Finally I managed to take a short trip to Kinshasa - the Capital city of Democratic Republic of Congo. Dozens of friends had requested me to send a postcard or a cover from DR Congo but I could not send many because of very expensive postcards and enormously costly postage. In fact I could manage to send only two postcard - one to myself and the other one to a friend in Caribbean.
I bought this beautiful postcard from a book shop near 30th June Avenue or Independence Avenue. The postcard costed me US$5 each. The back of the postcard reads "Bonobos, espèce endemique de RD Congo protégé par la loi" in French language meaning "Bonobos, DR Congo endemic species protected by law". The bonobos are found in a 500,000 km2 (190,000 sq mi) area of the Congo Basin in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central Africa.
The experience in the Post Office was even more strange. The lady at the counter in General Post office in Kinshasa told me that postage for each postcard is US$5 but she didn't have stamps for the same value. Language barrier was pretty difficult to cope with as the lady spoke French only and not a word of English. The only stamps that she had were the two pasted on the postcard. The posted stamps are of 245 Congolese Francs only which turns out to be around US$0.25, so I had to pay US$5.25 for the postage.
After receiving the postcard, I did try to find a postmark or some sign of US$5 that I paid to her but could not find any sign. Any how, it is really a precious jewel to find a real-posted postcard from DR Congo.
I do have some other UNESCO postcards from DR Congo that I brought from there. I shall be posting their scans on the blog in coming days. If you are interested in getting any of them, you can leave a message below with your facebook ID or email contact.
Have fun ..... Happy Collecting!
I bought this beautiful postcard from a book shop near 30th June Avenue or Independence Avenue. The postcard costed me US$5 each. The back of the postcard reads "Bonobos, espèce endemique de RD Congo protégé par la loi" in French language meaning "Bonobos, DR Congo endemic species protected by law". The bonobos are found in a 500,000 km2 (190,000 sq mi) area of the Congo Basin in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central Africa.
After receiving the postcard, I did try to find a postmark or some sign of US$5 that I paid to her but could not find any sign. Any how, it is really a precious jewel to find a real-posted postcard from DR Congo.
I do have some other UNESCO postcards from DR Congo that I brought from there. I shall be posting their scans on the blog in coming days. If you are interested in getting any of them, you can leave a message below with your facebook ID or email contact.
Have fun ..... Happy Collecting!
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