Move

The sky darkens as I fly north toward the town of Manono almost 300 miles from Lubumbashi. The mission of the day is to resupply MSF’s (Doctors Without Borders) two bases in Dubie and Shamwana, then continue north to Manono to evacuate as much as I can fit on the plane after attacks brought an abrupt end to the measles vaccination campaign based out of the nearby village of Kiambi. As I taxi downhill to the south on the airstrip in Shamwana, I notice the sky is very inviting; however, my route is to the north. Taking off uphill is generally avoided considering the battle against gravity for airspeed, but in the case of Shamwana, nestled in low-lying mountains, the center of the airstrip is the crown of a hill, making the takeoff an uphill affair either way. At the bottom, I push the power to full as I turn the nose uphill and, seeing as the airplane is completely empty to accommodate the next leg; it nimbly accelerates toward the top. The Caravan leaps off the top of the crown as the remaining airstrip slopes away down the hill on the other side; and I climb up into the foreboding darkness to the North.

 



Parked on the crown in Shamwana



Though not the same day: MSF cold-chain boxes in Manono

Apparently, the rainy season has begun. The onboard radar shows lots of color indicating quite a bit of thunderstorm activity everywhere except my direct path to Manono.  Soon I am able to see the runway and make the descent as lightning rains down a safe distance off my left and right.  I touch down on the puddled dirt and gravel runway and roll to the parking area in front of the old terminal long since deteriorated from Belgian colonial days.  The MSF team has just arrived and we quickly load 7 large cold-chain boxes for their vaccines plus other supplies, and shut the door as the storms roll in overhead.  After about a 45 minute wait under the deluge of rain, the 8 passengers load up and we take off into surprisingly smooth air without any further hassle from the weather.

Dubie

So, who is attacking who and why?  These are very good questions that are difficult to answer, but there is a mythical rebel group called the “Mai Mai” who believe if they drink a special elixir, they will become invincible.  They then typically get hyped up on drugs, often strip nude, and go to battle against the Congolese military armed with a few rifles, but mostly with bow and arrow.  Why?  Apparently to “protect” the village people from the Congolese military that move around to “protect” the villagers from the Mai Mai.  The “protected” village is then caught in the crossfire and flees into the bush to exchange the dangers of war for the dangers of disease and malnutrition in the wild.

In our province of Katanga, there is a vast triangular shaped region where the military is on a campaign to wipe out these Mai Mai rebels.  MSF’s two bases at Shamwana and Dubie lie strategically within this area.  Even though MSF is a relief organization, meaning they leave after a crisis is contained, they have remained in Shamwana for years because the crisis’ continually restart.  Recently, I helped reposition some of the Kiambi MSF staff to their base in Dubie because close to 20,000 displaced people had just moved into the bush surrounding the village.  In talking with the MSF staff after unloading and reloading the airplane, I learn that military activity is increasing and the Mai Mai has just moved in to the other side of the bordering river.  While this situation is monitored from the peripheral vision, the immediate challenge is sanitation and nutrition for this multitude that are busy at work chopping small trees to fashion into shelters.  Without at least 500 latrines, cholera will soon envelope these already traumatized people.  UNICEF has promised tarps, but that will take some time.  The traditional grass and mud is what is seen going up in the meantime.  

Within a week, we get another call from MSF.  It is happening again, this time even closer than the doorstep.  The ominous sounds of machine gun fire echo throughout the village as the Mai Mai launch arrows and bullets into the military camp that borders MSF’s camp.  The military responds with much heavier artillery. Once again frantic radio messages are flung out to the MSF Dubie field locations: “Do not return, the village is under attack!”  This time we are unable to help immediately as the military has blocked all the roads out of the village and the airstrip in Dubie was not secure.  The next day some staff were able to get out, and Nate, my MAF partner here, was able to fly strategic personnel into the village of Kilwa 50 miles to the south for a rendez-vous.  They eventually decide to remain in Dubie considering the needs there but move the base to a less controversial neighborhood.  A week later, I fly another team and supplies into Dubie as they work to reassess their mission there. 



I have a couple hours to wait at the MSF base for the return flight.  I see a group of Congolese MSF staff sitting down for a break and I take the opportunity to ask them what they experienced during this firefight.  A young man springs to his feet as his finger starts waving in the directions the bullets were going over head and hitting their trees.  Then, he takes me on a tour showing me where the bullets entered the compound.  He points them out one by one, and then looks over at a vehicle under a cover with the hood up:  “that one shielded us well” as there were people lying on the floor in the building behind it when it took two hits.  Out at the guard shack, the guard recounts his story of hiding inside as bullets ricocheted off his guard shack.  He then peeked out and made the mad dash to deeper cover in the camp.  Outside the camp, I can see the vantage point at which the Mai Mai gunmen took their shots as the guys show me the path of the bullets through the MSF gate and into the walls of the buildings inside.



Guard telling his story. Notice the bullet marks.

All this has once again brought a sudden change to the disrupted lives of the displaced.  I ask if I could go out to see the progress in the IDP (Internally Displaced People) camps.  “We are happy to show you, but there is not much to see…they’re mostly gone.”  Imagine being chased from your home, bringing your family into the woods along with thousands of others, building temporary shelters from scratch; only to be uprooted and scattered again.



MSF field clinic 20 minute drive out of Dubie

A couple MSFers are kind enough to drive me out about 20 minutes to a remote field clinic in one of the abandoned camps.  There is still a remnant hanging on there and the clinic is actively engaged mostly in malaria treatments.  As I gaze across the little city of vacant skeleton huts, I try to put myself in their shoes…but I can’t, I am there looking at it with my own eyes, but this world is still so far from mine…and many of them don’t even have shoes.  However, each exposure to this side of God’s world clues me in little by little to how some people suffer; and I pray is cluing me in on how to effectively enter their world and live there in a way that is honoring to God and a blessing to those who are born into it.