By Woody Collins, Congo Helping Hands
Congo is a sick country – and THAT’S NOT REFERRING TO THE CURRENT EBOLA VIRUS DISEASE OUTBREAK. You know when you are sick, you don’t feel right. Whatever is sick can slow the slow the whole body down.
Sunday night, I arrived in Kinshasa and went to the Methodist Presbyterian Hotel. Afterwards, I made reservations and purchased my airline ticket for Kananga. The flight was scheduled for 8 AM Tuesday. Next, I contacted the transportation service for the pick up time to go to the airport. The pickup time was 5 AM. But Monday morning, the airline emailed me with a new scheduled departure time at 3 PM Tuesday afternoon. I contacted the transportation service with new departure time, and they rescheduled my pickup time to 10 AM. More travel time to the airport is needed during the day.
But the chauffeur arrived early, and we left at 9:30 AM. Thanks be to God, we arrived in less than two hours. We were scheduled to depart Kinshasa at 3:00 PM and arrive in Kananga at 5:30 PM. But we departed Kinshasa almost an hour late. Therefore, I lost the entire day to travel activities.
Both Kinshasa and Kananga appear to operating normally. In Kinshasa, I saw health officials check incoming passengers with their touchless thermometers. And in Kananga, health officials required me to rinse my hands (because there was no soap at the hand-washing station). I BROUGHT MY OWN TOUCHLESS THERMOMETER, HAND SANITIZER, AND SANITIZING WIPES.
FYI, the epicenter of the current Ebola Virus Outbreak is the Ituri Province. The air distance between Kananga, Kasaï-Central and Bunia, Ituri Province is approximately 745 miles (1,200 kilometers). The straight-line (aerial) distance from Kinshasa to Ituri province is approximately 1,213 air miles (1,953 kilometers). That’s another hemisphere by foot or vehicle.
