We're Alright here on the Homefront

Many of you have been wondering how it is going here in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo after the 3 days of fighting. All is very quiet right now and no problems seem eminent on the horizon. I have heard that now that Mr. Bemba's personal troops (Bemba was the presidential candidate who lost but still had a small militia of troops, about 600 strong, loyal to him and 'protecting' him) have been taking care of peace will reign. All of the Congolese people around school tell me...."no problem, no problem".

It was very weird and felt quite surreal to hear tanks moving around us and to hear huge gun fire from them and smaller gunfire from the soldiers that we see daily carrying small-arms around town. For 3 days we heard the fighting persist and we wondered how much damage was created by the gunfire. When I passed thru the city to get Joe on Thursday I was surprised to see that not much damage was sustained...at least not as much as I imagined from the sounds of the battle. Kids from school did bring bullets and shell casings from the arms. Here is one of the bullets a student found and gave to me....Jimin found this right in front of his houses wall which protected he and his family.