Grand Hotel Kinshasa

... Moi, j ai eu de la chance tout de suite dirige vers le directeur qui a fait tout les demarches administratives pour moi et ceci sans demander d argent. De maniere generale je n ai pas eu de gros probleme de corruption en RDC. Les agents ayant peur des blancs. Meme si cela n a pas empecher des militaires de me demander 1000 dollars. Mais ils ont rien eut...

... for around 4 hours, and agreed on plans for services on the Sabbath. We plan to meet again in the afternoon after services to continue discussions and wrap up what we can for this visit. I was able to have my wife call me back on the phone in the evening, and we caught up on what's been going on back home during the week I've been gone (one down, three to go). News from home is a wonderful tonic.

... Zimbabwe is NOT THAT BAD. Here there was once a strike at the university. The strike lasted one day before people came and looted the university. I will take pictures and show you... i am so serious, they looted the university. You had people walking out with the glass windows, sinks, toilets, pretty much anything that could be removed. When I saw the place, I thought they had been bombed, but it turns out the people did this to their own university. There is no sense ...

... the room, the phone rang again. This time it was Mr. Bamongo. We walked out to the garden and talked for 3 hours about similar historical and organizational questions. He has served faithfully in rather trying circumstances for years. It's good that more help is arriving for them here. We finally parted; I didn't want to keep him out too late since Kinshasa gets quite dangerous at night. Mr. Mukendi had said he doesn't go out at all after dark if he can ...

... Congo started out not as a prop** colony but as the p**sonal prop**ty of King Leopold I. That was an awful time for the Congolese since the king of the Belgians treated the huge land tract essentially as a cash cow, using horrible and disgusting methods to get the people to provide rubb** and oth** products he wanted. Adam Hoschfeld has written an excellent if gut-wrenching account of that p**iod, called Leopold's Ghosts. The capitals of the two Congos ...

This morning, Jacob arrived at 10:00. He'd been slowed by traffic. He had a taxi this time, which is how we traveled the twenty minutes to his house. There were about thirty five people there of which fifteen were children. As we started they sang two simple hymns in Lingala, the local language; there was an opening prayer and then a sermonette in French by Justin about the parable ...

Q: Which of these two cars should be overtaking the lorry? A: Neither. All three vehicles are approaching a blind corner, and a similar circus could be coming the ...