TGIF! Indeed, especially as I was just informed that we are going to have a long weekend (maybe too late to plan for anything when you find out about a Monday off on Friday at lunch, BUT certainly better than previously in Rwanda, where the government would issue some completely useless communiqué about free Mondays really late on Sunday nights…)
Not an easy Friday, though, as I took part in pretty much the scariest meeting ever: the OCHA security briefing. “OCHA is the part of the United Nations Secretariat responsible for bringing together humanitarian actors to ensure a coherent response to emergencies. OCHA also ensures there is a framework within which each actor can contribute to the overall response effort,” says their web site. And they are certainly an amazing resource when you work in some God forsaken places. Among many other things: they remind you, in a very formal setting, how dangerous everything is around you, and how exposed you actually are when you do your work.
Not that I didn’t know Eastern Congo was not safe… Quite on the contrary… But still, during my many trips on the road and by air in the past 12 months I have kept a certain faith that things were going to be alright. And I have basically put my life in the hands of our security staff, our partners and even the local population at times, when we were doing field work in the middle of nowhere. And yes, we do get daily regional briefings, and they are not cheerful at all, but there was something about today’s meeting that gave me the creeps beyond the usual.
Attacks, ambushes, road blocks, fights, banditry, displacements, disease outbreaks, killings, lootings, rapes – you name it, and it was on the list of ‘routine’ things that have taken place around here during the past seven days. An Indian MONUSCO officer came in and clinically detailed all of these incidents, their supposed causes, and their potential bigger fallouts. And then he recommended we stay out of certain routes and, when in certain communities, try to contain rumors about more impending attacks that are driving everyone crazy.
WHOA! Lots to take in, for sure!
And a bizarre, two-fold feeling too: on the one hand I was quite charged and motivated by the vibe around (this was the closest I’ve ever been to a ‘situation room’); on the other I saw my vulnerability maybe clearer than ever before.
It’ll certainly take more than a long weekend to digest all this. And more than a few Fridays to get casual about these kinds of meetings...
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