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LubumbashiToday is the 4th of June and im four days into the Congo part of my trip.
The trip over from Dublin all went well. got to Nairobi hassel free apart from a fire in Heathrow airport but it didnt effect me atol just a lack of options for food. Then when i arrived at Naiobi i had to make my way through customs to get my Bags without having to pay $50 for a visa. this all went good cause the kenyans are just the friendliest people ive met and they all speak english its their first language which suited me perfectly. So got my bags back up into transit where was informed that my flights had been cancelled to congo and to mumbai in july becuase of non payment, but they sorted all out after a good 2 hours. Then after i got that all sorted i got chatting to this guy from liberia in western africa. it was greating hearing all about life in that area of african esspecially as he was a new life christian and was down in tanzania at a conferance. Then i had 3 hours till my flight so got some sleep in a corner at the end of the airport.
i arrived in Lubumbashi in south eastern DRC to be met by Joy Stevenson. We drove back to Restawhile which is the name of compound where im staying while im here in Lubumbashi. Later that day Murrey Stevenson arived back from a 2 1/2 week bush trip. The next day was sunday and i got to experience my first Traditional African church. Ruashi was the name of the church we went to and it was a big special services becuase three churches had come together for a baptism service. The servie managed to count up to 4 hours and 12 mins which wasnt the worst mostly cause the novalty was still prity high so ill see how i mange next week. There was four different choirs Blue, Yellow, Green and Purple. and they had a drum kit, keyboard and two guitars so it was fully kited out. and they had all the cheerin and clapping dancing everything you could want. and during the baptisms after the people came up from the water everyone started going mad was brill. got plenty of videos and pictures. and yeah also when they were clearing away the floor for the baptism there were cockroaches running out from the water which wasnt the most apealing place to be baptised. After the services myself Murrey & Joy were invited by one of the church members to have dinner in the church. and we got the traditional african meal of nshima (maze ground and stired in water to make a dough) and fried fish. This was similar to what i got in cameroon aswell and so im guessing its a very common meal. i got my first ever frogs legs under my belt aswell but they were cooked in plenty of garlic so i think that might be cheating.
When Murrey arrived back from his bush trip the truck had to be stripped of the load. but because of the amount of probloms with the truck this time we decided that the truck needed to be power washed with a power hose so that all the grease & mud could be removed and prevent blockages, so i was handed that super job.
Came accross my first couple of spiders today and i reckon ive seen enough for the next 14 weeks, i went looking for them and i think the problom was i found them so quickly and they were everywhere. and there not small either
Found out today that thierry Henry is actually from the congo. well his father was the old president
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Suz
non-member comment
embrace it all!
Hey Pete, glad to hear you're getting into the african way of life. Nairobi airport is quite the place to hang out in the wee hours of the morning, a charming irish smile will get you out of many an awkward situation! I tended to call nshima, stodgy podge! That'll soon sort the bowels out!