Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Excursion out to the Kivus - Getting to Bukavu.

On Friday I went to Bukavu, with a colleague for work, Bukavu is a city in the east of the DRC on the border with Rwanda, set on Lake Kivu, about 2000kms from Kinshasa.

As one can imagine, the domestic airlines in the DRC leave much to be desired, in fact there is only one remaining commerical airline that is allowed to operate after several incidents with the other Congolese airlines, which if you imagine how bad safety standards would need to be to shut down an airline in the DRC, is pretty horrific.

As such, PwC only allow us to travel on UN flights (thankfully with a much better safety record). This means going to a separate UN terminal at the airport in Kin, made of stacked portacabins- such is the transient but permanent nature of the UN in Congo. You wait with a bunch of NGO and UN military until they call your name, whilst on the wall there is a large poster stating all the safety incidents they've recently had - not a great way to instill confidence on your soon to be passengers.

They weigh your bags and give you your boarding pass, which is a laminated piece of paper, you then have to pay the obligatory 'tax' which happens to change price each time you go before you sit on plastic chairs for hours on end while you wait for your flight.

The flight itself was without incident and surprisingly operated by a Mexican airline, it's not often you hear a heavy Mexican lilt in DRC, specially over a tannoy system. As we arrived a couple of hours later, I was struck by the mountainous region below me, a never ending strip of lush green jungle to one side meeting a deep blue lake on the other, it really reminded me of flying into Geneva, a sentiment that stuck throughout the trip. Bukavu the Geneva of Africa- who knew.

As you wait for your bags in the UN terminal in Bukavu, along with numerous posters about AIDS and variousUN programmes, there was a giant canvas, upon which there was a photo of 3 UN tanks rolling through a Congolese village with the giant strapline , 'Market Domination'. I'm not quite sure what market the UN tanks were trying to dominate in what seemed to be a small African village, but it was entertaining none the less, I hope it was something that got lost in translation.

Leaving the airport and looking around the lush green mountains that had seemed so small, had taken on huge proportions, rolling hills reaching higher and higher, each silhouetted by the following range. It was breathtakingly beautiful.

Our driver Charles came out to meet us and promptly carried my bosses bags, leaving me - the woman- struggling with my big back pack, UN worst country in the world to be a women - you forget how different attitudes are sometimes.

We started the hour journey from the airport to the town, which I spent just trying to take in the stunning scenery. After the denseness, chaos and man made city that is Kinshasa, to be surrounded by open space, soaring mountains and a view of the huge blue lake, much nicer than the chocolate river past the city.

The water, the green, the open space reminded me so much of home, which made me smile.

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