Day 4- Ma philosophie - Karaoke in the Congo and Licence to drive

So today I applied for my Congolese drivers licence, apparently all you need to be a qualified driver here is $50, 2 passport photos and a copy of your passport- which completely explains the state of the roads here. As a previously mentioned it seems the rule of thumb is to go where ever you like, not to stop for pedestrians (Darwinian theory rules here) but the most bizarre thing of all?........The only rule that they seem to obey on the road is to give way on roundabouts,  even when you are actually on the roundabout. Bizarre.

Today one of the team invited us all out to Karaoke at the Grand Hotel in Kinshasa, the grand is one of the swankiest hotels in Kinshasa (by Congolese standards). Karaoke? In the Congo? Why the hell not. Well the poster said it started at 9 so we rocked up about 10.10pm to the hotel, where you walk upstairs to l’Atmosphere which is apparently one of the hottest clubs in Kin (or K town as I now it’s known as.)

Well, let me tell you. The room is about the size of a tennis court and is somehow a cross between a strip club and a cafe. As we walked in there were about 10 people in the room. 2 groups of 4 girls would I could only imagine are young ladies of the night dressed up in their tightest and brightest,  and one group of expat men.  School dance style sitting at other ends of the room. What was I expecting it’s the Congo!

So we picked ourselves out a table and sat down and flicked through the song book, which turned out to be mostly French songs about a thousand of them in fact. We ordered some drinks and chatted about song choices from the limited English songs until the karaoke began.  Well in some ways I wish it hadn’t, the ladies of the night may look good but man they cannot hold a tune, made worse by the calibre of the song choices. L’amour est violent, and a song that was particularly fast and horrific called Ma Philosophie  a rambling, me, me, me song that made you wonder which way to slit your wrists, even without the mini skirted screecher opening her mouth. 

However,  my colleague Eug got up next and wow! He floored us with a pitch perfect rendition of Frank Sinatra’s my way.  This put us all on a better note and as the first drink went down, it took the edge of the sharpness and we began to really enjoy ourselves. Until Ma Philosophie  came on for a second time! Out of almost 1000’s of songs 2 of the now 15 people in the room had chosen the worst song ever. At this point I was hoping it was some bizarre Congolese version of steps or something that was intended to be funny, ironic or the like, but this girl was really going for it. There was nothing for it but to laugh. There were several brilliant renditions including 2 girls in matching yellow outfits singing ma meillure ami, my best friend, but with such self confidence and authenticity you just had to love them.  Eug then entertained us with a lindy hopping version of jail house rock, followed by my slightly croaky but heartfelt cover of Whitney’s classic dance with somebody.

In our international group of Canadians, Romanian, British, Flemish, we all agreed French musique gets a thumbs down.

What was funny about the club was that every 20 minutes or so they would stop to put up adverts on the TV screens dotted around the room, so the room went silent before bombarding us with a least 3 repetitions of ‘buy johhnie walker -only $100! Or Come to the Kin Beach party at the Grand Hotel this Sunday. I get why they do it but it was very odd indeed.

The club was starting to pick up but by this point it was already almost 1am after the wait at the start and K and I were ready  to crash, so we all jumped in the car and went to bed. 

Karaoke in the Congo? Ma philosophie is it gets a thumps up, just for the experience, and pure entertainment value, both wonderful and terrifying!

For those who are curious- here is ma philosophie