Missive from the Congo 017

So here we go with the first missive of this my second tour to the Democratic Republic of Congo. The trip over was the usual very long day. The icing on the cake, after the seven hour flight from Paris, was the three hour drive to Canada House. This is a drive that normally takes less than one hour. However there was a rugby match which clogged up the only route from the airport tight. A one point there was eight lanes of traffic on a two lane road. The main cause was oncoming traffic turning left at an unregulated intersection. Some things never change.


In fact change does not seem to have troubled Kinshasa too much these last four years. I didn’t spend all that much time in Kinshasa last time but there is precious that appears to have changed. There are still vendors on the sides of the roads selling, watches, purses, clocks, maps, office furniture, safes, etc. In fact, if there is a market for it, you can probably buy it on the streets here.

Canada House "Blue"

One thing that has changed is Canada House. The size of the contingent in Kinshasa increased by two persons so Canada House had to change. The Canadians here currently rent two three story condos in a small three building compound. There are five bedrooms in each house. I am currently in one of the spare rooms on the third floor, at the top of a very narrow and steep spiral staircase, with steps whose spacing is ever so slightly out of whack. It’s clearly a sobriety test.

The introduction course to the mission starts Wednesday and runs for five and a half days. In it I will get to cover most everything I covered previously at least three times with the possible exception of the course on sexually transmitted diseases. They didn’t cover the use of condoms in Kingston. I believe the highlight of this week will be the English language proficiency test. Can’t wait.

Stair to the third floor

Finally, as many of you know there was an unfortunate airplane craft on Monday. I won’t speculate on the cause of the crash. The investigation will reveal that in due course. I will ask though that, should something like this happen again, you not panic or get anxious. There are tens of thousands of UN and UN-affiliated personnel here. The odds that I would be involved in any specific accident are remote at best. It is also likely that I would be unaware of the accident for hours or days and may not have ready access to the internet to post something to Facebook. So relax. Your stress won’t change a thing except make you feel anxious and lose your appetite. There’s no need for that.


That’s it for this week. Next week, first impressions of Goma.