In the capacity of translator, I happened to be invited by the Jewish World Watch team on mission trip to Congo from 2nd to 12th November 2009. Though I am living in Rwanda now, I am an Eastern Congolese by birth, member of the Banyamulenge (ethnic Tutsi) community established in South Kivu with Bukavu as…
Greetings JWW blog readers. My name is Mike Ramsdell. I have had the privilege of capturing this “Congo journey” in still and moving images. I am pleased that Janice has asked me write a guest blog for two reasons. The first is so I may shamelessly plug my most recent film — THE ANATOMY OF…
How strange to be out of Congo. As Isaiah, our incredible translator, and I walked across the border he showed me the river that marks the boundary between the two countries here: on one side, chaos — a young man shaking down every old lady carrying insanely heavy loads up the mountain side, everyone crowding…
Ten days ago we arrived in Kigali with trepidation and expectation. It seems like a day or two ago in some ways; yet in other ways it seems like a lifetime ago.
Today we drove across the entire country of Rwanda—from Bukavu at the Congo-Rwanda border to Kigali. It took almost 8 hours. The countryside is…
Suddenly we are surrounded by a sea of children. As we stand there they begin to form a circle around us and move in closer and closer.
Janice and I came outside after seeing an impressive women’s sewing collective. We are in a remote village called Kamisimbi, two hours outside of Bukavu in the hills. We…
I don’t sleep here, even with sleeping pills. I wake up after a few hours, images of the day racing through my head, trying to make sense of all I have witnessed and heard. This morning I got up at 4 am. I just couldn’t stand it anymore. I preferred to get up and busy…
We are taken by convoy on an impossible 3 hour drive, high up in the mountains where the Congolese Tutsis control the terrain. The “roads” are indescribable. Half the time our vehicle is gliding through the mud and the other half it feels as if it is almost on its side. Torrential rains fall, the…
Yesterday I felt completely engulfed by sadness. I wrote a blog entry that I will not post with you now, crushed by what I had seen and heard during a long day visiting clinics with International Medical Corps. I had hoped that when I came here, I would be able to focus on the stories…
I thought it couldn’t get worse. Yesterday listening to Renee and Sabine tell the stories of their rapes I felt my heart begin to splinter. But today my heart was shattered. Today we visited one of the last remaining IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camps where 3500 refugees live – men, women and children who are…
I have been thinking during the last four days about the definition of a woman of valor, something we talk about in our Jewish tradition. Our time in the Congo has demonstrated to me, once again, the anomalies of life on the African continent. This is my sixth visit to Africa but only my first…