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SUROOSH ALVI: It's late.
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We're deep in the heart of it now.
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I don't know how much water we have.
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We haven't eaten in a really long time.
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And my glasses are fogging up because it's so hot.
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And I can't see.
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And I'm walking in the mud.
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I don't know, man.
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I think this might be the stupidest
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thing I've ever done.
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The Democratic Republic of Congo.
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It's one of the poorest countries in the world, and
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thanks to insanely complicated mix of politics, armed
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conflict, and corruption, it's also one of the most
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under-reported.
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It also happens to be home to a nondescript black rock known
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as coltan, a vital ingredient in the production of nearly
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every cell phone and computer on the planet.
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Without coltan, our technology-driven lives would
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come to a screeching halt.
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And Congo has 80% of the world's supply.
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Congo also has cassiterite, gold, and a slew of other
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minerals that make the world go round.
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Now, you'd think that having so much of the stuff would be
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good for Congo, but the reality is far from the case.
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There's a reason they're called conflict minerals.
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[SHOUTING]
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SUROOSH ALVI: Since the mid 1990s, armed groups have used
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these minerals to fund a series of fantastically
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complicated and horrifically violent wars.
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MALE SPEAKER: We have to kill them.
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We have to kill them.
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SUROOSH ALVI: And as the tech boom drove up the price of
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these minerals, violence skyrocketed.
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Slaves to technology that we are, we had see for ourselves
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where these minerals were coming from and what these
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rebels were fighting for.
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MALE SPEAKERS: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
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SUROOSH ALVI: So together with my cameraman Jake and producer
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Jason, we hopped on a plane and flew to Congo.
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Our first stop was Kinshasa.
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To say that Congo's natural resources have been more of a
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curse than a blessing would be an understatement.
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Conrad described this place as "the vilest scramble for loot
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that has ever disfigured the human conscience." That was
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written in the 1800s, right around the time that Belgian
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colonists were stripping the country of its rich supply of
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ivory and rubber, killing nearly half the population in
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the process.
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In the 1960s, it was the United States that was after
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Congo's cobalt for its Cold War fighter jets, leading to
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its support for a dictator who renamed the country Zaire and
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embezzled billions of dollars.
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MOBUTO SESE SEKO: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
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SUROOSH ALVI: Today, it's the global demand for technology
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that is inadvertently fueling the conflict in Congo.
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The statistics we read are staggering.
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Five million people have died in the Congo because of this
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conflict since the mid '90s until about 2007.
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It's a huge number.
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The most since any war since World War II.
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The government in Kinshasa says that the war is over, but
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Kinshasa is a long way from the jungles of eastern Congo,
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where most of the rebel groups and the minerals that finance
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them are located.
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So we needed to go east to find out what was
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really going on.
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One thing that had been drilled into our heads before
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we came to Congo was that you do not fly
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on Congolese airlines.
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This is a country whose aircraft are banned from
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European airspace.
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Last year, a crash that killed 20 people was the result of a
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crocodile escaping from a passenger's carry on luggage.
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But with Goma being over 1,000 miles away, we didn't have
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much of a choice.
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And as it turned out, that flight would be the most
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comfortable experience of the days to come.
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One thing we've noticed since we came here is that there are
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fires burning everywhere in Congo.
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I guess they're just burning their garbage.
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But it kind of feels apocalyptic at times.
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Watch out.
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We're in Goma.
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It's in eastern Congo, right on the Rwandan border.
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This has been the epicenter of the conflict since 1994.
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It's also the center for humanitarian aid.
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There are 51 different international organizations
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based here.
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As you can see, there's UN guys everywhere around us.
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It's kind of chaotic.
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We're also pretty close to the mines where coltan is
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extracted from, and we're going to go check that out.
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When we got to Goma, we met up with Tim Freccia, a veteran
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crisis and conflict photographer who has worked in
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Congo for years.
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He told us that we were under-dressed for our trip to
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the cold mountain mining town of Numbi, so we went shopping.
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I've got a nice polo here.
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I got a Minnesota Golden Gophers hoodie.
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Jake got a great Carhartt.
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But I think this might be a strong look when I'm going to
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interview the militia.
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Some Wu wear.
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The only problem is it's fucking disgusting.
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Is it pretty good?
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MALE SPEAKER: Yeah.
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SUROOSH ALVI: Yeah, you like it?
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MALE SPEAKER: I like it.
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SUROOSH ALVI: He likes it.
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We got our outfits.
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So we're going to visit the mines today, the Numbi mines.
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It's where they extract coltan from.
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HOREB BUJAMBO: And cassiterite and tourmaline, and some other
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precious stones.
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SUROOSH ALVI: This is Horeb.
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He's our new buddy.
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He's our new best friend.
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He knows everyone.
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He's a bit of a celebrity in these parts.
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HOREB BUJAMBO: [SPEAKING FRENCH]
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SUROOSH ALVI: He's got a TV show.
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What's your show called?
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HOREB BUJAMBO: Monusco Realites.
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It's a kind of Congo reality.
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SUROOSH ALVI: Is it safe to say that you're a Congolese
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reality TV star?
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HOREB BUJAMBO: I'm a celebrity for many Congolese, just
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because I tell them the stories which they--
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SUROOSH ALVI: They don't know.
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HOREB BUJAMBO: They don't know.
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I tell stories about Congo.
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SUROOSH ALVI: I've driven a lot of treacherous roads
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before, but this one seems to be the worst.
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HOREB BUJAMBO: We are still going up.
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Up and up.
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SUROOSH ALVI: Oh my god, I can't even look right now.
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This is completely fucked.
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HOREB BUJAMBO: Yeah, Yeah.
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I saw vehicles, they went down.
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SUROOSH ALVI: Fall down the hill?
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HOREB BUJAMBO: It's not a safe road, yeah.
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SUROOSH ALVI: We figured that out.
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HOREB BUJAMBO: Despite the beauty of this place.
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SUROOSH ALVI: Yeah, it's beautiful.
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HOREB BUJAMBO: Yeah.
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SUROOSH ALVI: What if we all just push him out?
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Straight out?
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Nothing's working this way.
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He's not getting anywhere.
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MALE SPEAKERS: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
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SUROOSH ALVI: Where did all these people appear from?
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Like, we're in the middle of nowhere.
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I thought you were kidding when you said
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hiring local labor.
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They just conveniently had a shovel, as well.
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MALE SPEAKER: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
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SUROOSH ALVI: Like, as soon as we sank into the mud hole, the
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kids were all like, thumbs up, we got him.
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Now they're all here, and they're going to work until
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they get us out, and they're gonna get paid.
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MALE SPEAKERS: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
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SUROOSH ALVI: Yes, yes.
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We finally got out.
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But before long, we got stuck again.
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And again.
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And again.
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Until one thing became very clear.
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We were not making it back to Goma anytime soon.
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It looks like we're probably going to end up sleeping at
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the mines tonight, which is a bit odd.
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I can't believe connecting two land cruisers
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with seatbelts worked.
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They're saying we have to hurry because it's going to
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rain again soon, and if we don't get past this patch of
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red earth, we're going to be stuck sleeping here.
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When we finally got to Numbi, we had to smooth talk the
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local officials into showing us the mines.
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So these are all the powerful dudes of the town.
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Yet another negotiation.
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Bonjour, Suroosh.
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MALE SPEAKER: [INAUDIBLE].
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SUROOSH ALVI: Nice to meet you.
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[FRENCH].
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This way.
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In what would become a running theme for the rest of our
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trip, the locals said the mines were just over there
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around the bend.
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And then we would get over there and around the bend,
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they were just over there, and over the hill.
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Like a quick two kilometers.
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Holy fuck.
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I'm about to pass out, Jake.
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Hey Jake, how many people are working?
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JAKE BURGHART: None.
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SUROOSH ALVI: Really?
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JAKE BURGHART: They've all gone home.
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We have to come back tomorrow.
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SUROOSH ALVI: The mine had no miners.
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It was completely empty.
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The locals told us that this mine in particular is owned by
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a member of Congo Senate who lives in Kinshasa, and that
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his miners pull 15 kilos of coltan out of it every day.
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At $30 a kilo, that's about $13,000 a month, a lot of
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money in a country where most of the people survive on less
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than $1 a day.
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And while the senator gets the big rocks, the bottom feeders
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get by on what washes down the stream.
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So we got totally set up.
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Basically when we pulled into town.
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MALE SPEAKER: Lower, lower, lower your voice.
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SUROOSH ALVI: Basically we got totally set up.
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When we pulled into town, alarm bells went off.
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And they said yeah, we'll show you a mine, and they took us
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on a trek far, far away from town to a mine where they sent
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in advance someone ahead of us to clear everyone out because
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there were kids working in the mine.
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Then we got there, and they're like, oh, yeah, everybody's
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just gone home for the day.
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They actually fessed up to that to Horeb, to our guy, so,
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I'm still pissed off.
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It's gonna be an interesting night.
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Probably about 5:30 in the morning here in the Numbi
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mining town.
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This is a town with no electricity,
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with no running water.
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We basically got stranded out here, which wasn't really part
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of the plan.
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They didn't take too kindly to us initially, but they were
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even worried about our safety, because we're in South Kivu,
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and they're not used to this kind of thing.
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A bunch of foreigners spending a night here.
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They gave us this little house to stay in.
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Then they offered us a couple soldiers to guard
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us all night long.
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You know, yesterday we experienced them trying to
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keep some secrets hidden.
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So today we have a plan.
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We're going to break free.
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We're going to go a couple kilometers, and we're going to
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set up and wait for the miners to show up so we can really
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see how these mines operate.
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This is the main street of the Numbi mining town.
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It's very muddy today, after raining all night.
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It reeks of urine.
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Here's my breakfast, along with two Advils and some kind
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of mega antibiotic cure all.
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When anything goes wrong in Africa, you take that pill.
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Plugs up your ass, reduces fever.
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Well, so much for getting a head start on everyone.
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Oh, shit.
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Jason, Jason, come here.
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I think it's like, quicksand.
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I just kept going down.
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This is not going to be fun.
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This is the main Numbi mine.
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Just got there.