Document ActionsOur correspondentUp one levelFrom our water correspondentHester Kapur was our Regional Co-ordinator for Rwanda, Burundi and the East of DR Congo. Puit drainage in South Kivu'Travel from Kigali to Bukavu, DRC, entails a dizzy cork screw journey through The Nyungwe Rain forest in Rwanda. On route we pass the sign to the new path to, reportedly, ‘The source of the Nile’. Due to be opened in 2007, work is underway to cut a path through the dense forest. Regie CommunalHere, in the heart of Rwanda, we can see at least 1000 hills and beyond to the volcanoes of Goma, 60km away. It’s the beginning of the short rainy season, and, after the evening down pour, the mornings are crystal clear. We are late, like every watsan team I’ve known, who do a day’s admin before leaving for the field. Gitega BurundiThe mouse birds in the bush outside my window have been chattering loudly since 5am . By 6am we’re driving though the mist and marshlands on the outskirts of Kigali , on the way to Gitega , Burundi . Bukavu symposiumWe cross the border into DRC on foot, climbing up the hill, while our bags are pushed in a battered wheel barrow with a flat tire. A Belgian official has arrived at the same time, and the resident brass band of Bukavu is out in full tuneless force, shiny boots, you can see your face in, and an assortment of crumpled brass instruments that have lost their shape and their shine. GiardiaA sharp shooting pain jolts me awake at three o’clock in the morning, my eyelids spring open and I hug my stomach, it’s Gardia, I know it too well. Burundi and Batwa communityAt Akanyaru, the border which separates Rwanda from Burundi , I change money with my regular guy, Jean-Baptiste. Twenty faces and forty hands are pressed against all the windows of the car, shouting, ‘He’s a thief’, ‘My rates are better’, waving calculators at me, while banging on the windows. The first time, I was intimidated, but now, I am kind of over it. As we drive away, my car is imprinted with an assortment of handprints and greasy forehead marks. |
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