Stro took this week off and we started with a full regime on Sunday (no surprises). First, an early morning walk on the river loop. Then a latte and croissant at a new-to-Stro place. First time for a croissant with za'atar, which as a person who favors the savory, I liked a lot. Then a trip to a place I have been hearing about for a long time, Les Pieds dans L'eau.
Located about a hour (with no traffic) out of town in the direction of the airport, LPDL is the creation of a couple who have Belgian connections and live here. They basically created a dammed up spot in the Nsele River (but not far from the Congo River) and lined it with white sand and sandbags (and a few tires). The area surrounding this waist-high water is shaded by a variety of trees and it is indeed possible to sit at the edge and put your feet in the water as well as to get all the way in and float around on inner tubes, both of which I enjoyed.
On Sundays the $25 admission includes a sumptuous buffet with green salads vinaigrette, very good potato salad and a host of Congolese favorites, such as rice, chikwanga (manioc), saka-saka and poulet a la moamba. They also grilled a lot of meat and chicken (what I call Congolese fast food). All the usual accompaniments were there, including and especially pili-pili or "pima." Accompanied by Tembo beer it was the perfect Sunday. Until the storm came.
With advancing dark skies, thunder, and lightning we decided we had enjoyed LPDL fully and would drive the sand track back out to the main road before it became impassable. Going home took an hour and a half that seemed like 3. We were driving into a sure-enough thunder boomer with sheets of rain sweeping the road and people crowded together under any available roofing material. What had been vibrant markets on the way out were now vacant. Cars traveled with their double blinkers and relatively slowly. The wipers were going as fast as they could and at times were ineffectual. The storm also brought strong winds and we got giggly remembering a time in Florida when we were in a hurricane and did not know it (Stro was about 7). Every pothole threatened the car's alignment if not the axle. In case you might be wondering why we did not pull off the road and wait it out, I just have to say that option would never occur to offspring of Bill Reinka. Stro did an amazing job of driving, which included maneuvering through a broken road after making a wrong turn--think washed out roads in Vermont. Thank goodness for four-wheel drive and then my GPS for getting us heading back in the right direction. The white RAV-4, known as Violet, performed well.
We arrived back home in time to get cleaned up to meet Vanessa at Kinshasa's new movie theater, called CineKin. The English version (with French subtitles) of Hidden Figures was showing at 5:15 to a pretty good sized crowd of mostly Americans and other ex-pats. The audience applauded the movie at the end. We headed out to the best pizza in town at O Poeta.
Located about a hour (with no traffic) out of town in the direction of the airport, LPDL is the creation of a couple who have Belgian connections and live here. They basically created a dammed up spot in the Nsele River (but not far from the Congo River) and lined it with white sand and sandbags (and a few tires). The area surrounding this waist-high water is shaded by a variety of trees and it is indeed possible to sit at the edge and put your feet in the water as well as to get all the way in and float around on inner tubes, both of which I enjoyed.
On Sundays the $25 admission includes a sumptuous buffet with green salads vinaigrette, very good potato salad and a host of Congolese favorites, such as rice, chikwanga (manioc), saka-saka and poulet a la moamba. They also grilled a lot of meat and chicken (what I call Congolese fast food). All the usual accompaniments were there, including and especially pili-pili or "pima." Accompanied by Tembo beer it was the perfect Sunday. Until the storm came.With advancing dark skies, thunder, and lightning we decided we had enjoyed LPDL fully and would drive the sand track back out to the main road before it became impassable. Going home took an hour and a half that seemed like 3. We were driving into a sure-enough thunder boomer with sheets of rain sweeping the road and people crowded together under any available roofing material. What had been vibrant markets on the way out were now vacant. Cars traveled with their double blinkers and relatively slowly. The wipers were going as fast as they could and at times were ineffectual. The storm also brought strong winds and we got giggly remembering a time in Florida when we were in a hurricane and did not know it (Stro was about 7). Every pothole threatened the car's alignment if not the axle. In case you might be wondering why we did not pull off the road and wait it out, I just have to say that option would never occur to offspring of Bill Reinka. Stro did an amazing job of driving, which included maneuvering through a broken road after making a wrong turn--think washed out roads in Vermont. Thank goodness for four-wheel drive and then my GPS for getting us heading back in the right direction. The white RAV-4, known as Violet, performed well.
We arrived back home in time to get cleaned up to meet Vanessa at Kinshasa's new movie theater, called CineKin. The English version (with French subtitles) of Hidden Figures was showing at 5:15 to a pretty good sized crowd of mostly Americans and other ex-pats. The audience applauded the movie at the end. We headed out to the best pizza in town at O Poeta.
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