Life and work in the DRC

 We have now been in the Democratic Republic of Congo (sometimes called Congo Kinshasa to distinquish it from its neighbor, Congo Brazzaville) for almost a month. We landed in Kinshasa as planned, but with only 1 piece of luggage. Obviously flight operations (of all sorts) are totally out of wack. We left the US late and therefore missed our flight in Paris. We then heard stories of a strike of baggage workers in Paris and saw some pretty apololyptic video of the baggage situation there. But, over the next 3 weeks, we did get all of our missing luggage! We were very impressed with the office in the airport that was directing the effort to recover missing bags and reunite them with their owners!

7 days after landing in Kinshasa, we were on our way to Bunia, one of the bases that Medair has in the East of the country. Medair's work is concentrated in Nord Kivu & Ituri provinces. And that work is based on life-saving assistance to internally displaced persons (IDPs) who have been chased from their homes because of the violence perpetrated by the over 100 armed groups in the east of the country. We have found out that often the health care workers flee with the other civilians when there is an attack. 

An IDP sourrounding a health center supported by Medair

The work is quite different from the work in Bangladesh, where we had our own health centers and nutrition centers. In Congo, Medair supports government-run health centers (-run, but not government-funded: the staff and centers are financed through fees) which do both health and nutrition work. Then the water and sanitation (WASH) department of Medair comes alongside the health & nutrition work to improve WASH facilities at these health centers. When Medair signs a MoU with a health facility, it means that the facility is responding to the needs of IDPs. Medair supports the facility in every possible way, including giving a stipend to health staff so that IDPs can receive health care free of charge. In addition Medair provides medical and nutrition supplies, WASH support, supervision (to assure proper care and management) and emergency support. 

It has been very good for Christine to be at the Bunia base as it has allowed her to get out and see what the work really looks like. Visiting 4 different locations where Medair is working has given her insight into the context that we work in, the challenges that our staff face, and the difficult realities of people Medair serves - both those who are internally displaced as well as the host communities. This part of the country is really quite beautiful with rolling hills, covered either in forests or farmland. However it also is conducive to the armed groups being able to operate as the road infrastructure is not well developed. On one two day trip to a location that Christine was visiting she literally bounced in the landcruiser for about 5 /12 hrs each day - going and coming. More to come on Christine's work in the future!

Phil's work has revolved around getting to know the logs aspect of Medair's Congo work. He has been able to see some of the weaknesses that exist in the execution of logs tasks in Bunia. And he has been working with the team there to set up framework agreements with vendors 

Picture from the LandCruiser
going out to a site

for some of the vital services or supplies that the team needs. These framework agreements really help the procurement task! He has also gotten involved in the final report for a project that ended the end of June - reporting on gift in kind (GIK) distributed through this project, equipment depreciation on equipment bought through this project (or previous ones from this donor) and writing the narrative about supply chain challenges (which will be the subject of another blog - there are a ton of them!). This is all pretty mundane logistics tasks, but all of them have been helpful in putting the logs puzzle together (still working at that)!

Some of you may have heard (if you follow international news - I believe it made the front page of the BBC news website) of the unrest in Eastern Congo over the last week. This has been largely restricted to 3 different cities. And it has revolved around looting and rioting against the presence of the the UN peacekeeping force, MONUSCO, here in Eastern Congo. The discontent has to do with feeling like MONUSCO's presence isn't really protecting people. So there are those who say that MONUSCO should withdraw. This article is a pretty good summary of the reality. Things have been calm the the last couple of days. But there will be some funerals of protesters on Monday which we pray will not become a flashpoint. 

There was hope that we would get our permanent visas yesterday or tomorrow. We haven't heard that we have gotten them yet. We are scheduled to fly to Goma on Wednesday for a strategic planning meeting. And the hope was that we would be able to simply stay there as we would have our passports back. We are not sure how that will all play out. But it has been very good to be in Bunia and see the work here. We are thankful!

Some of you may have contributed to Medair in the past, so we though you might be interested in looking at the Annual report: https://www.medair.org/annual-report-2021/. 

Also, before we left Bangladesh, we talked about the hunger stalking the world (exacerbated by the war in Ukraine). Here is a blog from the Medair CEO on the issue of global hunger. 

Thanks for walking with us as we work in DRC!

Praise: 

• For progress on our visas
• For our luggage getting to us in Congo!
• For a great start to our time in Congo
• For amazing Medair colleagues - both Congolese and international

Prayer:

• For our visas to be issued
• For peace to prevail on Monday during the funerals for protesters 
• For the few remaining Bangladeshi colleagues who have not gotten jobs
• For Phil to assemble the pieces of the logs jigsaw puzzle in order to better understand strengths and weaknesses
• For Phil to be effective in delegating so that he can, from the beginning, think strategically about the logs aspect of our work
• For a peace based on justice in Eastern Congo and with its neighbors
• For people of peace to prevail in the current challenge of riots against MONUSCO
• For Medair getting their customs convention signed in Congo - since coming I have learned that this is a problem for most non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
• For Manu finishing up his undergraduate studies well, and the Lord's leading for next steps

Back in the States - getting ready for Eastern Congo

Downtown Minneapolis from a recent bike ride

 We so appreciate your prayers during the shutting down of the Medair programme in Bangladesh. It was a process fraught with unanticipated challenges and tasks. But we are globally thankful for the way the process was completed. The handover of our projects to partners went well. And most of our colleagues have gotten new jobs (some were so committed through the end of the programme that they did little job research until the process was over!). 

We hit the ground in the US on the 1st of May. The next day we flew to GA for a debrief. That was a really helpful process! One of the things that we did was to identify losses (both longer term and those related to our nearly 4 years in Bangladesh). And one of those losses is the opportunity to walk alongside one of the most vulnerable peoples of our world - the Rohingya! It is difficult to let go of our identification with them, even though it was the right time for Medair to shut down the programme. 

In many ways, we were (relationally) closer to our Bangladeshi colleagues than to the Rohingya, so we are dealing with the loss of those friendships as well. 

But it has been great for us to have 2 months to spend with family & friends (you can see ongoing relationships with family/friends in the States or around the world as part of our loss as well - it seems to be getting harder and harder to leave our kids each time we return to the States and then take off again). We were able to spend a bit over a week with Annika in OH (and a few more days with she and her boyfriend, Rudi, when they came to MN) along with lots of quality time with Nathan & Anna and Lydia who continue to live in MN. We also made a trip to CA to see some of Christine's family and ride the Amtrak from San Francisco to San Diego. This time has filled our relational cups! 

https://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/map/dr_congo_map2.htm

Our time in the States is drawing to an end today (our new contracts with Medair started on the 1st). Because of the tension between Rwanda and DR Congo which has been building for half a year, we are planning to book tickets to Kinshasa, rather than to Goma. In that way, we will be able to work directly on getting our permanent visas in the administrative capitol of Congo (Kinshasa) before leaving for our work site (Goma - in the east). Originally we had planned to go directly to Goma and send our passports to Kinshasa for processing. During the time we are in Kinshasa, we will probably be able to visit some of the bases where there isn't currently tension. But, given the current situation, the team in Goma was uncomfortable with us being in Goma without our passports - in case there would be an evacuation. So our plans are shifting a bit, as we head to Kinshasa. What's new?

Many of you are already aware of the situation in Eastern Congo. There is significant unrest in the area which has created 6.5 million internally displaced persons in the region. Medair works to respond to the needs of these persons, and their communities. We have several field bases besides the main coordination base in Goma (where we will be living when we get our visas from Kinshasa). 

Phil will be taking up the logistics manager (LM) role in Congo. He was LM in Bangladesh, but the two programs are hardly comparable. The Congo program is much more complicated, dealing with multiple bases and getting a great deal of procurement from outside the country (and having to, thus, deal with customs). Christine's job title is Community Engagement, Safeguarding and Accountability Manager - a long title for a role with a variety of hats!! She will focus on the work Medair is doing in communities - trying to build ownership and resilience at the community level (so communities can better cope in times of unrest), streamlining the work of volunteers, and focusing on the crosscutting issues of protection (a huge issue in the humanitarian aid sesctor) and feedback. 

Finally, we have been supporting the son of a Beninese pastoral couple (who are dear friends from our time in Benin) as he attends a university in Ghana for a BS in Biomedical Engineering. Manu is graduating from this university in September, so we would simply like to know if anyone in our network has connections in this industry? He would like to continue his studies in North America as well as beginning to work, if possible. So let us know if you have any ideas! He is essentially the retirement plan of his parents in Benin - so his entire family is relying on him. 

Whew! We have been trying to get this done since landing in the US. Thank you for walking with us on our journey, which now takes us to DRC. 

Praise: 

• Christine finished the 'story' of Medair's health & nutrition work over the past 4.5 years - yeah!
• For good rest and time with family and friends
• For purpose in our lives!
• For jobs found by most of our former Bangladeshi colleagues

Prayer:

• That those who now care for the Rohingya in our former facilities would have a deep sense of vocation and work with the Rohingya volunteers in serving those in the camps. 
• For a peace based on justice in Eastern Congo and with its neighbors
• For our adjustments to new roles
• For Medair getting their customs convention signed in Congo
• For cohesion in the Medair Congo team as Christine & I add to their number
• Manu finishing up his studies well and prospering, in all senses of the world, as he moves on