Update from DRC

Hi Everyone!
(There is no logical flow to this blog is what I realized after reading through it. I just wrote as I remembered things. Next time I will try hard and BTW this is the last sentence of this blog which I thought would be better if written first. Excuse me for any grammatical and spelling errors.)
Sorry that I have not been able to update you guys on a regular basis as things have been really intense and access to internet has been very limited. I have not had enough time to pen down my experiences and thoughts and so this comes as a quick update on what has been happening during the past 2 weeks.
First I guess most of you must be aware that I don’t know how to drive or maybe I should I didn’t know how to drive since I had my first driving lesson yesterday here in DR Congo and today I drove to the village out here right on the second day and it was fun driving on the dirt road with the dust surrounding. So now I know how to drive. It was just great.
Well regarding DRC, if anyone asked what would be something that you would notice being here that’s very vigilant? I would say you would notice the UN. Amazingly, lot of UN trucks and their brand new PRADOs with huge black “UN” signs cruising at full throttle. You will also see that all the organizations in the world are here, my only thought is that what are they doing here since you don’t see much happening in the villages out here. I could see the boards but when we asked people regarding services, it doesn’t seem like they are receiving services or care barring a couple that I have heard. Don’t know where all the money is flowing to…
People here are very warm and loving. The partners here that we are working with are full of ideas and understand the community very well. It’s a great learning experience. We work with two partners namely PAIDEK which does microfinance activities and Foundation Rama Levina (FORAL) that does health and development activities. They are empowering the communities through their activities.
Currently, I am here with Dr. Nancy Glass, who is a faculty at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and also an Associate Director at the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health. She is running projects for victims of sexual violence and also implementing a project Pigs for Peace through the two organizations I mentioned earlier. It is interesting to know that Pigs as a microfinance activity to support the livelihoods of the people is changing the household economy and also improving the relationship between community. It is also helping people send their children to school.
There is another PhD student from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Anjalee Kohli who is conducting a research on familial mediation for women victims of sexual violence. She is looking at how familial mediation could help reintegrate women within the community and households. When we went to the villages we saw huge numbers of women who are victims of sexual violence. I have never in my life seen such a huge number and many of them who have never received any services even though all the world’s prestigious organizations are present here doing something GKW.
Another student that has accompanied us is from the School of Medicine, Megan Rebarczyk (I don’t know if I have spelled her last name correctly.) She is doing rotations at the General Hospital at Bukavu and also looking at what kind of medicines and resources are available within the village clinics and General Hospital to provide basic services for victims of sexual violence.

As for me you know that I am conducting research on sexual violence against men and its impact on the victims and their families. I have interviewed eight victims. There were 6 victims who refused to talk. It’s difficult to identify victims as putting in the words of one community member “We don’t want to talk about it, the victim also doesn’t want to talk about it. It is better that this remains within the family and doesn’t come out. We are sad that this is happening.” When the community members are interviewed it did not seem that they did not know that this existed. The community does know that this exists. I will not write about my research findings here may be some other blog or when I write my papers from the research. But it is clear that this issue exists and it’s really a big problem socially, physically, mentally and economically.
Its interesting how our studies though different are supporting each other. My French is improving slowly slowly but as soon as I think that I am understanding it, I fail and sometimes its like epic fail. For example, very recently while we were invited for dinner at one of our partner’s house I by mistake told our translator that “You are eating your husband” But I actually wanted to say that “You are eating with your husband.” I forgot the “With” Big Mistake :-O How bad can it get? :-D. My colleagues here call that I am speaking Mervynese or may be Franglish.
After the 3 weeks of intense field work, which has yet not ended, we were invited by our partners to their homes for lunch and dinner and that was some amazing food that we had. People here are amazing. I feel so much at home with our partners. Really nice people. They also took us for dancing and it was so much fun. Surprisingly, people here are fans of Indian movies and they know all the stars of Bollywood – Amitabh Bacchan, Dharmendra, Amjad Khan, Shashi Kapoor, Sharukh Khan, Dileep Kumar, Hema Malini, Rekha and the list goes on. I was like really? So we went to this place called Saint Laic and they played Hindi songs “Ye duniya hain dilwaalo ki”, “Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy, Aaja aaja aaja” and “KAAAAAANTA LAGAAAAAA” J and we danced to it. It was hilarious. I guess the overdose of wine was working for all of us. After we danced to these songs people around applauded and came to congratulate us J Oh it was so hilarious. Also, I would say I love Congolese music. The Congolese dance movements are more concentrated on the hips for both men and women, it’s fun watching people dance too.
I am tired of writing and will write again later. Take care all of you folks! Best wishes…
Love,
Mervyn