First post from DRC

Well - it's late afternoon on Monday and we've been in Kinshasa for almost 48 hours. Arriving at the airport was, for some of us, a baptism of fire - forms being demanded (sometimes with accompanying money), queues being 'formed', people being helpful and some others being 'helpful' and general mayhem. This was replicated in the baggage hall which became a free for all, and they mayhem continued with all the passengers from our flight being squeezed through a single narrow door to leave the airport (this was made all the more difficult because of the people trying to come in through the same door and the policemen standing right in front of the door!

The place we're staying is much nicer than I had anticipâted and we had a tasty carb-rich dinner.

Sunday morning we split into three groups for church and then spent the afternoon in the incongruous surroundings of an expat French club (complete with swimming pool). As with most developing countries the contrasts strike home - the streets of Kinshasa bear no resemblance to the relative luxury of the French club; and the brand new red HYummer parked in the church carpark on Sunday morning is a world apart from the prematurely aged cars and other vehicles on the roads. It's not unusul to see cars with their windscreen completely smashed but still driving - not sure they can see a thing, but then I'm not sure that makes much difference.

There's obviously much more to say - but that's for another time.

Daniel