Swimming in the Congo and my Dad's feelings on his visit.

So I was able to cross one thing off my "bucket list" (see the post in archives) on President's day, I swam in the Congo river. Many of you probably think I am crazy because you probably think the Congo river is disease ridden, full of crocodiles and hippos. And it is true that on parts of the river you will find all those things mentioned plus a myriad of other things, including people living in shipwrecked boats, but we had the chance to go up the river about 20 minutes from Kinshasa, look at some small fishing villages (We will post the pictures later), anchor on a sandbar, eat a lunch and go swimming in the river. The water was a good temprature and very, very fast. I was able to convince my father to jump in for a little bit, but he was too scared of contracting the African Sleeping Sickness or something so he didn't swim for long. Spencer though loved playing in the river, swimming in it and throwing vegetation in the river and see it swept away by the current. Overall, a very fun time.

Maybe because I spent two years on a mission in Madagascar, but the craziness of Kinshasa has never hit me, but I was fortunate enough to have my dad come visit us this last week and I paid close attention to his reaction to Africa. I encourage you all to ask my dad for his opinion of Kinshasa, from the airport, to the streets, to the countless people who roam the streets. I also encourage my dad to write something on this blog of his experience. A few things my dad said was he was surprised by feelings of anxiety whenever we left the house. He felt our house was a peaceful, serene oasis (thanks to Becca) in the middle of the Daytona Race track. Because we were trying to show my dad some of the sites, we were able to go on some side roads, or should I say alley ways full of people and traffic going both ways. When I get a picture of the roads I will right more about them. Also my dad was constantly amazed at the amount of people on the streets who appeared to be eating, sleeping, peeing, wondering, working, selling, buying, walking, pushing, and yelling. I enjoyed seeing my dad's amazement at these things, he rightly said there is no way to describe this place, even if you had photos and video, you have to experience to truly appreciate it, or rather truly appreciate what we have in the United States. I would encourage you all to come visit and see for yourself, but it is rather expensive to get here, you have to receive several shots, take some pills, plus there isn't alot of touristy things to do here.