Arrival in Goma

It took close to 2 hours to complete the border crossing procdeures--long queues, distracted immigration officials, and checking, double checking, and triple checking documentation--but by 11am we had reached the DRC. From the Rwandan side of Lake Kivu you can see an enormous, beautiful, and lavish resort build out over the lake on the congolese side. Kate, willing to splurge on another night of luxury inquired to the cost and availability of a room at the Ihusi Hotel. Running low on cash and unable to exchange foreign currency in Goma, we're biding our time with only $4 to our names until Kate's family can Western Union some money to her tomorrow. Luckily, we don't have to pay for the hotel until we check out! The DRC runs on a complete cash economy, no visa or mastercards accepted here, and the only ATM in the country is locaed in Kinshasa, a 3 day drive from Goma. So let's keep our fingers crossed that the Western Union transfer goes through tomorrow. Otherwise, who know's what will happen!

After spending a few hours wandering the dusty, dilapidated streets of Goma, we took motorcycles out to a rural village suburb to have lunch with Prince and his family. The family of 4 live in a tiny 2 room wooden house in a compound of identical homes where Prince's extended family also live. Prince's wife, Princess, prepared a typical and delivious Congolese feast for us--cassave flour ugali, boiled bananas, greens, fish, and beans. I absolutely loved it, and lucky for me, Kate didn't take too well to the food, so I got to enjoy her leftovers as well. We didn't stay more than 90 minutes, as Prince was worried about us getting back to our hotel before dark. But in the short time we visited, I learned a lot about politics and daily life here in Goma. The economy has been devestated by years of civil unrest and rebel fighting, there are no jobs, and a strong commitment to God allows people to be optomistic about the future. LIfe is hard here, but people persevere and don't let the harsh reality of their lives dictate their happiness. The Congolese, at least the few I've met, are a strong people, a happy people, and an incredibly friendly people. I guess its the same with many of the world's people whose lives are riddled with war, conflict, and chaos. Human beings have an astounding ability to overcome, to forgive, and to flourish. If humans didn't have the capacity to forgive, I think we would have annialated ourselves centuries ago. Despite the horrors that we continue to inflict on eachother, its amazing that we don't lose hope that the tomorrow is another day and that tomorrow offers the opportunity to start anew.