Tonight is
my flight out of here. I am incredibly anxious about this…”what if I miss my
flight?” “What if my plane doesn’t leave?” “What if something unexpected
happens?”
We went to pick up my clothing
from Clement’s aunt, then to buy me a cell phone to keep in contact with
Clement as I travel through the airports. Riding in a broken down taxi and
walking across the main boulevard has convinced me that this is my day to die!
I bid farewell to Clement’s parents.
We took off to visit Seli Beach because it
is closer to the airport and on the other side where the traffic won’t be as
bad. It was beautiful to have a last look at the Congo River and Natasha came
with us too, but my thoughts were constantly bent towards my flight later that
night.
Despite my best attepmts to have us at the airport by 6pm, we arrived
closer to 6:40, two hours before the flight was scheduled to leave. At the
entrance of the airport, I bid adieu to Patrick and Natasha. Thankfully,
Clement was able to come in the terminal with me! The line was super long and I was bundle of
nerves. We waited in line for an hour and half…finally getting my bag
checked…everyone anxiously watched the clock as the time for our flight
came…and then passed. So far, no one had been loaded on the plane and pretty
much everyone was still in the same line we had been two hours before. With
most people having a connecting flight in less than one hour, everyone was
ready to be taking off. Construction workers at the airport figured this would
be a good time to continue with renovations (I mean, why not run the
jackhammers at 9:30pm with a crowd of frustrated people?), so the next 30
minutes was the sound of pounding through stone echoing throughout the atrium.
Finally, 40 minutes after the flight was scheduled to leave, I had a boarding
pass in hand and had to say good-bye to Clement when I went through security.
I
called Mom and Dad from the bus, telling them that there was no possible way
that I was going to make my connection, so not to leave home until I called
again. My phone wouldn’t work again until I landed in New York…
Today was
bound to be a busy and exciting day! Both Clement and Patrick have already told
me they will miss me when I am gone…I have only two more days! We returned to
the art market where I bought some trinkets as gifts. Then it was off to the
Grand Marche to buy some gold jewelry. It is a struggle to purchase anything
for myself because her mom insists on paying for everything, but I did win a
few. Clement and Francoise bought groceries including roasted peanuts that you
watch them grind into peanut butter after you buy them. Peanut butter is an
important ingredient in many recipes here, no wonder I like some of the food so
much! As my second trip to the Marche, I was much less afraid of getting lost
(read: dying) and thus had more opportunity to look around at the stores and
people. 
That evening, Clement, Patrick,
Natasha, Nancy, Jean-Claude, and I attended a concert by the Symphonic
Orchestra of Cologne, Germany. It was a lovely performance including: Rosamund
Overature (Schubert), Violinkonzert B (Mozart), and Erste Sinfonic C
(Beethoven). As I expected, the audience was of incredibly short attention span
especially after intermission when everyone was talking and walking around
during the performance. Interestingly, the orchestra had selected a high number
of black performers (I had never seen a black violinist before). It was quite
an experience as it seemed so alien to have these sounds of Classical Europe
among the noise of Kinshasa. Also, it was a pleasure to speak with Natasha
again and there was match-making in progress between Natasha and Jean-Claude!
After the concert, we went to a small Congolese restaurant across the street
from the Legislative building. I listened to their French conversation as we
waited for the food. Natasha worked hard to keep me up with the conversation,
but it was a hopeless cause!
This morning
we were able to sleep in a bit, a recovery from our 4 days of travel. (Sleeping
in here is like sleeping through a construction zone…roosters crowing since
5am, workers talking outside my window from about 6am, and a cacophony of babies
wailing from the clinic.) Then we went to the supermarket and went to visit
Clement’s godfather. The works as an advisor to the Prime Minister and showed
us plans for utilizing waterways for food transportation, as well as, the
construction of railroads. The other element in the plan is pivot irrigation of
the plateau where Francoise’ farm is located. He also said they home to bring
the food production up to international standards of cleanliness and stop
importing food. I think the waterway transportation will be extremely useful
but I have many doubts about their plans for pivot irrigation use… I think they
might be able to raise food production standards in the next ten years but
storage is the main problem (after distribution) because there is not reliable
electricity. Despite my enormous sense of hopelessness at their food
distribution system, I find it amazing that this man can be so ambitious and
actually is working up plans to fix something that is broken in this country. 
For
dinner, we are going to Nancy’s house. I tried the poulet a la moambe (chicken
in peanut butter) which was great with cassava bread. After returning from
Nancy’s, I met another friend of Patrick’s, Jean-Pierre, who works for Shell
Oil and speaks English. He was very nice and adamant about me learning French.
Today was a day of celebration for Flory, not only for his 20th
birthday, but also receiving his marks from secondary school exams saying that
he passed! At the end of secondary school, students must take a national exam
before applying to university. He plans to study information/technology.
