Back in Kinshasa

Whilst the hordes were knocking on the gates of Rome, Nero chaired a meeting. So maybe it is right that today we spent over 3 hours in a stuffy room taking no decision whatsoever about as many topics as possible.

This is something we do every Wednesday. But somehow I figured that this particular Wednesday, the last before the elections, might be different.

After two weeks in the provinces, I feel like I’m on an entirely different planet as these people. One in which there are only 85 hours left before the DRC – no stranger to war – embarks on the adventure of a lifetime: the first free elections in forty years. One in which the difference between sending stuff today and sending stuff next week is the difference between being ready on Sunday, or not being ready.

But clearly my colleagues have mastered the Art of Zen, and I have not. Faced with a problem, I become like a terrier who’s just caught the whiff of an old bone hidden deep underground. I leap into action and scratch away furiously until a solution is found.

Finally an excuse to put up a picture of lovely, adorable Tegucita!

Then, let’s say the bone is within sight, but I can’t quite get at it. This friendly human who is my master, however, has nice long arms and can definitely help. I jump up and down, barking excitedly, and show them the solution is within reach. They smile back at me indulgently and continue their indolent debate about which butcher should be contracted to bring me (the terrier) a bone.

#~!”*?~!!

Confusion, disbelief, frustration, anger, resignation, sadness. I’ve passed the ‘frustration’ stage (which implied hope), and am fluctuating uncontrollably between anger and resignation.

Still, when the elections are over and we can finally say that everything went well (inshallah!), when all of the daily micro-incompetence will have miraculously added up to a successful election and a brighter future, when we have all breathed a collective sigh of relief, I will be the one who needs to spend 6 months in India on an intensive yoga meditation break to fight the ulcer, whilst my nonchalant colleagues exasperatingly tell me, “See, I told you so!”

So to keep myself sane, I take long lunch breaks and think about people like Joey, my buddy from Kisangani with his powerful eyes and magical smile.