Refugee Update

I've checked out Myal's blog and he's updating on the congolese refugees of North Kivu quite well, and unfortunately the situation is getting worse. There is a link to his blog on my blog. I actually have video from both refugee camps, and it's not easy footage to watch. It will take me some time to edit, and I don't know if I will be able to post it, but I will somehow get it out there. I thought I should update you on the Refugees from South Kivu who are coming over the border to Burundi. Many of you got a letter from Trina and I about these refugees, and I've been blessed to meet them and spend time among them. This crisis is continually making the news in my neck of the woods, so I just thought I'd report it to my friends and fam in the West. Here's the latest:




"BUJUMBURA, 19 September 2007 (IRIN) - Hundreds of asylum seekers from the Democratic Republic of Congo who had been camping in a playground in front of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) offices in the Burundian capital, Bujumbura, have been moved to Northern Ngozi province, officials said. "Starting tomorrow [20 September] no asylum seekers will be camping here," said Didace Nzikoruriho, the officer in charge of refugees in the Burundian ministry of home affairs. "The immigration service agents are present here to ensure that even newcomers get their papers." The Congolese who were boarding trucks early on 19 September, were being taken to Musasa transit site, said Bernard Ntwari, UNHCR information officer. Carrying their meagre belongings, some of the Congolese said they were happy to be leaving. One of them, Igumba Bine Bikwaya, told IRIN he expected better living conditions in Musasa. Some of the asylum seekers had camped in the playground for two months. Ntamatungo, a woman in her thirties, who had camped with her two children for 24 days said, "My children will go to school now". Upon arrival at Musasa, the asylum seekers will receive food, shelter, medical care and protection, confirmed Ntwari. Nzikoruriho said there were plans to set up a new refugee camp at Giharo in the eastern province of Rutana to host 30,000 refugees. "All the Congolese refugees will be moved there," Nzikoruriho added, saying the camp should be ready in two months. An initial plan to build another refugee camp at Samvura, in the southern province of Makamba, was abandoned after it was found to be too expensive, he said. Several hundred Congolese nationals started arriving in Burundi early this year, fleeing violence in the South Kivu region of eastern Congo. The numbers have since gone up. Nzikoruriho said 50 to 100 asylum seekers were now arriving each day. The asylum seekers, however, complain that they spend many days before being given papers that would entitle them to assistance. Nzikoruriho said granting asylum was not an easy task. "We take time to identify the asylum seekers, their children, and particularly the reasons for fleeing their country of origin," he explained. There were delays in being able to house the refugees at Musasa due to work being carried out to enlarge the camp. The site is currently at capacity with 5,000 residents. "

A so called life

I recently did a trip around the AGL region (Rurundi, Rwand, Congo). It was a media trip and the purpose was to capture media about the various ministries we are doing in the region. In fact all these pics are from Bryn who was on the trip, one of the pictures is from Myal who comes into this story later. While in Congo we were told to make a stop at a recently formed refugee/IDP (internally displaced peoples) camp just out side of Goma. We were able to talk with the Chief of the camp as well as the IDP's/refugees. We had with us a rep from World Relief headquarters, and a new friend Myal who is serving in Rwanda. Myal went to talk with some of the residents most of whom were teenagers, while I talked with the Chief. One boy, named Leik, was 16 he was living in the camp with his father and his older brother. But he was pretty much on his own. Neither, his brother or father were around, because they regularly left the camp looking for ways to get money or food, and his mother was, “in the ground,” his way of saying she was dead. He was staying in a small hut made out of branches and banana leaves. He sleeps on the ground, he has nothing to eat, has dropped out of school and has no one looking out for him.
In all, there were about 2500 families in the camp, which opened about a month ago. The residents of the camp were run out of their village in a different part of Congo by insurgent forces fighting in the on going conflict. As the conflict in the region is still ongoing, there is no predicting when they will return home. All of the inhabitants have to fend for themselves to find food, and there is no reliable source of water anywhere near the camp. There are no sanitary toilet facilities, and they were borrowing the bathrooms from a nearby school, but school started the day after we left (sept 1st 2007)so the school will no longer be an option. The kids in the camp have been pulled out of their schools, and there is nothing to do for work. Most of the IDP's walk 10 kilometers into Goma to beg, or carry bags for people or any number of menial tasks to get a buck. As we left congo our bags were searched, and once we cleared, a boy eagerly grabed my bag and carried it about 15 feet to the car. I tried to stop him because this happens all the time, and I didn't want to encourage this behavior. I knew he wanted money, and I was completely capable of carrying my bag, then I thought, he may be one of the refugees. I paid him, and said a quick prayer for these people. That is always a tension. One couple birthed a new child the same day we visited the camp. The husband approached me for food with about 50 others. I told him I didn't have enough food or water to give to everyone, and that it wouldn't seem fair to give food to just him. The others listening in said that they didn't need food or water as bad as him, and that it would be okay for me to give what I had to just him. I was shocked, mainly because this has never happened to me since I've been in Africa, starving people accepting the fact that I can give food to one family and not all the others. We gave the new father some food and water, and there was no rioting or fighting from the other refugees, they seemed a bit relieve that the man recieved some help though they were starving and without water themselves. It was a heart wrenching situation. Myal prayed openly with the people. I prayed silently, as I hurt openly for them.
Life there is about as hard as I have seen it in the AGL region so far. Everyone there has been completely uprooted from their lives and landed in a crowded camp with meager shelter, no food, no water and little prospects for being able to generate any kind of income to help provide for themselves. Refugees and IDP's also face the brutalities of being an unwelcome and unwanted burden on those around them, and consequently become severely discriminated against. They have little to rely on other than the basic human survival instincts and the hope that they will one day be able to return to their homes. I was told in a training program that Refugees are the fourth world. Currently in a province just across the boarder in Rwanda there are over 650,000 refugees because of this conflict. Here in Congo 4 million people have been killed in this region of Congo since 2003. The people in this camp just want to go back to their home in Rushuru which is about 100 kilometers west but the rebel faction leader NKunda and his troops are raping and pillaging all the towns in the area. So now they are displaced here, with little hope. Myal asked them for their prayer requests and promised them that he would have in in America join with in praying for them. So please pray for the following:

-for peace in their home area of Rushuru so that they can return home

-for food and clean water in the camp

-that the children would be cared fot

-God would show his love for the people in the camp and that they would be reminded of his care for the oppressed and the suffering.

There is also a refugee camp forming about a mile from my house in Bujumbura. I am hoping to visit with them soon, and talk with them. They are returning from Congo, and are in equally desparate need. I will keep you updated on this situation as it is very near to my heart as I can't imagine the challenge of being a refugee, let alone being a refugee in one of the poorest countries in the world... I don't know.

Journaling isn't helping

I think blogging is starting to cause me to journal less. Journaling is less exciting for me now. I realized this the other day as I was staring blankly at my mosquito net. I wasn’t feeling very well, so I opened my journal intending to write, but instead I just started reading my journal. I was fascinated by my self. Excited all over again by my engaging thoughts which were recorded for my convenience by my own hand. Self affirmation of the purest variety. I also noticed myself thinking how smart I thought I was. For instance, this thought entered my mind as I read an entry from March 7th 2006: “Wow, this entry is over a year old! I can’t believe I knew all that about life back then. Incredible.”
It’s worth mentioning that I started journaling in the first place so that I could notice unhealthy thought patterns, or emotional habits that may be reoccurring so that I could start changing for the better once I recognized them. I don’t know if that makes sense. I wanted to see bad patterns in my thinking so I could then change once recognized. But as I read my journals, I found myself completely agreeing with my former self. In some cases cheering my former self on, excited about my thoughts at the time, and my thoughts in general about all things. Sometimes I wanted to edit some of my thoughts in some entries giving new insight that I’ve since learned, that further supports what I then already suspected. But before I made the edits, I stopped myself. It seemed weird editing my thoughts/journal entries (I wondered if anyone else thought about editing their journal… what are the implications of such a move)… but I didn’t want to make a new entry… So I just sat there. Staring. It was then I realized that journaling isn’t going to help me see those bad patterns I was looking for; it was only going to feed my self, and build even more narcisism. In addition to this journaling would then solidify my self in me. Oh what a wretched man am I. This could be my personal rendition of Rom 7, only completely different. Yes, definately different than Rom 7. I'm not going to give up on journaling yet. That's what I've just decided. I'll keep journaling, but I won't use it at a intervention for change.