Spicing Up the Dusty Life

Across this mega-country, between Goma and Kinshasa, and the craziest 10 days at work so far, a couple of random episodes certainly stand out.

THE PARTY. Goma is famous for its party scene, especially in the summer, when all the cool Congolese and metisses descend upon town from whatever fancy places around the world they live in. This August would be no exception, and last couple of weeks’ buzz was all about this legendary annual party, ‘which you MUST go to’, if only just to see the place. From the outside, of course, it was no more than a horrible gate, wrapped in barbed wire, on the most unassuming, lava damaged street I had ever been on, but once we penetrated the walls the stylish mystique began to unveil. First, we had to drive for a few minutes through this mesmerizing park (the classic park idea, which in Africa is not really translated into practice anywhere), and then start on foot on a long row of steps down towards the lawn and the water. WHAT A PLACE! It is sooo hard to reconcile a property like this with the derelict plage du people, which is just down the lake, and where poverty and filth are thriving. Here, we were all of a sudden thrown into the Hamptons-like water front, with a cozy pool, a dance floor, a huge lawn, and, of course, a very rocky, inviting beach on Lake Kivu (the largest I had seen on either this or the Rwandan side). With the barbeque and open bar in full swing until dawn, and some of the most beautiful people I have ever hung out with, it was certainly the night to remember…

However, as much as the place was fabulous, to me the story behind it was even more captivating. The Belgian owners - apparently the most successful businesspeople in town – had bought this place for almost nothing from the family of another Belgian owner – who was so extravagant, that he was flying his private jet drunk all over East Congo, until he managed to crash into the lake never to be found again. In more recent times – i.e. this year – the property has, however, changed hands again, as apparently the president’s wife spotted it while on a trip to Goma and decided it would be hers for the modest price tag of $5 million. I am certainly curious now what the next party there will look like (assuming I will be THAT important to ever be invited back :D)

THE MOVIE. One of the things you have to forego when you come to this part of the world is going to the movies. Surely, movie evenings are organized on a regular basis, on cool screens in nice gardens, but the whole movie theater experience as we know it from back home is not a given here. That is why I was totally taken with the suggestion of a new friend I made in Kinshasa to go to the movies on Sunday at 3 p.m. When she only picked me up at 3.15 I was wondering what had gone wrong, but then she explained there was a twist (or rather several twists) to this ‘2nd floor underground’ theater as well: advertised only online, so that they would not pay taxes, it would basically suggest a time and a movie, but then be open to any kinds of changes desired by the audience. Since the two of us and another two friends WERE the audience, we had no trouble showing up almost at 4 p.m., buy the $10 a piece ticket, and then be served Arthur in French – which none of us found amusing in the slightest… When we inquired what else would be available – well, they pretty much had every movie on the planet, all dubbed in French, so we had to make do with the only choice in English – The Adjustment Bureau. Cool Matt Damon provided our entertainment for the hot afternoon,in what would be THE movie memory of DRC in 2011.

We then chilled on another amazing property, watching the sunset by a fabulous pool, over expensive G&Ts and even more expensive croquettes, constantly warming up for the Real-Barca game late evening (which we watched in a hip restaurant, while trying out ‘Antelope a la Portuguese’?!). If only Kinshasa were not as dusty and just exhausting altogether this could certainly have been a slice of life in any big city I have ever visited before.