Ango-Bunia-Goma

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Reading the news while flying my plane... awesome.

So, from Ango to Bunia, you need to be an aid worker to fly with Avions Sans Frontiers, so, yeah, not much you can do there. But if you ever make it, I run the best (and only) guesthouse in town! From Bunia to Goma I took CAA, a super sketchy Congolese airline. Rough turbulence, an open cockpit, lots of people puking and a solid 1-second drop (that is a long time when your plane is freefalling) which I can only assume happens when you cross the equator. Sat next to a nice guy who works with one of our partner orgs, so that was cool.

I found the Bungwe Guest House in an online list and their phone number was the first that worked, so, I made a reservation. The hotel manager was great and very flexible picking me up from my 2 hour late flight. He called when he saw that CAA had landed and asked me what I was wearing. I told him I was the only white person on the flight, so that might be the easiest way to spot me, but I was also wearing a red shirt. He took me to the hotel for free, which is rare, and we drove from the volcanic rocky deep red dusty roads into a compound that was clean and so white I was actually comforted to see that it was in the middle of being painted. My room, fittingly enough, was named “Washington”.

My White House

The room was not a room at all; it was basically a suite/bungalow that was clean and insect free (consequently smelling of a cocktail of disinfectant and insecticide). Decent wireless Internet reached from the lobby to my front room with a couch and dining area that looked out onto my balcony. The bed was most likely made out of cardboard, but I have grown tired from sinking into my memory-free-foam mattress in Ango. The hot water got to lukewarm, at best and did not yield anymore pressure than my bucket showers, so that was disappointing.

The food, well, lets just say I ordered the vegetarian pizza and hour later it came with peas, chicken and some sort of thick beef based sauce where the tomato sauce should have been. But breakfast is included. The downstairs TV was blaring upstairs and fighting with the upstairs TV volume, which was tough to sit between.


That said, the service was great, the manager and front desk guy were happy to speak English when I couldn't find the French word. The garden was nice, the staff more than happy to accommodate and it was quiet and clean. Honestly, if you are the not-so-needy type, it is a pretty great place.