October 2008 Entries
The big bus pulled away from the station. Tears streamed down as I, a girl of six, waved goodbye to my father. He was standing on the platform waving to my mother and me as we were evacuated on the last bus out of town.
This just flashed across the news wires...
I am working on a story today about the current crisis in Congo. There are several people on the ground that I am hoping to talk with as I write up today's report.
It may come as a surprise to some that a new report from the United Nations says former female combatants in Liberia are TWICE as likely to take up arms again to "escape poverty."
I remember talking with one of the Sisters of Charity a few years ago in a tiny town in the northern region of South Sudan. As we watched children playing nearby, she said most people in the region were completely naked when the Sisters came not too many years before.
In my travels in Africa, I've come across several mine fields. One particularly bad patch was right next to an elementary school in southern Sudan. The local children would walk to school everyday through an overgrown grassy area. Everywhere you would see dark brown sticks sticking straight up. Each stick marked a landmine. A mine sweeping team had come through and marked them a few years ago.