Hiatt's in the Congo

 Thursday, January 30, Morne had me work from home. He didn't want us leaving the compound. I spent the morning doing my normal work and then at 2:45 in the afternoon, Sisca came knocking on my door telling me there was an emergency meeting called at 3:00 and Morne wanted all of us on the phone for it.  We met in Leonie's house and called in.  Morne started out by telling us that the M23 Rwandan rebels, who had already taken over Goma in the North, had started moving south and were planning on taking over Bukavu.  They announced their intentions to continue moving south taking over Mbuji-Mayi, Kananga, Lubumbashi, and then make their was to Kinshasa. The US Embassy had already been attacked and set fire to.  There was discussion about what we should do and the home office was involved too.  It was decided that all the women and children should leave. We didn't know for how long, but because the airport is also the military base, they wanted us to leave whil...

 Wednesday, January 29 was different. Morne didn't want anyone leaving the compound. We pulled the van in front of the gate for an added layer of security. Spent the morning cleaning the house, doing laundry & visiting with Leonie.  We went to a braai at Morne & Sisca's and snuck peeks of the cute puppies!

 Tuesday, January 28, started out as a normal day. We had been hearing rumblings of Rebel activity in the north and locally in Lubumbashi there were locals targeting expats.  It is very clear our compound is all expats! I spent the morning taking pictures of the site...little did I know they would be my last. Cory started building a shed to lock up all the tools! The guys were talking about ways to fortify our compound. The locals were using machetes to attack the homes.  Morne had Cory make weapons for each house to have just in case. Cory made spears and everyone was quite impressed. Amidst all this chaos, Basil became a father, Mpenzi had puppies! She had 8 puppies total but 2 ended up passing away.  They are darling!