Shrinking Space

Crazy letters, threatening text messages, thirty-five year old “youth” group members in suits & ties and sticks – they are battering down on our humanitarian space. At least temporarily. We my colleagues and I are leaving the outskirts and coming together in the city of Goma. Probably it is not “youth” acting alone. Maybe it is “youth” being manipulated by politicians. Possibly it is not “youth” at all but CNDP. The threads to tie up the stories that we hear are hopelessly tangled and fraying.

I will get my pizza party. The pizza party I cried about missing last week when my flights changed? – It will most likely be postponed until I get home to Goma.

Thanks, CNDP!

We joke like that. But – we don’t laugh.

There are whispers of a cholera outbreak while there is this lack of access to health centers. When you focus inward on it, there is terrible fear.