Hey Folks
Thanks for the warm welcomes.
Hmmm... Congo - where to start? I'll do a post about it soon. Its interesting from a prepping POV as its, in some ways, a WROL situation. And that's just in the main city - once you get out into the mining areas its pretty much Heart of Darkness. I already wrote up my experience of an 'attempted coup' that occurred a few months back. There are plenty more stories unfortunately, and plenty of good lessons for me as a prepper... We are always thinking about security here. Yes its chaotic and violent - something to do with the Congo's trillions of $ worth of natural resources. It ranks bottom on just about every indicator I've seen, including violence towards women, corruption, poverty, malnutrition... Millions of dead in the past couple of decades of fighting.... Yeah, not good, and very very sad. Nonetheless I can say that despite this the people are extremely friendly!
At the moment I am trying to complete an Emergency Plan for the nursery that my daughter attends here. I may post on that too. Lots of great info here on unchainedpreppers - thanks all for sharing
- e.g. I noticed the thread on re-using shipping containers - and we are considering one as the basis for a Safe Room.
RE foreigners owning guns here: I think the answer is NO. I'm trying to find out - but I have to be subtle with the questions! Handguns are illegal in Kinshasa and its environs. However most private security firms arm their employees with AK47s. Soldiers and police carry them. They even seem to take them to and from work. I heard you can get an AK47 for 50$ down the market. Wouldn't surprise me - people are cash poor (but the country is awash with assault rifles) and the cost of living is extremely high. Even bananas cost more here than in England!
I'll also share some relevant experiences from Belfast, Kashmir etc in due course:) And the longbows... work in progress :p