Welcome to the Hotel CaliCongo

Mbote! That's apparently hello in Lingala, the local dialect.  I made it safely to the Congo after an insanely long trip.  It was around 27 hours total!  I met some interesting people on the way, though.  Navigating the airport in Brussels, I hung out with a Kenyan woman and her American husband who were going to Kenya to surprise her mom for her birthday.  On the plane to Kinshasa, I sat next to some missionaries from Texas who are spending a little over a week here.  There's no way I would take this trip for anything under 3 weeks.  Flying over the Sahara was really something though.  It just went on and on!  It’s hard to picture the scale on a map, but it took several hours to cross.  After, it was mostly cloud cover, until we started to land.  The view of the Congo river was fantastic!  The pictures don’t do it justice.  Can you imagine going up that thing in a steamboat?  Into the heart of darkness indeed.

Part of Kinshasa from the air:

 The yellow thing in the distance is the airport itself:

  Anyway, the airport is about as sketchy as you would expect. I couldn’t take pictures of the actual building, but it was two rooms- one for customs, one for baggage claim/health inspection (a tiny booth to the side where I had to show my yellow fever vaccination card)/pick-up. It took 45 min for the luggage to even start circulating, and then the centrifuge I took for the clinic didn't appear for another 20 min or so.  I've been in contact with Delphin Kapasa, a doctor at Bon Berger, since December, and he's been the one helping me arrange my trip. He said he'd pick me up at the airport, but I didn't see him as I was waiting for the centrifuge, though I was asked by several men with signs if I was several different people.  I was starting to get nervous when a policeman approached me and asked if I was Brittany.  I thought maybe there was a problem with getting the centrifuge through customs, but no, he said he would take me to Delphin once I finished getting by luggage.  Whew!  Just for the record, I was never questioned about the centrifuge, any of my medication, or the syringes(!!!) I was carrying through airport security (the latter two in my carry-on bags), but going through security (again!) in Brussels, they were very concerned about my sunscreen.  Go figure.  Anyway, I met Delphin and his colleague Pierre outside the airport.  It was dark by that time, and we drove for a very long time on a road that chaotic doesn’t even begin to describe.  Tons of cars and trucks packed with people (3 were sitting in the trunk alone of the car in front of us for awhile) and crates of who knows what edged around each other in a huge game of chicken.  Groups of people milled about on the sides of the street and a bunch of them would try to cross the road without warning, just walking out in front of all the traffic.  There was sand and dirt everywhere, vendor stalls full of food, clothing, odds and ends, people shouting, listening to music, and chasing loose chickens, and the air was full of smoke from diesel engines and fires burning all along the road.  We finally reached Delphin’s house, which is in kind of a complex with two other houses/families.  I met his wife Régine and his three kids Faith (10), Gloria (8), and a four-year-old boy named... Stan?  I’m about 95% sure that’s it. But then I thought Ángeles’s ex-husband, Brahim, was named Brian for a whole evening, so who knows. With the accent, they sound like Faif, Roya, and Sten.  Do with that what you will. :P  Anyway, Faith is pretty quiet, Gloria treats me like her special pet, and Stan/Sten is a character. He’s adorable (and this from someone who’s pretty iffy about kids) and bouncy and spent this afternoon pretending he was a crocodile and (I think) a giraffe.  Anyway, we had a fantastic dinner.  There was rice, a spiced carrot and pea dish, the most delicious eggplant sauce thing (and I don’t even like eggplant that well), some very bony chicken I mostly avoided, and fried bananas that were surprisingly good (and I pretty much detest bananas).  Then they all accompanied me to my hotel.  Gloria wore my ridiculous fishing hat; I wish I had had my camera out.  Anyway, my room is huge and has very high ceilings.  The bathroom is surprisingly nice, though I do wear flipflops in the shower (at least I have one!). 

The hotel, my room, and views from the windows:

It’s air conditioned too, thank god!  It’s around 85-90 degrees here with what feels like 100% humidity all the time. So far people just seem to rest in front of fans a lot. This morning, I ate breakfast at the hotel, and Delphin and Régine came and picked me up to go get a SIM card for my phone.  I got a bunch of Congolese francs as change and they’re pretty fun looking. I have a minifridge in my room and apparently can use the hotel’s kitchen, so we then went to the grocery store.  Well, all of the prices were in francs (hence in the thousands at least), so I had no concept of what they were.  I bought some basic stuff that would’ve been maybe $25 or $30 in the US, but when I went to check out, it turned out that they cost $100!!! (I should explain- American dollars are preferred, but they only take big bills (10 or 20 and above) that are new and in perfect condition.  Francs are used for small change). Anyway, I actually had to borrow money from Delphin until we got back to the hotel.  Delphin told me that most people make around $100 a month and many around $2 a day, and they have to feed their families with that.  As food is so expensive, poverty is even more of an issue.  A lot of vendors on the street sell food for less, but it’s still pricey, considering, and the quality can be questionable.  We discussed a tentative schedule for the next few days- tomorrow, we’re going to church from 9:30 until at least, at least 12:30.  That’s a lot of church.  It should be an interesting experience anyway.  Monday I’ll see the clinic, Tuesday I’ll meet Delphin’s pastor who apparently helps run the community outreach programs, and Wednesday I start working, though I’m still not quite sure what that will entail.  We went back to Delphin's house for lunch, though I felt kind of guilty about it after the trip to the store! I think they're fairly well off for the area, though. I'm pretty sure they have a servant, as there was a woman in the back doing most of the cooking, and Régine seemed to order her about, though maybe she's just a really helpful neighbor or relative or something. We had spiced beans, rice, some sort of green in a sauce like the eggplant one, fufu (steamed dumplings made with manioc and corn flour), and whole grilled fish (skin, tails, heads, eyes, bones, everything still attached) with a spicy pepper paste. I managed to eat the fish without choking on a bone or getting too grossed out. Then we talked for a long time in front of the fan while the kids watched Dora the Explorer dubbed in French. Delphin had mentioned going to Canada and visiting Niagara falls a few years ago, so I showed them the pictures from my trip there last summer that were still on my camera (and also some from New York and England), and he showed me pictures of his trip to Canada, his wedding, and his family. We eventually walked back to my hotel (like 2 min away), and Gloria insisted on holding my hand the whole way. People are constantly, constantly on the street here, and I wanted to take pictures, but Delphin said I shouldn't because people are still wary from the dictatorship, apparently, and wouldn't appreciate in.  So, no pictures, except for Delphin and his kids.  

Delphin in front of a giant mound of onions in Manitoba (of all places):

Delphin, Gloria (red shirt), Stan/Sten, and Faith (white dress):

Pillsbury doughboy me with the kids: