VOICA Community

Bella Casa...

VOICA home sweet home

Clara is from Brescia, located in the north of Italy. She first came to Congo for a summer program in 2009. After returning home to Italy, she made the decision to come back to Aru and serve as a lifetime volunteer.

There is really nothing that she can’t or doesn’t do.

A trained veterinarian, she cares for our three cats & dog;
Manages the Sister’s farm, including: employees & accounts;
Drives our motorcycle all over town running errands, often strapping 50kilos of sugar or crates of soda to the back;
Manages the construction crews of the Library & other sites;
Runs the Bakery;
Is painting the library & sets-up paint for when Karen & I arrive to help in the afternoons;
Tends to our many electrical problems at the house (there are many);
Drives the tractor: moving furniture, building materials, & crops;
Is constantly cleaning & organizing our home;
And is the first to care for volunteers when we fall sick;

Her French is excellent, as is her command of the local language—Lingala;
Clara is basically, just awesome.

Karen’s from Denver, Colorado and is serving two years in Aru. She arrived in December 2009. During her first year, she taught English at the Canossian School for Girls—ADIA LEMI—and the Catholic diocesan school—AITI. Current projects include Cyber Café and the Bakery. She also manages the Library, which is set to open Sunday May 8th. Currently, she’s recording all the books we receive from Italy and the U.S. into the Dewey Decimal system and is training our first local librarian, Bolingo.

Bolingo worked for Clara on construction and still paints at the library during the day, but his passion is education. He is twenty and finished with a degree in accounting from the secondary school. He is very committed to the library and of course, hopes to continue his education someday. Pictures coming soon!!

Clara & Karen in the temporary library office. Choosing paint colors!

So here you have a quick description of our current VOICA community. Amid the demand of our work days, we went out for Clara’s birthday in March.

Yes, there are a few discos in Aru…

Our night guard, Orio, accompanied us, though he’s actually more of a friend. There was someone a month ago that climbed over our wall and attempted to take bananas from our tree. Although it was harmless, we felt it best to have someone guard throughout the night. It’s very common with businesses and schools to have a nighttime watchman. Orio works with Clara during the days at the library and several nights a week serves as our sentinel. Our other sentinel is Isidore. He also works during the days on the farm.

Both are really great and Orio has even joined the three of us girls for Karaoke! Long story – but we do require some entertainment here. I will explain more in detail the Karaoke when I introduce our previous volunteers, particularly Stefano, whose unashamed love for singing has left a rather significant gap in our melodious voices…

Thieves destroyed our Internet Cafe...

Late Sunday Afternoon

Several hours ago, Clara received a phone call from Sr. Alba, who is responsible for Cyber Café. I overheard Clara telling her that I had borrowed the Dell computer for the weekend. I assumed Sr. Alba was panicking because she had gone to Cyber and saw the computer was missing.

Unfortunately that wasn’t why she called. Clara came to tell me that Sr. Alba was in fact at Cyber and that it had been vandalized. I couldn’t believe it. Clara headed out the gate, I followed and Karen was close behind.

I arrived to find the entire room ransacked. All the computers had been taken, along with the router, cables, power cords, and even two broken computers. The police arrived and among a crowd of twenty we accounted all that was taken from us.

It wasn’t much that we offered. We had a copy machine, two printers, a scanner, and several computers. In an attached room, we had about fifteen slowly, working desktop computers. The thieves had begun to disconnect them, but must have been startled and thankfully they were left. These computers are used for the courses we offer, as well as for general typing; we serve as offices to countless individuals and businesses.

To be honest, the past six weeks have been a run of bad luck.

The young woman who had been teaching our Microsoft and Excel courses for over a year quit without giving notice. This affected all those who were in the middle of the class and the countless individuals that come each week requesting the service. We haven’t been able to find a replacement; most of those in Aru who have computer knowledge already have jobs.

Two weeks ago our server broke down. This required us to unplug and carry one of our three working computers over to the printer or scanner. Karen and I have limited computer knowledge, though far more than almost everyone here. She has been working very hard to transfer and reestablish a server computer. Finally, Saturday evening she succeeded.

Karen and I always joke about our profession as personal secretaries. There are a handful of clients seeking our help everyday: creating Excel spreadsheets for their monthly reports, scanning government documents to be sent to Bunia or Kinshasa, and especially translating and typing English emails. We also type reports for university students and assist them with internet research. There are many students who have never used a search engine before. This is one of my favorite services…there are a lot of medical students who come in: I’ve learned so much!

Tomorrow morning, dozens of our clients who depend on our services will come to begin their work day. Most people here can’t afford computers of their own, let alone the generator or solar panels to support the electricity necessary.

The thieves have not stolen from us; they have robbed and essentially, crippled their own community. It will be the families of Aru that will suffer for their selfishness.

Tomorrow is the feast day of St. Isidore, patron saint of the internet. Sr. Alba printed decorative signs offering 5 free minutes of Internet for our clients to celebrate. Instead, we will be closed. Who knows if we will open again?