Congo Trip Part 1 (Written on Wednesday)

We left our city just after 6pm Monday evening to embark on the 4 hour trip to Mumbai airport. Praise God, there wasn’t any major traffic along that highway which is known for them at night. It was a good thing we got there early, because checking our bags and going through immigration was not a quick process. We were fortunate enough to ignorantly get into the Business Class/Diplomatic section of immigration which sped the process up by a whole 2 minutes and put us in line with a big Bollywood celebrity, Anil Kapoor (Who wants to be a Millionaire? guy from Slum Dog Millionaire). I think of everyone there, I was the most unashamedly star struck! I fought back wanting to ask all the posh people around me “do you know who that is?” You would think that would have clued us in that we were in the wrong line, but no, it didn’t. Maybe it’s the American in me that thinks I belong everywhere.  It also explains why the immigration official gave me several dirty looks, which I thought were totally undeserved, until he gave Kit a few rude remarks as well. If any of you have traveled in India (Delhi doesn’t count), you’ll understand why it’s hilarious that any official would think it is obvious which ‘line’ we should get into. No signs, no lines--unless you count slowly pushing and shoving your way to the front a ‘line’.  Just utter chaos and masses of people. Ah…I digress…

 

We had a great trip from Mumbai to Nairobi and then Nairobi to Kinshasa. It’s amazing how easy traveling seems when your kiddos aren’t with you. We would have had a totally different experience if the whole Klein crew came. It was tough to leave them for so long, but we’re grateful for the time we are having with each other and that we’ll have with our soon-to-be newest Klein crew members. Just from the airport, Kenya looks beautiful!! We would love to come back for a real visit sometime. Clear beautiful skies, dew on the fresh morning grass, cool air…it reminded me of a spring morning in central Texas (where I grew up).

 

The flight to Kinshasa was only 3 hours and we napped and got our second breakfast on. The Congo is huge geographically and Kinshasa is on the far west side, bordering Rep. of Congo and Anogola.  It’s not far from the Atlantic Ocean. In this part of the Congo, it’s like rolling grasslands (with palm trees scattered) with the great Congo River snaking along the border. It’s beautiful!! And I’m sure the rainforest areas are even more amazing. I was pretty nervous about the airport experience in Kinshasa from what I’ve read. But really, it was fine. It was a lot like Indian airports, but with lines J I know leaving is a bit more complicated but we’ll be hiring a protocol to help us through that process. We had some miscommunication with our agency, so no one was there to pick us up. But it ended up being totally fine. We didn’t panic, we had an address for where we were going and bought a local SIM card at the airport. All we had to navigate was bartering with a taxi to take us where we needed to go for a reasonable amount of money. Thankfully we are used to negotiating (albeit not in French as we know nothing!) and a really sweet man agreed to take us for $30 rather than the $100 the first guy was shooting for (and holding our luggage ransom in his truck in the meantime).

 

There is not any public transit in The Congo, and even the taxis are basically individual guys with run down cars and a plastic taxi sign they put up and take down before they drive. It’s hard to describe what it’s like here. Driving from the airport to downtown reminded us of Bolivia. It’s very underdeveloped. (Comparable to smaller cities in India). The number one transportation are your two feet, so people seem to be everywhere. Men, pushing and pulling heavy loads, women carrying impressive loads on their head. The people are all dressed nicely, are lively, and very friendly. Ironically that has been the biggest culture shock we’ve had, coming from India. Everyone greets you, even in passing on the street, with a “Bonjour!” Living conditions seem very modest. There is hardly a middle class to speak of here. And it seems that the people are not only subject to poor wages but insanely inflated prices. I would love for an economist to explain to me the dichotomy here. DRC is the richest country in the world in terms of natural resources. But by living standards and GDP, it is one of the poorest. We are staying at a Catholic Mission in the downtown, right across the street from the US Embassy. There is a super market just around the corner as well, where we can get anything we would want or need (kind of a Walmart-type store but a little fancier). But it’s only where tourists/diplomats/foreigners shop. A bag of chips is $7. A box of granola bars is $12. And on it goes…I should have brought more snacks with us. Lesson learned for next time. Even the local produce is high compared to India, but we managed to buy some bananas, bread, and massive avocados for reasonable prices. Our translator said that even eating out local style is too expensive for most people. Even the meals at the mission are $15 per adult. So, we’re getting creative and enjoying lots of PB&J’s and avocado sandwiches (which are a huge treat for us!).

 

The whole reason for coming is to meet our kiddos. Unfortunately, today was a holiday so it wasn’t possible to travel out to the orphanage. It’s a 1.5 hour trip each way. So after our 13 hour sleep last night, we ventured off to walk around downtown this morning. It’s not safe or culturally appropriate to take pictures here. But we’ll be able to at the orphanage tomorrow. We can’t wait to meet them! We’ve been trying to just relax and enjoy some R&R today. We’ve enjoyed getting to know two other families who are here picking up their kids. They’ve been a wealth of information for us. We were also able to meet the social worker who brought our children into the orphanage and that was pretty awesome! He’s a great guy and gave us a lot more info about our kids, their background, and their personalities. It was pretty priceless. We’re praying our kiddos will understand that we love them and that we are coming back for them. Parents usually come only to pick up their kids and it could be 6-12 months before we are able to come back and bring them home for good. So please pray with us for understanding for our kids and for a speedier process than is currently projected. We get to go meet them tomorrow!!! It’s the best early Mother’s Day gift ever!