Day 1 Mosquito bites and food!

So I woke up this morning with NO mozzie bites! Great success! This may not seem like a big deal, but I am one of those people who even if there is a mosquito 10 miles away will find me.  A great start.

 I was woken up by my neighbours alarm going off at 6.30am even though I didn’t have to get up till seven, which after a full day of travelling the day before was simply cruel. So I tuned my radio to BBC world service and jumped in the shower.

Breakfast is a simple affair, toast coffee and unidentified juice of the colour orange, but K (my friend who is also working out here) and I still have yet to pinpoint what fruit it actually is (and K has been here for 2 weeks already).  The lack of spreads for bread has made me incredibly happy that I brought marmite out with me, a bit of a cop out I know, but now my English desire for a food my dad calls, 3 week old gym socks, is paying dividends. 

Today was my first day in the office and it’s a lovely place, with a pool in the back with a swim up bar (without any booze –at least for now), so I am determined before I leave to get in the pool and sit at the bar end with a G&T. But as this is an open blog, I shan’t discuss work.

Skipping the morning’s work brings me back to my sister’s and my favourite topic- food.

So for lunch we went out to the Hellenic centre. It’s the little Greece of Kinshasa with  an orthodox church and as it turns out quite a popular place to have a buffet lunch.  It was fairly simple buffet, but the reason I bring it up as I had my first Congolose dish Poondu.  Now when you glance at poondu you think it looks like boiled spinach, but if you look a little closer the leaves are different and it then it starts to looks a little like a baby’s first poo. (Those of you who have seen one will know what I mean, the rest of you google it.) However, apart from looking not so appetising it actually tastes quite good, and this is coming from a girl who once spat her broccoli down the loo, because I hated greens so much.

Apart from the Poondu, the Hellenic centre also served traditional greek dishes such as.....Lasagne......yup don’t know where they wikipedia’ed that but hell it tasted pretty good so I’m not complaining.

BOLLOCKS! First bloody mosquito bite, am sat in the open air restaurant of the hotel writing this waiting for my dinner and damn it , the stupid thing got me, now I’m definitely going to get malaria...better have that G&T now.

Until something interesting happens.... A  plus!