Merciless

Merciless

-day 12-
we are still looking for an office. our agent brings us to a company director who offers the top floor of his building. he welcomes us: ah you have come to bring us money haha- we try to keep smiling. the next place for rent is still occupied by some other organisation, but the owner assures us that is no problem; they are not paying anymore anyway. last week our agent explained this with a metaphor: you know, an empty apartment is like a free woman, when a man presents himself, he can take her..
in the evening i attend the ceremony to celebrate the start of Radio Okapi, a UN sponsored national radio; the frequency of peace. some journalists deliver speeches shirts untucked, hands in their pockets -we are the cool guys- to praise people who sacrificed themselves yesterday evening to work even till midnight to prepare this historic day in peacekeeping broadcasting. while the guests form three dimensional queues to get a free drink a local band plays dancing music, but the party doesn't get going, by lack of women i guess.
in the small street in front of the peacekeeping mission there are always plenty of congolese hanging around, waiting for foreigners to give them money i think. most annoying are the little children who tap my arms begging for dollars. normally i don't give anything to children because i think that if they get an income on the street, they will have no motivation to go to school. but what about schools in this country? the children remind me of the army of child soldiers that Kabila used to oust Mobutu some 5 years ago. you might wonder why i find the begging children annoying instead of feeling pity for them. it is not their fault that their leaders abuse their positions to fill their pockets- the volatile political situation being the reason or the cause for their behaviour- no, it is just the impression i get that they would do exactly the same in that position. here i can clearly see what it means to pump money into an economy; while the local production decreases foreigners spend big bucks on imported goods and expensive housing, driving 4x4 vehicles through the city center where the holes in the roads get deeper after every rainfall. people who think it can only get better have proven wrong in the past.
my colleague drops me off at my house, and i take the slow elevator to the eight floor, ready to start my daily struggle against my unwanted guests, the cockroaches. i have acquired and deployed weapons of mass destruction against this ennemy, and i decided to leave some of their dead bodies on display for their fellows, so they know they should seriously consider moving out. i turn the key of my first door a bit too far and its gets stuck, but at least i can enter to get some tools. unfortunately there seems to be no electricity. of course i have been warned, this happens all the time, so i easily find my torch. but i see light coming out of all the other apartments, so i decide to go and see the warden to ask what kind of problem this might be. he brings me to a room with many switches and we see that my safety fuse is off. problem solved, and i can start frying the leftovers of yesterday's cooking effort, tuna spaghetti. some cockroaches have survived the chemicals and tempt their fate by crossing the floor under my eyes. i realise they might have drawn their conclusions and be on their way out, but i can show no mercy. to reduce their suffering i use a small hammer, big impact. try to hit a cockeroach on the run with a small hammer, it needs some practice. sometimes i am too lazy to get up from the sofa, especially when it concerns a smaller specimen, then i just observe its behaviour for a while. i have also seen some geckos in my house, i heard they eat insects so i guess we are on the same side. wouldn't use a hammer on them though, their eyes are so cute. hope they don't suffer too much from the chemical warfare.