Democratic Republic of Congo: Day 2
As usual, reality is much calmer than my imagination. The airport was messy but not at all threatening. Our driver to the hotel was friendly. The hotel is peaceful. I’m managed to get sunburned already, having spent the morning at the pool with a colleague and his beautiful kids, forgetting that an overcast sky doesn’t mean you can’t burn, especially when you’re at the equator and your skin still thinks it’s in London.
To me, the scale of this country is pretty overwhelming. Most of our work is in the east of the country, near the border with Uganda and Rwanda, around 2,000 km away from Kinshasa. It’s been estimated that 5.4 million people have been killed in the last 10 years or so. It’s possible that MONUC will be leaving soon. Ban Ki Moon was here a few weeks ago. The UK government has committed to £30 million on mine-related activities. But there’s only been 34 news articles on DRC this year. How is that even possible?
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