The Plateau

Later this afternoon (in about 30 minutes), I am moving from the CAP-Protestant Guest House in Gombé, out to the University of Kinshasa Guest House, which is near the UniKin campus in a residential area called the Plateau, where professors reside. I was out there last Thursday to check it out while I was visiting the campus; it is very nice out there in Moamba (Mount Amba). It is in the hills, so there are some great views and the air is a bit cooler. The guest house is still about a 30 minute walk to the university classrooms and offices, but it is far different than things down here, where everything has walls around it. The house up there has a fence and a yard with a mango tree and views for days.

I have not yet worked out internet access up there, though it should not be so difficult. The Rector (chef de l'université) suggested I take the office of last year’s Fulbright, a demographer in the Faculty of Economics, and the Rector's word is law. It is a bit unusual, though. It would be the equivalent of giving an English professor in the US an office in a university’s medical school. The Faculty of Economics does have an internet connection, and I am not sure if the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters even has electricity, so I would be very fortunate indeed. But until I get situated up there, there might be a few days until I am able to update the blog.

Also, thanks to the folks who have posted comments--I enjoy reading them, even if I not been able to respond as directly as I would like. Up to now, I have been using the computers at the library of the US Embassy, the Congo-American Language Institute. I don’t understand all of the technical details but it is essentially run off of a satellite which would be similar to cell-phone-based dial-up connection. It is a great resource that I fully appreciate (and the public lab is always full), but it is very slow to someone used to high-speed connections in the US. Plus the applications always crash a couple of times a session. This is all to say that while I have spent significant time online, I have not been able to get done as much corresponding or blogging as would be ideal.

Stay tuned.