I started working as a project manager in January 2007 and in April this year I was commissioned to build a hotel in Lubumbashi – a small city at the very southern tip of the DRC.
The hotel I am working on is a full refurbishment and extension of an existing seven story hotel built in the early 50s. It is also privileged to be considered one of the five ‘high rise’ buildings in the city.
Things here are quite interesting. The streets are controlled by ‘canneries’ – traffic officers in a yellow and blue uniform using only a whistle in their meek attempt at trying to direct the traffic – which can only be described as absolute anarchy. The house I am staying in is a simple three bedroom place which has a kitchen roughly the size of a small bath and the bedrooms are approximately the size of a small country. I’ve been told that that’s the norm in Lubum!
