DRC Day 3

Hello!
So I was not even going to write a post today but Kristin reminded me that we actually did alot of cool stuff today so I will stop being lazy.

Today started with a trip to a refugee camp about 20 kilos out of downtown Goma.  DRC does not have any officially documented refugee camps, and the government claims that they are free of refugees; that is incredibly nice of them.  This camp is home to about 10,000 refugees.  It is not a very large area but is densly packed.  The people came from other parts of DRC and have refused to return to their villages. In the camp they recieve food and some form of shelt, if they were to go home they would probably have neither.  UNICEF and a couple other organizations keeps the camp running.  I do not have any pictures because I felt extremely uncomfortable taking pictures, I was really a bit uncomfortable about being there at all.  It felt like a massive intrusion into these peoples suffering.  However I am glad I got to experience the camp.  It is incredibly eye opening and sad.  A great way to start the day!!  DRC is so much different than anything in the US and alot of the time it is really hard to wrap your head around the poverty level and just what day to day life is like.

Next we visited N.I.C.E. ( New Institute of Computer Engineering) run by some local young adults.  It is a class that teaches programming to local youth.  They are fully self funded and have a nice little building in downtown Goma. It was incredibly refreshing to see something that was set up by the locals and was running smoothly to help the community.  I have some pictures of the computers attached and John took a picture with the founders.

Right nextdoor was the Childrens Parliment... and after a long 2 hour chat with a worker there I concluded that it is Goma's version of Child Protective Services. It was a neat organization that is doing good for the community as well.

Finally we went and visited a rehibilitation center for former child soldiers.  We planned on going yesterday but we needed to get permission from UNICEFto do so.  So we went today.  We talked to the director when we arrived.  He gave us the background of the kids and explained the rehibilitation process.  It is a three step process first is assess their mentality, then education, and then work on the spiritual side of things.  The whole reintegration process takes about 3 months.  They have helped 9,000 child soldiers since 2005. They currently have 82 kids in the compound and 30 workers.  The kids are from ages 12 to 18 but most looked really young.  It is another humbling moment where you remember how blessed we are to live where we do and not have to orry about things like that.  I did not take pictures of the kids.

Then Kristin and I went to the pool for a bit while John did some work, and we are now having dinner with a UN official that we met 2 days ago.  So an eventful day!

I also have some random pictures on Goma on here.