After nine weeks of traveling, we arrived at one of the largest countries of Africa, but also one of the most dangerous countries namely Congo. Fortunately, since 2012, peace has more or less returned to the country. But our jeep was frequently stopped by police and checked for weapons.

Despite that, the local Congolese population was very happy with us as Belgian tourists. Congo is a formerly colony of Belgium and they still cherish that time because of the improved road network, nutrition, education and better medical care.

There was certainly no shortage of attractions in Congo. The first thing we visited in Congo was the mighty Congo River. It forms the border between Congo Kinshasa and Congo Brazzaville. In some places the river seems very quiet but that is not true, there unpredictable whirlpools are everywhere. Especially I had a lot of fear as the boat was old and looked unstable. We sat with many people on the side of the boat. We were very lucky that our boat did not overturn because in some places we were a few kilometers away from the river bank. We came back to the mainland after a few hours.

After a long jeep trip on a bumpy road we arrived at the waterfalls in Zongo. These waterfalls are 70 meters high and are surrounded by green. We arrived through a path at the bottom of the waterfall. Fortunately we had a raincoat on because we felt the water falling on the rocks that is coming from the waterfall. Later that day we visited the mangrove forests. The mangrove forests forms the border between water and land. During low tide we saw during the roots of the trees. Mangrove Forests protect the coast against the force of tidal waves.

We also visited the National Park Solanga by boat. This park is the largest nature reserve in the African rainforest and the second largest rainforest in the world. We walked through small streams and branches to come out in one of the many open spaces. Our guide told us we had to be very quiet so we would not disturb the bonobos. During our walk we encountered peacocks and crocodiles. An inhabitant was so happy to see us that we continued our trip on an elephant. Despite the fact that the park is listed on the list of endangered world state we saw evidence of poachers and plunderers.

The last day of our holiday we went to the port town of Matadi where we met with the local fishermen. They told us that fishing and the growing of crops are important sources of income. The Congo River is obviously very important for the freight to and from Congo.

Sarah Van Der Stock

Sources:

http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matadi

07-05-2012 om 18:14 geschreven door BusinessEnglish1B  

Week 10: the Democratic Republic of the Congo

The 10^th week, we arrived in The Democratic Republic of the Congo. It’s the second biggest country of the African continent, and it’s right in the middle of the continent. It’s the most populous officialy Francophone country, and people speak French because of Congo was the Belgian colony from 1908 until 1960. Before that, it was a free state. Colonists brutalized the local population to produce rubber, used for making rubber tires in a growing international market. The sale of rubber made a fortune to our king Leopold,  who built several buildings in Brussels and Ostend to honor himself and his country. During this period, which was around 1900, millions of Congolese died as a consequence of exploitation. It’s the reason why we didn’t say a lot we where Belgian people. Some people there know their history, and they’re not grateful to what our ancestors did with them.  The last day we were in the country, we saw in an old museum an old banknote of Zaire.  Mobutu renamed the country the Republic of Zaire, which was Congo’s 4^th name change in 11 years.  We also visited Kinshasa, which is the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  It’s also the biggest city, and it’s located on the Congo River.  Kinshasa had the earliest documented HIV-1 infection, which dates from 1959.  In 2004, Kinshasa was rated as one of Africa’s most dangerous cities in terms of crime. We knew this before we arrived, so we hired two people who were always around. They protected us, if necessary, and they told us what areas we better didn’t enter.  All of us didn’t like this city very much, because we didn’t feel very safe. Luckily, we didn’t stay in Kinshasa for the whole week, so we still had time to enjoy the rest of the Congo without the bodyguards.  After seven days, we packed our bags once again, and went on to the next country.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201112011189.html

Thomas Decleer

07-05-2012 om 01:12 geschreven door BusinessEnglish1B