In an attempt to learn more about Kinshasa and the people, I spent the day around town. I walked over seven miles and visited several shops (grociery, clothing, furniture, art, toys, etc). I was able to find many unique items along the way. The level of the European mark on the culture in Kinshasa was a surprise to me. Compared to my travel in India, European and westernized merchandise and stores rule the marketplace. There were a few stores with what outsi...

I went to a local arts market (souvenirs) with my driver. They had sever paintings, sculptures, jewelry, etc. I bought some items and gave the seller a US $20 bill as US currency is widely accepted in the DRC. I went on to the next stand and within a few minutes the seller came up to me. He said that there was a rip in the $20 bill and I would have to give him another since he would not be able to exchange it. The rip was only 1/8 of an inch so it seem...

Cost of language barriers... Even with the French I know, things are still lost in translation. I asked the hotel for a driver to see other parts of Kinshasa the other night. In speaking with the driver and the hotel clerk, I thought I was agreeing to $14 USD for an hour of driving around. When we got back it became evident that it was to be $40 instead. As they were trying to speak English to make it easy on me....14 and 40 do sound similar. :-)

Work is going well and the people are very nice. The HQ is right across from my hotel, but I work from their data center which is 5 - 10 minutes away. Kinshasa is the largest French speaking city in the world with estimates from 8 - 10 million people. The general public speaks little if any English. At work and the hotel it is a b...it better with maybe 15 - 20% speaking English. I am taking some computer based language training and need to try to use m...