I am on the first leg of our very long voyage back to Eastern Congo. Another Jewish World Watch board member and dear friend, Diane Kabat, and I are flying from Los Angeles to Amsterdam and then from Amsterdam to Kigali, Rwanda. It will take us almost 24 hours to get to Kigali. There we will meet Janice Kamenir-Reznik, Co-Founder of Jewish World Watch. Tomorrow we fly to Cyangugu, Rwanda where we cross the border into Congo. I have not been to Congo in a year and a half. We had planned to go to Congo last November when we went to Chad, but that part of the trip had to be cancelled when the M23 rebels took over Goma, a major city in Eastern Congo, where we were then heading.
I always face these trips with a mixture of emotions. I am a bit anxious — especially this trip since the region is more volatile at the moment. But even when things seem safer, going to Congo always provokes some anxiety. Congo is very far away not only in distance but also in life experience. These trips are hard emotionally as well as physically, and it always takes a certain amount of fortitude to prepare myself. But the distance and challenges are also part of what makes these trips so compelling to me.
Someone asked me why I love these trips so much. Of course, a large part of the excitement is seeing our projects in action and the impact they are making on the ground there. When we meet a woman who was able to buy a house as a result of the training she received in our animal husbandry project or women who were horribly damaged by rape and now are learning skills to be able to forge a life for themselves through our partnership, it is so emotional and meaningful. When we meet children who can now attend school because JWW paid their school fees or street children left orphaned by the conflict who now have a safe place to live because we help to build their orphanage, it renews once again my commitment to the important work JWW does.
But there is also something profound for me personally (and selfishly) about these trips. Through these trips, I am able to participate in the global world in a way that I have never before been able to do. I have the opportunity to visit places and meet people whose lives are worlds away from mine — people who, frankly, most of us will never have any reason to meet. It is not easy to witness man’s inhumanity to man (or in this case — to woman) up close or to be confronted full on with the unimaginable disparity between their lives and mine. I always come away feeling sad and not a little guilty for the life I lead. And yet I also feel honored and grateful that the people in Congo allow us in to their lives to do what small part we can to try to ameliorate the situation there. And through it all, somehow we manage to find the common threads that help to forge relationships and friendships. I return to Congo with a deep affection for the Congolese people.
This time among other site visits, we are going to see the Chambucha Rape and Crisis Center we built in a very remote area of Eastern Congo with International Medical Corps. The Chambucha Rape and Crisis Center is up and running and providing care to more than 29,000 women in a region where they were previously hours and sometimes days away from any medical services. We will be traveling to see the clinic in operation and to express our hopes for the health and well-being of the women there. We will also be visiting new projects that provide psychosocial counseling for women who have been brutalized.
It’s hard to know what to expect on this trip. I remember that before my first trip to Congo, I was so anxious (without realizing it), that I had trouble taking a deep breath. Now the Congo trips feel very familiar. But as always, there will be new sensations, new awareness, new connections and new friendships to forge. For that, I am always excited and grateful.