Ruzizi River

This past weekend, I went with a very friendly Clément Ninziza for lunch at a rather flash hotel along Lake Tanganyika. It was great to get out and sit by the water, eating good food and enjoying friendship.

After lunch we went for a drive further along the lake shore as far as the border post with DR Congo. It is a beautiful area, with marshes along the line of the Ruzizi River and the dramatic mountains of DR Congo in the background. The Ruzizi, however, had overflowed its banks.

There are people who had homes along the line of river. Now their homes, shops, even church buildings, are flooded. I saw people pretty much chest deep in the water while boats waited, grounded along the side of the road to ferry people back and forth from their flooded-out homes to flooded-out shops to buy what little they could afford to make a meal. Although, where they might cook and eat it was a mystery to me.

It's part of the brutal reality of Africa that people without means are often left abandoned by their governments. Those that are supposed to serve leave them to, in this case quite literally, sink or swim as best they can. The church in Africa are often the ones on the ground providing support and assistance in times of natural disaster. Pray for these families as they cope with the challenges and for myself and others to know how to best respond.