday, February 23rd One by one, the journalists are leaving. They took amazing photos which, as we hope, will contribute to attracting international attention to the crisis in north-eastern Congo. Since LRA violence is going on. Serge, the project coordinator, records the attacks and raids of which we were informed: According to his notes, fifteen villages [...]

Weekend

February 26th, 2009
Blogs, Irene
Weekend
On weekends, it’s a bit more calm here: The team is not leaving Dungu, but only visiting the local hospital where MSF is taking care of the patients who have been transferred from the villages. Though it’s weekend, the team is busy writing weekly reports. I am writing my articles for the MSF Websites and the [...]

Visiting international journalists

February 20th, 2009
Blogs, Irene
Visiting international journalists
One week after my departure I see my bag again that Jean, the pilot, brought me from Bunia. The Nutella glass has not survived the trip despite the good wrapping and went directly to the trash. I am happy to have my own clothes now though I got used already to the old and baggy [...]

Clinic on two wheels

February 18th, 2009
Blogs, Irene
Clinic on two wheels
Today I am going with our mobile hospital unit to Ambitiko – that’s a 18 km motorcycle ride across the bush, lasting a good hour. In total, five motorcycles are on their way: the two Clémentines, the Congolese nurses, two assistants, the drivers and I. Between walls of clay and under a roof of thatch, [...]

Doruma

February 17th, 2009
Blogs, Irene
Doruma
Now, it’s definitely too late to be sceptical about small airplanes: We are on the flight to Dungu, far away in the North East of the DRC. With me on board the logisticians Xavier and Jan. Our carrier today is MAF, an airline operated by protestant missionaries, as I find out on board. The pilots [...]

Visit to the Hospital „Bon Marché“

February 16th, 2009
Blogs, Irene
Visit to the Hospital „Bon Marché“
The day starts with bad news: my bag has finally arrived in Entebbe but has not been given to the MSF colleagues who were in the same machine. This means that I will continue travelling “light” tomorrow. First, this really annoys me, but there is also an advantage to it: I have to go to [...]

Impressions from Bunia

February 15th, 2009
Blogs, Irene
A quiet day. Singings from a nearby church wake me up. Our compound, which houses only the members of the emergency team, is empty except Ghislaine from Montreal and me. Ghislaine came back yesterday from an exploratory mission lasting several days in the north. She has ten hours drive on Congolese roads in her bones [...]
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