So after our night in the Addis Ababa airport, we took off for Congo. Our flight for Kinshasa left around 10:00 AM our time, with a brief stop in Brazzaville. The flight from Brazzaville to Kinshasa was literally 5 mins.
When we got to the Kinshasa airport, we were met by a "nice" immigration officer named Bola. I use quotation marks because he and his assistants were looking for a tip. In Bola's defense, he didn't ask for money. He said that if we wanted to pay him we could. I also say nice because he could have been a jerk about it but he was very helpful. He said, "I'm an immigration officer, this is what I do." So we gave him some money. He helped us find a cab and the office that sent our invitation and totally helped us bypass customs.
Supposedly, there was a driver sent for use, but we didn't find him, and found him?! There was a cab driver that approached Laura asking for Ms. Roland. We later found out that was the guy looking for us, but getting Laura's name wrong. We met up with Tony, a guy friends with Wasmoeth Wildlife and he set us up with a hotel and our plane tomorrow.
The whole experience of the airport and the city reminded me a lot of Delhi. I was like, replace the Africans with Indians, the French with Hindi and English and have people drive on the left side of the road (for the most part) and it's like I am back in India for my Uncle's wedding 10 years ago. The traffic, the smell, the landscape, it reminded me of Delhi. The smog and the nonsense traffic and the way people argued all brought a reminiscent smile to my face.
Anyways, I have to go for dinner and we have to get repack for tomorrow's flight to Kisangani but I will be back later. C'ya.
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