Room for more.

Yesterday we welcomed an additional 350 refugees to Nyabiheke Camp where they will settle in to the new shelters that are being completed just ahead of their arrival.

They came in a convoy of buses, faces pressed against the windows, looking for friends and relatives among the crowd that ran down from the camp to greet them.

Their luggage followed in a big truck and was carefully arranged on the ground for them to retrieve. Mattresses, bags of potatoes, tables, beds, basins, jerry cans, and even an improvised wheelchair--the stuff of lives on the move.

When they went to bed last night they were safe, probably for the first time in many months, and they could sleep, knowing that they would not have to awaken in the middle of the night to move again.

Kiziba Celebration.

When I arrived at Kiziba Camp last Monday morning I noticed a lot of activity around the basketball court--but had no idea that it was a celebration in honor of the Income Generation Program, planned to coincide with my arrival in the camp.

There were speeches, skits, poems, and of course, music and dancing.

What a wonderful way to begin the week.

Paradise.

This may not look like paradise to you, but to the refugees arriving from the transit centers near the DRC border, Nyabiheke Camp may seem like such a place.

Here, they find shelter, water, health care and dignity. They can keep their children safe and their clothing clean. And some have already started activities that could be incorporated into our Income Generation Program.

While you are busy doing whatever you are doing in the next week, think about the 400 people who will arrive in Nyabiheke during that time, and about the ARC staff that even as I am writing this are busy building shelters and water points to receive them.

Here in Rwanda, the crisis in DRC is far from over.

Technical problems.

This is Africa and so technical problems are routine. But not when it comes to my blog! I've been trying to post photos of my trip yesterday to Nyabiheke Camp, but so far have been unsuccessful.

I will keep trying, so check back soon.

Wake up call.

“Wake up. Congo is already at war.”—The EastAfrican, 9 October 2007.
“Nkunda vows to wage full-scale war.”—Rwanda New Times, 9 October 2007.
“DRC: Thousands of youth risk forced recruitment into militia.”—IRIN Africa Report, 8 October 2007.
“DRC: Violence cuts off 150,000 people from aid.”—IRIN Africa Report, 8 October 2007.
“Rape Epidemic Raises Trauma of Congo at War.”—New York Times, 7 October 2007.

Such is the news in this part of Africa this week. It is similar to the news last week, and the week before.

Sadly, the attention of the world is elsewhere.

Fortunately, the attention of ARC Rwanda is here, attending to the needs of people fleeing the violence in Congo and arriving in Nyabiheke Camp by way of two transit centers. In the past month we have received 1462 new arrivals and there are more on the horizon.

What can you do to help?

Stay informed. Click on some of the links under “Resources” to read these and other articles about the situation.

Send money. Go to the ARC website (arcrelief.org) and make a contribution to the ARC Rwanda program.

Take action. The ENOUGH project (see link) suggests that you call your member of Congress at 1-202-224-3121 (9:00am - 6:00pm EST, Monday through Friday), and urge them to bring peace to eastern Congo by pressing for high level diplomacy, in coordination with our allies, to resolve the crisis in eastern Congo, supporting the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC), increasing humanitarian assistance and providing more funding and technical assistance for disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) of combatants.

Don't look back on the humanitarian crisis in the DRC in 2007 as so many do on the Rwanda genocide of 1994 and say, "Where was I? Why didn't I know?"

Because now, you do.

Vast.

En route to the green hills of Rwanda I had for the first time the experience of flying over the Sahara Desert in the daytime. Nearly two hours after taking off from Amsterdam, traveling the length of Europe and crossing the Mediterranean Sea, we crossed into the African continent over Benghazi, in Libya.

And for the next four hours, until reaching the mountains of Ethiopia and then beginning our descent into Nairobi, we had a spectacular view of this seemingly endless desert sand stretching to the horizon and beyond.

The vastness of Africa is difficult to appreciate from my little home here in Rwanda, and it was wonderful to be able to see it from the air and to get more of a sense of the journey and how far we travel to arrive here.

Antoine St. Exupery wrote that "There is no buying the night flight with its hundred thousand stars, its serenity, its few hours of sovereignty."

That may be true, but the journey by day over all of this vastness is likewise priceless.