A colleague came to Kinshasa for a couple of weeks in December and was very excited to have scheduled a trip to the field. She did not know the mess that was waiting for her at N'djili airport.
After all the fighting to get to the counter, the prodding of bags, the checking of luggage, the physical act of pushing the porters away, the bribes paid and the tickets confiscated, she could only blow out a sigh of relief in the airplane and said "I feel like I've just passed through a birth canal"--and our protocol guy was taking care of all those things for us!
I'm curious to know how she would define our return trip home... in a very shoddy airplane.
3 comments:
Reminds me of a colleague of my mum's from HQ who was "looking forward to a hot bath".... in little village Gorom Gorom in Sahelian and Draught Ridden Burkina Faso!!!!
Just a redefinition of cultural schock I guess!
At least nobody whacked her on the ass when she left the terminal; or did you leave out part of the story.
I've been gone for a while, but now I remember why I used to love this blog. Thank you, I will try and check back more often. How frequently do you update your website?
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