Congolese Cultural Night

On Saturday, June 22 we went to the Memling, the nicest hotel in town, for dinner. We heard it was a special Congolese Culture Night featuring Congolese food and entertainment. Only 2 of the 5 senior missionary couples went, because we didn’t know much about it and it was $50.00 per person. When we arrived, we were met by 10 Americans from Utah, who were in Kinshasa to work at an orphanage. They made it a fun group. When we got there we found out that it was a celebration for the 75th birthday of the hotel.  The first hour was cocktails. We think we probably drank about $50 each in soft drinks and juices. Then the drums started

and they let us into the conference room, which was decorated beautifully Congolese style.

We had the buffet , which had about 60-70 Congolese dishes. Because it was such a nice hotel, everything was cooked and presented beautifully. I tried about 20 dishes, but not the caterpillars of fish heads. Ed had lots of bread, and a few other items that he recognized. I was so excited about the unusual food that I didn’t even think to take photos of the food line. Duh! I promise to do better in the future.

The main entertainment was a "ballet group" which was really about 12 men and women (dancers and drummers) who did about 10 different tribal dances. They changed costumes and ran on and off stage and were very terrific. The energy was amazing.

I think my favorite was when they left the stage doing an African version of the Congo Line.

I was pulled out of the audience to join the dancers for a couple of minutes. I was a natural!

Ed and I won a raffle prize of a 2 night stay at the Memling Hotel in their junior suite... including Petite Dejeuner! (About a $1600 prize.)

We got home about 11:30 pm (very, very late for us) and felt the evening was a great success!