With two days to go now, the local population is starting to show some signs of stress. With the return yesterday of Presidential candidate, vice-president and ex-warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba, masses of people gathered in the streets. According to "some guy I asked on the street," a group of Bemba's men were seen tearing down the election posters of other candidates. The photographer with our group was driving past some of these people, and was forced to drive over the poster of incumbent Joseph Kabila. Later in the day, likely in retaliation, Bemba's house was set on fire. We were driving through the downtown area when I noticed a massive plume of smoke ahead. when we approached we saw an amazing fire, and heard what sounded like gunfire. turns out Bemba's militia had an arms cache in his house, and his munitions were going off in the fire. Needless to say, we left the area quickly. Later in the day, also related to Bemba's return, a rally turned violent, and resulted in some looting and burning of cars and houses. We're not sure yet who is responsible, but at least one man is dead, and there are unconfirmed reports of another death, as well as a rape, as a result of the violence. Today we are looking out for more signs of violence, and being extremely cautious in out excursions. We have also cancelled our outing for the evening in the interest of security.
Earlier yesterday we did our preliminary election observer training, and we will be meeting with the independent electoral commission today. We have a final training on Saturday, right before the election.
Election day is likely to be a long one. We will be starting very early, as we have to be at the polling stations before 6:00am. The polls will close at 5:00pm, at which point we begin monitoring the count; the vote count is likely to last all night, and possibly into the next day, and I don't anticipate getting much sleep. As for security concerns at the polls, we can count on MONUC (the UN force), EUFOR (the EU force), and maybe the DRC Police or Presidential guard to be keeping a close eye on things. There are a fairly large number of international, as well as local observers, and we are hoping that this large presence contributes to limiting any potential violence at the polls. Of course, if things get hairy we are under no obligation to stick around and watch it, and will likely be whisked away quite quickly.
Thank you everyone who has been commenting on the blog, sharing it with others, and sending prayers! It is all very much appreciated!
à la prochaine!
-joel

Where to begin... Life here has been comfortable, albeit a little slow as I wait for the rest of the Canadian team to arrive. The weekend was pretty relaxingm involving much hanging out and talking with family and their friends. I've definitely been working on my french, and am at the point now where I can have a decently intellectual conversation despite the stumbling and occasional pauses to come up with the right word. I've been asking a lot of questions of people to guage their impression of the upcoming elections. There seems to be a lot of hope, in the sense that everyone seems to want good things to come out of it, but not a lot of people have faith in the current government or political system not to interfere and manipulate the results. I've made a conscious effort not to divulge any kind of political opinion, especially yesterday when I met one of the legislative candidates, or when we see campaign ads on TV (which everyone watches religiously, just like in Canada). It's been hard, as in my head I have some strong commentaries to make. things like: "you can't be serious, this guy wants to be president?!" But alas, I have the strength to keep those thoughts to myself.
I've learned quite a bit more about Congolese history, particularly in terms of the general population's perspective on history, as opposed to the "official" version, or the western perspective. On the whole my research has been pretty accurate, but lacking in the sense of knowing what the average person thinks. Right now the Congolese economy is in shambles, often making even an education useless. There simply is not a lot of commerce goin on to sustain any large level of employment. Most people do some small work or roadside sales to earn enough to eat, but little more. Because of this the roads are littered with merchants and tiny stalls selling everything from loaves of bread to cell phone cards. Ah yes, the cell phone, I almost forgot. Everyone has a cell phone. Okay, maybe not grandma, but they are more prominent here than in Canada. Land lines, I've learned, are simply unreliable and expensive. So everywhere you look there's someone selling minutes (which here they refer to as "unités").
I've been waiting for cuture shock to set in, and I'm starting to get impatient... not that I want it, but if it's gonna happen I'd rather it happen before all our election observer training this week. I've been very conscious of how much I don't understand here, and came fairly well prepared for the fact that I would experience things that I just could not expect. I suppose it's helpful that I can communicate much easier here than I could when I was in Thailand five years ago. That, being my first overseas travel, and first major stay outside of Canada hit me pretty hard. But that sense of isolation is less here. It also helps that I've had this last week to get over the jet-lag, and adjust myself to the climate and food. On that front all has been well. Congolese food is delicious, and they're taking care to feed me well. We drink a lot of instant coffee, and I'm glad that I wasn't surprised to see an entire fish on my plate (it was actually quite good). I've even come to enjoy eating "foufou," the local food that is essentially corn flour and some other local flour mixed with water to form a stiff... umm... substance. okay, bad description, but good eatin'. The weather's been good too, pretty much a hot Winnipeg summer. They make fun of me for thinking it's hot, because this is winter here, but I can live with that.
The rest of my group arrives tonight, and our training begins tomorrow, I'm sure things will be getting much more interesting very soon, and I'll update again as soon as possible!

-joel

you know, sometimes being told something doesn't always make it true... it took a couple days of waiting, and a half day of searching to find this little internet café, I hope I can find something a little easier for the duration of my stay.
Well then, where to start... my first impression of Kinshasa can be summed up in one word: Chaos. In whatever way you can imagine that we have rules and order for things in the West, forget that, and imagine a whole lot of people yelling and scrambling for pretty much everything. The airport was totally disorganized, and consisted of a whole lot of yelling and pushing, until my temporary host father's chauffeur (no kidding) showed up with a pieced of paper marked "Joel Marson - Canadien." Close enough. Help! so after paying off the customs agent we were suddeny outside, getting into a beat up old Mercedes-Benz. Next frightening realization: there are NO rules on the roads of Kinshasa. Zero. None. Drive where you want, as fast as you want, and oh, the only unofficial rule is that if you want to pass someone you honk so they know you're coming, making for very noisy scary, scrambled traffic.
My host family is very nice, they've been treating me like royalty, making me somewhat uncomfortable. I told them I didn't want to be a burden on them, but they keep being so damn nice. Like yesterday, while I was sitting on the incongruous leather couch, one of the boys of the house brought me a beer, opened it, and poured it in a glass for me. wow. I don't imagine my awkward thanks fully expressed that this was totally unnecessary (but very nice).
I've already had a couple tours of Kinshasa. It is divided into two main regions, "la ville" which is the developed former colonial central region, and "la cité" where all the poor black people live. I'm staying in "la cité" where the roads make a canadian forest trail look like smooth... I can't believe the potholes (some car-eaters that would silence any complaining Winnipegger), and the general state of disarray of roads and buildings. My host-father's chauffeur, who drove me around today, was telling me that when the new government took over, after mobutu, they didn't do anything to develop the city. and so this is the result.
Alas, I'm running short on time. I'll write again next chance I get! And don't worry, all that bad stuff in the news is happening in the East. I'm in Kinshasa, in good hands!

-joel

just a quick note, I've added a bunch of links to some useful news and information sites on the Congo. You can find them at the top of the right-hand column on this page. If you come across any other useful news sites (Congo or otherwise), please let me know and I'll put them up on the blog.

-joel

I have four days to go, and I'm not sure I'm ready yet. Not that anyone can ever be prepared for a totally new experience, but I'm trying to be a mental boyscout. Last night was our orientation, and we got a general overview of what an election observer mission does from Derek Martens, who participated in the OAS observer group in Peru last year. Most of it was what I expected. I think our main concerns in the leadup are going to be with familiarizing ourselves with Congolese electoral law. But with just over a month in the country, I have other concerns in mind. There is the possibility of unrest or violence if the elections are not perceived to be fair, or that certain groups are not happy with the results. On a simpler level I'm also a little nervous about going to a country where I'll have to survive on my fading knowledge of French. I've been making a point of trying to use it as much as possible lately, but there is a big difference between casual conversations and surviving the streets of a new country. Sorting out the details of my accomodations last night helped to ease some of my nervousness, as I am now less burdened by the fear that I would have nowhere to stay for the duration of my time there. It seems that the congolese are a very hospitable people, and I get the feeling that I should have no trouble arranging accomodations for the later portion of my trip. Now all I have to do is figure out how I'm gonna pay for all of this. Not only am I volunteering my time, I am also taking on full responsibility for all of my costs. The plane ticket alone was over $3500, nevermind a month worth of accommodations, food, and transportation costs. For those of you who feel that this is a worthwhile venture I will gladly accept any donations to help defray these costs! And for those of you who can't afford to help financially, please help by telling people about what I'm doing, sending them this blog address, and encouraging people to think about what's going on in the DRC.
I've been informed that I MAY be able to access the internet somewhat regularly while I am in the Congo. If this is the case I will do my best to update you whenever I can.
-joel

I should probably apologize for not writing this sooner, but I didn’t want to jinx things until I was sure all the pieces were in place. Three weeks ago, while taking a summer institute class at the U of W, I leaned of a group of people taking part in an election observer mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I immediately went to the supervisor/director of the project, and asked how I could get involved. See, I’ve been studying the situation in the Congo for quite some time now, and have been following the progress towards elections with great hope and anxiety. The war(s) in the Congo have killed over 4 million people in the last eights years – that’s more death and suffering than any other war since World War Two – yet the west has barely even noticed. The country has not had an elected government since 1965. So when, in 2003, the peacebuilding process began to move towards power-sharing and democracy there was hope. But with dozens of potential spoilers, and a number of disparate militia group vying for power it’s difficult to be optimistic. How can such a conflicted society that has known only fighting as a means of problem solving move towards democracy? Perhaps this is too negative of a characterization. I have personally had the opportunity to meet with one of the peacemakers. But he had to flee his home because of the fear and intimidation, coming to Canada to carry on in his work from the outside. And it worked, at least with me. Serge influenced me. He made it all that much more real that these are not statistics, or facts, or sad stories that make our life here in Canada uncomfortable if only for that contrast with another reality – these are real people’s lives we’re talking about. These are not strangers, aliens, foreigners. Just because they might look different than me, they have lived different lives, and suffered different burdens, does not change the fact that we are all brothers and sisters in the same family. If your sister was raped would you not do everything to console her, to help her heal, to work so that that kind of suffering wouldn’t happen again? If you saw your mother hacked to death with a machete right in front of your eyes would you not want to do everything in your power to make it so that no one ever had to see that ever again? So why is it different if it wasn’t my sister but his? If it wasn’t my mother but yours? Would you not hold my hand and walk with me towards a better future? Given the opportunity, wouldn’t you at least want to try to contribute to healing that horrible pain? Even if it’s just a drop in the bucket, I have seen what flood can come from the rains. And now there is even more reason for hope. With the election only nineteen days away the opportunity exists to push this torn country in a better direction. The fact of the matter is, a lot of people don’t want the fighting to end. They don’t like the fact that power will be shared because maybe that means they have less chance of more control, or that those with more money and more influence might sway the vote, or that the same murderers and pillagers that have raped this country are now seeking legitimacy to what – to be able to claim a right to keep doing as they have always done? There are those who do not believe in the power of democracy, who believe that their version of what is right is more important than what an apparently uneducated population might claim to want and need. These are the reasons to fear. But when we all sit back and do nothing the world goes to hell. If I stay home, watching the fires on the news while lamenting the heat, if I care in my heart but let it wither out of sadness – all the love in the world means nothing if all it means is that we cry for those who die. But the uncomfortable reality is that sometimes if we want to help someone we have to do more than just care. Sometimes we have to do whatever it is we can do so that next time there is change it is a positive change.
I leave for the Congo in eight days fully aware of the risk that confront me. And as much as I love and care for every single person that will be thinking of me safely back at home, I simply could not continue to sleep at night knowing I passed up the opportunity to help. Going to the Congo as an election observer will change my life, but that hardly matters. My main concern is that it changes the lives of those millions of people who have not known peace.