References

Hello Michel! We are back safely in the USA and all the Basenji Dogs are
doing great. Very successful trip. I am inquiring of two items. First, I am
trying to e-mail Terence and Evelyne (we very much enjoyed their company and
want to keep in touch). So if you could give them my e-mail, much
appreciated. Second, I do want to come back and do a more focused Basenji
search. Possibly next year (late Feb). I would like to possibly buy the
Basenji in Basankusu and then go to Bokoli and soend a few days to a week
there and the surrounding, more remote, villages to look for more Basenji
dogs. Looking for the hunting villages with very little connection to the
river and commerce--they seem to have the most "pure" Basenjis. And I could
do without a lot of the frills. I am not sure I will be able to find other
people from the USA to accompany me, and if not, it would be me alone. Is
that a problem? What would the cost be? Sincerely, Lisa

Hi Lydia,

I just want to write to thank you, Michel, and Jacques for helping me have such a great trip to eastern Congo back in November/December. It was a great adventure that I will never forget.
Additionally, I want to let you know that I have recently written some journals and posted some photos of the trip online at IgoUgo.com:
http://www.igougo.com/journal-j72292-Congo-Finding_Brightness_in_the_Heart_of_Darkness.html. : Finding a tour company to take you inside the Congo can be a tricky undertaking, especially if you're going to eastern Congo. Months in advance, I contacted a tour company based in Goma (that I will not name here). Upon Laurent Nkunda's threatened takeover of Goma in the summer of 2008, this tour company simply closed shop and disappeared (I would eventually learn that the owner fled to Kisangani). Looking at my only other option for a Congo-based company, I contacted Go Congo to help me out.

Go Congo was nothing but helpful. They presented me with all the options I had for what I wanted to do, and never said it would be impossible even with all the fighting in eastern Congo. The owner, a Belgian man living in Kinshasa for decades, has intimate knowledge of the country, and he hires great local people to run his business in Kinshasa and Goma.

Go Congo offers a variety of tours on their website, including multi-week long trips down the Congo River. However, I simply wanted to hire them for a guide/interpreter. In return, they provided me with Jacques Sherty (jsherty@yahoo.fr), a man local to Goma who runs the Goma office, and who was just as eager to see more of his country as I was (my trip involved areas he had not yet been to).

At one point during my trip, I was confronted by a supposed government official adamant on me paying a bribe to him. Jacques helped me as much as he could during the argument. But, when that didn't work, we called the owner of Go Congo to help us out. I felt good knowing I was with a company that was willing to do anything to make sure my trip went smoothly.

Rates for a Jacques were $30/day, plus food, lodging, and transportation costs. As Jacques only seemed to eat once a day, and was willing to sleep in my hotel rooms, he was a very inexpensive guide. Jacques met me upon my arrival in Kigali, Rwanda, then helped me make my way through Rwanda and Uganda to the Congo border at Kasindi. Once inside the Congo, he was by my side at all times to assist in anything and everything throughout my trip. I can easily recommend Jacques as a guide for anyone in eastern Congo.