Days 11 and 12- Rumble in the Jungle, Ibiza and being a VIP

When I started this blog I said I couldn’t promise it would be entertaining, witty or even up to date, and now I’ve missed a couple of days oops. At least I’m honest.

Gosh, it’s quite tough remembering what happened 2 days ago, as time passes so quickly here something to do with the physically shorter days- sunset at 6.00pm is hard to get used to, and the fact that things take longer to get done results in days flying past.

2^nd of September. That was a Thursday. What on earth did I do on Thursday? Hmm. Obviously nothing exciting. On to day 12.

Day 12.

So Friday evening one my colleagues asked if I wanted to go to a boxing match. Oh now I remember what I did on Thursday!

I went to the British Embassy’s quiz night and got thoroughly beaten. At least we didn’t come last( we came second to last). Suppose that’s what you get when you turn up late and only have 3 people on your team instead of the 7 the others did. Heyho.

Back to the boxing match, I’ve never watched a boxing match in my life, but as Kinshasa is famous for ‘the rumble in the jungle’ I thought I should educate myself and go. So went with 2 of the people from work, to the Surf Club for the match.  What I didn’t know was this was a big deal boxing match- being televised across DRC. We bought $20 tickets and ended up in the VIP section, ringed in sat at table with waitress service, in a sports centre that had been done up for the occasion.

The cheap seats at the top however was where all the action was going down even before the match. Now anyone who has been to Congo will know that these guys are like Italians when they talk, loud, passionate and with lots of gesturing, and man were they all excited and psyched up for the matches, singing songs about their boxers, trying to get under the skins of the oppositions fans, some fisticuffs ensued, but nothing major.

What I don’t understand was how lively and excited they were, when there was so much weed being smoked, it seemed the whole of the sports centre was being ‘hot boxed’ , so much so that I’m surprised that the crowds weren’t giggling and trying to locate the nearest food source, rather than getting hyped up and excited about the match.

The boxing itself was really good, and I started to understand why it is considered a sport, rather than just an excuse to be violent, so definitely an eye opener for me, and something I rather enjoyed watching, even though I did lose 1000 Congolese francs to my colleague in a bet, although I maintain that I should have won.

Ok so it was only a 60p bet but her contender had to be carried out of the ring! My guy was disqualified for hitting below the belt, but my guy was 2 foot shorter and was just punching at waist height for him, and was winning anyway. I maintain it was a technical knockout. (See I learnt something!)  He might have been almost officially a midget but man could this guy fight.

After this we went to a bar in Kinshasa called Ibiza bar. Far from being full of techno and house ravers, they have a live band that play a mix of samba, Congolese and salsa music, apparently the bar hasn’t changed in a decade and it seems like the whole expat population is in there on a Friday night. And at $15 a gin and tonic they sure must do well out of it, don’t fix it if it ain’t broke.

We danced until 2am, inbetween people watching at the bar, (Val you would love this place people watching, the numerous characters around the place are hysterical to observe. )

From here everyone jumps in their cars and drives over to a bar called VIP. A bizarre place full of the local Lebanese and Bengali who run the town, pretty much any place you want to go it be it ice cream, patisserie, super markets are all run by these guys.Which leads to an interesting musical repertoire but it’s also one of the only places I’ve been that plays up to date western music, well suited to my penchant for dancing :)

You can spot all the Lebanese guys a mile off, with their uniform of white shirts, jeans and white shoes. It's quite hilarious.

VIP reminded of fusion for a a number of reasons.

1. The decor
2. Cheesy music
3. The sheer number of 16 year olds in the place, swigging smiroff. (it's not often I feel old in a club!)

By 3am it was bed time and we all jumped in the car and heading home, with ringing ears, and ready to crash.