Karibu hapa Kindu (....or, [un]necessary introductions)

Getting here wasn’t easy. It’s a story that’s 4 months long, ridden with visa and travel problems (including a brief stint as an illegal immigrant), lots of waiting and uncertainty --- 2 days worth of tears at one point, about 6 flights and as many airports. But today marked my first month in the town of Kindu, in the Maniema province of eastern DRC where I’m working with the organization Merlin, and I thought it was about time I started the blog that I said I’d start in March. Always the procrastinator.

But I do have a reason (or excuse?) for being late. I didn’t want to write about a place I didn’t know, that I had just got to. I didn’t want to talk about Kindu as a complete stranger, throwing around shallow first impressions and judgements. One month isn’t a long time, I know, but I think it’s given me time to maybe gain even just a little familiarity with a place so different from anywhere I’ve ever been to before, and maybe think about things with a different perspective. (Please note the 'Maybe'.)

I remember planning to just keep a simple photo-blog thing, but I soon realized that while photos can tell you a lot, there are many, many things that photos cannot say. Like for example how surreal it felt (still is) to be sitting on a balcony overlooking the Congo River, watching the pirogues pass by, when a pirogue filled with a choir dressed in uniform patterned bright yellow and green pagnes crossed the river to Kindu, singing all the way. Or even how the flour mill right behind my room wakes me up everyday at 630 am (including weekends). Earlier on bad days, but later if we’re lucky. (Note: I am keeping my photos on flickr. And I may be starting a photo-blog for Merlin.)

I sometimes think blogs can be a teeny bit self-indulgent and a teeny bit pretentious, but oh well, I will indulge myself [--- and provide disclaimers that: I do tend to ramble quite a lot (often senseless ramblings too); being incoherent is a talent of mine, that I attempt to hide through little notes in parentheses such as this; and I have a tendency to write the way I talk, which I imagine can be a bit irritating. Disclaimers that assume someone actually reads this. Hmm…]. So, self-indulgent maybe, but in the end of it, this will be my reminder of how it was, and my way of ‘sharing’ Kindu with anyone else who cares to become acquainted with it. My way of counting souvenirs. And maybe (hopefully) I’ll even be able to say something useful…

So more in this space very soon… and welcome to Kindu, or as they say it in Swahili here… Karibu hapa Kindu!