Dispatches from the Congo – A Journey of Love (Part 12)
Day 11 Hey all- Today was a very easy day, so I’m making this short — I want to get some sleep!! Andrew got bitten by some bug in the middle of the night, and he woke up screaming and scratching at it at 4 in the morning. Needless to say, I’m a bit tired…. I went to the Embassy as planned today, and was told that my visa is “pending.” I don’t have the energy to describe the details, but the short story is that the Embassy screwed up again. They’re claiming to not have a document that…
Dispatches from the Congo – A Journey of Love (Part 10)
By Erin Pohland Hi, everyone!Today was a much better day. First, I’m not longer sick. Second, Andrew slept in until 7:30. And third, I spent exactly ZERO hours in a waiting room today. Shocking, I know. I was pretty upset yesterday. I’m not scared being here, or even worried — I’m just frustrated at the slow pace of bureaucracy and how things work in the Congo. I just don’t understand how it’s so hard for people to just do their jobs — especially the ones whose salaries are paid with my tax dollars (yes, I’m becoming THAT person. By the…
Dispatches from the Congo – A Journey of Love (Part 9)
By Erin Pohland Hello from Kinshasa, or should I say Hell’s Waiting Room…. Seriously, it seems like all I do here is wait. Wait at the hospital, wait for the power, wait for my laundry (it took 4 days for 2 baby blankets and a sleeper), and wait at the Embassy. Poor Andrew is going to think that his new life is a waiting room. He’s had a lot of firsts in waiting rooms!! Today should have been easy. I got a call around 8 am that the Embassy needed a copy of my passport. Why they needed it is…
Dispatches from the Congo – A Journey of Love (Part 8)
Bonjour from Kinshasa! Kinshasa used to be known as Kinshasa La Belle — Kinshasa the Beautiful. Now, it’s known as Kinshasa La Poubelle — Kinshasa the Garbage Can. It’s a very apt description. This city is wearing on me a bit. What was new and exciting for the first 5 days or so begins to get old after the first week. The power outages aren’t helping — the internet is my lifeline to the outside world! I think the hardest thing about this city is that I always feel dirty — like no matter how much I scrub, I’ll never…
Dispatches from the Congo – A Journey of Love (Part 7)
By Erin Pohland Good evening from Kinshasa! As I write, there is a dance party happening on the street in front of my hotel. Luckily, Andrew is a good sleeper — too bad his mama is not. Today was relatively uneventful, as far as things go. We had no appointments and nowhere to be. Instead, we spent the day with our new American friend “J”, that works at the UN. After getting up for breakfast, a bath and then a nap, J picked us up at the hotel. It was SO nice to be in the car with a non-native…
Dispatches from the Congo – A Journey of Love (Part 6)
Greetings from the DRC- Andrew and I had a rough day — harder on him, unfortunately. It started at 3 a.m. when he woke up screaming. He seemed freaked out by both me and his surroundings — like he didn’t get why he wasn’t in Goma and why I wasn’t his foster mom. I walked around with him for a while, and then genius struck — Cheerios! And because my kid is an addict, he immediately calmed down at the sight of his snack container. So that was that….until I tried to go back to sleep, and he began to…