Latest from Kinshasa...

Things were quieting down a lot here in the past few days. The airlines had
resumed flying; a few with 'special schedules' that involved minimal time on
the ground, but they were flying. Shops are open, and I went out to the
city center for dinner each of the last two nights, feeling the calm
returning. I had just started putting in internet time looking for rental
cars in Wales and making housing arrangements for next week, as my plans are
now to get out of here on Sunday. I *almost* posted online yesterday that
all was well, and thanked everyone for your emails of concern and
encouragement.

However, this morning, another coup was attempted, and its all up in the air
again as to whether or not the planes will fly. No one knows anything at
this moment.

I was awoken by a phone call from my boss at 4 am saying that there was a
coup attempt going on, to stay indoors and to stay down. It was dead silent
outside, the power was out, and I could see my neighbors (including my
bosses wife) in the yard talking, so I grabbed my go-bag and flashlight,
told them where I was going, and hoofed it through the woods on campus down
to my girlfriend's house, as I knew she would be terrified. When I got
there, we quickly tossed together her go-bag, then nervously went back to
sleep. Suddenly, the gunfire erupted outside the school again, along with a
few very long, loud blasts from a .50 cal. A few mortars went off, and then
a tank let go with a BABOOOM!! No one reported hearing an explosion, or the
whistle of the outgoing shell, but it was only about 50 meters from our
house and it knocked things off the dish rack and rattled the windows and
doors. If you have never been near a tank firing, you're missing something.
If you haven't been near one firing with incoming rounds coming in to a
position right near your house, you ain't missing anything!! A short while
later, an APC with a roof-mounted 50 cal drove right past our house, several
guards with AKs at the ready riding on top, and turned down towards the
city. I guess at that particular moment, with the tank shaking our fillings,
the stress from the past week of uncertainty, and hearing the continued
gunfire around me was the worst time of the past few months. I was pretty
spooked.

After that it got quiet, with sporadic gunfire farther and farther away, and
then I started intercepting the UN announcements telling the residents of
downtown to stay indoors and stay low. Eventually, those reports turned to
an 'all-clear' and the word was that it was over by 10 am.

Anyway, the current word in the news is that at the time we got our wakeup
calls at 4AM, the rebels (a band of about 20 palace guards) had taken the
radio and TV tower, announced their coup, and turned off the city power.
Then the next half-hour of silence was them heading up to the palace. They
got intercepted at the military camp right outside our school, so the
gunbattle we heard at dawn was the government troops surrounding the rebel
band, and the tank fire and 50 cal fire was the gunbattle with the rebels.
The APC that drove by was the rebel leader and about 8 comrades escaping,
and the last we have heard is that they managed to get beyond the city, out
by the airport (damn), and were being pursued in a rolling gunbattle.

At least the gunfight is going in the other direction, but this puts
everything back into uncertainty mode. I have a week before my course in
England starts, so I can wait for the flights to resume, but of course I'd
rather be casting dries to seatrout in Wales than hiding out in my house
waiting to be hit by a stray round. My neighbor said he found some dirt
craters in his front yard from the gunfights, so we are definately in the
line of fire now. If no other groups take advantage of this unrest, this
might turn out to be a one-time thing. Otherwise, its the slippery descent
back into hell for Kinshasa, and I can't wait to get out of here for the
summer!

More if it develops. As it stands, all is calm again, there's no word on
flights, and I am definately keeping my head DOWN!

--riverman

"riverman" wrote in message
...
snip
More if it develops. As it stands, all is calm again, there's no word on
flights, and I am definately keeping my head DOWN!

--riverman

Myron,

Get the hell out of there will you!
There are other teaching jobs to be found, I'm sure.
The dry fly thing in Wales sounds like the best of ideas as far as you're
concerned.

/Roger
50 cal, Geeez! I see why your head is DOWN.

"Roger Ohlund" wrote in message
...

"riverman" wrote in message
...
snip
More if it develops. As it stands, all is calm again, there's no word on
flights, and I am definately keeping my head DOWN!

--riverman

Myron,

Get the hell out of there will you!

Great idea, Roger. Got any idea HOW?? They just cancelled today's flights,
so I now have about 6 more colleagues for company who were scheduled to fly
out this afternoon.

There are other teaching jobs to be found, I'm sure.
The dry fly thing in Wales sounds like the best of ideas as far as you're
concerned.


Oh, yeah. I am so craving that feeling of standing in a chalk stream, water
squeezing my legs through my waders, green leaves overhead, that sweet sound
of trickling water, a splashy rise somewhere downstream and those cool
little air currents that rise up in the crisp, fresh morning light......


--riverman
(SWING LOW......sweeeet char-i-ot-t-t.........)

Otherwise, its the slippery descent
back into hell for Kinshasa, and I can't wait to get out of here for the
summer!

--riverman

Ya know, that idea of "getting out of there for the summer" would turn
into a permanent proposition for me. I've found that when students are
out of school in hostile situations (i.e. riot season in the ROK),
things go downhill real quick. All that teenage testosterone added to
the mix is a bad thing.

--
Frank Reid
Reverse Email to reply

"Frank Reid" wrote in message
...
Otherwise, its the slippery descent
back into hell for Kinshasa, and I can't wait to get out of here for the
summer!

--riverman

Ya know, that idea of "getting out of there for the summer" would turn
into a permanent proposition for me. I've found that when students are
out of school in hostile situations (i.e. riot season in the ROK),
things go downhill real quick. All that teenage testosterone added to
the mix is a bad thing.


Yeah, I know...and from outside my brain it seems like an incredibly simple
choice. It seems like it all boils down to "what kind of maroon would come
back to a place where they could be in physical danger, just to teach
school? Whatever the cost, whatever the hassle, whatever the logistics: get
out of town and stay out of town. Simple, EOS, case closed. This is NOT what
you signed up for."

But then the details start to cloud the issue.

a) The school WILL go on in the fall, and I would be remembered as the Guy
Who Tucked Tail And Ran by all those folks who stayed behind. That would
follow me to the marketplace, and I might find later jobs a bit harder to
get, as many places experience some danger.
b) Then there's my girlfriend and her son who starts his senior year next
year. He's not enrolled in another school, he is South African by passport,
and if we pull out we gotta go through the process of getting him enrolled
*somewhere* (but not the US as they are not citizens). Which raises a real
question about 'where would I go?' Since we don't have jobs anywhere, that
is a real problem. And starting at a new school in his last year would be a
pretty mean thing to do to him, too.
c) Then there's the probem of my belongings....if I fly to Europe as
planned, I can only take 20 kilos for free, and the rest of my 300 kg will
cost me $12 a kilo to ship, and then I'm standing at an airport in Brussels
with 300 kilos of boxes, and then what?? So that means I would have to,
at this last minute date, change all my flights to the US (where I get 140
kilos for free), however my girlfriend would need to sort out her Visa, and
her son's. And their stuff. I would, basically, be abandoning them.
d) I *could* leave a ton of stuff behind, and just fly to the US or Europe
with less stuff, but then I'd miss grad school in England, which would me
$5K poorer fro nonrefundables, and another year farther from my Master's. I
might also lose my teacher's certificate which is due to expire this summer
since I *need* these credits now to renew.

No, I'm in the middle of A Plan here, and it has connections into a Lot Of
Other Things. It would be incredibly difficult, expensive and inconvenient
to yank the cord right now. If I was being targeted, I'd be out of here on
a log raft this afternoon, but I think the presence of several thousand
other non-Congolese, and the constant affirmation from folks who lived
through the pillages of '91 and '93 tells me that, strange as it sounds to
the outside world, it would just be too sticky, too chicken****, and too
disloyal to a lot of people to cut bait yet. Sometimes, you just gotta hang
in there in an ugly and stupid situation...
:-(

--riverman

In article , riverman
wrote:

"Frank Reid" wrote in message
...

snipped

disloyal to a lot of people to cut bait yet.

And clearly unethical that cutting bat!

Allen

In article , Allen Epps
wrote:

In article , riverman
wrote:

"Frank Reid" wrote in message
...

snipped

disloyal to a lot of people to cut bait yet.

And clearly unethical that cutting bat!

Allen

or bait!

"Allen Epps" wrote in message
...
In article , riverman
wrote:

"Frank Reid" wrote in message
...

snipped

disloyal to a lot of people to cut bait yet.

And clearly unethical that cutting bat!

Allen

i must say, allen, that at least where i come from, cutting bat is far
more unethical than cutting bait.

yfitons
wayno (maybe it's just a cultural thing...)

"Frank Reid" wrote in message
...
Otherwise, its the slippery descent
back into hell for Kinshasa, and I can't wait to get out of here for the
summer!
--riverman

Ya know, that idea of "getting out of there for the summer" would turn
into a permanent proposition for me. I've found that when students are out
of school in hostile situations (i.e. riot season in the ROK),
things go downhill real quick. All that teenage testosterone added to the
mix is a bad thing.
Frank Reid
Reverse Email to reply

Hi Frank,
I agree with you. Spent a year in Seoul from '90-'91. Interesting to see
the riot police, in various types of vehicles, position themselves in
different parts of the city early in the mornings, because they apparently
knew when and where things were generally going to happen.
I was doing legal investigations at the time for the Army across Korea, and
it certainly modified my travel plans a bit. Only came close once, but in
the aftermath of a riot . . .the riot gas was still pretty heavy in the air.
(in Korea seems that injury or death was a normal fact)

Still can't imagine Riverman hangin' around down south. (but some great
stories from Grandpa some day, if he gets his butt out of there . .
..hint,hint, HINT)
BestWishes,
DaveMohnsen
Denver

"riverman" wrote in message
...
Things were quieting down a lot here in the past few days. The airlines
had
resumed flying; a few with 'special schedules' that involved minimal time
on
the ground, but they were flying. Shops are open, and I went out to the
city center for dinner each of the last two nights, feeling the calm
returning. I had just started putting in internet time looking for rental
cars in Wales and making housing arrangements for next week, as my plans
are
now to get out of here on Sunday. I *almost* posted online yesterday that
all was well, and thanked everyone for your emails of concern and
encouragement.

However, this morning, another coup was attempted, and its all up in the
air
again as to whether or not the planes will fly. No one knows anything at
this moment.

I was awoken by a phone call from my boss at 4 am saying that there was a
coup attempt going on, to stay indoors and to stay down. It was dead
silent
outside, the power was out, and I could see my neighbors (including my
bosses wife) in the yard talking, so I grabbed my go-bag and flashlight,
told them where I was going, and hoofed it through the woods on campus
down
to my girlfriend's house, as I knew she would be terrified. When I got
there, we quickly tossed together her go-bag, then nervously went back to
sleep. Suddenly, the gunfire erupted outside the school again, along with
a
few very long, loud blasts from a .50 cal. A few mortars went off, and
then
a tank let go with a BABOOOM!! No one reported hearing an explosion, or
the
whistle of the outgoing shell, but it was only about 50 meters from our
house and it knocked things off the dish rack and rattled the windows and
doors. If you have never been near a tank firing, you're missing
something.
If you haven't been near one firing with incoming rounds coming in to a
position right near your house, you ain't missing anything!! A short while
later, an APC with a roof-mounted 50 cal drove right past our house,
several
guards with AKs at the ready riding on top, and turned down towards the
city. I guess at that particular moment, with the tank shaking our
fillings,
the stress from the past week of uncertainty, and hearing the continued
gunfire around me was the worst time of the past few months. I was pretty
spooked.

After that it got quiet, with sporadic gunfire farther and farther away,
and
then I started intercepting the UN announcements telling the residents of
downtown to stay indoors and stay low. Eventually, those reports turned to
an 'all-clear' and the word was that it was over by 10 am.

Anyway, the current word in the news is that at the time we got our wakeup
calls at 4AM, the rebels (a band of about 20 palace guards) had taken the
radio and TV tower, announced their coup, and turned off the city power.
Then the next half-hour of silence was them heading up to the palace. They
got intercepted at the military camp right outside our school, so the
gunbattle we heard at dawn was the government troops surrounding the rebel
band, and the tank fire and 50 cal fire was the gunbattle with the rebels.
The APC that drove by was the rebel leader and about 8 comrades escaping,
and the last we have heard is that they managed to get beyond the city,
out
by the airport (damn), and were being pursued in a rolling gunbattle.

At least the gunfight is going in the other direction, but this puts
everything back into uncertainty mode. I have a week before my course in
England starts, so I can wait for the flights to resume, but of course I'd
rather be casting dries to seatrout in Wales than hiding out in my house
waiting to be hit by a stray round. My neighbor said he found some dirt
craters in his front yard from the gunfights, so we are definately in the
line of fire now. If no other groups take advantage of this unrest, this
might turn out to be a one-time thing. Otherwise, its the slippery descent
back into hell for Kinshasa, and I can't wait to get out of here for the
summer!

More if it develops. As it stands, all is calm again, there's no word on
flights, and I am definately keeping my head DOWN!

--riverman

you're ****ed.............................