Telegraphe Congolais

"Please Don't Eat Gorilla"

Title of a song I heard yesterday... I love that song.

So today was a baptism of sorts as we began filming surgeries. I held up okay. Nelson passed out for a second, but it was from camera strain, not horror. I love the way doctors talk in surgery-- so urbane.

We may have settled our plans for projects. 1) is a promotional video for DOCS to take around to the donators abroad. 2) is to shoot some episodes of "Chagua Maisha," Choose Life, which is a sitcom about dealing with AIDS. 3), and this is the big one, is a documentary on women and war, focusing on rape victims and their recovery process. Here they are specializing in fistula operations, or vaginal repairs, which now make up 80 percent of their cases. Then they have a whole psychological unit as well. It's amazing, amazing what they do with what they've got. But they have more than I thought. Then again, I'm not a doctor. But I look like one in scrubs.

That's already a lot... but we want to 5) film a number of procedures to leave a video library for instruction (as med students can't get cadavers here, ironically enough, due to refrigeration problems). 6) is a short promotional video about the school that BJ's friend Lyn founded here.

So we should be busy. I'm trying to figure out what I can cover in an article, and I've met Horeb, who could be my "fixer," which is the proverbial go-to guy for a journalist who gets you to stories and tells you where to buy your special passes and what to say to officials... ha, do I sound like I know what I'm doing? I don't.

I will marry my bride, when I find her, on the slopes of Mt. Nyiragongo (note I mispelled it in the last post).

posted by LouisAntoine @ 4:16 AM