Ex-pat living in Bukavu.

The IRC has a big office, several houses for ex-pats and two storage depots in Bukavu. Each of these has guarded gates and each of these gates has a name. This weekend I moved from Hotel Chez Victoria to IRC's “golf 8”; “golf” is the radio letter code (i.e. NATO phonetic alphabet) of the letter “g” from "gate". This morning - specially for moms - I made some pictures of my new room.

Bed.

Anybody said the EU isn't useful?

Desk.

Indeed, I have my own bathroom and desk. And I haven’t even started about the house itself (read: it is big with a massive garden and a view on Lake Kivu). Ex-pats in Bukavu (especially the ones working for the bigger NGOs) have a comfortable live; something I did not expect for people living in one of the world's most plagued countries. When Simon and I arrived in Bukavu in summer 2009 and saw the large Unicef tent in the back of IRC's HQ, we expected bunkbeds inside and that we would stay there. People laughed when we told this out load. Indeed, how wrong we were.

Unicef.

Shortly after that we were in “golf 5” - a house similar to "golf 8" and the other houses that the IRC and other NGOs own in Bukavu. These are big houses with a garden and often a view on Lake Kivu. They have, in addition to the 24/7 security guard and the gardeners, a full-time cook and a cleaner. You're ready? After waking up you ask the cleaner for warm water. After the shower you choose your clothes from a cleanly washed and ironed pile; a pile that was still dirty the day before when you gave it to the cleaner. When arriving downstairs the table has been made and the cook has prepared breakfast; pancakes with nutella and fresh ananas. The cook, btw, also prepares the table for lunch and dinner; of course also the latter is made that day with fresh ingredients bought that same day in the local market. To get to the office (or anywhere else in the city) one calls a car; and after a few minutes a big 4x4 with driver picks you up. In the evening after work, you spendtime in one of the city's restaurants (l’Orchid, Cocolodge, Belveddere, Mama Kinja's, etc.) and you hang out with other ex-pats. Yep, indeed, the tough life.

So does one really live the lives of kings in Bukavu? Not really. First, while things have tensed down over the last few years, Eastern Congo is still a conflict zone and while security measures have decreased substantially, only the slightest thing has to happen and the radio checks, cars on standby, lock-downs, etc. are back. Second, building up a social live is very difficult for ex-pats because the turnover rates within (especially the bigger) NGOs are so extremely high; an average posting in Eastern Congo is maybe 1 to 1.5 years. It takes a lot of effort to get to know somebody - especially knowing that they are likely to leave in the months to come and that you can then start all over again. Finally, while ex-pat living in Bukavu is comfortable, one does know that a 100 meters outside of your guarded gate hundreds of thousands do not have it like you.