Monday, October 02, 2006

Take a tour: Kim Gjerstad's Congo


Check out this blog from Kinshasa by Kim Gjerstad, whom I've met a couple of times. The photos are particularly impressive. Images from the Ruwenzori mountains, long inaccessible because of insecurity, are stunning. Also see his photos from Salonga national parks (I&II), which few outsiders have ever visited owing to their geographic inaccessibility deep in the center of the country where roads have long been reclaimed by nature.

Here's yesterday's posting.

Street Kids Get Political and Get Locked Up

Top: street kids rioted in town two weeks ago.
Bottom: they've been catching them and locking them up since.

Kim writes: "Life without street kids is awesome. Last week, my flat mate, Tim, and I discovered the joy of walking free. Kinshasa’s main throughway, the infamous Boulevard 30 Juin, was peaceful. “The city feels like a normal city!” cried out Tim. So fine it was, we went for pleasure stroll, the first in three years."

Yes, you read that correctly. Kinshasa is not yet a place for the defenseless pedestrian. Nor has it been since 1991, the first time (of many) that I've been evacuated from there.

[read/see more here]

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