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Friday, February 27, 2009

A glimpse at the DRC

Tomorrow morning we are traveling to Goma, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We were invited to go to a wedding and I'm looking forward to experiencing an African wedding. Goma is only one kilometer from the border of Rwanda and is 13-18 kilometers south of a recently active volcano. It is also on the northern shore of Lake Kivu, (which is 1,040 square miles) the same lake we visited a few weeks ago, except we were on the far southern side.

We will be in the far east of the DRC, very near where the war and trouble has happened that you may have heard about in the news recently. So, it is a little nerve-wracking to be traveling there, and crossing that border, because we have grown accustomed to the general safety that is unique to Rwanda. Also, there has been a little more commotion in Goma these days because a joint DRC-Rwandan military group has been in Goma for a few weeks to attempt to "flush out" the Hutu militia who have been causing problems and attacking civilians in the countryside near where we are going. The purpose is to get these Rwandan rebels to head back to Rwanda.

We wouldn't be going if we had any worries, and we are traveling with people we trust. You can pray that we have a safe and uneventful trip.

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