it's a TRIAL run...

here i am at the office in congo. we are on a TRIAL with internet service provider til the end of the week. SO, we have all been staying here pretty late to milk the trial period as much as possible...we are on 1 megabyte unlimited. to put some perspective of things here in congo, all you folks in the states are on 4 megabytes unlimited AND it is definitely not costing you 4k a month. if we were to stay on this internet plan, that is how much it would cost us....BIG YIKES!! internet is a MAJOR luxury here in congo as there is no fiber optic line laid in the continent of africa yet. fiber optics is in the works but not going to be seen for at least another year...this continent has no idea of what is going to happen when it finally makes it!! so all you folks back home, please enjoy the internet connection for me!! now, you know why it has been hard for me to update my blog with pictures and what have you BUT we are working on alternative and affordable internet service that will still allow me to do my thang here. woo-hoo!!!

the days and nights have been filled with pre-production. i am here working on a documentary, which we will start shooting in december for 20 days, heading to the east as well as here in the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kinshasa, AND a tv show which will start production mid-january. as you must imagine, things here move at a whole different pace than what we are used to back in la-la land of california.

ok, so i know that i mentioned this before...driving in congo has NO rules...there are no lines, there aren't really any traffic lights and if there are any, no one really pays any attention to them. for instance, last night, en route to drop someone off, we were in a part of town, we never have been in yet and there was a row of 3 traffic lights, the first we've seen that were actually on and working. but of course, our driver just drove straight through the red light only to laugh at the rest of us when we were like it is a red light...c'est rouge, stop!

but the ONE functional traffic light that we see on the daily and that the congolese obide to are the human traffic lights...see picture.



these police officers stand on these metal stands in the middle of huge intersections and will stop to direct traffic during the busy times of the day. let me just say that this is the only way i would be able to cross the street here in congo safely. no other way would i even dare to cross the street. cars so do not yield to pedestrians AT ALL, including our driver, who by the way is the BEST driver in congo, hands down. he knows all the short cuts, can manuever through traffic no problem and is ballsy as heck. it is definitely an adventure every ride that we've taken with him.

here are some more pictures of the city:






the view of the city from the office balcony.