What’s the best way to create a traffic jam? Why, have
roadworks, of course.
And that is just what Kinshasa is doing. The road to the
airport – a 20 kilometre journey long considered unpredictable – is now far
worse. When we first came to Kinshasa the road, one of only two routes out of
Kinshasa, was a humble narrow tarred road, always congested and very slow. Then
the Chinese started to build the new road, an eight lane dual carriageway. The
pain and suffering the roadworks caused was unspeakable. A friend of ours lost
her flight in spite of leaving four hours before departure. When the work was
finished people still suggested a minimum of two hours although one could
usually reach the airport within an hour. But there were moments of complete
standstills when vehicles would barge in from side roads and cause a complete
gridlock.
So, now they are building flyovers at all the major
junctions and the middle of the road is occupied by massive hoardings hiding the
construction. We are back to two lanes each way. Traffic flow is back where it
was. It took a friend four hours to cover the 20km on a Sunday afternoon.
Brussels Airlines are recommending their passengers leave at 4 p.m. for their
flight at 9.
So where do the sheep come in? The French for flyover is
saut de mouton – sheep jump; and while we are at it, the French for pothole is
nid de poule – hen’s nest. Cute, isn’t it?
Meanwhile, we’ve just witnessed one of the most expensive
weddings ever in this town. It involved taking over the whole of the swimming
pool area of the top hotel for a week, covering the pool, building a huge lighting and
sound rig over the pool, flying in a chef from the US to cater for the more
than 1000 guests, and taking over 70 rooms in the hotel with the proviso that
all mattresses and sheets had to be 100% new. To do this, 12 shipping
containers had to be flown in from South Africa together with a rigging crew of
about 15 people.
The table dressing and stage set were designed to impress as nothing had ever done before. The photos that we took the next day obviously don't do justice to the scene. The floor over the pool had already been removed, and the table decorations had been shuffled around so it's looking a bit forlorn. But you can marvel at the huge
flower-draped fake chandelier-type lighting fittings on the tables as well as the benevolent giraffes overlooking the dance floor.
