Cana Kinshasa

On prend soit un ferry ou bien un hors bord pour se rendre de brazzaville vers kinshasa. Les riches prennent le hors bord et on a moins de problemes administratifs a la frontiere, donc j ai pris le hors bord. L arrivee a kinshasa est vraiment un souvenir memorable. Les officiels vous saisissent le passport et on essaye de vous diriger vers tel ou tel ...

... in need, in line with what we have done in other African countries. Then I turned on my laptop and we had a long, computer-illustrated discussion about the UCG association and its work around the world, especially French-Africa, and I used a PowerPoint presentation to illustrate our governmental structure. There were lots of question, and it was a very useful discussion by all accounts. We ...

... we got close, the taxi driver said the fare would be $100. Last time I was here it was $50. "This is the new price" he said. I negotiated him down, until we split the difference. It was still highway robbery, but only in a figurative sense. This was better than risking it in the literal sense.... After checking in and settling in, I called my local contacts and they said they'd come to the hotel as soon as they were able. I worked in the room until they came. Jacob came ...

So we finally got picked up and went to the restaurant. La Roi de Cossa, the King of King Shrimp. :) When I walked in, I thought I had been teleported to a different country. The place was a total D rating when it comes to appearance, but the huge smile and the super friendly greeting I got at the door nearly floored me. NOONE IS FRIENDLY WHEN IT COMES TO THE SERVICE INDUSTRY HERE!! At the supermarket, I am used to awesome checkout people ...

... need it here. All I do is wake up early, take a shower, eat some food, take a malaria tablet and then sit on my **** surfing the net for hours on end. :P Who needs to timetable that? ha ha. I am going to post some more pictures up on facebook. ones of my head, now that my hair has loosened a bit. I feel really bad. We totally participated in the exploitation of these people. The lady, Jacqui, braided my hair in 4 hours and we paid her $US20 for something that could have ...

... have seen my face) but it was locked. Then Papa walks up to him, pays him some money and gets in. Wow, you get paid for not stealing a car. Ha ha, in truth, the guy is hired to guard the cars. The only time he guards is when he walks towards your car when you leave the store, and stand in a menacing way in front of the door when you try to get in... The attitude these people have is horrible. Yes, I called them "these people"... If I came from here, I would be so so ...

... ways we could move forward from here. He asked about names he knew from the past: including our former association's lead lawyer (initials RH) who had come to Zaire (as it was then) to try to get government recognition of the Church. He had been received by Mrs. Mobutu herself in her husband's absence, in one of the dictator's houses, and soon after we received recognition. About 4:00 we drove back to my hotel and just a few minutes after getting back ...

... oth**s. We didn't see much out the windows along the way: the Medit**ranean was all ov**cast, and most of Africa was as well. Even the Sahara, which is usually clearly visible even from 39,000,000 feet, was obscured by clouds or blurred by vapor. We flew ov** Alg**ia, *****, *****ia, Cam**oon, Gabon and the oth** Congo. Th**e are two Congos - one a form** French colony now called Republic of the Congo, and one form**ly Belgian; the one wh**e I was going ...

... by sheer force of personality. A rueful old man was slowly stacking plastic crates full of broken, dripping bottles. The smell registered - one of those brightly hued, mysteriously popular sugar concoctions no sane person should ever drink (I saw a dog come to the same conclusion after a few tentative licks of the road.) There was no sign of the lorry the crates had evidently tumbled from.

... pizza restaurant in courtyard of the hotel. Behind a canvas wall, there was a big formal event going on around the pool: live band, cocktails, a catered meal, a mix of expats and Congolese. What a difference from all the grinding poverty we'd been driving though all day. I felt a little indignant at the disparity, especially since the locals who have enough money to come to gigs like this almost certainly didn't come by their money ethically. It's the way of the third world.