Tuesday, December 13, 2005

muggin'

Pics of the team... bye Goma

BJ on motortaxi

I do rep Providence hard here in Congo

Lynn with Horeb, a director to watch in east Congolese film

Nelson on a shoot

Nelson oblivious to military funeral, at his peril. I just liked the picture.


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Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Soon, soon, you’re a balloon…

I’m leaving on Monday [make that Wednesday]. Taking the Okapi bus, where new friends are made in your lap (the guy who sat on Nelson’s lap on the way in invited him to his wedding). Barrelling to Kigali from Goma over the mountains, with one last backwards glance at the terraced hills and a woman balancing 150 pounds of lumber on her head with implacable assurance. This kills me…

I will be thinking about little Itebero, the baby mountain gorilla who resembles a dwarf with a beerbelly in a monkey suit, taking his guard’s hand and gingerly ambling away from me and BJ into his room. Why can’t I have that job—gorilla tender… long ago I came here trying to find a gorilla to marry. Itebero is too young, but at least I’ll leave knowing I found the perfect monkey wife: curious, intrepid, not too itchy, capable of emitting a fine and sonorous “oop.”

This has been a grand, sometimes trying but all around unbelievable trip. Still lots of work to do. But we have a movie, come what may. With tanks, senators, protest marches and some very tough but redemptive stories.

See ya...


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Monday, December 05, 2005

Political statements


At the Governor's mansion (Mobutu's old palace): Senators from America came to visit. Dick Durbin (D-Ill) and Sam Brownback (R-Kan) touring ahead of an Obama-Brownback cosponsored bill to up aid to the Congo. Durbin dancing at the hospital with the fistula patients was uncomfortable and amazing.

The thing about being a kid from the slums of central Africa that's great is the selection of cool secondhand clothes that suit your lifestyle and philosophy.


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