Countdown to our Evacuation

Sunday, October 26
2:00 PM Chelsie and Cristina walk 30 women from the fistula transit center and 8 children over to the sports center, where Yole! Africa has organized a festival for peace and safety. Today’s activities include a ‘battle of the bands’ from local hip hop dance groups and a film about this year’s election conflict in Kenya. The women love the entertainment as we sit in the sweltering heat with 3,000 other Goma residents enjoying local talent.

Monday, October 27
7:45 AM Sun shining bright. Chelsie does some yoga as Cristina rides the stationary bike and studies Swahili. We go to the breakfast table and meet Lyn, who somberly warns us that we should know where our passports and money are. Nkunda took over the neighboring town of Kibumba and pushed back the UN forces in the Congo (MONUC). We expect 20,000 refugees running to Goma.
1:28 PM Distracted day with news reports; regardless, we plan for growth of HEALing Arts and Upper Room and CPC’s involvement in DR Congo. Cristina’s French lesson with Stewart is all about the imminent war. Thirty rounds of bullets go off two blocks away in the center of town, where we had heard reports that civilians were stoning MONUC for running away from the war; the UN soldiers responded by killing two civilians and wounding several others. As usual, HEAL Africa has to take care of them. Within one hour, tensions rise. Chelsie downloads some news articles before we race home past thousands of residents heading home.
8:00 PM We send house staff to purchase extra gas for the house and for the motor for our boat. He reports that gas and food prices are already increasing quickly. All short-term volunteers are ordered to return to their home countries the next morning.

Tuesday, October 28
7:04 AM Chelsie is getting dressed and Cristina is in the shower. Jo Lusi knocks on our door saying we should leave Goma immediately for a few days, because “the soldiers will see young girls and then there’s only me between them and you. Better leave and come back in the weekend.” Soon after, Lyn learns that the MONUC general resigned which pleases the people and gives hope. We decide to remain and go to work to fight for normalcy of life.
11:40 AM All our Congolese friends urge us to leave; they say it doesn’t matter that we don’t want to leave them. We are different and an easy target given the attitude towards the UN at the moment. This is the third time they will have lived this war in Goma, they tell us. “We just want them to do whatever they are going to do, kill and steal and then let us get back to life.” Government soldiers lost again and are fleeing to Goma, which is only worse than bad. Many prisoners from the local jail have escaped and increased the chaos. A sense of anarchy settles in.
2:15 PM We cross to Rwanda, our border friends eyeing with reproachful eyes, “You’re abandoning us, too?” We try to justify it, convinced we will return in a day or two. On the Rwanda side, there is a deluge of mzungus who have also been ordered out of the country. Unlike the wealthier NGOs, Chelsie and I are the only white people riding motos to the crowded bus on the way to Kigali. Friends open their homes to us, having cooked fresh lasagna for us. What world do we live in?

Wednesday, October 29
8:00 AM First thoughts after restless nights with dreams: our friends. We call the Lusis, HEALing Arts, Yole Africa and others. Only one friend’s dad was shot by a stray bullet, stores pillaged, bullets ringing all night long. Government soldiers are the main instigators, followed by hopeless and angry young men. HEAL staff lost in the region; found at a Red Cross camp that was later looted.
2:00 PM The urgency for food increases as we worry about our friends locked up in their homes with no provisions and the little groceries and gas available with sky high prices. We worry about how they will survive, since payday has not yet happened for the month and probably won’t anytime soon. We spend at least $20 per day on phone credit, checking up on people and assuring them we are praying and that God will keep them safe and that the world has not forgotten them.
6:15 PM Reports say Nkunda has taken over Goma. Any remaining NGOs are evacuated; Goma residents cringe all night long as more homes are looted, people hurt and many dying. Around 45,000 internally displaced peoples have arrived in Goma in two days, hoping to find safety there- which continues to elude them.
Night Nkunda steps back his CNDP forces, ‘generously ‘allowing the MONUC to keep Goma calm under the chaos and panic caused by the defeated soldiers and fear of the CNDP forces, under the claim that it is to “stop panicking the population of Goma.” Looting and the sound of bullets continue to assail our friends, who still have no food. Rwanda exchanging gunfire over the border into the Congo.

Thursday, October 30
6:50 AM First text messages from Congolese friends assuring us they are OK other than losing belongings to theft. The silent but screaming question demands: how will everyone eat?
9:00 AM Once the roads are a bit less dangerous, our friend finally carries his father to the HEAL hospital for treatment to his gunshot. His medical bill will be passed on to HEALing Arts as his family has not money to pay and surgery is needed immediately.
2:00 PM Hope seems dim that the door will be opened for us to return anytime soon. We now focus on pooling together our resources via friends who care, to start supplying starving people with food and medical treatment.