Hey Guys,

hello from the Democratic Republic of Congo. I’ve already written this twice with no success of it actually posting so i’ll try to make it quick.

I arrived in the DRC after many days of travel. I ended up on one of the craziest flights of my entire life from Paris to Kinshasa, Congo. Two hand cuffed woman were being deported back to their country by 6 French police aboard our Air France flight. They didn’t stop screaming when they were placed in seat belts in the back row. This threw the cabin into an uproar as the journalists were yelling at the congolese and vise versa.  At one point a congolese man took a charge at the screaming woman and the police had to hold him back as people yelled. It felt like a Riot on the plane. And of course I was secretly filming as this all took place. It was at that point they called in the federal french police to calm the situation. They boarded our plane and commanded that each person sit in their seats so we could take off. An hour later, we finally went into the air. My mind began to question as to where I was really going.

Arriving into Kinshasa airport was interesting. I have never before been to such a place of corrupt chaos. They demanded money for everything single things they possibly could. When I handed her my Visa at the customs booth she looked it over and was about to call somebody over when I presented my letter of invitation from the government she then proceeded to say ” Go ahead “, in french or at least that is what I thought she said. The next stop was doctors who scan over all your immunizations to make sure you can enter their country. I had a pretty big list of hefty shots i had to take in the past months just for this trip.   I was then greeted by one of our contacts who would escort me through customs. I entered into one of the most undescribable places i’ve ever been.

I talked to a woman this morning by the name of Mrs. Briget. She is here in Kinshasa and traveled all the way from East Congo to get her 24 year old daughter medical help. They have no idea what sickness she has, but are desperate for help. Her name is Jermani. I will have more of her story in the coming days.

Today we are venturing into the medical clinics on the outskirts of the city. I am going to be careful as to where I bring my camera out. This is a place where nobody wants to be seen or heard.

-Esther

This entry was posted on Friday, January 11th, 2008 at 1:23 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.