Kinshasa By Day

Modern and developed? Did I really write that? Well, coming in at night I did spot an ATM and what looked to be a downtown area - Kinshasa by day shows the barbed wire on every surface, the effects of 30 years of misrule followed by civil war, and hands everywhere, beseeching you for help.

It's different from any other place I've been in Africa, but still a capital city. Westerners and wealthy Congolese have access to a thriving restaurant scene. It's expensive because the food stuffs are so difficult to transport in, but last night's Nile river perch was delicious. My hotel is modern and safe, but I always feel like I'm the only woman around - surrounded by nefarious looking business men and international peacemakers/jetsetters. Yesterday in the elevator I saw a UN group exciitng for dinner and I swear they looked like the A Team.

I'm reading King Leopold's War - it's a really excellent history of the Belgian colonial rule - one of the most cruel examples of colonization in history. It's a great read, but it does make me sad for the potential of this country, the size of Western Europe, home to 68 million people.