Thursday January 19, 2012
Arrived in Democratic Republic of Congo. The airport in Lubumbashi is undoubtedly the worst I have ever been in. Todd told me stories of him and Nathanael getting stuck here when they came through, but we didn’t have any real difficulties. There was one small door from the immigration office into the baggage claim area, with everyone pressing their way through. Three different times when I was just about to make my way through the door some official insisted on looking at my yellow fever immunization certificate pulling me out of line to do it, then I would have to turn around to try to push my way through again and get stopped right when I was about to get through.
Finally getting through to the baggage area we were met by a delegation from the ELCC and CCLC, seven or eight pastors in total. Arriving at the hotel we had a beer together and discussed our plans for the week.
The weather here in Congo is also quite pleasant. I didn’t realize this at the time but later in the week found out the Lubumbashi at least is fairly high in elevation about 4,000 feet. The sun gets a little intense around midday but the temperatures seem to be around low to high 70s, and there is no humidity.