Um Bongo in the Congo?

I can't quite believe I am sat in the Christian Aid office in the middle of Kinshasa writing this. But to sum up in one word what is has been like so far..Amazing! We have only had two proper days here so far but I already feel so comfortable here.

Arriving at the airport was hilarious and I guess, our first experience of life here in the DRC. Us Biritsh are renowned for queuing, but here in the DRC, no-one quite knows the meaning of the word..its hilarious. So there was alot of pushing and shoving to get our bags and lots of shouting to get us out of the airport to our taxi. Alot of the security men were very interested in becoming 'friends' with us...just asking for a small fee of $20 dollars to get us through security..AS IF! My baggage unfortunately didn't arrive with everyone elses but it's just one of those things that I guess makes all this experience more memorable.

Arriving in the evening here (around 8pm) meant that it was pitch black (it gets dark here at about 6pm). It would have been great to see Kinshasa in the day but there was something very exciting about seeing it at night. Ther were many small food stalls lining the roads and many people going about their business. I was surprised at how developed the road was that we drove on, but we were told by Jacques (the Christian aid office manager) that there are only about four roads in Kinshasa which are like that, the rest are pretty dodge.

The accomodation we are staying at (CAP) is amazing. I have to say I was expecting to all be in one big room, no air-con, and one shower/toilet between all 22 of us. But we all have a room between two with air-con and ensuites. It's great! All the staff are so welcome too. They provided us with a gorgeous meal of beef, rice, chips(!) and vegetables on our first night. And then we pretty much crashed as we were knackered from our 7am flight.

The sunday was a pretty chilled day. I went to an international church in the morning which is close to the centre and really enjoyed it! They made us stand up and inroduce ourselves at the beginning of the sevrice.The rest of the day was spent having a gorgeous buffet, chilling by a pool and drinking beer at a place which is frequently visited by ex-pats. A very easy introduction to DRC...I enjoyed it, but was looking forward to getting out and seeing the real Congo.

Today was the first of our trips to visit Christian Aid's partners. We visited one called CONAFED which works on gender equality. it was so interesting to hear of their work. We then visited some students at the university who told us what work they were doing that is linked to CONAFED. one thing that really stood out to me was how desperate they are to have peace in the country. They said without peace and security, there will be no development. They asked us to talk to our government to enable them to bring peace to the DRC. I would have liked more time to talk to the students in greater depth about what they are doing to help the university and community.

Tomorrow, we will be visiting another of Christian Aid's partners which is very exciting. I am having a fantastic time here!