Had to admit I was quite excited to take my very first humanitarian flight – waking up early in the morning, driving to the UN airport at Kavumu – seeing all of those “blue helmets” in a different setting that the MONUSCO “welfare” party – a scary place in which each Friday hundreds of men gather in their UN base to relax and have a beer. Well you might say there’s nothing wrong with that – and I would agree if I didn’t make part of the 1% of women present there. I let you imagine the scenario.
Back to the trip – there is little me among military men, mostly from Pakistan, some UN civilian staff and a couple of journalists – all men of course. Looking around I almost felt like in a 007 movie – military airplanes, men with guns everywhere – and even the Russian pilot! Felt like laughing but didn’t want to stand out as the “novice” – for all the others it all seemed so much like routine.
Landing in Lubumbashi, the capital of Katanga and the Congo’s second biggest city it felt like coming to a “real” city – a métropole comme il faut. When the driver came and picked me up with a regular car (not a fully equipped Land Rover with antennas and radios) I seemed like the said “oh, what I privilege – they even sent the Director’s car!” - The driver was staring at me, puzzled: “What do you mean the Director’s car?” – “Well, this is a “normal” car – how can you drive in it here? Roads must be awful” – he looked at me now wondering if I was crazy and asked “Where do you come from?” – “Me? Portugal, oh well here in the Congo, Bukavu” – “Ahhhhh” was his answer.
Lubumbashi is indeed a real city – the roads are for the most perfectly paved, they even have street lamps and those reflecting traffic lights in the middle of the street. The Governor Moise Katumbi seems to be doing a good job – or is it easy to make a good impression in Katanga with the abundance of mines? Even if you pocket 80% of it, the 20% left still make an impact. Well, to say at least he invested some – how much, we will never know – in the development of the infrastructure of the city. That is something that I have learnt to relish in the Congo: investment and planning ahead.
It struck me how every day – several times a day - I saw dozens of trucks passing my filled with minerals: copper, gold and who knows what else. You can smell the money in that city – indeed in my first night there I was invited to an equestrian event – with all the jet-set and VIPs I couldn’t believe I was in Africa – so many white people, and extremely wealthy ones. There even was a 20min firework show – filling the dark night with colorful shades and shapes. It is true that in Lubumbashi, due to the mining influence, the old Belgian “colons” stuck around quite a bit more than in the Kivus – a war-torn zone. You have several places where the influence is quite obvious like “Le petit bruxelles” or “le cercle wallon” – where you see Belgians playing tennis in the late afternoon.. Weird when you just received a message from your “base” saying that the Burundian rebels are again attacking civilians – 12 kidnapped, 8 killed - in the haut plateaux of Uvira and that 3 of your NGO cars are blocked there.
The dépaysement culminated when I went clubbing to “Next to the Moon” which in cultural terms is indeed closer to the moon than to the Congo – at least the Congo I knew until then (haven’t been to Kinshasa yet). How is “Next to the Moon”? A regular electronic music club, as you could find anywhere in Europe – no prostitutes, no sleazy men staring, just young people dancing - I actually enjoyed the fact of not being stared at but have to confess that I regretted the lack of n’dombolo or coupé-décalé. Dancing to those rhythms is a whole different dancing experience – every inch of your body is moving with the sound of the drums or the Lingala of the singer (language of western Congo).
It felt like being in another country – even the people look different – and sound different with a harsher Swahili. But I had to confess that after 2 weeks I was craving the Bukavu road holes and the sound of the radio in the Land Rover: “Zulu Romeo Base? Ici mobile 137 avec 12.1”.
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