Mbandaka, DRC

 City Tour

Equator

Market 

"Bushmeat" (aka monkey)

Hotel Accomadations 

It rained last night, and apparently the ceiling has a hole. The rain dripped through my ceiling on the center of my bed. I kept rolling closer to the wall to avoid the drips, but they kept following me. I realized that it wasn’t raining next to the headboard, so I laid parallel to the headboard with my legs hanging off the bed. I eventually fell back to sleep. I slept the remainder of the night in the same position. The rain eventually stopped, but in the morning, the middle of the bed was still soaked.

I also noticed the water in the hotel was slightly brown. Originally, I concluded it should be fine to bucket flush the toilet with, but not great for showers. However, subsequently, on the boat, the bucket showers water was even browner. It wasn’t an issue anymore. The alternative was not to take a bucket shower for 10 days. I used lots of soap.

The hotel only had 8 hours of electricity a day; 4 in the morning and 4 in the evening. The hotel also employed three armed guards standing patrol at night. Welcome to the DRC.

Sunday Mass

There weren’t any other activities planned, so I attended Sunday mass, mostly to listen to the choir sing. I expected a much larger church and church attendance. The church was fairly empty and the mass boring, but the choir was excellent.