Living in the Hotel

Today is our 5th day in Kinshasa. We have not been sleeping that well. We are still
trying to get used to the 6 hour time difference, the different sounds and the strange bedroom!
We woke up this morning to find a notice under the door from Management. The notice was apologising for the disco and party noises we will be hearing tonight, until 1am in the morning and then again for Saturday night until 3am Sunday morning !….Guess they know how to Bogey and throw a good party…poor us trying to sleep!
Guess what our room is on the 4th floor above the venue. There is not much we can do about this, as we are here for next 3-4 weeks. So I guess we better get used to it and buy earplugs and sleeping pills!
The apartment they are trying to get ready for some of the consultants are in the process of been built….I went along with my new Australian friend Bev, to have a look at them today they are a 5 minute walk from here. Once they are completed they will be really beautiful and spacious, they all look onto the Congo River, so I look forward to moving.
We had some more time to explore the city with our Driver Theo, who only speaks French and his own language, so there is some room for misunderstanding some times.
I went off to the South African Embassy to apply for a new passport as mine is so full of visas, then off to the Canadian Embassy to tell them we where in Kinshasa. I had to get some passport photo’s taken and had it done on the street sitting on a little red plastic chair in the dust surrounded by people selling sunglasses fruit and even portable dryer stands….so this gave one a true feeling of been back in Africa. Its funny but as time goes by you take in the friendliness and helpfulness of the Congolese people and know that things will just get better as time goes on…..This weekend we went on a company picnic at someone’s farm along the Congo river, I tried to do some fishing but I guess I will have better luck fishing with less sophisticated tackle…but it was relaxing ….with that we come to another week….