Kalemie, Calamity and Hope

I visited Kalemie for a short time with some friends from Airserve last weekend, and saw how incredibly beautiful and unspoiled this most-rich region of the Congo is. White sand beaches on Lake Tanganyika, with tall grasses whispering in the soft winds, sand bars shining deep in the blue waters, the sun bright like in the Caribbean. This picture is of Chelsie (my co-worker here), Dave (captain pilot), Erinn (friend from Minneapolis) and Tomie (engineer), enjoying the soft sand under bright clouds in the sky.
No one would guess the level of poverty and suffering here for women due to the war.
At HEAL Africa, we received several women with fistula. Like my new friend Janet, who told me shyly, “I am happy every time I see you!” It took me a while to figure her out. She sits off on her own, squatting due to her painful fistula, her big teeth always sticking out. Small eyes squinting not without expression; her guards up high. Today, I sat down next to her because I wondered if something was wrong. To my surprise, she happily told me her whole story. She is one of very few lucky women. She has a husband and a 5 year old son and is pregnant again. She was also raped, like so many others I meet here, by 5 Mai Mai soldiers in October, shortly after she had conceived another child from her husband. The violent rapes left her with a severe case of fistula.
Why do I say is she lucky? Well, for one, her husband has not abandoned her and is being supportive by taking care of their 5 year old while she is receiving medical treatment. Second, she is only 4 months pregnant, and is now in a safe place with good medical care to help her through the pregnancy and delivery. Our doctors will make sure that she does not get a worse case of fistula, and once she has delivered, she will receive a quality surgery that should help her recover quickly, since HEAL Africa is the first to treat her. Third, she is not subject to continuing heavy labor with her condition and pregnancy. Instead, she has the safety of the transit center. Fourth, she is receiving special counseling both psychosocially and spiritually to work on healing and forgiving the men who wronged her. Counseling also helps Janet see that as a woman, she can have a voice as well, and fight for the war to stop, for the violence against women to end. Fifth, she has never learned to read and write. She has no employable skills. After she learned about HEALing Arts’ programs, she stood up with me to enter the room and meet Francine, who teaches beginner seamstresses. As we walked out holding hands, she excitedly told me, “I will come in first and start learning how to sew. After that, I will start going to the classes that will teach me to write letters home!” She put her hand to her slowly growing belly, looked at it, then looked up and smiled at me. Slowly, she walked over to sit with some of the other women.
Yes, amid the horrors of her rape and fistula, Janet is lucky.