congo watch

Things that have happened in Kinshasa/I've learned since leaving to go watch the games five hours ago:

• The UN has been evacuating schools and moving important people to the MONUC HQ. I assume that includes the Belgian school, which is the one I'm worried about.
• Bemba sought refuge in the South African embassy, but I've read that they won't grant him asylum.
• Mortar rounds landed in Brazzaville, the capitol of the other Congo, which sits two miles directly across the Congo River from Kinshasa. (Read: whoever's firing these things has no aim. That's what makes this so much more dangerous than it inherently has to be.)
• Either a grenade or a mortar round hit the Spanish embassy. Isn't it frightening that they don't know?
• The ambassador from Nigeria is badly wounded.
• Peloustore, a fancy grocery store where I got my lunches in Kinshasa, was looted.
• It's 4 in the morning in Kinshasa and people are still awake because they're still blogging because there are still shots and mortars going off. What a miserable experience.
• It occurred to me earlier to wonder whether they tried to stage a coup or not. I don't think they did. But Bemba's troops have been able to control far more of Gombe than anyone expected.

I know no one really cares about this, but these are my friends, this is a place I've been, and this is scary. It helps me to know as much about what's going on as possible. Thanks for your patience with all my Congo posts.