tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-193308642024-03-07T05:58:49.835+00:00NayémbiCarine's newschicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00349349907130605503noreply@blogger.comBlogger180125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19330864.post-4728362736510514692009-02-11T23:38:00.000+00:002009-02-11T23:39:08.868+00:00Keeping busyIt makes perfect sense to me that before they can walk, babies should be taken everywhere, preferably carried in a sling, and allowed to observe their mother’s everyday activities, without becoming the focus of these activities. I think back to the babies I saw in Africa, strapped to their mother’s back, while she fetched water, tended her crops, went to the market, prepared food, washed clotheschicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00349349907130605503noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19330864.post-31305106280672109982009-02-10T23:09:00.001+00:002009-10-23T22:42:03.178+00:00ResurrectionI started this blog as a means of keeping in touch with friends and family whilst in Kinshasa, so it came to a natural end when I moved back to London. Now it’s been almost a year since my last post, and in the meantime I’ve embarked on a whole new adventure: motherhood. I haven’t quite decided whether to resurrect Nayembi or leave her to rest. It’s a surprisingly time-consuming thing to keepchicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00349349907130605503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19330864.post-35337628964524836492008-03-13T13:46:00.002+00:002008-03-13T13:49:06.814+00:00A tam-tam countryIt has become traditional, now, for all my end-of-posting return trips to have some nightmarish element to them.When I left Honduras in 2003, my flight to London was cancelled, and I had to hitch a ride back into town, sharing the back of a pick-up truck with the mariachi band F had hired to bid me an unforgettable goodbye. I missed my connecting flight to Nice and had to purchase a new ticket.chicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00349349907130605503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19330864.post-33872188652236006192008-02-15T10:48:00.002+00:002008-02-15T11:02:09.306+00:00Sexy LoveOn recommendation from a good friend of ours, F tried to book a table at this romantic and aptly named Valentine’s Day dinner venue. Photo by Vikky BullockUnfortunately, they were fully booked, so we sat at home and watched Supernanny Jo Frost bully a fiendish five year old into submission instead.P.S: For reasons too complicated to go into right now, we actually celebrate Valentine’s Day on 15 chicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00349349907130605503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19330864.post-83626960397538719802008-02-13T21:46:00.001+00:002008-02-15T11:13:35.594+00:00All hail buckets and head torchesWhat should this fact tell you: The Congo River drains more than 1.3 million square miles, and, over a mere 220 miles, it descends nearly a thousand feet..?Two things, I would suggest:1. There is no water shortage in the Congo, at least not in the vicinity of the river.2. There is no electricity shortage in the Congo, given the river’s incredible, unrivalled hydroelectric power.Wrong, and wrong chicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00349349907130605503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19330864.post-40976610924280234842008-02-11T19:04:00.000+00:002008-02-11T19:07:58.540+00:00Turmoil amongst magistratesToo much detail for most of you, but some may be interested in the latest instalment in the ongoing tripartite tug-of-war between the judiciary, the executive and the legislature.On Friday President Kabila announced out of the blue, seemingly without consulting anyone (except presumably the Minister of Justice), the immediate retirement of 92 magistrates (who were either over 65 or had been chicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00349349907130605503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19330864.post-49115775634234300572008-02-06T15:41:00.000+00:002008-02-06T15:52:10.130+00:00More from Radio Trottoir.If there is one thing I seem to report on over and over again, it is Kinshasa’s endless rumours and speculation.After the preposterous story of the impending British invasion, since Friday we have been assailed by rumours of a coup attempt, which then turned into rumours of the President’s death (no less). The failure of both Joseph and his wife Olive to attend last Sunday’s massive celebrationschicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00349349907130605503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19330864.post-77781201334380543092008-02-03T18:49:00.000+00:002008-02-03T18:55:59.432+00:00JinxedJust in case anyone thought that the Kivus hadn’t had more than their fair share of calamity, two earthquakes (of respectively 6.0 and 5.0 magnitude) hit Bukavu (and Rwanda) this morning.. chicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00349349907130605503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19330864.post-67678935168702907312008-02-03T18:44:00.000+00:002008-02-06T15:57:17.887+00:00Rumour gone crazyThe peace agreement did get signed, on 24 January. Four days later came the first report of a ceasefire violation: CNDP (Nkunda’s people) accused PARECO and some Mai Mai groups of attacking and robbing villagers. Still, I don’t want to sound too cynical – the agreement surely represents a great opportunity, and I’m certain all those who were present at the Goma conference (starting with MONUC’s chicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00349349907130605503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19330864.post-65906623485992351172008-01-23T09:55:00.000+00:002008-01-23T10:14:15.992+00:00To sign or not to sign?For more than two weeks, over 1300 participants representing the government, parliament, civil society, ethnic groups and rival armed factions have been talking in Goma. The outcome of these complex, seemingly interminable negotiations is an agreement, announced on Monday but yet to be fully agreed and signed, that is said to provide for an immediate ceasefire, the withdrawal of rebel troops fromchicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00349349907130605503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19330864.post-7523004580639918482008-01-10T17:03:00.000+00:002008-01-10T17:41:36.976+00:00Year of the dog?We’re back in Kinshasa, after a rather lazy holiday, for our final stint here. Yes, it’s official, this is D-day minus 51. On 1 March we will be leaving and heading back to London for a bit; you know, take stock, breathe deeply, recharge the batteries…So, as is wont to happen in these cases, I find myself noticing all the little things around me that make up this intense world we are chicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00349349907130605503noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19330864.post-31211154249019865872007-12-20T20:49:00.000+00:002007-12-20T20:56:18.812+00:00Merry Christmas.chicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00349349907130605503noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19330864.post-56251821176792732007-12-19T19:11:00.000+00:002007-12-20T08:59:39.039+00:00Death of a tumbuMy more faithful readers will recall a little incident involving a writhing maggot, my left bum cheek, Vaseline experiments and a badly infected abscess, all ending rather unhappily with a scalpel incision and a Christmas holiday spent changing dressings. Well, almost a year to the day, the Christmas worm came back (or, more likely, a cousin of his).Here is a picture of the fiend, after F. chicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00349349907130605503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19330864.post-89717049399351398592007-12-14T11:32:00.000+00:002007-12-14T12:34:54.139+00:00Interlude: from Bali to Kakamigahara via Mount RushmoreAccording to the radio this morning (RFI), the UN climate change conference in Bali isn’t really going anywhere. The hope was that by now (11.30 GMT), delegates would have mapped out a two-year process to agree a set of emissions cuts to replace the current Kyoto Protocol targets. The Times reports that “the proposal, supported by the EU and Brazil, would have set out in writing an ambition to chicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00349349907130605503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19330864.post-11169384251591112982007-12-13T14:39:00.000+00:002007-12-13T15:02:38.963+00:00Solution, anyone?The DRC is now firmly in the mainstream international press. This article in NY Times provides a good update of the ever-evolving situation in North Kivu.Following the early army successes, many people in North Kivu dared to hope that a swift victory was at hand and some were already preparing a victory march. Humanitarian workers feared for Tutsi civilians, in whose name General Nkunda claims tochicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00349349907130605503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19330864.post-55089033826723639072007-12-05T17:29:00.000+00:002007-12-05T17:45:29.503+00:00A bad year for gorillasUnless you have privileged access to UN situation reports, it’s very difficult from Kinshasa to know how the situation is evolving in North Kivu. In my hunger for information, I started to read some of the blogs, such as this one from the rangers at Virunga National Park.I discovered that this really hasn’t been a good year for gorillas in Virunga:· In January, two gorillas were killed and eaten.chicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00349349907130605503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19330864.post-51687818639307391702007-12-05T17:26:00.000+00:002007-12-05T17:28:38.946+00:00North Kivu updateThe first day of fighting seemed to go Nkunda’s way, but since yesterday the tables have started to turn back in the government’s favour.While F. waited patiently in Masisi for a UN helicopter to take him to relative safety, I was privy to an hour-by-hour account of the slow but steady advance of the Congolese Army from Sake (30 km northwest of Goma) to Mushake (40 km from Goma, on the road to chicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00349349907130605503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19330864.post-3510475217557827822007-12-03T19:37:00.000+00:002007-12-20T08:38:24.623+00:00Hard and fastLast week I was temporarily distracted by London, where I went on a whirlwind visit to speak at a conference about the DRC. It’s the second consecutive year that I attend this conference and make a presentation on the DRC, and it’s the second year that I return home to turmoil. For now I will continue to focus my attention on ‘the troubled eastern province of North Kivu’, as it is regularly chicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00349349907130605503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19330864.post-44392334899440265812007-11-25T06:06:00.000+00:002007-12-20T08:18:17.538+00:00Looking grim: North KivuThe talk over the last few weeks has been about the fighting in North Kivu (what marks the boundary between fighting and war?). The deadline set by President Kabila for General Nkunda to reintegrate his forces into the national army passed more than a month ago, and everyone expected a major army offensive. Then a series of unexpected events provided a small measure of skeptical hope:- the chicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00349349907130605503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19330864.post-7337503000439791722007-11-17T18:17:00.000+00:002007-11-17T18:35:56.137+00:00TruceSoon it will be two years since I first arrived in Kinshasa.The first year and a half was a roller-coaster emotions and experiences. Since July, however, I seem to have reached some kind of neutral zone, a sort of gentleman's compromise, with Kinshasa: I will never love it, and it will never love me, but I have learned to appreciate the good bits and to live with certain reliably frustrating chicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00349349907130605503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19330864.post-72158103489755474542007-11-14T20:41:00.001+00:002007-11-17T18:15:36.221+00:00Just another day in KinshasaThe main victim of our move to ‘the suburbs’ has been our tennis. So on Monday evening, full of good resolutions, we made our way to the nearby Cercle Portugais, a sports club that has seen better days, for our first game in almost 3 months. The lights were pretty rubbish, making for a bit of a blind game, but hey, we were having fun, it was all good.So we’re halfway through our first set, and chicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00349349907130605503noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19330864.post-57413628384833393222007-11-11T17:06:00.000+00:002007-11-25T12:24:07.943+00:00Post-holiday blues Cape Town was absolutely fabulous – I highly recommend it to anyone missing bookshops, live jazz, affordable meals, fantastic wine, walking through the streets unhassled, shopping, cinemas, decent newspapers, ice-cream, metered taxis, roads without potholes, art galleries, and pampering in general. Not to mention, of course, the ocean, whose scintillating blues kept us in awe for hours on end, chicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00349349907130605503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19330864.post-71196680482074837552007-11-02T11:23:00.001+00:002007-11-02T11:24:13.337+00:00Light comic reliefCall me childish, but this recruitment ad made me laugh out loud.chicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00349349907130605503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19330864.post-25320058512373680052007-10-26T08:55:00.001+00:002007-11-02T11:22:16.243+00:00From the grey zoneLast 36 hours of our holiday. I can't say we're particularly looking forward to going back to Kinshasa, but nor will we have to be dragged back. Two weeks is just about right.Hanging out in Observatory, aka Obz, the Brooklyn (or dare I say, Camberwell) of Cape Town. After the luxury and playing grown-up, we're back to our old backpacking ways, which means we get to crash in the bohemian, raciallychicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00349349907130605503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19330864.post-81760266925673660622007-10-19T18:05:00.001+00:002007-10-19T18:05:55.093+00:00The Angelina EffectOver the past few days, my uncle and I have been exchanging e-mails trying to figure out which celebrity would be most likely – and successful – in taking the DRC under its wing and bringing it forward on the global radar. You know, mention that the war in DRC has killed most people since World War II, and hope that statistic sticks. Maybe even boost tourism, who knows?Our thoughts naturally chicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00349349907130605503noreply@blogger.com0