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.
After this many days in DRC, I
have decided that a lifestyles change in regards to time is necessary to
survival. There is no possible ways to make things run efficiently or smoothly,
thus I must let go of my drive to accomplish everything and learn to “go with
the flow”. I am not good at this at all, but it is an important lesson realize
as I will be moving to Tegucigalpa, Honduras. We walked around Clement’s
neighborhood one last time so I could take pictures. Her residence has a
friendly feel and I was very at ease as I wandered amongst the houses and
little pedestrian traffic.
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!
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