Row, Row, Row Your Boat

Some local fishermen let Anson and me sit in their canoe while they negotiated with Jose over the price of a fish. If they are lucky, they will catch 5 fish this size per day.

Last weekend we went boating again on the Congo River. This is definitely one of my favorite things to do, and I would go boating practically every week if I could! This time another family from the embassy came with us, and we had such a great time. As usual, we took the boat approximately 40 minutes upriver at about 25 knots/hr. There are some perfect little islands scattered through the river that have nice sandy beaches for the boys. It was slightly breezy and not too hot, and the water was comfortably warm. All in all, it was perfect boating weather. The boys and I caught a river crab, attempted to catch some fish, and we swam close to the shore. Anson recently learned to swim, and so he was making be rather nervous swimming under the water as the current is pretty strong and the water is quite brown due to the high levels of tanic acid from the trees. The older boys played "Marco Polo," while the younger ones played "crocodile" with Jose.

After a few hours of leisure, we cleaned up and headed back to Kinshasa. We soon came upon a body floating in the water, and so we took the boat closer to make sure that the person wasn't alive. We didn't have to get too close to realize that the person was most definitely not alive. We were worried that the boys were going to freak-out because it really wasn't a nice sight. However, they stayed rather calm and only wanted to know how he died. After we returned to the Nautical Club, we told the people in charge about the situation, but we doubt that the police even did anything. Those sort of situations are not reason for action around here.

Less than a kilometer before arriving back at the dock, our boat abruptly stopped. We first were worried that there was a problem with the fuel line. However, it wasn't the fuel line - we were just out of fuel! The day before we had 200 liters of fuel put into the boat, and so we should have had over 100 liters left in the tank. Obviously, it was siphoned off by employees at the club that we pay thousands of dollars per year to take care of the boat. Lovely. Fortunately, we had a fuel can on board, although we didn't have a funnel to get the fuel from the can into the tank. Luckily, we did have a sand pail with a hose that worked just fine to do the job. Unfortunately, the hose on the pail dissolved from the fuel. Oh well, at least we made it back to shore!

Anders and Anson digging in the sand. The bucket pictured above was later used as a siphon for fuel for the boat.

Soren taking a flying leap into the river.

Charles practicing his shot-put skills with the boys.

A few weeks ago we went boating with some of our South African friends, as well as with some of our friends from the German embassy. As we were traveling upriver to our picnic spot, we hit a sandbar at a speed of 24 knots. Of course, both engines immediately shut off and we were quite stuck in the sand. Our obviously faulty depth finder indicated that there was over 20 feet of water beneath us. Uh Charles, I think it's time to order a new depth finder. Charles, Paul, Jose, and two of the Germans showed their manliness by pushing the boat (25' twin engine Boston Whaler) off of the sandbar. Ingrid and I took pictures and made very helpful comments. Charles even convinced Joseph to steer the boat, although he (Joseph) was hesitant to drive it because although he has a license to operate a boat on the ocean, he doesn't have "river training" - he's German and so he's good at following the rules (sorry, "Fun For Some" Joseph!).

After we arrived at our picnic spot, we ate while harassing each other over our nationalities and cultural differences. For what it's worth, I do want a German engineered depth finder...

Chaos is Normal

Chaos is normal. That is if you live in place like, let me think, D.R. Congo! Situation update - the Congolese national soccer/football team won some major championship up in Ivory Coast on Sunday. Celebration ensued for a good part of the evening, and President Kabila declared a national holiday on Monday to honor this grand event. The national team arrived back in Kinshasa today, and so in anticipation to the parades and potential celebratory rioting, the American school and the US Embassy closed down early. Everyone is heeding these warnings because the people here have a tendency to turn public parades into demonstrations which in turn become violent riot fests. Soccer games also tend to bring out quite strong emotions in people here - last September 13 people were killed during a riot that erupted when one of the soccer players was accused of using witchcraft. This incident was even reported on ESPN! Today we were given email and radio warnings and instructed to stay at home for the rest of the day. The government really is focusing a disproportionate amount of attention on this victory, and the thinking is that they are trying to distract people from the abysmal political state of the country. Right now I'm thinking that I'd better do another inventory of our personal belongings and get our important documents in order.

Shopping - Kinshasa Style

Anyone who truly knows me knows that I absolutely love and adore shopping. Hmm, maybe I'd better clarify that statement - I absolutely love and adore shopping OUTSIDE of Kinshasa. Now don't get me wrong, I am more than enjoying living in the DRC. However, shopping is certainly not one of those things that I even like about this country. Anyway, it's part of my life, and so I thought I'd give all you non-Kinshasaians a taste of what shopping is like here.


First off on my tour is City Market (pictured above). This is one of the main grocery stores in Kinshasa. The other grocery stores that ex-pats/diplomats frequently patronize are Peloustore, KinMart, Hasson et Freres, and Express. You can find quite a few of the basics here, that is if you are willing to pay ($2 per pear, $30 for ice cream, $15 per box of cereal, $18 for a bottle of cream, $100 for a box of Tide laundry detergent). Also, these are not "one stop shopping" sort-of places. Oh no, you have to go to one store to buy your bread, another to buy the rolls, another to buy chicken, but another to buy pork because the other store is Halal and won't sell pork, etc., etc., etc. Anyway, this whole process got a bit too tedious for me, and so I now have Mamba, my driver, do most of my grocery shopping. This has worked out very well, except on Friday he bought a kilo of prosciutto (almost $50) instead of a kilo of ham (about half that amount). Oh well, I do love prosciutto sandwiches (Caputo's Deli in SLC has hands-down the best ones in the world in case you want to know).

One unique thing about grocery stores in Kinshasa is the price list. Because of the frequent change in the value of the Congolese Franc, store owners do not bother to put actual prices on their products. Instead, they label the products with a letter and a number. You then have to find the price list that is posted on each isle and look up to see how much "A24" or "B12" costs.

Another interesting thing about shopping in Kinshasa is that we typically pay with US dollars. Every shop and market that I've been to so far has accepted this form of currency. However, you can only use bills that are in absolutely PRISTINE condition. If there is even the tiniest tear (literally 1 mm), then to them it is no good. Conversely, Congolese francs that are completely filthy, torn, taped together, stapled, and soaked in the sewer are A-OK to use.

This is the fruit and vegetable stand across the street from my house where I get the majority of my fresh produce. The man in this picture is also my "florist." I've purchased all of my house plants from him, and I frequently get floral bouquets from him as well.

Now this is where I do the majority of my shopping in Kinshasa. One of the best perks that the embassy has to offer is the DPO (like an APO) and the diplomatic pouch. Basically, we have a US mailing address, and so I can order most things online, and then the embassy flies our boxes/letters in every week or so. Well, most every thing except for flammable items, liquids in glass bottles, liquids in containers over 16 oz., and items in pressurized containers. We also have some size/weight restrictions. Fortunately, none of these restrictions affect my very favorite items to order (that being clothes, shoes, and accessories in case you don't know - well if you don't know then you are probably a stranger and so I don't know why you'd even want to read this blog). We have a pretty good internet connection by Kinshasa's standards, although it is nearly $300 per month and it is not anywhere near as fast and reliable as the internet connections in the States. Oh well, I suppose this keeps me from shopping too much, or becoming addicted to YouTube!