Kinshasa, Congo

Up at 5 in the morning to drive to Brussels to catch the flight to Kinshasa. The Burssels Airlines flight stops in Yaoundé, Cameroon after 6 hours in the air and after an hour of turn around, we make the last leg of an hour and 20 minutes to Kinshasa. We arrive at night, flying over this capital city of an estimated 7 million people. But the only lights you see are those from oil lamps of street vendors. Passport control and customs went smoothly and we were met by staff from UNICEF Kinshasa and taken to our hotel in a big white new Toyota landcruiser. The main road into the city from the airport is dark. They call this the « Dark Continent ». I believe it was at first meant to mean « unknown », but, at least here, it could be simply because it is dark ! The driver explains that the government is rebuilding the road and started by tearing out all the electric lines hindering construction. I saw no electric lines and no construction.

The view from my balcony with the RDC flag.

Our hotel is in the centre, Hotel Memling. As in many poorer countries, the choice of hotels is either cheap with no water or security or very expensive 5-star. The Memling is very expensive. The normal rate is 368.000 Francs or over 400 dollars a night ! We get a «special» UN rate of 250. That doesn’t include breakfast or internet which is 12$ US an hour ! (this post is thus delayed… I am writing it on the computer and wil post it to the interent when I get back home !)