Dissertation and Monty Python.

These days I spend much time working on my dissertation. The reason is that by the end of next month our dissertation proposals have to be handed in. By now I have a topic and a very preliminary draft; I hope to post it here by the end of the week after another solid revision.

Thus, in upcoming weeks I will bother lots of professors and policy makers for comments. For the same reason I also present the draft at different occasions; Columbia's CP workshop, IGERT's International Development and Globalization meeting, and the PhD dissertation seminar. The best motivators, however, are my friends in the cohort for two reasons. (1) Four months ago we signed a post-dated check of 200 US$, which we then gave to a third-party enforcer. If a person now does not hand in his/her proposal that person's money is cashed, given to the group who will subsequently spend it on dinner, drinking or holiday. The loser is not allowed to join. (2) We spend lots of time reading and discussing each others proposals. Last Friday, for example, I spent 3 hours with a colleague who had read through my proposal. Because we are all good friends we can (and will) say whatever we think and really try hard to shoot holes in each others' proposals.

My dissertation partly deals with local governance. Of course, one has to be aware of one topic's classical works, so hereby. One more executive power oriented:

And one more judicial power oriented:

Snow. Great day ahead.

Completely to the right (where the light is on) is my building.

Columbia is closed because of heavy snowfall. As a result, a meeting at 9am, my dissertation seminar (10-1130am), a CSDS get together (12-2pm), and a meeting at 4pm are cancelled. So I just made myself a cup of tea and have a great day ahead:

• With help from DFID, 3ie and IRC we are going to implement a very interesting behavioral measure in Eastern Congo (more on that later), and today I have to work on that.
• Macartan is teaching game theory and today I've to transfer some slides from Powerpoint into Beamer.
• Voix des Kivus (VdK) is expanding from four up to 100 villages throughout Sud Kivu, and today I will finish the computer code that randomly selects these new villages.
• Today I will also write the contracts for our VdK field and technical coordinator.
• And the icing on the cake: This evening we're going to watch The Tempest.

On fieldwork.

I am clearly doing the wrong type. Please visit this link to read the whole article in the New Yorker.

Collapse Dutch government(s).

Just a few hours ago my government fell; it collapsed over disagreements on extending troop deployments in Afghanistan. Yes, a Dutch government fell yet again.

• June 2006: the government falls after one of the governing parties withdrew its support for the coalition in the aftermath of the upheaval about the asylum procedure of Ayaan Hirsi Ali (instigated by the Dutch immigration minister Verdonk);
• October 2002: the government falls after two ministers from one of the ruling parties (the LPF, founded by the maverick right-winger Pim Fortuyn) quit over a long-running personal feud. Their departure was not enough to salvage the divided three-party coalition;
• April 2002: the government falls after a report on the 1995 fall of Srebrenica held political leaders partly responsible for failing to protect Muslims in a UN safe 'haven' in Bosnia;
• May 1999: the government falls after the loss, in the upper house of Parliament, of a bill implementing constitutional changes (D66 had proposed that voters should be able to veto legislation through referendums).

Why? Is the Dutch many-party system conducive to government collapse? Most of the Dutch governments have consisted of at least 3 parties; and more parties means more possible diads for diasagreement.

But it is the Netherlands!? One could argue that - in contrast to many developing countries - we do not face issues that are important enough for a government to collapse. Or is this exactly it? That is, the Netherlands is so stable and it's institutions next to our elected executive are so well established that the collapse of the government does not lead to an increase of our debt's interest rate, a drop in GDP, or the outbreak of civil war. In other words the cost of a government collapse in the Netherlands is low. Consequently, a government collapse is therefore more likely to occur in the Netherlands. Who will say. For now I am just afraid for the election to come with right-wing Geert Wilders (unfortunately) going strong.

Last post again.

Last Sunday I arrived at Schiphol Aiport; 2 more days in the Netherlands and then back to New York City. So, hereby my last post on this blog for now.

It’s a small world

Last Saturday, after a six-hour drive through Rwanda, I arrived in hotel Beausejour. Later that evening, while I was working in the hotel’s common room, I heard “Peter: you here!?” It were Laetitia and Stefan; friends of mine who work for the IRC in Bukavu. We spent the rest of the evening in a great Italian restaurant nearby.

Leatitia and Stefan were coming from Kinshasa (Congo’s capital) and were heading to Bukavu (Congo’s 4th biggest city). The fastest way to do this (and I am not joking) was to fly to Nairobi, then to Kigali and then drive 6 hours by car to enter the Congo again.

Stefan told me another Congo-style story. Last week the IRC received for the first time post in Kinshasa. The mail was sent from Brazzaville; a city right on the other side of the Congo river (one can see it from Kinshasa). The letter was sent in... 2004! It gets better. The mailman, after delivering the letter, asked the IRC for some money to cover the transport costs.

The next day, early last Sunday morning, I was at the airport in Nairobi and again heard “Peter, you here!?” It was Mark, the TUUNGANE boss for Haut Katanga. About two weeks ago I spend several days at his office in Lubumbashi. It’s a small world, indeed.

It’s a scary world.

It’s also a scary world. When I arrived at Schiphol airport I walked towards customs. Shortly before taking the electronic stairs down, two Africans asked me in French “Sir. You came from Bukavu, no?”

I was shocked. I had never seen them before, and it is impossible for them to have had the same trip as me from Bukavu: 6 hours car, night in Kigali, flight Kigali -> Bujumbura -> Nairobi -> Amsterdam.

I asked them who they were, how they knew me, and where they were from. To the first two questions they only smiled. To the third they responded: "We live in Rwanda, right across the border, but we are Congolese." Before I could react, they had walked on.

So, Congolese intelligence? Probably not for two reasons. First, I am really not that interesting to be followed. Secondly, even if, Congo can't pay for a mailman, let alone have the money to buy plane tickets to Amsterdam. It scared the hell out me, though.

Two utterly random things.

• After a month of cold bucket showers, last Sunday I took a shower with pressure and warm water. Amazing!
• As I am sure you know, Gmail puts adds on your Gmail screen. These adds are adjusted to you. Last Saturday in Kigali, Gmail gave me the following ad: “Cabot Position on Coltan - www.cabot-corp.com/tantalum - Cabot has not, and will not, mine tantalum in the Dem. Rep. of Congo.” Weird!

Two final things.

• IRINNEWS had a news item on how IDPs in North Kivu are still being abducted by armed groups for forced labor.
• I started my first post last January talking about money; how I would love to be a Congolese MPs and earn over $8,000 per month. Well, actually, I do not want to be that anymore. Now I want to be Mugabe’s bodyguard and earn around $5,000 dollar a day. How fucked up is this world?!

Last post for now.

Ok, so this is my last post for now. But no worries. First, I will continue on Africa and Columbia. Secondly, I should be back in the Democratic Republic of Congo in a matter of months; probably June or July. I’m already looking forward!

Into the field.

Last Wednesday I hired my own 4x4, a driver and enough petrol for a long day in the field with JP and Herman (see here). We were going to their birth village for two reasons.

First, although I have already read a ziljon pages on and visited tens of villages in Eastern Congo, I know very little about the mundane issues of Congolese rural life. I thus wanted to sit down with villagers and ask basic questions: Where are you fields? What do you grow? Why? If IDPs arrive can they make use of it? Etc. Secondly, JP and Herman have a small project in their birth village (see here again), and I was interested in knowing more about it.

The car picked me up at 730am; one can’t leave earlier for security reasons. And after buying some water and bread for during the day and picking up JP, Herman and their mom, we left for the village Mushugula (localite Mushinga, territoire Mwenga, province Sud Kivu). Because of bad roads and not knowing where the village is (JP and Herman normally walk to their birth village), it took us 4 hours instead of the expected 2 hours.

We did have great views, though:


Talking

Already in the car I started asking questions as the mother of JP and Herman is very old and she was very interesting to talk to. Btw, for most of the trip she sat crying in the back; being happy as she hadn’t been to her village in months. She also had some salt with her for her two cows. In brief, in 1996 her house was burned down by the RCD and she fled for Bukavu and has lived there ever since. Now, although she wants to work on her fields, she is too old to return.

A friend of JP is mining in Fizi (another territoire of Sud Kivu) and walked three days to give him 25 dollars and a letter for his wife. I asked JP why his friend didn’t walk another day to be home. JP told me that because his friend has been mining in Fizi for over a year the family’s expectations are high; he can only return if he has money and many presents.

Project

There are many old women that lost their husband and although they own fields they have to beg to survive because they are too old to work on their fields. These old women have a "shameful life". This sounds utterly inefficient, and thus I was interested.

JP and Herman’s project is to provide small amounts of second-hand clothing to young villagers to motivate them to cultivate the old women’s fields; so that her fields are used, the young people are happy, and the old lady does no longer have to beg. This sounds great, but still inefficient to me. I therefore spend a lot of time chatting with JP, Herman and many old women to understand what was going on. I have more than 30 minutes of video of us talking about this (hope to post that one day), but here two Q&As:

• Me: Don’t the old women have any children that can help?
  Answer: Yep, they have children. But, the women leave as soon as they get married, and the men get a wife and children and then as Herman noted “do no longer think about their parents”. Also, it is already difficult to obtain enough food for your own wife and children.
• Me: Why give the young people second-hand clothes? That is, why doesn’t the old lady say in the village “work on my field and of the 100 potatoes I get 20 and you keep 80”?
  Answer: Not only is there not much profit to be divided from a field, most young people are “too ambitious to work on a field that is not their own”. Also, they prefer to go to the mining areas to dig for gold. Only with second-hand clothing can they be persuaded.

During our talk we made use of much material to illustrate our questions and answers. Below, the piece of wood indicates a field, the leave an old woman, the pieces of branch are children, and the pieces of straw indicate the border of sub-fields:


All in all, I very exited about JP and Herman's project. Their project makes sense and it necessary. They call their project TKM or Tumaini Kwa Mukosefu, which means, in Swahili, "Hope for the people in need". Below is one of these people. I will write more on the project soon.


Heading back

My GPS device indicated that the sun would set at 627pm and therefore, for security reasons, I told the group we would head back at 2pm. Although JP and Herman told me the we needed only about 2 hours as there was a good road, I have by now spend too much time in the Congo to actually belief that. I was correct.

Of course we only left around 230pm. But ones we were driving I thought it would actually take only 2 hours as the road was, surprisingly, good. Then after 30 minutes on the road, of course, a 1.5 meter high pile of dirt was covering the road from left to right. Right behind the pile several Congolese had dug a 1.5 meter deeper hole so that an irrigation pipe could be placed below the road. Of course instead of first doing the left side of the road (so that cars can pass on the right) and then vice versa, they had done the whole road.


Not only did we have to drive those 30 minutes back, we subsequently had to take roads of utterly bad quality. We arrived in Bukavu only shortly before dark. It was yet another absolutely great day though!

Randomly selected foodcrops in the Congo.

Quinine is the plant with antimalarial properties, making the colonization of Africa possible after it's discovery in the 1850s. It goes well especially with gin (ie when it comes as tonic):


Sweet potato is native to tropical parts of South America, but now also in the DRC:


Sorghum is an important food crop in Africa. One can make bio-fuel like ethanol out of it and, important, also liquor (eg the "maotai" in China). In the DRC they only eat it:


Manioc (or cassava) is also native to South America, but it is the most important food source in Eastern DRC. One eats the roots (one dries them, mashes them and makes foufou out of this) and the leaves (one cooks them and has pondu):


Coffee, like tea, is present in many parts of the DRC. There are two main species of coffee in world; arabica coffee and robusta coffee. The latter tends to be bitter and have less flavor but better body than arabica. The Robusta strain was first collected in 1890 from the Lomani, a tributary of the Congo River:


Just like coffee, the Congo does not have the capability to process tea. The processing plants that once existed were not maintained after the Belgians left, and do not operate anymore. Congo, therefore, mainly exports these crops raw and thus at a very low price. As with their other natural resources (diamonds, coltan, etc.) it are thus especially non-Congolese that earn money of it:

Research in the Congo.

Doing research in the Congo is challenging. Let me give one out of many possible examples. The country is divided (from large to small) into:

* Country
** Districts
***Provinces
**** Territoires
***** Chefferies
****** Groupements
******* Localites
******** Villages
********* Sousvillages
********** Quartiers

A province consists out of several territoires, a territoire consists out of several chefferies, etc. Although the above list is long, it sounds quite organized and simple for a country the size of Congo; doesn’t it? Trust me, it is not. Here we go:

People just don’t know

It happens regularly that Congolese themselves don’t know. Last summer I was in the territoire Kipushi in the province Haut Katanga and when asking two different people (living in the same village) for the name of the village I received two different responses. This is just one example. For our 2007 baseline survey we surveyed in each village 5 households and the chief; often we receive different information on their village name.

Last Wednesday I went to a friend's birth village about a four-hour drive away from Bukavu (this story will be posted soon). I asked him how many people lived in his village; he said 800. I didn’t belief him as I saw many houses. After pushing him on this point he told me that “of course” he only counted the people that were actually parents and married.

Also, of many villages we don’t know their existence; the Democratic Republic of Congo is just really big. For example, the best source for villages' location are the big maps that OCHA and MONUC produce. I have these maps, both in paper and digitally (as shapefiles). Interestingly, almost all the villages of which the geo-location has been taken are located next to or very close to the big roads. Are there really no villages of the road? I am sure there are; but one just really doesn’t want to walk for tens of hours to take a geo-location.

Things change

When several hundred IDPs settle in a new place often a new village with a new name is created. Similarly, if rebel groups come and burn down the houses in a village and all the people flee, the village is gone. Unfortunately, due to the conflict this happens a lot in Eastern Congo.

Different people use and create different entities

The differences between the entities is not always clear. For example, after the draft resolution of the constitution was approved in 2005, the Congolese government started a process of decentralization going from 11 districts to 25 provinces. The decentralization is far from complete and now the people use the term and the names of the district and provinces interchangeably.

In addition to the above-given list there are several more entities going around. Some days ago I saw the word ‘secteur’ on a United Nations’ map; it seems to be the same as a chefferie. The day before yesterday I was in Kadutu and heard it was a 'commune'. It seems that the village of Bukavu is separated into communes (of which Kadutu is one) and then those communities are again divided in quartiers.

The IRC, which is the NGO we do the impact evaluation of TUUNGANE for, artificially created so-called CDVs and CDCs at the start of TUUNGANE. In brief, a CDV is an entity of around 1,200 people (it can consist out of several villages if these villages are smaller than 1,200 people, or out of quartiers if the villages are bigger than 1,200). A CDC is a grouping of CDVs. Not only where these new entities created many CDVs and CDCs received the name of the largest village or quartier, and therefore at the moment the IRC uses the CDV and CDC names interchangeably with the names of the natural units.

One illustrative example

Let me give one more example. After talking with a friend last week I wrote in a previous post that the Mwami traditionally allocates land. I noted that the mwami is "the king often at the localite level (a level higher than the village)”. That friend was Congolese so I thought 'he knows'.

Then last Monday I met the son of the Mwami of Shabunda. He noted that his father is the king of the territoire of Shabunda. His dad actually is the Mwami so I thought 'he must know'.

Then today I was reading the 2005 “Monographie de la Provence du Sud-Kivu”; a document created by the Minister of Planning in cooperation with the World Bank. This document noted that “A côté de l’autorité administrative, il y a les autorités coutumières. Ainsi à la tête de chaque collectivité, il y a un chef de collectivité communément appelé Mwami (roi).” This is the government itself talking; you would expect that 'they know'.

Combining the above with the fact that: there are hundreds of different tribes and languages, traditional and administrative structures overlap, security issues are always present, good infrastructure is absent and distances are enormous, and a hundred other things; I think it is not exaggerated to say that doing research here is quite a challenge.

Importantly, though, this also all makes the Congo extremely interesting!

Hello from Kigali.

Since earlier this morning I am no longer in the Congo.

The plan was to cross the Congo - Rwanda border at Ruzizi at 9am (taking a bit of extra time because of the state of my passport) and then to take a local bus at 10am to Kigali; something like a six-hour drive.

Early this morning, however, I got a ring from IRC's logistics officer who heard I was going to Kigali and he told me an IRC car was going there as well. I could join.

So, after a great five-hour drive through Rwanda - crossing a national park, learning Swahili words from the driver,* seeing monkeys and talking a lot with the driver about the Great Lakes - I arrived in hotel Beausejour.

At 1am a taxi will pick me up for the airport and I'll be heading to Nairobi, and then to Amsterdam. Although I am looking forward to a Dutch glass of milk, I am also a bit sad to leave the Congo already after one month.

* Shame on me, but I only found out know that the Lion King's "Hakuna matata" is Swahili for "No worries".

Amazing afternoon.

A few weeks ago I got to know Alain who told us about the difficult conditions under which the 2007 baseline survey was collected (see here). He also told us that he works in the natural resource business. I am intrigued by the latter and asked him whether I could join him to work one day; I did so last Monday afternoon.

CAMIKIN

We first went to Alain’s house in Kadutu; a large neighborhoud of Bukavu. After meeting his wife, whom he met thanks to the survey in 2007 (see here), we talked. In brief, Alain works for CAMIKIN, which is a cooperative of several thousand miners in Shabunda (one of Sud Kivu's territoire). Each week they send three planes filled with gold, casserite and coltan to Bukavu. Alain’s job is to sell this; often to foreigners. In contrast to BANRO, a big Canadian-based mining company who also operates in Shabundu, CAMIKIN’s miners use their hands and some spades to mine.

ISTM

After an hour we went to ISTM, one of the larger universities in Bukavu, to see Alain’s office. While Alain is actually an employee of ISTM he also works for CAMIKIN as the first job doesn’t earn him much. The big ISTM building is close to falling apart. That is, like most big buildings in Congo, it was build by the Belgiums and it hasn’t been maintained after independence. Interestingly, during our few minutes there, I met Vincent who worked for Simon and me over the summer. He is now professor at ISTM. It is a small world.

Market

The highlight of the day was to visit the market where the buying and selling of natural resources takes place. There are 152 of those markets in Bukavu. Unfortunately, it is not possible for an ‘mzungu’ (‘white man’ in Swahili) to walk in. Luckily, Alain is friends with Sud Kivu’s Speaker of the House; a very important chap here in Bukavu. With the three of us we visited the market where I saw piles of especially coltan and casserite, resources being cleaned and separated, and I talked with lots of people. After that we had dinner at the Speaker of the House’s place – ie big and over the top Congolese police protection – and we talked even more, also about Sud Kivu’s politics.

Gold and diamonds

We had one more appointment later that evening in Café Belvedere with the son of the Mwami (ie the king) of Shabunda. He had brought gold and diamonds with him. Just 10 grams of gold is already worth 437 dollar, and each of the small diamonds he had with him (and he had quite a few) was worth several hundreds of dollars. Although it was a bit shady, it was also interesting as I asked him many questions; also about the role of the mwami.

So, last Monday I got to know and experience a bit of Eastern Congo’s natural resource business, became best buddies with Sud Kivu’s Speaker of the House, and I got to see cassiterite, coltan, gold, amethiste, tourmaline, red ganet, red ligt, topaze, corindo ruby, corindo saphir, aquamarine, corindo, diamant, ruby, saphir, and emeraude. For an academic interested in natural resources and a stone freak since a very young age, this was yet another awesome experience!

Amazing morning.

Yesterday I had an amazing morning. At 10am I met up with JP and Herman; the first is a security guard whom I befriended last summer, the latter is his brother and a pastor. JP and I talked a lot last summer; about his difficulties to pay tuition fees for his children, the artisinal mining of gold and coltan he did in Ninja, him fleeing to South Africa several years ago, etc. Yesterday we finally met again and talked for over 4 hours; hereby just a few of many things we talked about.

Finances.

Among others we talked about money. JP earns 125$ a month and his wife earns a little bit as well by selling second-hand shoes. His expenses are as follows:

• Rent (per month): 25$.
• Food (per day): between 3 and 5$. A chunk of foufou costs around 1$ and they are with 6 people so need around three of them to dinner and leave a little bit for breakfast.
• Education (per year): 90$ for the first who goes to high school, $20 for the second you goes to primary school that is $20, and $10 each for the two youngest who go to the creche.
• And all this is not even talking about transport costs (JP walks over two hours to get to work and back each day), clothing, water (JP doesn’t have running water at home and no place nearby to get water so he has to buy this), etc.

Doing some adding and subtracting gives that this is not an easy life.

JP and Herman are originally from the village Mushugula in Sud Kivu’s territoire Walungu and they still own some land there. We talked about this as well.

Property rights.

Decades if not centuries ago the Mwami – the king often at the localite level (a level higher than the village) – allocated plots of land to families. These days people still give small gifts each year to the Mwami for this.

Although JP and Herman don’t cultivate their land, they are not afraid somebody will take their land. The reason is that the villagers there know that it is JP's and Herman's property. Social pressure would do the job, and if it doesn't there is the village's "council of wise men" who would rule.

Other people can use the land if they want, but they first have to ask JP or Herman. So, being Western, I said this was a good idea because the person that cultivates the land can pay JP and Herman some rent for using the land. JP and Herman told me that this was absolutely not done in the Congo, because it is the “energy that gives you food”.

We also talked about IDPs and whether they can easily obtain pieces of land. The answer often is yes; they can either help cultivate others' pieces of land, or they can obtain land that is not yet owned or cultivated.


Inheritance.

For the Bashi - the largest ethnic group in Sud Kivu and also the tribe of JP and Herman - an inheritance (the house, the fields, etc.) is not split equally among the (male) children, and it does also not go to the oldest (male) child. Interestingly it goes to the oldest and the youngest man. To be clear they illustrated this by making use of their table and 3 empty coca bottles. Was really nice.

Lots of kids. Good/bad.

The topic "children" is an interesting one in the Congo. We had a walk through Herman's neighborhood Nyalykemba and visited the Ruzizi river that separates Congo from Rwanda.

On our way we met another pastor who invited us in and started bragging up about the fact that he had 11 children. I asked him "why?" because children have to eat, one has to pay schoolfees, etc. We got into a heated argument as both JP and Herman stopped purposefully at 4 children because they can’t afford more. The pastor, on the other hand, argued that "Jezus will feed my children" and that what JP and Herman was doing was the work of the anti-Christ. It was fun!

Project.

Since a few months JP and Herman have a project running in Mushugula (their village that is located in the localite Mushinga). In brief, there are many old people that have land but do not have a husband or children and therefore can’t cultivate it. Consequently, although they have land they go hungry and often have to beg. Via Herman's church their project provides second-hand clothes to young people in Mushugula in exchange for their work on the fields of these old people, so that the full profits go to the latter.

Note: If this project was already in place some years ago, the parents of JP and Herman would not have left their village (they now live a difficult live in Bukavu).

It's a great project I think. Of course, I do have more questions. How big is the problem of old people without help? What is the incentive for these young people to do a good job on the fields? Also, why doesn't the old person just say "any person that cultivates my field can keep half, and I keep the other half"?

Anyhow, they got me interested, I would like to help them one way or the other and having some pictures and some video material would help to raise some money, and from a research perspective I am interested in all the above discussed points. So, I hope to hire a car for this Wednesday and together with JP and Herman we're going to visit their village.

Finally, Herman also gave me the book “Trois siecles chez les Bashis” ("three centures with the Bashis"); this seems to be a great book on the Bashi tribe. Also, shortly after I got back home I received an sms from Alain; the man who works in a buying/selling company for precious minerals. Today I will join him for a day to see how all this works. All in all, two days of absorbing information; awesome!

Please read this.

An opinion piece just came out by Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times. Please read this.

After reading that, make absolutely sure you also read this by Jason Stearns on Congo Siasa, this by Chris Blattman, this by Wronging Rights and Texas in Africa on this issue.

12 random things.

• Yesterday while sitting in the plane my battery died and so I had some time to finish Ben Okri's "The Famished Road"; a book about the spirit-child Azaro who lives in Nigeria. A strange book in which the real and the spirit world spillover into each other. The almost 600 pages were finished in no time, though.
  
• I got this link to some nice pictures from a friend of mine already some time ago. Thanks Simon!
  
• The day before yesterday, when I was still in L'shi, I went to an Indian restaurant. I was never a big fan of Indian food, until last summer. After eating foufou, pondu, peanuts, beans, banana's and the occasional goat for weeks, Indian food with all its flavors was amazing. Why doesn't Congo have a rich cuisine? And is this only since recently?
• Wile eating I watched the Africa Cup with some locals: Nigeria vs Zambia (the latter lost). Was really nice! Let's hope all will go well this time when Algeria meets Egypt in the semi-final.
• To emphasize how important the medium of text message is please read this.
• Let's talk bottle deposit money. A crate of beer cost 20$ when you give them your used crate with empty bottles; other wise you pay $40! A bottle of coke is 500 Congolese Francs (around 50 $cents). But if you do not drink it at the spot (ie take the bottle with you) you either pay 1,000CFR or you have to bring it with you next time. I have a long term relation now with one of the sales ladies at the corner of the IRC compound, so we go for option 2. Yesterday when I came back after half a week in L'shi; the lady ran to me and said "you still have one of my bottles". Very true, I had kept it for her.
  
• I kept my Lubumbashi house key. Sorry Mark! I'll send it along with the next person who heads from Bukavu to L'shi.
• Jason Stearns keeps on writing great posts on Congo Siasa.
• Ok, so people argue that Sud Kivu is so bad off because of mineral resources. But what about Haut Katanga, which is know to be the richest province of Congo because of its resources. As always, it is not resources per se that is important, but who gets it: rebel groups and government soldiers, or big international companies that at least put part of the money they earn back in the country.
• If it wasn't that serious and tragic this would be the biggest joke ever. Btw, that cheque is so going to bounce.
  
• Today I am working from home. Why? 1. There is internet connection. 2. I have been hugging the toilet this morning. Last summer (when I was here for two months) I hadn’t been sick. This time (I am here for 1 month) I have already been sick 2 days!? I am quite sure that it are the Japanese Plums. A week ago I hugged the toilet shortly after eating them and thinking "fun, never had that before". Today I hugged the toilet shortly after thinking "he, there are those funny things again". Is two observations enough to draw that conclusion? Dear supervisor, please don't read this.
  
• So this is really random. Our Voix des Kivus' Field Coordinator is also the Director General of a school in Bukavu. In his office he had the school’s projection equipment:

Magical Moba.

Today I woke up at 5am, packed my bag and was picked up at 6am by one of the IRC drivers. I made sure to have some extra time at the airport because I expected trouble at the DGM because of my laundry machine-washed passport. The DGM is the Congolese migration and each time you arrive in or leave a big city, you have to go through customs. I indeed had problems; not only is my DRC visa difficult to read, custums also put my Congolese entry stamp with my wrong visa. Luckily, I got into the ECHO flight to Bukavu, which left Lubumbashi Airport at 8am.

I was traveling together with one of the IRC doctors (Doctor Joseph):

This 1,030km flight was utterly beautiful; flying over the many Congolese mountain tops, forests, and over the shore of Lake Tanganyika. The flight also stopped twice: in Moba and in Kalemie; the latter is located right next to Lake Tanganyika.

Moba is a magical place and located about a 1.5 hour flight away from Lubumbashi. After first a fly-over to check whether everything is ok, the plane lands on a dirt road. This dirt road is surrounded by beautiful mountains whos tops are hidden in the clouds and small villages whose inhabitants run towards the dirt road when the plane is landing.

Moba is also the place where thousands of Congolese are currently being repatriated from Zambian refugee camps. Last weekend when I played cards at one of the ICRC houses I had a long chat about this with some UNHCR people; I am very interesting in the implications of IDP and refugee movements.

Finally, as I wrote before, on January 13, another ECHO plane crashed in Moba. Today the plane was still there, but without any EU logos on it; the sneeky European Union had painted over the logos. :). So, hereby pictures of a crashed European Union plane:

Because the crashed plane took up part of the run way our plane had to turn around rather abruptly:

Lubumbashi.

Since last Thursday I am in Lubumbashi; located around 1,030 kilometers to the south of Bukavu and the capital of the province of Haut Katanga (HK). Just to give you an idea of size: the province of HK is around 500,000 km2, while the country of the Netherlands is around 41,500 km2. Lubumbashi – formerly known as Élisabethville or Elisabethstad – is the country’s second largest city with over a million people. The Belgians founded the city in 1910 and it grew quickly mainly because of Haut Katanga’s rich resources of copper, gold and uranium. HK is now the country’s richest province and contributes most to the national budget. For your information the capital Kinshasa is over 1,500 km away from Lubumbashi; partly explaining the secessionist current that has been present throughout the province’s recent history:

1960s

Shortly after Congo was granted independence on June 1960, Moise Tshombe proclaimed Katangan independence from the new Congolese government of Patrice Lumumba. His declaration of independence was made with the support of Belgian business interests and over 6,000 Belgian troops; Tshombe was known to be close to the Belgian industrial companies that mined in HK. In September 1960, Prime Minister Lumumba was replaced in a coup d'état by Mobutu Sese Seko. In January 1961, Lumumba was sent to Lubumbashi, where he was tortured and executed shortly after arrival; most likely with the help of the Belgium and US government. It was only after a decisive attack by UN forces on Katanga in December 1962 and the fall of Lubumbashi in January 1963, that Tshombe surrendered. Many lives were lost; including that of UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld who died in uncertain circumstances in a plane crash.

1990s

More recently Lubumbashi was again in the spotlight. This was when rebel leader Laurent-Désiré Kabila was in the process of overthrowing the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. (Yep, the first is the father of Joseph Kabila the current Congolese president who took over after his father’s assassination in January 2001). Laurent-Désiré Kabila, after Mobutu had fled in May 1997, spoke from Lubumbashi to declare himself president of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The pictures and statues of Laurent-Désiré Kabila are present throughout the city.

Now

At the moment Lubumbashi is very safe and quiet; almost to being boring. I do not need a radio here, I do not have a call sign, and the IRC even allows one to walk around the city. Let's see whether this stays the same in the next election (this year? Who knows?) when the governor of Katanga - Moïse Katumbi Chapwe – is is likely to run for the presidency.

So, what am I doing here in Lubumbashi?

Well, actually nothing very interesting. I am not going into the field and I am not training any people. I mainly talk and sit behind my laptop. That is, I have five main things that I am doing here:

• Talking to Mark; the boss of TUUNGANE for Haut Katanga. The evaluation is getting closer, we are planning to add a behavioral measure, and there are several other things that have to be talked about but that doesn’t go well over the phone;
• Talking to UN OCHA regarding maps of the Haut Katanga region;
• Talking with Professor Gabriel Kalaba from OCU at the University of Lubumbashi. He was responsible for the baseline survey in 2007 and I talked with him about his experiences and about his ideas for the next survey. Trivia: The Belgians established the University of Élisabethville (now the University of Lubumbashi) in 1954;
• Much time is spend behind a laptop to clean data. The IRC works with entities that are called CDCs and CDVs. A CDV consist out of several villages and a CDC consists out of several CDVs. In 2007 we had a nice document that said which villages were in which CDV and CDC. Over the last few years some CDVs were split up, merged, etc. and because nobody kept track, I am now trying to figure out in which CDC and CDV each of the villages is. FYI: We’re talking over 5,000 villages spread over four provinces. Yes, oh joy!
• We are about to start a big exercise to collect all the geo-locations of those aforementioned villages. I am now preparing the data for this, creating forms that can be filled out, have contact with different agencies to increase the number of GPS devices that we have, etc.

The IRC has a new office, which used to belong to the ICRC. It is much bigger than the one I worked in last summer:

Surgery on myself.

Note: Please only read this when you have a strong stomach. Over the last few days the bottom of my right foot started hurting right under my small toe. When it started I had a quick look and thought it was a splinter of wood; so "no worries". But, yesterday it started to hurt again so I took out my Swiss Army Knife, my small bottle with anti-bacterial, and started to work.

After cutting away an unusual amount of skin I noticed it wasn't a splinter as it took a lot of trouble to take 'it' out. When it was finally out I noticed a small white dot. Nothing was infected, so I didn't know what it was, and thus continued the surgery. After more cutting I took out a white egg of around 4 by 5 mm! After making sure this was really the only one, I disinfected everything very carefully, and checked my whole body for other intruders: none found.

So where does this chap come from? Two possible reasons:

1. Early last week I went to the bathroom and only noticed the puddle of water next to the toilet once I stood in it. Although I did immediately clean my feet with soap, I may have had a small cut somewhere in my foot, etc.

2. Being Dutch means that one is often taller than both the Congolese and the expats. Consequently, all the beds I sleep in are too small. It is possible that in the evening my food touched the mosquito net and one of those flying chaps thought about migrating to my foot.

Anyhow, I'm ok. I noticed it on time and I had the tools to deal with it. Moreover, I have good shoes, mosquito nets and soap so it is unlikely that it will happen soon again. However, think about the Congolese. They do not have a Swiss Army Knife and no bottle of anti-bacterial. Also, the forest is one big public toilet and almost none of the Congolese has good shoes, soap or a mosquito net for that matter.

My camera had problems taking a picture of it, but to the left my little friend:

Why is Peter in the DRC this time?

From January 7 to February 6 I am in the Congo mainly for two reasons: TUUNGANE and Voix des Kivus. Warning: boring post ahead!

TUUNGANE

While the baseline survey took place in 2007 another will take place at end of this year and yet another in the summer of next year. Not only are we preparing these surveys, we are also working on a great behavioral measure to get at the impact of TUUNGANE (more on that later). All in all, this needs lots of preparation: doing lots of coding (mainly to clean data), meeting all the stakeholders, etc.

In addition, the geo-location of over 5,000 villages throughout Eastern Congo has to be taken in upcoming months. Indeed, lots of preparation: talking with organizations to get more GPS devices, getting the data in such a way that we know what villages we are looking for, etc. Before I leave I want at least one of the provinces to have send out the first teams.

Then there are a ziljon smaller things: finding the PDAs that were planned to be used for the 2007 baseline survey, but were - of course - blocked at customs. Hiring somebody for several days to enter data from 100 randomly selected surveys to doublecheck the quality of previous data entry. Etc.

VOIX DES KIVUS

In January Voix des Kivus turned 6 months old; i.e. the end of the pilot, and a decision had to be made whether to continue or not. From our Ivory Tower in New York things looked good: more than a 1,000 messages were received. But what do our phoneholders think about the project (is it safe? Are they motivated? Etc.). And what does the development community in Eastern Congo think (Are they going to use the information?). So, we visted each of the phoneholders and we gave a presentation at the weekly UN OCHA meeting - where all development organizations get together - and it was clear that the project had to continue.

But continuation means growing. The pilot takes plane in only four villages; a very low number to give much useful information to, for example, the development community. So, decisions had to be made on how to expand and where, a code had to be written that randomly selects villages for entry into Voix des Kivus, new contracts have to be written for the Field and Technical Coordinator, more phones have to be bought, and a ziljon other things.

Finally, the grant for this project comes from USAID. Just before I left they gave me a camera and asked me whether I could make a small documentary about Voix des Kivus. So, now I am walking around with a camera; interviewing the phoneholders, people from the development community, etc.

OWN RESEARCH

If time permits, I hope to do three more things: 1. Meet up with Alain who buys and sells coltan, casserite, gold, etc. 2. Meet several economics, anthropology, sociology, etc. professors and students here in Bukavu. 3. Go to a village, completely map the village, sit down with people and talk with them for several hours, and really try to get at how it is to live in rural Congo.

Anyhow, maybe a boring post for you, but for me all of the above is really great stuff!

What does one do at an airport for more than 6 hours?

Around 8am this morning I arrived - again - at Kavumu Airport. The plane was - of course - delayed. Instead of flying at 8am, it was delayed from 8am to 10am, 10am to 11am, 11am to 1pm, and then finally at 240pm the plane arrived. So what does one do at an UN military airport for 6 hours and forthy minutes? Actually I had quite a good time:

Firstly, I helped a bit. This morning we left Bukavu with 7 people, a car and a large truck filled with medicines destined for Minembwe. The latter is a bigger village in South Kivu's territoire Fizi where the IRC has a base. The week before I arrived in the Congo fighting had intensified around Minembwe so the IRC had been evacuated. After three weeks it was slowly being staffed and stuffed again; the latter with among others medicines. To get it there the IRC had hired a plane. so the truck had to be unloaded, the plane had to be loaded, etc. Because only half of the truck fitted in the plane, the plane returned after two hours for the other half. This was fun.

Secondly, I socialized and looked around. There were a few more expats waiting for the ECHO flight: a doctor from Medices Sans Frontiers and the country director of Search for Common Ground. We talked a lot. I also looked around as these airports are cool: many UN personel helicopters, UN cargo planes, and even some UN helicopter gunships landed and took off. Also, DRC government troops (the FARDC) arrested somebody. Before they handcuffed the man he first had to take off his shoes, which were then tied to the handcuffs. Why? Is it to discourage him from running away? Interesting.

Thirdly, I worked. I had charged my laptop the evening before (I already saw something like this coming) and sat in the shade for several hours.

A quick note from...

Bukavu. Indeed, I did not end up in Lubumbashi today. After a 1.5 hour drive to Kavumu Airport, paying the $10 airport tax, having my passport and ordre du mission* checked (and hearing yet again how badly my passport looks), obtaining the usual amount of stamps, and after waiting an estimated two hours, we were told the flight was canceled. So, tomorrow I'll be trying again. No problem, enough work remains to be done in Bukavu as well.

I did make some nice pictures on the way back, though. In the back of this picture is Kavumu Airport. It is such a beautiful country.

Did he/she try to take a shortcut?

* This is a piece of paper saying a person's name, the organization he/she works for, where he/she is going to, from when to when, what mode of transportation, and - of course - this document includes some stamps and signatures. One has to get this document for each new "mission".