Kinshasa (by Eric)

The first week of December we flew to Kinshasa, the capital city of the DRC, 970 km from Lubumbashi, for two reasons: to get the visas necessary to stay past January 2, and for Karen to attend a public health conference. We were lucky, because it turned out that a former classmate of Karen's was visiting Kinshasa at the time, and she knew it well and introduced us to interesting places and people there.

Sunset over the Congo River from our hotel room.

Kinshasa is an enormous, crowded, and poor city. It is also a bustling, active, 24-hour city with 8-lane roads added to the standard collection of wild traffic routes. We stayed in the Gombe district, a wealthy and quiet neighborhood where most of the embassies and the fancy hotels are located. One of the fanciest hotels, The Fleuve ("River" in French), hosted the conference, and we stayed there for the first two nights. We estimate that one night at the Fleuve cost approximately what a college professor here earns in a week. It reminded me of the hotels I stayed in when I visited Chennai, India for work, and we soon wanted to escape that expensive, corporate environment. Although neither of us had used AirBnB before, Karen found 2 listings for Kinshasa, and one was available, cheap, and in the same district, so we moved there. We walked from there to the hotel on the last day of the conference, and stayed until we decided we were set regarding our visas.

Five-star bath water straight from the tap!

The first thing we did in Kinshasa was go to the DGM (immigration) to talk to an official about getting our visa extended. Our embassy told us that we qualified for the student/researcher visa. The other types of visas are missionary, tourist, and resident. Initially, we had been told that we needed resident visas, which were a lot more expensive. We thought we had brought all the necessary documents, but the DGM asked for proof that we were married; we were able to retrieve the marriage certificate from Lubumbashi with the help of friends and colleagues, but it delayed things a day or two. Since Fulbright is a program of the US Department of State, the US embassy helped expedite the process. Once the DGM accepted our paperwork (and our money!), we decided to return to Lubumbashi. The embassy told us they would courier our passports to us as soon as the DGM was finished with them, which, our DGM contact assured us, would take about a week. Note the foreshadowing as we return to our narrative.

DGM Kinshasa [note from Karen: this is not a parking lot -- this is the 8-lane road in Gombe and we're stopped at a traffic light (yes, cars usually stop at these lights!) in the farthest left lane.]

On Friday night, Karen's classmate N took us to a fundraising party at one of the embassies where we met some expats working in Kinshasa. Karen made some good public health contacts, and N invited us along to see Zaiko perform. We declined because Karen had to be up early for the conference the next morning; we found out later that N's party stayed out until 4am. [Karen: we thought we'd have another chance the following night, but it turned out we didn't, so we were disappointed to have missed it!!]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaiko_Langa_Langa

We visited the Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary outside Kinshasa on Sunday. "Lola Ya Bonobo" means Paradise for Bonobos in Lingala. The sanctuary was opened to take care of bonobos, many of which had been rescued from markets throughout the DRC. Some people consider them good eatin' despite laws that prohibit trafficking in bonobos for any purpose. However, before the sanctuary existed, law enforcement officers didn't have a way to protect the animals they rescued. Unlike the common chimpanzee, bonobos live south of the Congo river and are found only in the DRC.

This is the nursery for the older orphans. The bonobo on the left is the 6-year-old who is quite ready to move out and doesn't want to have anything to do with the rest of his family. Yvonne is their surrogate mother.

Set in 30 hectares (75 acres) of forest, the site contains a visitor center, 2 nurseries, and 3 large fenced areas for separate groups of apes. The youngest orphans are in one nursery and the other nursery is used for bonobos up to about age 6, after which they are integrated into the larger troops. These troops include infants born on site – the nurseries are only for orphans, who bond with human caregivers. The program has started to introduce animals back into the wild at "Ekolo ya Bonobo" – Land for Bonobos – in Equateur Province.
The taxi ride to the sanctuary was interesting because we drove across Kinshasa and I got a feeling for the less upscale parts of the city. The size of the markets and the resulting crowds looked overwhelming. No 8-lane roads in those parts of town.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonobo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lola_ya_Bonobo
http://www.friendsofbonobos.org/ekolo-ya-bonobo/

Tuesday we walked to the Marché des Voleurs (Thieves' Market), which is the primary market for tourist goods like masks, paintings, various wood and soapstone figures, jewelry. The stalls stood in rows in a large open space, but all of the paintings were displayed at the entrance on the ground. Also at the entrance were some empty bird cages and some birds for sale – notably the popular and vulnerable Grey African Parrot. You can see the parrots with paintings behind them in this photo https://www.flickr.com/photos/teresehart/3900437185/

On Tuesday night, N took us to visit the Kinshasa home of Stand Proud (the English name), which was an amazing experience. Stand Proud helps children with polio and other paralyzing disorders get fit for braces and forearm crutches. We watched as the technicians fitted out a 6-year-old so he could take his first steps since his legs were paralyzed by polio when he was 3. That makes it sound like a hospital. It was a 6-room house with cement floors, no plumbing, an outside cooking area and little furniture. About 30 boys slept there on mats on the floor while undergoing training and a Ivorian couple lived in one room as "dorm parents". Older guys that had been through the program before learned how to make braces & fit them and would then teach the new kids how to walk.  One room was dedicated to some machinery used to construct and modify the various aids.

Getting fitted for braces. We asked if it was ok to post this picture and they said it was fine.

They have sites in other cities in the DRC, at this location girls were only served during the day; there wasn't space to accommodate them separate from the boys. After visiting the Stand Proud home, we crashed a Christmas Party at one of the embassies. All of the embassy staff wore clothing made from custom fabric with the embassy logo on it.
http://www.standproud.org/

For me, Kinshasa was like Lubumbashi except bigger, more tropical, and more connected to the outside world. We were introduced to a large community of non-Congolese working for governmental and non-governmental organizations, so it seemed a lot less isolated – we haven't broken into the NGO community in Lubumbashi.