Bukavu Week 2

Monday

Monday was a frustrating day, we waited all day in vain for the permits as the governor was not available and our passport visas not complete. In the late afternoon, we were asked by friends to join them in Negrita’s, Bukavu’s dance hall.

It had poured minutes before and we followed a mud path by looking at the reflected sky on the puddles. The only way to walk in this mud is looking down, as you never know what you may find a step away.

We met Mambo, John and another colleague. They were celebrating having finished a particularly long day. They had started at 5 to finish a report. Nothing out of the ordinary, but since electricity is rationed here; they have to work around the juice.

One is an expert of content, the other translates into English and the third one types. Very much teamwork, and they got it very much done. Now it was time for us to talk about what to do next. They have a slot to present in the aids conference Toronto and we started a brainstorm. Serge came by, after finishing his management exam, followed by Monday who after work, visited his pregnant girlfriend and Tete who stopped on his way home from work as a doctor in Panzi Hospital.

Soon ideas started to materialize and soon after feeling disoriented by all, it all came up clear. Our wish to come film their idea is coming to be. They want to make a video about faux croyances (false beliefs) and they want to film a drama from Tete tentatively titled “precheur, vous me a toue”(“preacher, you have killed me”)…

Suddenly, the swarm of grasshoppers, the symbol of hope, makes perfect sense. And I thought it meant we were getting our permits…but no, we got our work cut out crystal clear!

Ps. the electricity shortage is real due to aging infrastructure. It is also many times due to the low or inexistent wages. You will see many electricians working on poles in the morning. Oddly this is the time when many businesses lose their electricity. But a simple phone call to the same person who was handling the wires in the morning, plus a bribe and the juice starts flowing again. Congo electricity seems to work under a “We keep cutting lines and you keep paying” policy…