Lunching at Embassy's doing Crafts and Cooking lessons

This past week has just been so full of different outings , meeting new people and learning new things. I have become a member of the International Woman's Club here in Kinshasa...they really seem to keep us busy....mind you as busy and involved as you want to be....

I joined the Arts and Craft class really had some fun learning to do something different with a lovely young woman called Rania....

Rania not only does craft she is a excellent cook so , on the Thursday we went back to her house where she showed how to to prepare "Rough Wheat Tomato" in her country it is a poor mans supper , it is delicious, you eat it with the Lebanese pita bread, and chopped onions( I could have the name of the bread wrong...but I will give you the recipe....great for vegetarians, at a BBQ...just give it a bash I love it!!!!!

ROUGH WHEAT TOMATO- (Lebanese Dish)

1. Little Oil in a pot.

2. 3-4 Onions chopped fine...add to oil and brown.

3. 1 Tin of Chick Peas -washed and drained, add to onions.

4. 4 grated tomatoes - add to pot with a 1/4 up water.

5. 1 teaspoon tomato puree added to pot.

6. 1 Teaspoon cinnamon added .

7 1 Cup of Rough Wheat

8. 3/4 cup Water added to the pot with a pinch of salt.

Cover the pot , simmer, stir occasionally, and it will be ready to eat in 10 minutes or when most of the liquid has been absorbed.....

I really think that this dish is great hot or cold, eaten on its own or as a side dish........ENJOY!!!

Now about luncheon, at the Belgium Embassy, with another lady"s group called "Femme de Kin Accueil" its run very much the same way as the IWC ... I was invited to this very posh lunch where we where served champagne in the garden, while meeting ladies of Kinshasa Woman's Club... Lunch was a served in the dining room of the Embassy...we had 4 waiters catering to all our needs .....it was really fun.

I want to add that this organisation does allot of work for various charities here in Kinshasa, I feel very honoured to be part of such organisation doing there bit to help others less fortunate.......so you see we get involved and try our best while supporting our husbands in what they do..................

.The woman that accomany there husbands, all over the world are really remarkable....and do there utmost to enjoy the new experience as an ex-pat wife!!!! bravo!!

Malaria and Hospitals in DRC

What a strange weekend.... after a great week...all of a sudden things go weird. The first thing that happened is on Saturday late afternoon, we see allot of activity going on at the pool and the next thing two little boys run past the house shouting "his dead...definitely dead" with one adult telling us, no don't listen to that there was an accident one of the boys about 9yrs old was at the pool playing but could not swim and ended up nearly drowning. Thanks to the 3 adults that where present who managed to rescue him and resuscitate him the story ended well....



On to the next event , we went out for dinner after this with some friends, but the service was not the best and my Vianney was not feeling himself. I put it down to the little boy episode but when we got home he said his head felt like it was about to burst...So sunday our day that we planned to go to Lac de ma Valee was canceled. Vianney had a fever,body ache and really felt awful, he just spent the whole day sleeping hoping it was a one day flu..........

Monday morning again after not having a good night, we decided to go to the clinic to have a blood test done for malaria...I must be honest if you are on the outside of the clinic you would not want to go in for treatment. Once in, the staff tried to be very helpful and accommodating. It was a long process but finally by 11.30am we where on our way after seeing the doctor.

While we where waiting a young guy was brought into emergency, after suffering a heart attack...very scary to watch but the staff where there ready to deal with the emergency.

The result of our visit Vianney has malaria, so he is been treated for 5 days with Quinine and will go back to be retested, after completing the medication.....I am sure that this too will end with a positive result...

Meeting New People and Trying New Restaurants!

This week has been full of new, people , good restaurants and happenings in my life !!!! On Tuesday I went off to the International Woman's Meeting at the Canadian Embassy. We had a speaker who chatted to us about the impact of deforestation here in Africa and the effects it has on Global Warming.



I was really happy to join this group of ex-pat as it opens the door to many more activities and new people in my life. The most important happening for me was meeting "Ingrid" " who writes the blog"Life as in Kin" , she really is a delightful, positive young woman. I think that if you have been following my blog from the beginning, you realised that at first I was very negative about coming to the DRC until Dorianne my daughter found Ingrid's blog and of course the rest is history it turned things around for me completely,and more positive about joining the ex-pat life here in the DRC.

Thanks Ingrid you are really an inspiration, and described life here in Kin very accurately. You just have to make the most of all opportunity's thrown your way in life.

Now to the subject of the restaurants, a group of us went to the Mandarin Chinese Restaurant after the meeting where the view is just so beautiful. You look across the Congo river and see Brazzaville very clearly on the other side. The other restaurant was the the Taj-Tandoori which is on the top of a building with a fabulous view of the city lights in the evening. In fact you could be anywhere in the world having a evening out with friends.... the only off putting thing about going to this restaurant is the small lift that only takes 3 people....it is very claustrophobic....but guess to enjoy we need to pay a small price....

Lumbumbashi

Finally on Saturday I left for Lubumbashi with Vianney. Leaving for the Airport at about 11.30 am thinking we would leave at 2.30pm well think again... in Africa time takes on a new meaning...we arrived safely after a two and a half hour flight in Lubumbashi, with Air Zimbabwe. Lisa was at the airport to meet us so getting our luggage went smoothly , finally at 8pm we checked into our very modest Hotel called "Nazim" with its fake palm trees outside, flashing their welcome!!!

We went off to meet the rest of the consultants at the Belgium Club for dinner . It was a good supper, what surprised we was finding a place where you can do some 10 pin bowling...2 lanes but thats not bad !!!

Lubumbashi is much smaller than Kinshasa , the main road is ina very good condition not one pothole. There are traffic lights and unlike Kinshasa people obey the rules of the road.

The little Hotel we where staying in was quiet funny , in the morning you have no choice of what breakfast you are going to have, the old Papa comes along with your tea or coffee and 5 minutes later you get a little oily omelet with two slices of bread and a blob of jam.. so off to the nearest little shop I went to buy some yogurt and muesli....this was much better for me.

Lubumbashi is very dusty due to all the mines around and also the fact that the roads leading off the main road are in a shocking condition, potholes , soil erosion ...so as a result you have this red brown dust all over...everywhere dust....apart from that I enjoyed Lubumbashi....

They have some great restaurants most of them associated with a Club eg..Italian Club, Greek Club, Belgium Club then we have Holly Bum which is a Restaurant and Guest house, Chez Robert

has the same concept and is really cute....it has a pool , nice little garden with lots of bird life around.

On Sunday for lunch we all went a place called "Bush Camp" where we had a great lunch, you get to choose you meat which can be anything from sausage , crocodile, ostrich or game they barbeque this and you help yourself to salads and cooked vegetables...

We flew back to Kinshasa on Wednesday with CA Airlines it was not bad at all, I was just surprised that after an hours flight we stopped at a town called Mbumbayi , looking down you see these huge mining holes....and I believe this is where allot of the diamonds come from. Mbunbayi is in the middle of the country...we stopped there for refuelling and of course more passenger.....it was funny to see some of the household goods they loaded onto the plane...stoves beds some plastic chairs...its different in Africa but wow what an opportunity....

So I am back in Kinshasa settling down in my home and Vianney has gone off to Matadi , maybe one day I will get to visit this little town too........