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A journal from The Congo, No. 6

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Contributed by: Greg Easton on 3/17/2008

It's Sunday and I'm working in the radio room today. The base radio is used for flight following. Our radio operator can only work six days a week, so, if we have a flight on Sunday, the pilots fill in on the radio. I don't mind because I get to experience what happens on the other end of our radio calls.
Rumor has it that the Congolese government just shut down the airstrip at Walikale. That's where the coltan is shipped out of back here to Goma, where it is then put on trucks that go to Rwanda for processing and export. Rwanda now claims to be the largest producer of coltan, but it all comes from Congo. It turns out that the Tutsi government of Rwanda sponsors this bootlegging activity because the Tutsi militia controls the coltan mines, and the revenue goes toward supporting their war effort against the Hutu militia. You may recall the Hutu atrocities depicted in "Hotel Rwanda", that claimed 800,000 Tutsi lives in a two month period in 1994, the vast majority of whom were hacked to death by machetes. The two factions have just brought their conflict to Congo. As long as the Tutsi militia can keep the Hutu militia in check in the Congo, the Rwandan government doesn't have to worry about a Hutu invasion into their country. Other countries in the region are supporting the Hutu militia, so the DRC has become the battle ground for foreign conflict, and its people the innocent victims. Now the Congolese government has recognized the loss of potential revenue from coltan leaving the country through the back door and has shut down the operation by closing the airstrip. Unfortunately, Doctors Without Borders has a field hospital in Walikale and use the same airstrip to transport supplies and personnel. We have a flight scheduled there tomorrow, so hopefully they will allow us to use the airstrip for humanitarian purposes.
In Goma the young men use a scooter like device, the chikudu, that is absolutely prehistoric in appearance, but can carry several thousand pounds of cargo. They look like something from the Flintstones cartoon. The front fork is a short log with the center section carved out lengthwise to accommodate the front wheel. The running board is a longer log, split in half with the flat side up to carry the load, and the back end carved out lengthwise to accommodate the rear wheel. The handle bar looks like a tree branch, carved to shape and worn smooth from use. The wheels are made out of wood as well, and have a modest rubber tread. The brake is nothing more than the bottom of the operator's shoe rubbing against the rear wheel. For all their crude simplicity, they actually have a very functional suspension system on the front fork that uses rubber bungee cords to cushion the load and aid with control. It may sound like these things are hand crafted contraptions as different as the people who make them, but, from what I have seen, they are all virtually identical, as if they all rolled off the same chikudu assembly line. Today I saw one painted white with the baby blue UN insignia attached to the front fork. I've seen loads as large as 6' wide and 4' high and as heavy as 20 bags of cement. The operators struggle to push their loads up hills, but have a nice ride down hills, and I have never seen one spill their load.
Coffee originally came from Ethiopia. While transiting through Addis Ababa on my way to Goma, I couldn't resist the temptation to buy some Ethiopian coffee, even if it was from an airport gift shop. I paid US$4 per pound for two one pound packages of "Queen of Sheba" coffee (what a deal). It's a medium roast, the grind is perfect for my Bialleti stove top espresso maker, and it makes one awesome, rich and smooth cup of coffee to get me going in the morning. I'm down to the last few tablespoons of the second package, so I will have to switch to the locally available Ugandan coffee, which is US$1 per pound, but also very good. There is also a plantation just outside of Goma and the guard tells me it is the best coffee of all. Being in Africa has its advantages.
Speaking of which, the produce here is incredible, inexpensive and always available from street vendors. Avacadoes are huge, at least a pound, perfectly ripe and cost 20 cents (they start out at $1, but expect to bargain). Obviously bananas, pineapples (40 cents), tomatoes (10 cents), mangos, oranges, which are actually green (are they still called "oranges"?), potatoes and the local variety of roasted and salted peanuts (10 cents for a single serving size bag). Goma is also the only source for cheese in DRC. It is $5 for a 1kg (2.2 pound) wheel of cheese. It's a white cheese with a mild flavor and is very popular around the country. I get requests for Goma cheese from ramp attendents and airport authority agents at almost every airport we fly to. Also, Kenya and Uganda are major producers of roses. It's weird to think that the roses I sent Sandy for Valentines Day probably originated just a few hundred miles from here.

It's time to go home now. Hope you have had a nice week.
From Africa,
Greg

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Michele Sample

Michele Sample has posted 260 stories and 6 comments since joining on 11/8/2006. Michele Sample's average story rating is 4.81.

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