My last trip trip to Punia

Here’s the diary of my last trip to Punia where we are trying to finish a pumping station and related work. This is typical of an ICRC field trip in RDC.

Monday, Feb 20. Goma, after breakfast I have a short meeting with Karim, my WatHab Coordinator: we discuss details of my next trip to Punia and next mission to Katanga. At approximately 10:30, I’m taken to Goma airport. The ICRC Beechcraft 1900 arrives shortly from Nairobi. Some passengers disembark; I board the plane for the short hop to Bukavu.

At Bukavu, as I’m the only ICRC passenger, I wait for the AirOps person to make sure everything is taken care of before being driven to town. Bad luck, there is some confusion with ICRC cargo that was loaded on another plane bound for Lubumbashi. After long discussions, they decide that the problem is too big to be resolved quickly and we have to wait until all the cargo is unloaded. A few bananas will be my lunch.

We arrive in Bukavu at almost 4:00, I go and check a few things for my trip to Punia on Tuesday: departure time is a human 10:30, great. Internet is even working at the office, so I download my latest mail. I get a ride to the house where I shall be staying and organize to have dinner, we go to “Gerda’s”, a nice place with good food. I have to admit that every time I’m away from the doldrums of Kindu I really appreciate a good meal in a nice setting.

Tuesday, Feb 21. Go to the office, get some cash that I need to take to Punia, and just hang around until 10:30 for the one hour bumpy ride to the airport. Oh yea, two 4x4 UN trucks driven by Pakistanis had managed to run off the road, one rolling completely over!

The old but renovated DC3 is loaded with my equipment to Punia and we take off at 14:00. We fly east towards Punia for almost one hour but as we fly, the sky grows full of nasty clouds indicating a storm. The pilot heads south, then east, up, down, trying to find a way around the storm which was fairly big and nasty before deciding it is too dangerous and heads back to Bukavu were we had come from! By 5:00 we are back in town after another bumpy ride. Just with nightfall this HUGE storm hits Bukavu as well, high winds and lots of rain, tearing down quite a few roofs and trees in town.

Wednesday, Feb 22. Early start at 6:30 (no breakfast), back to the airport, take-off at 8:30 and after a one hour flight we land safely at Punia which is a dirt landing strip in the forest, quite impressive event though it’s the 3rd time I fly there. Didier, my ICRC engineer is waiting with his motorcycle and a truck is also there to carry our load to town. With this equipment now available we can go on and finalize the fitting of the two new pumps that were brought in some months ago. The spring and pump station are down a valley, a new PVC pipe has been laid up to the water tower. Regideso, the local water-board and our partner should do their part but they haven’t been here yet as we are about to finish our part! After overseeing what had been done by Didier during the previous weeks, with what we brought we should be doing a fair amount of welding, but electricity being “out” now I m typing this letter.

What next? Hopefully the ICRC DC3 should come and pick me up on Friday.

Thursday, Feb 22. Electricity is back. We start work, cutting, welding various pipes, fitting valves and getting ahead. Most workers are fairly good at what they are doing and we have a good time putting all this together. Obviously, I try to teach them some better practices and instil some pride in doing the job in a professional manner.

The phone rings, it’s my coordinator who asks if we can finish everything before Friday? No way, loosing a day with the airplane ride, another without electricity, it’s impossible. So sad he says, in that case we’ll send the plane to pick you up either Monday or Tuesday when you have finished: enjoy your week-end in the bush! D... it, every time I come to Punia, I somehow get stuck here for week-end, real bush, nothing to do. Who said life wasn’t exciting with the ICRC!

Friday, Feb 23. Usual storm during the night, electricity is out again. At 9:00 we go to the people running the hydro-electric dam (20 km away in the jungle) and tell them we really need power. “Give us two litres of gasoline, we’ll send somebody by motorbike to tell the staff to get on with whatever the problem is”. We give them 2 litres of gasoline and do a few things that can be done without electricity: like finalizing the wiring to the pumps. Another day’s “gone”.

Saturday, Feb 24. Can it be true? Yes, there is electricity and it will remain on all day. All morning we work at the pump station and do all the necessary fitting to get the PVC pipe hooked up. For a first trial, even though we still have to connect the water tower side, I want to first test part at the pumping station. A last check at the electrical wiring of the control panels and I press the “start” button: a hum but the motors don’t turn. No panic, we undo the security mesh and with a wrench “unfreeze” the shaft packing that had slightly seized, sitting for so long without rotation; normal procedure. Another go, this time the two pumps start up right on the button. Success! We then go up the hill, trailing the heavy welder and do the necessary fitting to join the new PVC pipe to the water tower. It’s getting late, but everybody works intensely to finish this and test the entire system. Night is almost upon us when I go down the valley to push the “start” button again. The pump starts; I wait, and wait, and wait for my technician to call me by cell phone telling me that water is reaching the tank. Then a worker runs down the hill: the PVC pipe has burst! With about 12 more meters of preassure on the pipe, it had broken somewhere. We stop and will assess the situation Sunday morning.

Sunday, Feb 25. At about 10:30 my technician drives his motorbike to Merlin’s house and tells me that I should come and look at the situation. As expected, a PVC pipe has busted; the reason? It was laid by Didier in too tight a curve and had undue stress on the pipe. We stop for the day; after all it is Sunday and decide that after our departure a team will have to dig a new trench part of the way, this trench having wider radius than the first one. They will remove the bust pipe, replace it (we had brought enough spare pipes) and lay it again all the way to the connecting point at the foot of the water tower. Back “home” for lunch.

As this might very well be the last time I go there, and to celebrate the (almost) completion of our part, I had invited a group of workers to a bar in town and I would offer them a drink. Late afternoon, we all get together and share beers and sodas. Obviously the Director and I have to make speeches with all the usual protocol. Was fun and really appreciated by the workers.

Monday, Feb 26. Our flight was scheduled to land at approximately 9:30. A telephone call from AirOps informs us that the plane is delayed in Bukavu; the fuel truck has a flat tire.

We then wait a long time for the Merlin Land Cruiser to finish whatever they had to do before they could take me to the airport. My technician rides is motorbike which will be flown out as well. In due time, we load the technician’s personal belongings in the LC and head for the airport.

When we reach the airport, I walk across the landing strip to a small area where cell phones work (we are far from town). AirOps tells me that the plane should be landing within half an hour, and that I should tell the pilots to fly back to Bukavu as there is no fuel in Kindu!

What a relief to get airborne at lunch time (not even a banana!) and get out of this rat hole.

At Bukavu, we waited a couple of hours for a storm to blow south. In due time, I boarded the other plane which had arrived from Nairobi and reached Kindu at 16:00.

Back “home” to Kindu. All is well, things have gone smoothly here. Good.