Volcanic Eruption Devastates War-Weary Congo City  Danna Harman
The Christian Science Monitor January 22, 2002 In Goma,
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Laurence Kangeshenge fled in
her four-inch heels—the fake Guccis she bought last week at the
second- hand market here.  Now a refugee in Rwanda, she stumbles
uphill over the uneven ground with a jerry can of water strapped
to her back, cursing her footwear, the volcano, and the Congo
all in one breath.  "We are born into war. We live through war.
We fear war. And then we get a volcano," she says, wiping away a
tear.  Once a popular playground for white settlers in Africa,
and described in the 1950s as a "heaven on Earth," Goma has in
the past decade become almost synonymous with misery.  The
11,400-foot (3,377 meters) Mount Nyiragongo—one of Africa's
deadliest volcanoes—erupted Thursday, spewing orange lava onto
this lakefront town. Swathes of magma up to 165 feet (50 meters)
wide oozed down streets, burning everything in their wake and
finally pouring into