Greetings again from Kinshasa!
It appears that it’s still Christmas in Kinshasa. Everywhere you go there are Christmas trees and lights in restaurants, on buildings, and along the boulevard. Of course there is the obvious strangeness of coniferous trees in a tropical locale, but luckily I haven’t seen any fake snow yet.
What is more noteworthy for the blog is the fact that it’s already mid-January and it’s still Christmas here. This shows the obvious lack of holiday consumerism that we see in the states. I went in to a CVS on December 26th and watched them putting up the Valentine’s displays. We live in a society that plays on any possible consumption producing spree that can be induced by a holiday.
Whether we like it or not, most of us have a difficult time avoiding this consumerism. At least from what I can tell, luckily they haven’t found a way to taint holidays like Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
Merry Christmas!
Miel
