Panzi Hospital is probably the most well-known hospital in all of DR Congo. It's gained a great deal of attention due to the fact that they have a section which is devoted to treating cases of sexual violence.
Attention was really thrust upon the hospital by a special report on CNN in 2006, then Eve Ensler of "The Vagina Monologues" fame, and then Oprah. What has thusly ensued and is fueled by seemingly good intentions has been a media blitz the likes of which is preposterous. The issue of sexual violence is currently one of the "sexy" issues in the eastern regions of Congo. It's sexiness is due to its brutality and the fact that it makes for news story that leave western mouths agape.
To back up a bit, the regions of eastern DR Congo have been in the midst of a multi-national war that has scarred the Ituri, North Kivu, and South Kivu regions for the past decade starting in 1998 and officially ending in 2003, although a great number of skirmishes still flare up and there are large numbers of rebels still in the jungles. Rather than attempting to sum up (and probably quote incorrectly), those who are interested should read more about what has been termed, the African World War.
Most of the results of the war were typical and quickly glossed over by western media once western interest waned. Land mines? Sure, they exist, but that's so WWII. Death? Sure, about 5.4 million people they estimate, but hey, that's just war. Displacement? Of course, but that can happen anywhere and without war as was seen in New Orleans, so that's super boring. Rape? Well, now we're starting to get somewhere, since rape isn't something we like to think happens in the western world and can be easily juxtaposed on Africa as a problem inherent to the "Dark Continent". Sexual violence? Ah yes, pay dirt. The more brutally and horrendous the violence done to women and girls, the better. That is sordid news and it makes for the kind of print runs that leave the rest of the world shaking their heads in disbelief. A disbelief I might add, that is prejudicial. Yes, these events occurred. No one would ever want to belittle what has happened to the people in this area, but to posit the reporting in such a way as to paint the Africans in the countries involved as being anymore brutal than any other humans in the history of warfare is just pathetic, lazy journalism. For a brilliant take on this point and the excessive abuse of hyperbole, Michela Wrong (whose writing is simply some of the finest there is) wrote an article about her frustrations in how journalists are dealing with the situation in eastern Congo.
While all these media coverage has generated a good deal of funding directed to the hospital, much of the money doesn't get there, as it is tied up in bureaucracy like the UNFPA which seems to only exist to fund staff and offices who then disseminate money to organizations that actually are hands-on. But as far as hospitals go in Congo, this is one of the better ones with people receiving treatment and getting help. Obviously there is more demand that there is space, but this will hopefully improve with time. Something that would help to improve it is journalists covering other hospitals in the regions, which while not the media darlings that Panzi is, are doing much the same work, yet without the recognition. And this is a big problem. Western people don't understand what's happening in Congo and so they figure that just throwing money at the issue will make it better. While it may make them feel good about themselves and less guilty about the good lives we lead in the US and Europe it isn't fixing the problems.
We need journalist that actually go out and do their jobs instead of just nuzzling the easy headlines. I mean, there was a German journalist from Focus magazine there the day we were. When asked if they had an angle or if was just a reportage, the photographer told me it was just a reportage and he actually felt good about this. Panzi is flooded with people reporting on a story that has been done to death, so why does it keep happening? We talked with Dr. Denis Mukwege and the man is tired of journalists coming day in, day out for reports that interrupt his work and then don't translate in to action. It's what I like to call the "Israel Syndrome" wherein journalists get their hooks in to a place that's easy to cover and gets a lot of attention from their viewers/readers. Thusly they keep going back there time and again whenever a "tough" piece is needed.
As citizens in our respective countries, we need to have awareness to start with and then effective action to follow. Sensationalist blather like Lisa Jackson's The Greatest Silence get all kinds of media attention, while films that actually tell the stories of the victims, such as Lumo (which wasn't shot at Panzi) get overlooked. And while I would suggest that direct aid is the best place to put your money, I wouldn't suggest that Westerners should head to Bukavu or Goma and attempt to save the helpless, no matter how grand their delusions. People need to be aware of where their money is going. Just blindly donating to the Red Cross or agencies such as UNFPA does little good as you don't really know where your money is going. For god's sake, read up and learn about the agencies that operate in places like Congo. The information is out there. Make use off all the benefits of the web and be an educated donor, not one of Oprah's blind followers. That is of more help to Panzi and the other hospitals at the moment than anything else, because the source of the suffering and sexual violence comes from the foreign policies of our governments and if we really and truly want to end it, we need to pressure the people in charge not just slap a bandage on bad politics.
One of the things that no one really learns except for the hard way is how serious the Congolese take lowering their flag at the end of the day.
We found ourselves standing around the commercial district at 6PM and I started noticing everything stopping. The hustle and bustle ground to a halt. The traffic slowed. Cars were turned off. Everyone was facing west and standing rigid, not talking. It was like the scenes in Dark City where the entire city would freeze in a state suspended animation. Surreal doesn't really even begin to explain it.
The only problem in this is that as an outsider, you have no clue what is going on. Maybe you try to ask someone, but you'll only get a nasty reply telling you to shut up. If you keep going about your business, people will really take offense at your doing this. You just have to know that this is the custom and that you need to respect it or be in an area with expats where everyone ignores it.
This is apparently another holdover from Mobutu times that people stick to. It's rather surprising that there have been seven different flags for DR Congo in it's relatively brief history with the latest one that everyone respects so dearly being brought in to effect just two years ago. I guess in the end, it has more to do with the act of respect rather than the object that the respect is being directed at.
In case you're wondering, the flag is raised at 7AM each day with people singing the national anthem.
Kinshasa is admittedly a difficult if not pointless town for the normal tourist. Besides all the messiness of it and the fact that getting around is incredibly difficult if you can't ride on the back on the UN shuttles, there isn't really much to see. This is a new city (founded in 1876, which makes it newer than even San Francisco) and the small bits of history that were there from colonial times, were completely obliterated when the Congolese achieved independence due to what they represented. Other towns in this situation often get a good club scene going or have beaches or something else for the visitor to enjoy. Unfortunately this is not the case in Kinshasa and even having access to the Congo River is impossible because they've walled it off along the town due to it being an international boundary, because you know, so many people want to sneak in to Congo illegally due to its "freshness"...
As always though, it you poke around enough, you will usually find something redeeming about any place. In the case of Kinshasa, it's Patisserie Nouvelle. This is a bakery in the middle of Gombe, the center of town. It also happens to be just a hop and a skip from the HQ for MONUC, which explains a good deal of the success, being that a good degree of the clientèle are expats looking for what I would warrant to say is the hands down the best croissants outside of France. The Congolese aren't to be left out on this and also go to Nouvelle to eat, despite the fact it is extremely expensive for them.
This may seem like a silly thing to get excited about until you think about all the non-French croissants that you may have had in your life. I know that in the US, croissants suck. They're always too dry and not flaky enough. It's like places are too scared or too cheap to use enough butter in them. In Spain, a country that has a border with and a royal family from France, fares about as well in the croissant department. Again, I don't get it and I just gave up eating croissants except when in France, which is something that doesn't happen as much as I'd like.
But here at Nouvelle, the croissants are bombastically good. They're just like the best ones I've had in France. But even beyond the croissants, the breads, sweets, and other baked goods at Nouvelle are also top notch. It's an astounding find in place like DR Congo and the atmosphere inside is a lot like some small French cafe that you'd find Paris. We pretty much lived on this place for breakfast while we stayed in Kinshasa.
For those interested in finding it, there used to be a website that was part of the site for Caf Conc, which is a very upscale restaurant nearby that the same people own, who happen to be Belgians, not French. Alas, the website has long been dead, so about the only way I can point folks to these dreamy baked goods is via a Google map. If one finds oneself in Kinshasa, make sure to drop in.
If you're driving to work in San Francisco and you're stuck on one of the many highways around the area, you might often yell, "This traffic is insane!" I would counter with the fact that no, it's quite normal, orderly, and even predictable. I will take the traffic of the US or anywhere in Europe, any day, over what I saw in Kinshasa.
The problem of course revolves around the fact that somehow, despite all the poverty, there are what seem to be millions of cars in the city that are hell-bent on moving around the 10 million inhabitants on a daily basis. The great majority of these cars are not in good shape, so they pollute like it's going out of style. They also break down quite often and are either repaired in the middle of the road or abandoned, which is done in the middle of the road as well.
It's a mess that starts around eight in the morning, gets steadily worse until gridlock sets in, in the middle of the day, and then things smooth out a bit near the end of the day, when it gets dark around six. A lot of these cars are missing headlights, so it's difficult for them to drive after dark. If it rains, the roads are abandoned because probably 90% of the cars simply can't drive when there is a downpour.
But it's how people drive that make the traffic what it is. If you ever get mad at some random jerk who cuts you off on I-880, you shouldn't drive in Kinshasa. That is how people always drive. They just kind of slam their way through all the cars to get where they're going. It's a bit like American individualism on crack. There are surprisingly few accidents though, which I attribute more to the fact you can't drive faster than 60kph anywhere, so it lessens the impacts. I did see one though and it was nasty with both cars folded up in what looked like a direct head-on collision.
There are many mundele who drive though and as amazingly as it is, I drove in all of this as well. It was quite an experience, but because everyone is doing it, it makes driving somewhat easy. I mean this only in the sense that you can kind of handle it if you start driving like the Congolese. Trying to be proper and allowing people to merge or obeying the right of way at four way stops will get you nowhere. No one has gone to driving school, although there is one in the city. Most folks either hop in a car and start driving or pay the $50 to pick up a driver's license. That's all there is to it. You pay the money and you can legally drive. No test. No other rules. I almost bought one as a souvenir, but didn't have the time, nor the inclination to go down and deal with it. It's a cool license though, because where in the US you need a different license to drive different classes of vehicles, the Congolese have streamlined the process and have this license allowing you to drive anything from a motorcycle, to a big rig truck, to a steamroller.
Overall, I'd have to say that I wish to never drive in Kinshasa again. One experience was definitely enough and it can be summed up by the fact that when we were stuck in some detour that was causing a massive juggernaut, I was passed by a guy going 30kph (20mph in metric-so-scary-land), on my left, in reverse. If that doesn't blow your mind, then you should consider a future career as a taxi driver in the center of Kinshasa. They can always use a few more.
Officially, it's legal to take photos in DR Congo, although for professional purposes you are supposed to have a permit. Unofficially, it's a scorned practice.
This is the problem that I've been running in to while being here. If you want to take a shot, you need to be stealthy about it. Using point and shoots is advisable over hauling out the 30D with the 2.8 aperture lens on it that makes it looks like a gun.
If regular people see you taking a photo, they will get in your face about it. This can vary by region though. In the west, they are much more antagonistic than in the east, probably because the west has more people sitting on their asses with little to do but harass people.
The police are the worst of all. They won't let you off without a bribe. Friends of friends have actually been taken down the police station only to argue their way out of bribes though, as it is legal to take pictures. This is a practice that you just want to do for the purpose of being right as they'll detain you for for several hours before you get out of there. Passing off a dollar's worth of Francs will make life go a lot smoother if cops get in between your camera and a shot.
This attitude about taking photos dates back to the Mobutu times when it was absolutely forbidden to take pictures in what was then Zaire. As is the case with just about every aspect of modern society in DR Congo, these old habits are hell to kill off and thusly people get offended of your taking photos of things. Even if it's something as silly as taking a picture of an empty street, someone will get offended in the end if they see you, which can drive you crazy because it makes you think that they should focus more on fixing their streets than harassing a tourist with a camera.
So, here is the problem for me. I like to have photos to emphasize my blog posts, but for this series on DR Congo, the photos are going to be limited. Some will have them and some will not. I will have a nice selection of photos in the galleries once I get to posting them from Spain though.
It's a real shame that people are so assinine about this, as the country is beautifully colorful and the people vibrant and full of life despite their endless hardships that they've had to endure.
Upon arrival in Kinshasa, DR Congo, the first site for visitors in N'Djili Airport, which is definitely not the most pleasant of sites. It's rundown. It's smelly. It's crowded and it is overall a complete zoo.
Previous to visiting Congo, I read up a great deal on the country and this airport was one of my biggest fears. The endless delays in getting through it, the possibility of losing a great deal from your luggage when going through "customs", and then trying to get away from the airport and in to the center of Kinshasa were all daunting problems not allowing me to sleep on the seven hour leg of the flight from Paris to Kinshasa.
Once we got there, my fears weren't fully lived up to. They have apparently cleaned up the airport a great deal in recent years and the need to have a "control" to usher you through the airport has lessened. It still sucks though and there are what I consider to be the five levels of purgatory before you are actually released upon Kinshasa.
1. Passport Inspection This is pretty minor and is just checking to see if you have a visa. The line is lengthy and stretches out on to the tarmac as naturally there are no true landing gates for the planes.
2. Passport Control A much longer process. You stand in lines with everyone else as you weed your way through a couple of booths checking each person's allowance to be in the country. This was apparently much faster in the past, but has been slowed down in the last month as the Congolese staff are learning to use some new computers that the EU got them. Once they get used to it, it will most likely speed up. One thing to note here is that no matter how seemingly stupid of a request the police might ask of you, go along with it. They have nothing else to do other than controlling that line and if you feel like giving them shit, they will give it right back. Just be patient and listen to them and respect them.
3. Health Control A minor step to make sure you have your yellow fever vaccination and your immunization card, which if your traveling here, you should most definitely have had.
4. Luggage... Sweet jesus almighty. This is the worst part. You stand along the luggage conveyor for something like two hours or more waiting for your baggage to come out. This may seem like a boring wait, except that there is no air conditioning in the space and there are all these random guys who want to "help" you grab your bags for a tip. It's sweaty and completely not fun, but is part of this journey. The biggest issue here is if you bag was lost, like one of ours was in the tight transfer in Paris. You don't find out that the bag is gone until the very end of all of this and then once you know, you have to register it as lost and then wait until the next flight, of which there are only three a week. Of course you have to get in a circular line (also known as a mobbing) to get in there to register your lost luggage.
5. Clearance and Onward Once you have your luggage, ignore every single person outside the airport. They will forcefully try to grab your bags to again "help" you carry them for a tip. Just cling on to them and keep going for either your ride, the taxis, or if you're lucky enough, the UN shuttle to the center. It should be noted that the taxis will be $50+ to get in to the center. Why? Because it's an hour ride on some of the worst roads ever conceived.
But that's it. Just a few simple steps. Just a few minor hours and you'll soon be in Kinshasa, home to 10 million people and a whole lot more craziness that I'll get in to again when I can get at the internet, which is scarce commodity in these parts.
