When I arrived in Bunia, all was already arranged for me, not only at work but also at home. As I have already said in an earlier posting, I have moved in to the Mechem house, probably the best housing available in Bunia! We have power, hot water and Internet around the clock, full board (ok, here we might have room for improvement, not that I'm complaining but it's not exactly haut cuisine), and a bar in the house :) So, as I have already said on Facebook (probably the main reason for Internet at home, Brian's a worse addict that I am!), Skype me!
Mechem is a South African organisation in demining and contraband detection. They are contractors to MONUC and have been in DRC since 2004 running a project on road and area survey clearance (for example of the sites for the future deployment of the PNC). And as it happens, their home base for DRC is in Bunia. Their main camp is just outside of the town were also most of them live when not on missions around the country.
Apart from working, these guys enjoy a good time, and thus of course they have a bar in each compound! Again, as earlier said, they are hard to catch on a photo, so for the time being here are some from the bar at the camp.
The bars have one rule - the first time you come to ANY Mechem bar, you have to have a Stroh Rum. Is there any one in this world apart from Mauritz (or according to him all Namibians) that likes that horrible shit? I certainly don't, and by now I've already had to have three - one for each Mechem bar I've been in, and one for my boss who's Muslim - if you can't have it yourself you have to find someone to have it for you. But, in spite of the Stroh Rum, these are great guys, and they will look after me and Kristina, or as they call us, Kristinky and Susaraki!
