Congo Trip Day One: Landing in Kinshasa

We landed in the capital city of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kinshasa. What we witnessed upon leaving the airport cannot be romanticized. Traveling down red dirt roads in the pitch black of night, we saw poverty in motion. It was about 10 pm in Kinshasa on a Friday night. The streets were full of people – mostly teenagers and young adults – crowded into cars with, at times, three people to a single motorbike! Some, mostly women, were walking with unimaginably large loads atop their heads. A few of them had the extra weight of a small baby strapped to their back. Usually the babies were sleeping or lying on their mother’s backs, seemingly content, as red dirt swirled in the night air which smelled of vehicle exhaust. This is an urban compound. Very few intersections display traffic lights, and every housing location is suffocated by compound walls adorned with barbed wire hoops meant to keep out criminals. Kinshasa gives new meaning to “tin city” as the roofs on most structures, businesses, and houses are made of this resource. Almost every “commercial” wall in the city has a cell phone company’s advertisement plastered to it. No other viable businesses seem to require advertisement space.

This is our entry into the Democratic Republic of Congo. Having traveled here and witnessing the disparity first hand, the Covenant Kids Congo team has an even greater level of dedication and commitment to the people of Congo, so we might become kingdom builders in a world concerned for all its people. Please continue to pray for the time we spend in Kinshasa and up country in Gemena and Karawa this week, that it might be spent casting God’s vision for Congo and not our own.