Month End, Training and a Little Holiday.

Another two month delay in writing a blog. And surprisingly enough I am again sending it while visiting our operations in Manono. My trip this time is to complete our 2008 budgeting. Next week will see me cajole our operations managers into solidifying their grand ideas into cold hold facts. The big question, ‘How much will it cost?’ Followed by the question everyone hates, ‘Do we have that much funding?’

In 2007 DRC has spent out on a budget of €4.4m. We have funding secured next year of around €1.3m. On the assumption that we want our development program to expand next year we have to find funding for around a further €3.1m. I remember this time last year Oxfam was selling Christmas cards where you could bye your friend a goat for Christmas. The only problem being they would need to travel to Africa and wrestle back their prized possession from a local farmer. We currently have several thousand goats on order for distribution after the rainy season at the start of next year. Please if anyone was thinking of giving a goat this Christmas consider the merits of a GOAL goat!

My time has not only been spent on budgeting. I have now got through two month ends and am becoming a dab hand at journals. If Dublin is lucky they may even get the November month end on time! So far my success with timetables has been limited. Timetables assume your computer will turn on in the morning or that you will be sitting at your desk on the first of the month. Both are lovely ideas that just don’t seem to happen. This month end will be performed remotely from Manono on subject to the goodwill of an internet connection and the generator.

At the start of November I had the opportunity to leave DRC again. (Having read my blog so far it sounds like I spend very little time in the DRC!) This time I packed my bags and headed off to OFDA compliance training in Nairobi. Oh my word! Nairobi is busy. For those of you who face a rush hour commute give a thought to the poor people of Nairobi whose rush hour lasts for around four hours each morning and evening. I got to top up my exhaust fume blood content levels to ensure when I finally come back home I will not suffer too much. It also made me realise how lucky we are in Goma. No cars or roads equates to no traffic jams.

It also made me realise some of the quirkier parts of Goma. For example I have not told you of the photocopy shop in town that consists of a photocopier under a big parasol. Brilliant…… until it rains. Or the internet café called ‘The storm of God’. On the food front there is ‘Goma cheese’. Cheese is a big plus. I know Sudan cannot get cheese for love nor money. Goma cheese is a bit like Edam. The locals are so proud of it that it gets added to everything, the expected; pizza, pasta, fondue, quiche (all available in Goma) and then the more unusual; soup, rice. For those of you interested in finding new outlets for Edam I suggest looking elsewhere than soup and rice. I’ve tasted the result and really… it is nothing to write home about!

Shortly after returning from Nairobi with worries of the OFDA paper trail I headed back again, this time for a weekend of R&R. Loyse found free flights from Goma with ECHO (European disaster relief donor who will not pay for flights and has instead set up a flight carrier.) When a free flight is on offer it would be rude to turn it down. My return trip was the full holiday experience. I got to go on my first African safari - a bicycle safari so no large game but I did get to see zebra, warthog and antelope. I visited hells gate national park and walked through a gauge with hot springs. I fed giraffe at the giraffe sanctuary and got to learn about the antiseptic qualities of their saliva (not sure you will want to try it at home!). For retail therapy we went to the Massi Market and wandered between the stalls smiling at everything and paying over the odds for souvenirs. My finance assistant has just had twins so I found some lovely wooden animals to take back.

We took full advantage of the wide variety of restaurants from Ethiopian to Western. And I stocked up on ice cream to get me through the next couple of months. For those of you who came to my leaving dinner at the Ethiopian – The food is just the same over here!

I returned revitalised to Goma ready for the budgeting challenge.

What else to fill you in on?

Cake making continues. I now have the ingredients for the Christmas pudding which I will make in a couple of days time.

Salsa lessons are coming along, although it is very difficult to adapt to Congolese music.

My French is improving very slowly. I need to knuckle down over Christmas and make sure I improve for February when I move to Lumumbashi which is a much more francophone area.

On a serious note I see the BBC has picked up the increased troop movements in North Kivu. The head of the DRC army has apparently said that he has given up all hope of a peaceful solution to the conflict in eastern Congo. Gen Nkunda (leader of the opposition forces) has threatened UN troops, accusing them of backing the army and the United Nations peacekeeping mission in DR Congo. The United Nations (Monuc) says the army has been sending reinforcements to the region ahead of a possible major offensive against Gen Nkunda. Fighting is reported to be taking place in Rugari, 19 miles from Goma, towards the border.

I am fine, currently sunning myself hundreds of miles away in Manono. If there was fighting in London, I would be in the equivalent of the south of Spain with no road access and one weekly flight. Monuc has said they will protect Goma. GOAL is back under curfew and when I return to Goma I am a five minute walk from the boarder.

Please think about those who are not so fortunate. It is reported some 375,000 people have fled fighting in eastern DR Congo this year, on top of 800,000 who were already displaced. IDP camps north of Goma were shelled at the start of last week with no clarity as who implemented the action. As fighting comes closer to the city the number of IDP’s in Goma could increase leading to internal instability. I can run across the boarder. Our staff and those caught up in the conflict may not be so lucky. In the last week one of our drivers found his son shot in the street following a mugging. He was rushed to hospital and is making a good recovery. The transport manager’s teenage son went missing for a day. He apparently fell into a bad crowd at school and had been skipping lessons without his parent’s knowledge.
In the UK a bad crowd may get you into drinking or drugs. In Goma it could get you into the army.

I continue to enjoy my time in the sun. Thinking of you all as we head into chilly December. I hope you are wrapping up warm. I am sitting at my desk in a strappy top and currently spending my nights sleeping in a tent. Roughing it NGO style!

Julia