i'm up in the east of the country, but because of the insecurity we weren't allowed to fly there the direct way we usually do... so from Kinshasa we crossed the river by speedboat to Brazzaville, then flew to Cameroon, then flew to Kigali. We had to stay overnight in Kigali and then very early the next morning we flew from Kigali to a border city and crossed BACK INTO DRC and drove to this city. It took 30 hours. Gah. We went through three countries and landed back in the original country.

It's been raining hard on and off all last night and today. We drove in a 12 car convoy out into the hills to visit one of the sites and it was fairly terrifying to watch the 4x4 in front of us slip and slide in the mud. At one point one almost flipped over because of the deep ruts in the mud. When we got back to the city, we ended up in complete gridlock, moved about 1 meter in an hour. It was 5pm, I hadn't eaten or had anything to drink since 7:30am, I had to pee, and the rain was pouring down. Cars kept getting stuck in the mud. Tempers were rising and people were jumping out of their cars to try to fix the problem but no one wanted to give up their space. Our driver gave 5000 francs (2$) to a young guy in a bright yellow vest to try to manage the traffic to get us out. The kid tried his best, even putting himself bodily in front of some truck that was trying to inch ahead and create a new lane on our left. Ultimately, it was to no avail, and our driver finally called the UN police, and they came in trucks with their sirens. They hopped out and started directing traffic and finally extracted us and then led us home with their siren escort. I felt mildly guilty but also it was just time to go.

Wrapping up today and I'll start the long voyage home tomorrow. From here we drive back to the border with Rwanda, fly to Kigali, then to Addis, then to Washington, and finally home to Toronto. R will pick me up. It's hard to remember what that world is like, my life with him, all our plans, how it feels when we are together. My dad called me and left a message, just to say hello. That's how i knew that I'd really been out of touch. I feel like I've been gone forever, like everything that was happening there just faded away and there is only here and now.

7:49 p.m. - 2023-05-03