Living Witnesses

Jambo! That’s hello in Swahili, which unfortunately is one of only about 15 words I’ve learned thus far. Poli poli… (“slowly, slowly” or “one step at a time”)!

With greetings behind us, now on to a heavy subject. If you know anything about the modern day DR Congo, you probably know that it is politically unstable and that there has been longstanding conflict between the government and multiple rebel groups (often supported by surrounding countries), particularly in the eastern Congo. If you’ve heard us talk about Nyankunde or googled Nyankunde, you might also know that in 2002 more than a thousand people were massacred here. From our dining room we can see the ruins of two houses, brick walls without roofs, strangely picturesque with tall grasses and trees growing out of them. You find ruins like these all over Nyankunde. The scars of the violence aren’t just architectural, however. Almost everyone in this town has been touched by the war. What follows are some brief histories of some of our new friends.

Julien

Julien is our gardener and as of last Thursday our Swahili instructor. He is very hardworking, knowledgeable and well-spoken. When we finally had the chance to ask him to tell a bit of his story, this is what we learned. Julien was the headmaster of a secondary school in Beni, which is a city to the east of us, near the border with Uganda. A rebel group called the AFDL (a Muslim group based in Uganda) has destabilized the area around Beni for years, and several years ago, Julien and his family were forced to flee Beni during the night. He has been living here in Nyankunde for several years now with his wife and twins. He was separated from his 3 other children (who have been with other family members) until this weekend, when he returned from a long journey by road (7 hours) and by footpath (12 hours of walking) to bring them back. Can you imagine this happening to you?

Julien giving us our first Swahili lesson

Joseph

Joseph is one of the new doctors-in-training here at Centre Medical Evangelique Nyankunde. The medical system is quite different here. One finishes medical school and applies for a 6 month “internship” at a hospital. During this 6 months, the doctor-in-training rotates through internal medicine, surgery, ob/gyn, and pediatrics. Joseph has been on call day and night every day for the past month, and he has another month before his schedule becomes a bit more humane. At the end of the 6 months, most doctors start practicing as general practitioners. Unlike in the states, you don’t get paid to do a residency or fellowship here—you have to pay for it, and none of the Congolese doctors here in Nyankunde have the resources to specialize… In any event, Joseph is from Kisangani, a large city hundreds of miles to the west of us. I read recently about a battle fought between the Rwandans and the Ugandans in this Congolese city approximately 10 years ago, and I asked him if he was there. He told me that in fact he was at school in his early teens, and his school was situated squarely between the Rwandans and the Ugandans. He and his fellow students were locked in their second story classroom when the violence broke out. He ended up jumping from the second story window over a fence onto the ground, just as a bomb hit the building. Miraculously unharmed, he then ran 5 kilometers to escape the violence and reach his family.

Albert

Albert is another doctor-in-training but is considerably older than the others, probably in his 50s). I have not spoken with Albert about his past, but our colleagues have. I have no details other than this: his wife and all his children were killed at some point during the war.

Doctor Mike

Mike grew up in Nyankunde but then left as a young adult to study medicine. He was in Beni working at a hospital when the massacre in Nyankunde occurred. In the aftermath of this massacre, Nyankunde essentially became a ghost-town. After several years people slowly started to return, but the hospital was ruined and there was no doctor. Someone convinced Mike to fly to Nyankunde simply to see what happened. He started treating patients on that visit, and has basically been here ever since. Initially, he was the only doctor at the hospital, the hospital administrator, and the head of the health district. He was constantly inundated with patients. He slowly recruited several doctors, and now CME Nyankunde has grown from ruins to having 150+ beds. Mike now splits his time between Nyankunde, Kampala (Uganda) where his wife and children live and attend school, and Switzerland where he is completing a masters in international health.

I hope this gives you not only a picture of the horrors of Congo’s past but also of the amazing resilience of its people. These are people that love God and others in spite of incredible loss. It is humbling, and a great privilege, to call them friends and colleagues. 

Patrick