Lomami

« Vraiment l’inquiétude est très grande »
That disquieting message was written by Crispin just before he left Obenge two weeks ago

Obenge “high street” on a busy day. Obenge is the biggest village on the mid-Lomami which makes it a bushmeat capital for central Congo.
John and I are in snowy upstate New York where we [...]

Do you hear her?
Pierre-Jacques Kissing, do you hear her?
It was mid morning when John Hart met Pierre-Jacque’s Mom. This is how John described it:
“Good day sir. We are expecting you to spend the night with us.”
The French greeting with impeccable intonation and accent seems incredible to our team as we step from the [...]

But I just don’t get it.
Names are all important here. This young man was named Muyimbisa at some point of his infancy by his family. And he was called Willy as he was growing up, but now is mostly called ‘Conader’ because he is a demobilized maimai. CONADDER was a World Bank [...]

John says the accent is on the “go” in Balengola.
Here are some of his other notes:
“Finally sorting some of the mysteries of this northeastern corner of the forgotten landscape! And picking up new ones too!
For one, I found out that those pinkish polygons on the Google map west of Ubundu are NOT artisanal mining [...]