Back in Congo

Mbuela peacock

With a certain amount of excitement, including temporarily lost luggage, a missed connection, and a rerouting, I arrived in Congo a day later than planned. The bonus was seeing the Nairobi airport for the first time (very upscale impressive) and flying Kenya Airways (highly recommended). My Cairo traffic experiences definitely helped ease me into the trafic scene here. I have only gasped out loud maybe three times so far. and am not staring at my feet this time. Stro is amazingly calm and capable in what looks like a totally chaotic road scene. She calls her strategy "collaborative driving." This requires moving with other cars, whether it is across six lanes of traffic or turning into a roundabout.

Grounds outside our door. Mini golf and
outdoor seating, pool in background.

Aquatic plant in garden

In celebration of my return, we took a road trip mostly due south to Kisantu and spent the weekend at Mbuela Lodge (aka Mbuela Lodge Polo Club). The trip was about 57 km but took 2.5 hours, a lot of which was getting out of town through thickly populated and heavily trafficked market areas. This route was National Highway #1, which goes on to the big river port of Matadi (thus container trucks on this two-lane, no shoulder road). The reward was clean air, QUIET, and peacocks. We got upgraded to a two room suite because the AC in our cabin was not working. Mbuela sits on a plateau and there was a lovely breeze most of the time we were there.

The Lodge offers a number of family-oriented activities and there are horses available for riding. It is heavily used during the days by school, corporate, and government groups for retreats and trainings. When we arrived there was a group of primary schoolchildren and a group of older teens having lunch under the trees. The most reliable food on offer turned out to be fish brochettes and french fries, but we also tried their grilled goat (chewy) and fried bananas.

Muryayo flower, smells like jasmine

Cathedral Church of Kisantu,
built in 1920 of brick

The Lodge is a few miles out of Kisantu, a regional center that boasts the largest church in Congo as well as a splendid botannical garden. Jesuits showed up here in the late 19th C. and one of them was responsible for creating the garden with 100 hectares of land. It is now twice as big and serves as a horticultural retreat, education center, nursery, and a showcase of plants and trees native and not. For example, there is a desert garden full of cactus varieties. A small and very dusty museum displays woods and fibers used in every day life as well as items created from them, such as baskets, mats, rat-catchers. We enjoyed our tour guide, who is a local guy trained as a horticulturist and who has been working at the garden for nine years.

The church was built in 1920 and is indeed enormous. We attended mass, arriving only a little after it began. The mass was said in Kikongo with the enthusiastic support of the choir and drums. Not more than about a quarter of the church space was filled, but that was still quite a few. I noticed people dusted their seats before they sat down. Ours was the only car visible. Everyone else had likely walked or come by moto-taxi (motorcycle taxi), perhaps some distance. We noticed several other churches along the way as well and many people walking in their Sunday best. I marveled at the young girls who dressed in white clothes and wore white shoes. This is dusty red clay country.

Our return trip was relatively uneventful, with less traffic on a Monday morning than there might have been on a Sunday. We took a relaxing walk on the river loop and then settled in for a glorious sunset, enjoyed from the balcony, avec insect repellent. Life is good.