By Erin Pohland Days 18 and 19 Hi from Kinshasa- The past few days have been relatively tame, in terms of my typical day in Kinshasa. Yesterday, Andrew and I didn’t leave the apartment — and Andrew didn’t leave my arms. I must admit that as much as I love my son, it gets a [...]

By Erin Pohland NOTE: I wrote this post from Kinshasa on June 30, the Congo’s 51st anniversary of independence from Belgian rule. On November 28, 2011, the Congo will hold its second election since the “end” of its civil war in 2002. Whatever your beliefs, please take a moment to think of or pray for [...]

By Wickersham’s Conscience WC’s readers will recall that back in June 2011, WC was critical – well, vitriolic, really – of Governor Parnell’s decision to litigate the endangered species classification of the Cook Inlet Beluga Whales. Because Parnell’s other bad decisions had removed Alaskan officials from the group that develops the recovery plan, Alaska had no [...]

By Erin Pohland Day 14, Kinshasa Hey all- I’m utterly exhausted, so this email will be very short. The good news: we got the visa! The bad news: my agency (via Reverend Bashaka) messed so many things up that I had to spend 4 hours at the embassy fighting with the consul to get it, [...]

Here is the next installment of Greg Palast’s new book Vulture’s Picnic. He has allowed The Mudflats to bring you Chapter 7 – My Home is Now a Strange Place in its entirety. This is an exclusive excerpt, just for Mudflatters. I find it absolutely riveting. If you need to catch up, here are links [...]

By Erin Pohland Good evening from Kinshasa- Andrew and I had a fairly eventful day, starting with a mosquito net maze (he LOVED waking up in it, and played with it for about 20 minutes before he let me take him out of it), proceeded to him bathing himself in peanut butter, and ended with [...]

  Day 11 Hey all- Today was a very easy day, so I’m making this short — I want to get some sleep!! Andrew got bitten by some bug in the middle of the night, and he woke up screaming and scratching at it at 4 in the morning. Needless to say, I’m a bit [...]

By Erin Pohland Greetings from Kinshasa, the city where my baby eats everything he can! So, today it happened — the DHL plane left from Goma, Reverend Bashaka picked up the Swahili paperwork (with translations — certified and notarized! — in French AND English) and brought it to me. I took it to the Embassy. [...]

By Wickersham’s Conscience This post started out as a semi-serious recounting of one of the two documented instances of a cougar – a mountain lion – in Alaska. It seems that back in 1989, an off-grid homesteader outside of Wrangell named Paul Matteoni claimed to have opened his door and have seen two green eyes. [...]

By Erin Pohland Hi, everyone!Today was a much better day.  First, I’m not longer sick.  Second, Andrew slept in until 7:30.  And third, I spent exactly ZERO hours in a waiting room today. Shocking, I know. I was pretty upset yesterday.  I’m not scared being here, or even worried — I’m just frustrated at the [...]

By Erin Pohland Hello from Kinshasa, or should I say Hell’s Waiting Room…. Seriously, it seems like all I do here is wait.  Wait at the hospital, wait for the power, wait for my laundry (it took 4 days for 2 baby blankets and a sleeper), and wait at the Embassy.  Poor Andrew is going [...]

Bonjour from Kinshasa! Kinshasa used to be known as Kinshasa La Belle — Kinshasa the Beautiful. Now, it’s known as Kinshasa La Poubelle — Kinshasa the Garbage Can. It’s a very apt description. This city is wearing on me a bit. What was new and exciting for the first 5 days or so begins to [...]

By Erin Pohland Good evening from Kinshasa! As I write, there is a dance party happening on the street in front of my hotel.  Luckily, Andrew is a good sleeper — too bad his mama is not. Today was relatively uneventful, as far as things go.  We had no appointments and nowhere to be.  Instead, [...]

By Wickersham’s Conscience WC’s house is the home to two owls, a Boreal Owl and a Great Grey Owl. They aren’t a huge inconvenience, once you get used to the frozen mice thawing in the refrigerator. But last night for Alaska Bird Observatory’s Owlapalooza, WC and Mrs. WC hosted two visiting owls from Anchorage, Gus [...]

Greetings from the DRC- Andrew and I had a rough day — harder on him, unfortunately. It started at 3 a.m. when he woke up screaming. He seemed freaked out by both me and his surroundings — like he didn’t get why he wasn’t in Goma and why I wasn’t his foster mom. I walked [...]