Kinshasa's jumping sheep

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.