A year in DRC

HI Julien and all in expat- blog,

Thanks for inviting me to tell my story.

In September 2012 I moved to Kinshasa and lived there for 1 year in Kinkole which is a fishing village out past the airport . Living outside of the usual expat area have me an insight into the everyday lives of Congolese families. I was also farming which brought me in contact with villagers in rural parts as I worked alongside them and ate with them in villages around where we were farming. Money was tight for the first few months as I was waiting for it to be transferred from a fund, so I was very restricted with transport. That year was a learning experience for me as I faced many obstacles and difficulty adjusting to the culture shock. It is much easier but much more expensive to live in the centre of Kinshasa. One major handicap was that I did not learn French so I depended a lot on others to interpret which was frustrating.

My wife being born and raised in Kinshasa settled into the community with ease and was held in high regard by the community as she had a lot to offer the community using skills and knowledge she had acquired in Europe. She also helped out financially when she could and created opportunities for some locals to earn income. Our kids also settled in with ease despite the attention they attracted from the locals.

In September 2013 I returned to Ireland as my visa expired and I could not renew it in the country. I also needed to retreat from Congo for a time for personal and financial reasons. I am currently working with a telecoms contractor but have begun to focus again on my vision for Congo which involves social enterprises. We have a charity registered in Kinshasa but had to put this on the shelf for a while. In 2012 we set up 15 women in micro- enterprises but did not have our charity registered until after I returned to Ireland in September this year. I am starting this project again on a small scale with our manager in Kinshasa. I have also been networking with business owners here including travel companies and he to arrange the first ever group tour to Kinshasa from Ireland. This would include business travellers who wish to explore the opportunities in DRC . During my year in Kinshasa I have made excellent business contacts and studied the opportunities there for social enterprise, as  I am more of a social entrepreneur. My vision is to help people help themselves through enterprise. Social tourism is part of my vision as tourists create opportunities for poorer communities if done in way which involves them. I have some ideas for this from my experiences of living among the poorer communities.
Whenever I mention Congo to someone here it brings up images of war in their minds. This is because of media reports which do not tell the full story. Conflict in DRC is mainly in the East. As many expats know, the cities and towns are not any more dangerous than Western cities. There is corruption but we have this everywhere except it may be in a different form. The way I see it now is the corruption in developing countries is cheaper than the various taxes we pay in the west.
There was a time when people were afraid to come to Ireland because of the conflict in the North. But Southern Ireland was not affected much by the troubles up there, and we are a small country so try to imagine the distance between Kinshasa and the conflict zone in the East of this vast country of DRC. I did not witness any violence in my year there.

In 2011 I visited north Kivu to see the mountain gorillas and the active volcano in Virunga. This was an amazing experience but unfortunately the park closed in 2012 due to the conflict in that area. This was to be the main attraction in my tour itinerary for DRC but during my year living in Kinshasa I discovered other ways for tourists to experience  Congo in its natural state untouched by mainstream tourism which would benefit the poorer communities more.
The government are also doing their part to improve Kinshasa at least. There are new roads, bridges, hotels, supermarkets and restaurants. They even introduced a new tv channel in English before I left. This was to encourage the population to learn English. A new fleet of city buses was introduced with limits for the amount of passengers although the conductors had a job to enforce this. A law was passed banning the import of vehicles older than 10 years which will help reduce pollution and accidents on the roads. There are other developments such as a growing middle class which is evident by the building boom in the suburbs and new supermarkets opening outside of the city centre. Technology has contributed to the develment of the economy as even the poorest of the poor have mobile phones thanks to the Chinese. This enables tradesmen and others to get more work as they are contactable at any time.

Now, I am keen to get back to Kinshasa to be with my family as I have not seen them for 6 months, so I am working hard on my French and developing my business plans there so I can support myself and my family there.

Best regards,

Gerry
Congoventures.blogspot.com