The Fire of Our Rugari Home

May 17, 2008
Hello Dear Family and Friends,

Oh my, did I say I would send something by last weekend? I do believe I did, but what a time it has been. I feel like the puppy chasing its tail. I am having a fine and wonderful time, but sometimes I feel as if I am just going in circles.

Slowly, slowly I see that our work here is beginning, but also much of our work was lost in a fire last Saturday night in Rugari. And that is the bad news for the week. The good news is that no one was injured or killed in the fire!

So let me tell the story of the fire.

It was about 9pm and Abbe John Fidel was home alone and in bed. John Pierre, the cook, had gone home for the day, John Fidel had finished his meal, showered, closed the house up for the night and gone to bed when he heard a small explosion sound. He did not worry because every night children of village have found sport to throw rocks onto the metal roof of some houses. He thought it was another stone, then about 4-5 minutes later he heard a loud explosion and came running out the back door to see what had happened.

What he saw put him into shock, the back of the house was in flames and the fire was shooting out the eves of the roof.

He turned and ran out the front of the house to the gate toward the road, calling for help. Already there were many people on the road to see what was happening. They began to pull items from the front of the house, which is built in block and cement, and place them in the front yard. They were able to save many items from the front including the mattresses, chairs, table, and living room furniture. The bad news is that everything in the back burned, including the brooding hen and 7 chicks.

Everything in the back of the house including 5 of our trunks thatwe prepared from America were lost in the fire. All the medical donations from University of Chicago Hospitals, half of the medicine donated by Camille, the water filter donated by my friend Jeff back home in South Dakota, my blue fleece that I have worn for 8 years (my favorite jacket), my 3 nalgene water bottles, all my vitamins, and my daily medicines, except for the medicine I need here in Africa, fortunately I keep that with me where ever I go. Well, I have spent almost all week either travelling to Rugari to see the destruction and go through the items salvaged or writing a list of everything lost and trying to calculate the dollar amount lost. My heart goes out to all those friends family who helped to stock me up with so many goods for this trip…I am so sad to see our work in ashes.

On the other hand I say, I still have two hands, my head, and my heart with which to help and so I will continue to do what I can.

We were just getting ready to open the clinic, which is why I had carried those items out to Rugari…oh the pain every time I think of all that was lost and so I don’t stop often to let my mind think on this. It is lost and we must go on. We are grateful for our lives and especially Abbe Jean Fidel, as he was home alone, while both Abbe Louis and I were in Goma.

MONUC arrived within 5 minutes of being called, but unfortunately no one thought to call them until an hour after the fire was recognized. Had they been called immediately, perhaps we could have saved some items. We were also storing much medical equipment and supplies from the health district office of Rutshuru that was meant to supply our dispensary as well. At this rate it will be some months again before we are able to open the dispensary. "Polesana," we say in Swahili, this means, "very sorry." I have heard this comment much this past week and it helps to have the kindness and support of my friends and colleagues here. They know the loss as well as, if not better than, I.

Now for another piece of GOOD NEWS, one of the things I was able to accomplish beyond coping with the fire this week was to have an engineer measure and make calculations on building our rainwater cisterns for the dispensary of Rugari. Now we will have two estimates of building, one using plastic tanks and the other building with stone and cement. I have to say, the stone and cement is my preference even though I think it may be more expensive. It will be a structure that will stand the test of time…and of bullets (masasi, in Swahili). I am grateful for the quiet that remains there in Rugari and now we will ask the Bishop if we can move back up to the parish house high on the hill. This is the east side of that house from the courtyard between the church and house.We will ask MONUC to move next door to the house that the sisters lived in and we will move back into the parish house. It still needs lots of work to repair damage but it is a beautiful home, no comparison to what we were living in down by the road. All is not bleak. Mikeno Volcano still beckons me, as you see from the opening phots, and one day I will climb it with MONUC escort. Susan, do you want to join me? HURRAH for MONUC. The next time I visit Rugari they have promise me a wonderful Indian meal and my mouth is watering already because I love Indian food, hopefully next week!!!

Our work has begun in earnest to finish the classrooms at Rugari and it brings joy to our hearts to see the work progressing so quickly. We are employing people of the village as well as providing the additional classrooms needed for returning students. HURRAH, life goes on!!!

This photo shows students coming home from school at Rugari last week. I walked up the mountain to the school earlier in the day to take the above photos of the construction. It is a wonderful mountain to hike, can't wait to bring more visitors here.

Speaking of visitors two weeks ago on Monday I saw visitors from American on the side of the street as I walked to work. What a fun time that was. The next day I was able to take them to visit Kibumba Refugee Camp and our American guests donated $200 for medicines for the camp. I will deliver much needed INTRA-VENOUS fluids to the camp next week when I go. Diarrhea and vomiting are probably the most significant threat to life at the dispensary and so the IV fluids are the stuff of miracles here.

I was able to work at Kibumba Camp Dispensary a couple of days after our American visitors left and helped to deliver a baby. What an exciting event that was for me, another experience of the miraculous.

I was able to discuss with the director of the dispensary afterward about how we might do some teaching for the nurses who assist birth to improve the care. Let’s just say the sterile technique left a lot to be desired as well as the interventions the nurse implemented that were really traumatic for the mother. Well, perhaps I will be able to do some teaching. Another bit of my day at the dispensary was diagnosing a teenage boy with Tuberculosis. He has been sick for two years and is in a very bad state. I can’t wait to go back and to find out how he is progressing. For him it will be a long time to recover, if he does…I am worried about him.

Next week I will give a lecture at the secondary school just below the Procure. Oh what fun, I get to talk about the electoral system in the United States. It should be a fun morning and perhaps it will open the door to more teaching opportunities.

Speaking of teaching opportunities…I am trying to arrange for some teachers from the US to arrive here in the fall for 2-3 months of teaching English as a second language to adult learners, mostly teachers and NGO people. Anyone interested out there comment with your contact information, but for starters you will have to pay your way. I promise you the time of your life, what an opportunity to help impact the education of the next generation here in the North Kivu Province. Now is the time and we will do all in our power to see if we can provide you with living accommodations when you come so that you just have to arrange travel costs instead of both. Well, it is the idea that occupies a bit of my time every day to see this happen and so I begin by saying it here.

I close with a picture of my friend who appears on the wall everyday outside my window here at the Caritas Goma Office. I decided to try and play around with my camera a bit the other day and see what I could do. I am so happy with the results and am able to really enjoy my friend on the wall as well as the flowers behind the wall with my wonderful new camera...THANK YOU MY FRIENDS!!!

Thanks be to God that all of my electronic equipment; computer, camera, lights, weather station, solar charger, and nursing equipment are all safe and sound with me here in Goma. I did not lose everything in the fire.

Until next time, that is the news from Goma.

Love to you all,

Jackie