hope

I am sitting at the FHI house in Bukavu, DR Congo. with my friend Kristee Watson from North Vancouver. Kristee works here as the Grants Finance Manager for FHI. We have just come from 'The Rendezvous' a new ( in fact it opened today) coffee shop in town. Its run by Renee, an American who has grown up in Bukavu with 2nd generation Missionary parents. The shop is staffed by students and widows. The intent is to provide these folks the means to go to school. Behind the glass cabinet are donuts, cookies, cinnamon buns, etc. our Cappuccinos are made on a "Mr. Coffee" expresso machine, with heated up milk that has been shaken around to make froth. both the coffee and cookies taste great.

I was in Bukavu 4 years ago. Back then I wasn't able to walk the streets or spend anytime in town. Military or rebel militia roadblocks would appear overnight. We were searched at gun point. I was woken by machine gun fire. Now I am hanging out in a cafe with young and hopeful congolese.

Its easy to lose hope in these countries. If its not the government, its the lack of rain, its the price of grain, its the rebels, its the disease, its the 98% unemployment, its international apathy. But, then you see small signs, things we take for granted - flowers planted in school yards, a freshly painted front door, or a small coffee shop in the middle of what was, and what might be again, a war ravaged town. Behind each of these signs are people who refuse to give up and/or give in - they see beyond the circumstance, they seem to know there is more than this, and they can be part of that more.

As we sat over our coffees people were coming in, by themselves or in groups. I had the sense that everyone who arrived felt like they belonged. Even the seller of extension cords and twine or the guy who brought flowers for the tables. This in a place where Kristee carries a radio at all times and knows the protocol in case of attack or if an evacuation is necessary. A place where one doesn't dare walk any distance after dark - and the threat of armed bandits robbing homes is an ever present danger.

The FHI office in Bukavu is the largest project by scope of any of the FHI fields worldwide - slowly moving from food security, keeping people fed, to helping them help themselves through fish farms, work-for-food employment building roads, water and sanitation projects ( there's currently a cholera epidemic in Goma), and seed distributions.

Its easy, when looking from 50,000 feet, to lose any sense of hope that Congo can find stability or have a positive, long term future. But, then again, you can't see flowers, or for that matter people coming and going in a community coffee shop, from up that high.