So most of you know about my hashing now but, a couple of weekends ago we had Kinshasas first fancy dress Halloween Hash. Yup, that's right a bunch of mundelli running around the suburbs of Kinshasa in costumes ranging from Fairies to Gadaffi. Too soon?
Along the lines of Gadaffi, I discovered that the only costume I could really do with the items I had available to me in Kinshasa, was Amy Winehouse: eye liner, hairspray, purple eyeshadow for bruises = job done. A good costume choice in that most of the locals just thought I looked a little 'tete en panne'(mental) rather than offenses or down right bizarre.
Unlike the other hashes I have done, this one was through Kinshasa itself, so as photographer with my rather nice SLR, I was assigned Gaddafi to run with me, to protect me from any Shegues (think more deprived hoodies) from trying to get their mitts on my camera. Gaddafi and Amy Winehouse, makes you think they might be meeting in the great beyond. Well, most of the locals actually though that our Gaddafi was really related to the original, something which he encouraged. The locals LOVED it, cheers of 'To Libya!', 'Running from the UN' and 'Which way to the desert?!' puncuted the run.
At one point we lost the trail and had to go back on ourselves to find the right path, not cool in the 34degree midday city heat. As we set off again, the usual scores of children decided to run with us, the outfits entertaining them even more than usual.We ran through the little venice of Kinshasa, well massive open drains and sewers, that kinda of looked like toxic green canals.
On the way round we were all sharing insights into this country we call home, and I told Gadafi about Hee-Haw (Foreigner) , before I knew it he had all the little kids running with us singing US Army styles running songs, with Hee-Hew, and the kids echoing his call. AMAZING. Then a guys started to run with us singing, Chinese, the kids replied Hee Haw, Francais, Hee Haw, Anglais, Hee Haw, Allemand, Hee Haw. It was hilarious.
Not your average sunday in Kinshasa.
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