African Wildlife

I'll start out this entry with a cute little picture of a newly hatched lizard. I found the egg in the garden, and then I kept it in a glass jar for over a month. After the lizard hatched, we looked at it for about 15 minutes, took a few photos, and then we set it free.

On Thursday afternoon, my cook told me that our gardeners had killed a "dangerous snake." I didn't think too much about it, because the gardeners are always killing snakes, and they always say that the snakes are dangerous. Then my driver came to me and he said that the snake was a viper. Mamba (I swear that is his real name) tends to exaggerate his stories as well, and so I wasn't really expecting too much. However, I decided to check it out, and well, you see the pictures...

We keep our cages of guinea pigs (we currently have 6 of the fat, nervous critters) in wire cages on the grass during the day. Frederic, one of our gardeners, found this snake circling the cages looking for an afternoon snack. He then decapitated the viper with a shovel. This occurred shortly before the boys arrived home from school. One of the first things that Anders does when he gets home from school is to go check on his beloved guinea pigs. I am so grateful that Frederic encountered the snake before Anders did, because who knows what would have happened! I believe that it is a Gaboon viper (Bitis gabonica), but correct me if I'm wrong. If it is a Gaboon viper, then it has the longest fangs and the highest venom yield of any venomous snake (according to the Integrated Taxonomic Information System).

Anders with Truffet, Lightening, and Suzi

The pattern of the snake is actually quite amazing, and so I am currently in the process of tanning the skin (someone from my office told me how). Apparently, all you have to do is clean the skin, stretch it on a wooden board, generously salt it, wait a week, and then rub it to soften the skin. I'll post the results IF it turns out.

This isn't the first time that we've had a really scary snake in our garden. Back when we lived in Ghana, one of our guards found a green mamba in our sandbox. Of course, this made me a bit obsesssive compulsive about checking the sandbox for snakes prior to the boys playing in it for the next few years. Fortunately, the worst thing that I've found in the sandbox since then were mosquito larvae. Then again, we are more likely to die from a mosquito bite (malaria - oh joy!) than we are from a snake bite. I am also a bit weird about snakes and kids after reading the "Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kinsolver several years ago. If you read the book, you know what I mean.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

I am so lucky to be the mom of three wonderful boys, and to also have an absolutely wonderful mom myself! Soren, Anders, and Anson again gave me a very sweet and thoughtful Mother's Day. Earlier in the week, Soren had our driver take him to one of the local stores, and then he bought me a gift with some of the money that he had saved. He then wrapped the present by himself. Later in the week, one of my dear friends, Janet Coleman, picked-up the boys and took them to her place to help them make me Mother's Day cards. She also gave them a heart shaped cake to give to me on Mother's Day (see picture above).

On the night before Mother's Day, Soren cut out many hearts and wrote sweet messages on them, and then he taped them on the walls of our dining room. The boys also set the table with china and crystal. On the morning of Mother's day Soren made pancakes for breakfast. All of the boys behaved exta well throughout the day, which really helped me to have a wonderful Mother's Day! Thank you Soren, Anders, and Anson for being my boys - I love you so much!

Take Your Child to Work Day - Part 2

Soren and his best friend put to work loading M9 clips

Recently my office went to the police gun range in the Bas-Congo Province for target practice. It was a "Take Your Child to Work Day" of sorts because I was able to bring Soren with me, and someone else from my office brought his son as well (Soren's best friend). Our OPSNCO coordinated the gun range fees ahead of time, but of course when we arrived, the police officer in charge of the range requested a higher fee (this is very common occurrence in D.R. Congo as well as throughout Africa). After some negotiating, the fee was settled and we were able to commence target practice.

Besides the usual people from our office, an Army Special Forces instructor who was TDY came with us as well. This person is in the D.R. Congo to help train FARDC (DRC military), and he gave Soren a private lesson on weapons safety and how to load, aim, and fire an M9. Soren has used a shotgun to shoot trap, but this was his first time using a handgun.

Soren and I practing our skills. The police officer (blue uniform pants, beer t-shirt) nervously stayed close by while Soren was firing a weapon. I guess he had't seen a mzungu "child soldier" before! While we were there, a group of Congolese police officers also used the range. However, instead of the typical paper targets, they used approximately $2,000 worth of police shields and helmets as targets. I suppose they wanted to see how they really stood up to automatic weapons.

Soren asleep in the vehicle on the way home

Take Your Child to Work Day

Soren trying on some of the Marines' gear

Last month the embassy hosted the annual "Take Your Child to Work Day" for embassy children ages 8-17. Unfortunately, Anson was not yet old enough to attend, but Soren and Anders were able to come with me. First, the children toured the embassy and they were able to see how the various offices and agencies function. The Marines conducted a mock hostage situation drill, and all of the children seemed to really enjoy that bit of drama. After the tour, I ate lunch with Soren and Anders at the embassy cafe, The African Queen.

Following lunch, the Defence Attache organized a trip to one of the UN/MONUC compounds in Kinshasa, since our office does so much work with this organization. Only the children from our office were able to attend (Anders, Soren, and two other boys), and so they got a very personalized tour. The UN (MONUC as they call it here) has over 20,000 personnel in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is it's largest presence in the world.

Soren peeking out of the top of a MONUC/UN APC

Anders in APC - notice the boxes of munitions stacked next to him

The Ghana Command showed the boys the various weapons that they use in the DRC, and they also let them explore one of their APC's. Of course, this was much more exciting than when the boys see the National Guard tanks in the county fair, because these carriers were actually armed and full of munitions. Sadly, the Ghana Command lost one of its men earlier in the month when the Enyele (one of the various rebel groups in D.R. Congo) briefly took over an airport in one of the provinces.

Drama, Drama, Drama

Notice the dents in our gate? Those were from bullets fired during the fighting that occurred a few months after the last presidential election in DRC.

Back in February, my gardeners showed me various burned patches on our lawn and they also pointed out some additional diesel spots by our fuel tank near the generator (the tank must hold over 500 liters). They stated that they believed someone was stealing our diesel fuel, and so I reported this to our embassy. The investigators from the embassy came out and assessed the situation, but they said that the fuel levels were within the normal range. I didn't think too much about it until a week or so later when I got a call at 3:00 AM. Because calls at crazy times at night tend to be wrong numbers (typical exchange - Me, "Hello?" Them, "Hello, hello?" Me, "Yah, I SAID hello!" Them, "Who is this?" Me, "Well, you are the one calling and so YOU should know who I am!"), I hung up without even looking at the number. However, my phone rang again, and so this time I groggily answered it. It was the Marine at Post One at the Embassy, and he stated that we had armed intruders in our yard, and he instructed us to go immediately to the safehaven (Our night guard was actually awake and he saw the intuders, and so he radioed for help). We grabbed our boys and put them in our safehaven, and then I decided to go downstairs to check on our alarm (in retrospect, I'm pretty sure we would have heard if someone tried to forcibly enter the residence at that point, but my reasoning was rather cloudy at that time in the morning). All I accomplished was just making the system loudly beep over and over (we have a loudspeaker on top of our house that is part of our alarm system). In the meantime, Charles also came downstairs to look out of our dining room window, and he told me to go upstairs right away because there was a man with an automatic weapon standing outside! This time, we STAYED in the safehaven. Shortly thereafter, the police and the armed response team arrived, but the intruders managed to escape. The RSO and the armed response team then had to make sure that our yard was completely clear, which took around 1.5 hours because we have so many trees and foliage. The process was further slowed by the fact that there were only a few flashlights among the entire group. By this point, the boys were pretty freaked-out and disoriented, but the silver lining for them was that we didn't make them go to school in the morning.

The investigation went on throughout the day, and they found the lock to our fuel tank to be completely broken and all our our diesel siphoned out. It then started to rain, and so we had a nice "rainbow" puddle around the generator and fuel tank, which later turned into a large dead grass patch. Anyway, the armed intruders turned out to be members of the D.R. Congo's military (FARDC) who are posted on the opposite side of one of our walls. The embassy decided to post an additional guard as well as police officer armed with an AK-47 at our residence. It is now 3 months later, and we still have the extra security detail. Although I am very grateful for the extra protection, sometimes I wish that I could just walk around outside without anyone constantly looking at me (2 guards, 1 police officer, 2 gardeners, and 1 driver watching my every move - plus members of FARDC peeking over our wall at random intervals). However, I have learned to tune this entourage out when I do various yoga poses on our back patio. On the plus side, I am reducing my chances of skin cancer because I've stopped laying out by the pool!

A couple of weeks ago armed members of FARDC broke into my cook's residence in the middle of the night, held guns to his family members' heads, tied up his boys, and stole everything that they had that had that was worth anything. FARDC did this to two of their neighbors that evening. Unfortunately, this is not uncommon. MONUC/UN needs to protect the local population from their own military, as much as they need to protect them from the numerous rebel groups!!!

Every day our embassy sends out a local press summary. Here is a press summary from one day last week:

Kinshasa Local Press Summary May 12, 2010

MONUC Must Stay in DRC, Says Top UN Official

The independent Le Potentiel quotes UN humanitarian chief John Holmes saying last Monday that conditions on the ground cannot justify an early MONUC withdrawal. Holmes pointed out that MONUC should stay in the DRC until organized, disciplined and effective national security forces are created, reports the paper. (FYI - The president of DRC wants all 20,000+ members of MONUC/UN out of DRC by August 2011.)

Military Intelligence Agency Arrests Pastor in Kinshasa, Kill Church Member

The pro-opposition Le Phare says that military intelligence units opened fire yesterday on members of a church called Restoration Minitries who protested against the arrest of two members of their congregation who had flown in from Maniema province the same day. Under the title "heavy Gunfire in Kintambo," the papter reports that one person was killed and three others gravely wounded as a consequence. The pro-opposition La Tempete des Tropiques carries a press release by human rights NGO La Voix des Sans Voix (Voice of the Voiceless, or VSV) mentioning that protesters demanded the release of Restoration Ministries head Joseph Mukungubila, a former candidtate in the 2006 presidential election. The paper emphasizes that VSV noted that Mukungubila criticized the government on local television last week.

(This whole incident occurred in an area where the boys' school bus passes to and from school. Needless to say, the embassy re-routed their bus that afternoon. This is also in the same general area where people were burning tires and demonstrating in conjunction to a public transportation strike a couple of weeks ago. We discussed sending the armored vehicle from my office to pick the kids up from school, but luckily things settled down by the close of school.)

Nascent Rebellion in North Kivu?

Le Potentiel reprints an article by political commentator Jean-Pierre Mbelu focusing on reports of the emergence of a breakaway faction of the National Council for the People's Defense (CNDP) called "CNDP-Renove: (Reformed CNDP), in Goma. Mebelu links the strong presence of military police elements in town to the formation of this "potentially rebellious" new group.

Youth Groups Form to Fight FDLR

According to the UN-sponsored Radio Okapi, a hundred members of various local youth groups formed a vigilante group called Tusaidiane (Let's help ourselves) in the Uvira plateau, South Kivu, to defend the local population against recurrent FDLR attacks in a region lacking an FARDC presence. This group deployed to several villages in the hope of repeating an earlier successful anti-FDLR operation, says the radio station.