Nairobi - DRC J'ai arrive!

Bonjour mon aimée. J'ai arrive en RDC. Mon francais est disastrous! Which is a bit of a shame seeing as that is the language in which we work.
So back to the beginning. Travel out here was surprisingly uncomplicated. I flew to Nairobi on Monday and then on to Kigali on Tuesday where there were two friendly taxi drivers to ferry me across Rwanda to the DRC boarder. The taxi drive was an experience. Only one of the drivers spoke English so they decided to teach me Swahili. Languages have never been my strong point which very quickly became obvious as I tried to say 'My name is' and got confused with 'I am going to the market'. After four hours my Swahili had marginally improved - I could now also go to the bar!
Rawanda was very beautiful and surprisingly green. Lots of banana trees and very little tarmac. The taxi driver was 29 it was strange to think that he had lived through the genocide and while I had heard about the events as a teenager at home he had been in Rwanda experiencing them first hand.
At the DRC boarder I was met by Helen (my friend from home) and more GOAL people who were able to get me through the boarder process. No one here queues, the person with the longest arm gets served first.
The base is about 10 minutes from the boarder. It is just on the edge of Goma and close to lots of other NGO buildings. Generally it is really quiet apart from when the plane's fly overhead at which point you imagine yourself on an airbase.
I've now had three days at work and it really is not like being at work back home. It is amazing what natural sunlight and a relaxed atmosphere brings. It rained on Thursday so on Friday the office was a little damp. We waited to turn on the computers until the biggest puddles had been mopped up.
It is strange working as an expat. DRC is still considered a security risk so you go everywhere by car. Can only go to certain bars at which everyone else also works for an NGO. Everything is very transient as people are coming and going all the time. So far Doga's has been the bar of choice and we have been almost every night.
Today is the weekend so Helen has shown me the tourist sights. This morning we went to the market, the supermarket and the dress makers. The main/only tourist attraction is the volcano which takes a couple of days to climb so will probably be another weekend. This weekend I have to learn French. This afternoon I will be sitting down with 3 French CD's that promise they can teach me the rudiments of the language in 13 hours - I await the results!
Tomorrow I think we are playing/loosing at tennis in the morning. I tried to find a church but services not in Swahili are in French so I might priorities learning French and download a service from home. If anyone from St James is reading this please update the website.
Looks like I may be here for longer than expected. My three weeks are likely to become 5 which may become 7 - it is all highly flexible. As such I don't have a phone number or address so it is email for me.
Off for Bacon Sandwiches.
Keep in touch. I am missing everyone loads.
Julia