Denise

I met Denise (pictured) a few days ago in Rutshuru Hospital, in North Kivu. She'd been in the hospital for around a month, after having been shot during a truck jacking. In the D.R. Congo, there is very little long distance transport (short distances ... of up to 20 kilometers) are nearly always covered on foot), and the long distance trucks (nearly all old and decrepit, with tires in even worse condition) double as "buses" for people needing to travel farther than can be walked in a half day or day. The passengers ride on top of the load (I'll post on this separately), clinging on as best they can over unpaved, rutted roads. Injuries (and presumably deaths) from falls are not infrequent. The truck jackings are an even greater risk, of course, and though the bandits could easily order the passengers off the load, they frequently don't bother, perhaps finding it easier to clear a path to their objective with bullets.

Denise was shot in the leg, and the round (almost certainly a high-powered round from an automatic rifle) shattered her tibia. When I saw her, she had an exoskeletal brace (don't know the technical term) holding the two main pieces of bone together, and she had months/years of bedrest and rehabilitation ahead of her. She managed to show a beautiful smile, though, if a bit of a sad one ...

Also pictured, with Denise's x-ray, is Dr. Willy, in charge of medicine at Rutshuru Hospital. In the comprehensive tour he gave us of the (very busy) hospital, Dr. Willy seemed to know nearly all of the patients by name, and had a kind or playful word for nearly everyone.