Category Archives: Democratic Republic of Congo
Creatures of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of Congo is full of interesting critters, and I saw a few of them during the five months I spent in different parts of the country. Now that I’ve left DRC, here’s a snapshot of some of the bugs and beasts I encountered:
Caterpillars in Kindu:
Caterpillars eventually turn into butterflies and moths, like these ones in Lubutu and Kindu:
Tadpoles near Lubutu:
Praying mantises in Kindu:
And more praying mantises near Lubutu:
Dragonflies near Lubutu:
Strange but not unfamiliar creepy crawly in my Kisangani hotel room:
Strange and unfamiliar bug near Lubutu:
Huge beetle in Lubutu:
Cricket in Kindu:
Grasshopper with a face like a cartoon skull in Kisangani:
And of course some predators… ants attacking something bigger than them in Kindu:
Ants attacking a larger flying red ant in Kindu:
Spider gobbling up an unidentified critter in my Kindu bathroom:
A baby gecko, great hunters of mosquitoes and other insects, in Kindu:
A skink in Kindu:
An agama lizard in Beni:
Another agama lizard, caught and killed by a creature higher up in the food chain in Beni:
Three crocodiles relaxing together in Beni:
Two turtles in the same pond as the crocodiles, also stacked up, in Beni:
Annoyingly loud pied crows in Beni:
Polite and silent kid goat near Obokote:
Relatively obedient cow between Lubutu and Kisangani:
And a large and not-at-all shy fruit bat in Beni:
Also posted in Africa, Travel
Tagged Beni, Creature photography, Kindu, Kisangani, Lubutu, Obokote
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Two Weeks in Beni, North Kivu, DRC
Toward the end of July, not long after arriving back in Kindu, I got a call asking me to fly to Beni in North Kivu. I spent nearly two weeks there, helping set up an emergency response after many thousands of people were displaced by fighting nearby. I didn’t take many photos of my work, so here are some photos of random things I encountered during my Beni experience:
Flying from Goma to Beni, there are endless mountains, which remind some foreigners of Switzerland apparently.
I flew to and from Beni in a Twin Otter DHC-6, which is a very popular Canadian plane built by de Havilland:
In Beni, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has a team with Toyota LandCruisers (pictured on Beni’s main drag) and a number of Renault trucks.
One of my tasks while in Beni was to help choose a place to rent as a combined office and home. One of the places we visited was really creepy. This is what the ceiling in one room was like:
They’re not great photos, but there were some nice flowers in Beni. These first ones were in the yard of the Solidarités home:
Flowers in the new Medical Emergency Relief International (Merlin) base:
One night a couple of us were trying to explain some night photography concepts as the moon rose into the sky, so I set my camera on a table in timer mode, pulled out a flashlight, and took this 30 second shot in the compound:
I usually wake up when my alarm clock starts going off, but in Beni I didn’t even need it. Almost every single morning, two pied crows would show up at one of the very reflective windows of the house and start attacking their mirror images. This was very loud.
There were a number of written things I found amusing in Beni. One of these was the “permitted flavours” aspect of this passionfruit juice:
Another was this “Tourist Camping” site in an area in which even the locals often feel insecure:
This one was really amazing – “Restaurant What Is Your Problem”
And my favourite, “Joseph Kabila: Youth in power for the rebuilding of the country”
My stay in Beni got cut short when I was asked to fly to Goma to help with our medical supply chain and other logistical issues. I flew from Beni to Goma on August 6th. There were lots of interesting things for me to watch passing by down on the ground, including this UN base:
In Goma, I spent 3 weeks moving as many drugs and medical supplies in and out of our depot as I could, which was difficult both mentally and physically (I always helped lifting the hundreds of heavy boxes of supplies we would receive or dispatch each time the truck pulled up), but also very interesting. During this time, I had an interview for a position as Capital Logistician for the same organisation (Medical Emergency Relief International, aka Merlin), in Juba, South Sudan. I got the job, and today I’m leaving DRC. I’ll fly to Nairobi first, where I’ll spend 2 nights, then off to Juba for a 3 month contract.
Flyga från Kindu till Kanada
(I put the title in Swedish so I could justifiably spell Canada with a K, because alliteration is awesome)
On the evening of June 28th, I landed in Vancouver without telling anyone but my family. Getting there, from my current home in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), was a rather long process. If you add up all the time I spent in the air to get from Kindu, Maniema Province, DRC to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada it’s a short little 22 hours spent airborne spread over three short hops within DRC and three longer leaps from Rwanda to Kenya to the Netherlands to Canada.
First, I had to fly domestically from Kindu to Goma. I caught a ride on June 23rd on Busy Bee, a great little charter airline we often use. That flight touched down in Punia, then Lubutu, then landed in Goma.
En route from Kindu to Punia, one of many tributaries of the mighty Congo River:
The pilot and co-pilot gave me permission to take this photograph on the ground in Punia:
Just before landing in Lubutu:
En route to Goma, North Kivu Province:
Some of the wealthier residences in Goma are waterfront properties on Lake Kivu:
After a few days in Goma, I caught a bus from the border to Kigali in Rwanda and a taxi from downtown to the Kigali airport, where I watched the World Cup football match in which Germany destroyed England. Rooney wasn’t very happy with his team’s lack of success:
From Kigali I flew to Nairobi on Kenya Airways, which actually provides a small hot meal on this short (just over one hour) flight, much better than Canadian airlines such as Air Canada and Westjet who don’t give a meal on a four and a half hour flight from Vancouver to Toronto. Kenya Airways planes at the gates:
I spent the night in Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) – many people tell horror stories that remind of trying to sleep in Stansted airport, but in JKIA if you head toward Gate 3, down some stairs from Gate 4, you’ll find the sleep n’ shower facilities which were very useful for me. Also, at Gate 14 there’s a coffee shop called Java House with very tasty espressos. Gaining altitude outside Nairobi:
Nearly nine hours later, I landed in sunny Amsterdam, where I boarded a KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) flight for Vancouver. KLM planes on the tarmac:
Direct flights from Europe to Vancouver always fly over the Arctic, as it’s the shortest route, so we got to see some white scenery over Greenland and northern Canada:
Finally, we passed just to the south of Bowen Island and came in for the usual east-facing landing at Vancouver International Airport in Richmond, with UBC on our left:
On July 13th I left Vancouver to do the exact opposite flight route, which was much more tiring because of the lack of sleep, and when I arrived in Kindu yesterday (July 17th) I slept from 1:30pm until 9:30pm and from midnight to 6:00am today.
Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign
Some of the funniest things a traveller can find in many developing countries are signs. Here are a few of the funny or interesting ones I’ve seen so far:
At the Kindu airport MONUC base:
Mobutu was deposed by a rebel army in 1997 after nearly 32 years as President of DR Congo. The rebel leader who became President was assassinated in 2001 and his son has been in power ever since, yet one of the main roads in Kindu is called Mobutu Boulevard and one of his sons is Minister of Agriculture.
Back at the Kindu airport MONUC base:
Note the swimmer in the pool, defying the rule:
On a plane in Maniema Province:
A pharmacy in Kisangani, Tshopo Province:
The balance is a nearly universal symbol of justice. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the balance on this decaying building accurately reflects the situation in a country which has been receding instead of developing for the past few decades:
