Friday night I went out with the roommate and we picked up a couple other friends to see a concert at a local cultural center downtown. We weren't sure exactly what kind of concert it was going to be. It ended up being a kind of operatic performance by these 2 girls accompanied by a pianist. They had amazing voices and it was very entertaining, especially to see how the crowd responded to some of the songs.
Saturday night we found ourselves going out again to a new club in town. A new friend of mine and his wife are co-owners of this new club and were holding a party to celebrate its opening. It was a very nice place and there were a lot of expats that showed up. I had a great time meeting new people and learning about some of the other NGO's and companies in Lubumbashi.
Sunday morning was church. Apparently this week at church was a memorial service for one of the members of the church, who happened to work for the Zambia consulate or something like that. So the church was full of people for the memorial service and it dragged on forever as many people came up to give speeches. I don't think the church I'm going to will be much like this, but this is kind of what I was expecting church to be like here: long.
Earlier in the week I had heard that there was going to be a big soccer match in town here. Senegal was coming to play the DR Congo national team, which is a pretty big match for the locals. They do love their soccer here as they have couple stadiums that I'm aware of and a couple local teams. I am not a die hard fanatic of soccer but I do love the sport so I really wanted to go see what a soccer match in Africa would be like. So I arrange to do with one of my co-workers, who is a Congolese guy who speaks fairly good english. So he and his brother picked me up Sunday afternoon and we headed out to the stadium. They were wearing matching shirts, which I found quite funny at first and then again once we got to the stadium. The taxi took us as far as we could before the crowds were too much that we had to walk. Once we got to the stadium we found a couple people literally fighting with the police guarding the gates. We had to squeeze through the crowd, while getting pushed and shoved and trying hold on to our tickets. Once we got past those crowds outside it was relatively peaceful. We had bought tickets for one section of the stadium, but we payed the guard at the better section to let us in. This is kind of how everything works in Congo I'm starting to learn. So once we were in the actually stadium it was amazing. It was a huge crowd there to watch the match. The stadium was packed full of yelling and screaming Congolese. The field was artificial grass and we had a great view. The match was very entertaining and Senegal proved to be a much better team scoring a couple goals in the first few minutes. Senegal ended up winning 4-2, but there was much yelling and arguing between the people in the crowd amongst each other after every goal. After the match, we exited the stadium with the masses and I had these 2 guys, with their matching shirts, escorting me the whole way. They were very protective of me so I was laughing a little because I felt like someone important with my 2 "body guards", but I was very glad they were there.
So that was my entertaining weekend full of social activities. It's good to know that I can have a social life here.
Well i say you better quit having so much fun and do a little suffering for the Lord. You are on a Missionary endeavor after all.!!!!!! :-) Your loving aunty Ingrid!!!!!
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