A Postcard from the Democratic Republic of Congo

It has been a long time dream of mine to visit the Democratic Republic of Congo. Unfortunately, when I finally did, I left my camera in Uganda. Luckily, I was traveling with my friend Chris Baxter who was smart enough to bring his along and take the amazing photos in the sideshow above.

I've done my best to provide commentary describing what we saw on our trip. However, it gets to be TMI at some points and the captions occasionally cover the entire photo. You can toggle them on and off with the green, speech bubble icon in the lower left hand corner.

Goma is a modern day Pompeii and vulcanologists flock to Nyirigongo. There are a lot of great stories and documentaries that have been made about the volcano.

The latest came out just a few weeks ago from the Associated Press.

A similar story was written by the New York Times back in 2008. This article features Kennedy Rwema, the guide we used for the trip. We had the privilege of spending a night at his house.

WGBH's NOVA did an episode on the 2002 eruption. Even though it's supposed to be "public television" the only free media I could find online was this trailer. Nevertheless, it's amazing footage.

Baxter alerted me to this documentary on Nyirigongo and other African volcanoes that aired on the Science Channel. Here it is in full, but be patient with the annoying pop-up ad at the beginning. Guy, the vulcanologist featured, is very melodramatic. He makes it seem as if the volcano could explode at any moment and rip him and his fawning students to smithereens. It makes for good television.