Surreal

(above: waiting to flight to Kinshasa a Brussels Airport in Belgium)

Surreal, that is the best description of this experience.  We flew into Kinshasa in the dark and after 2 hours left the hotel with our luggage in tow.  The smells are of people (because most congolese don't where deodorant), and fumes (because most cars are old and well-used).

There are thousands of people everywhere, walking down the middle of a 6 lane road, or on the side, or hanging onto the back of vehicles or out the side doors of vans.  Our agency staff member informs us the buses are called "Spirit of Death" because they cause so many accidents.  I found out what vehicle horns were made for, the DRC.  If you want to go somewhere the driver just honks and goes.  It's like playing chicken the whole journey, no traffic rules.  

We arrive at the hotel we were hoping to stay at, but were told there was only 1 room, the problem was there was another couple with us.  So after some arguing among the DRC men we both got separate rooms.  By this time is was 9:30pm and we were so tired.  We can't believe we are finally here, blocks away for our little Della.  Not much sleeping tonight, too many butterflies in my stomach :).