Rainy Monday

It’s Monday morning and raining cats and dogs outside. Truly, this is the rainy season. It’s been extra hot and humid, and there’s been rain on and off over the past week. The roads around Kinshasa are getting worse and worse – the potholes just get bigger the more it rains. What’s tough is that when the streets flood, you can’t tell where the potholes are on the road and Kinshasa has some enormous potholes. There are many that are several feet deep and wide, or other places where the grates have been lifted off of storm drains so there’s a giant open trench along the side of the road. I’ve seen several cars with broken axles on the side of the road and it’s from these killer potholes. I heard from someone that with the rainy season these puddles are even more dangerous outside the city since the power lines around the DRC are run underground. If there’s an exposed power line that has a puddle over it, you could step into it and get electrocuted without having any clue that it was holding a fatal charge.

On Friday night we went out for goat with some friends. We drove to a part of town I’ve never been to before, east of downtown, and we sat at outdoor table. After placing an order for goat with onions and a side of fried plantains, we sat and talked and ate peanuts while taking in the nighttime crowd. Various vendors came by selling cigarettes, tissue, shoes, wooden bowls, etc. In the area we were in, there weren’t a lot of expats and it was nice to feel like we were in the “real” Kinshasa and not in some expat bubble.

After a half hour or so, our goat showed up. It was wrapped in a big piece of heavy paper and when you opened the paper, the goat meat and onions were inside in a big pile. The goat was cut into small pieces and there were bits of bone you had to look out for. They didn’t have forks at this place, so you could use a toothpick or just eat with your hands. Having never tried goat before, I have to say that it tasted good. It’s fatty, but with good flavor and the onions helped a lot as well. Wow, antelope last week and goat the other day? Maybe this is the week I try eating bugs for the first time. I feel like I’m building up to something.

We had a big ultimate frisbee game on Sunday afternoon that was a lot of fun. There was a good turnout of people and we played late enough in the day that the heat wasn't too much to bear. It looks like it will be a weekly event.

It looks to be a slow day for me here. I’m working from home on some websites and will have a meeting with someone whom I’m building a website for. Working from home isn’t too bad, although the power outages can be frustrating sometimes.

Not much else exciting to report, so I’ll sign off for now.