Tidbits About The DRC

1) Cuss words are bleeped from the TV here.

2) The word GOD is bleeped as well.

3) I get 5 English Channels — BBC World News, ESPN, MNET 1 and 2, and Sometimes Discovery Channel.

4) My TV comes through DSTV — Known Here As Dry Season TV.

5) I usually have pizza 4 times a week simply because I know what it will taste (and look) like. And it comes with exactly 4 green olives on it — with pits. It costs $23.

6) There’s a swimming pool at my hotel that I’ve never swam it, and it closes at 6:00pm everyday.

7) I have a shower that leaks water all over the bathroom.

8 ) Drivers here often take up 2 lanes of a single land road. How they do it is still a mistery to me. 8)

9) Police sometimes watch the intersections here directing traffic, but to block traffic the stand with their bodies against the traffic that’s okay to go through the intersection.

10) Police and guards here carry rifles, and they travel in packs.

11) The dry season is here, but its been more cloudy now than during the rainy season. And the temperature is lower as well.

12) I get charged a Foreign Fee everytime I use my Debit Card (Visa or Mastercard), whether its taking money out of one of the 2 ATMs, or being used at a grocery store or a hotel. It’s about 2%. That sucks!!!

13) Night here come at around 6:00pm and sunrise is at around 5:30am.

14) I have better internet connection spped in my hotel room than I do at the United Nations compound. The UN is like a slow dialup, the hotel is like a slow DSL line.

15) In general, everyone says that the situation hasn’t changed much here for the better since 2005.

16) They import almost all food staples from someplace else outside of the DRC.

17) There are only 3 operating trains within the DRC, so I was told by a General Electric contractor.

18 ) It’s time I went to bed:)

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