Leopard-Skin Pillbox Hat Summary and Analysis

With BBC sound engineer Chris Muir, Adams and Carwardine fly to Zaïre via Nairobi on a flight of missionaries, whose benign smiling annoys them. A miserable stopover in the two-roomed shed that serves as the Mwanza "international transit lounge" and another flight with the smiling Christians brings them to Bukavu, where they are handed cards welcoming them and imploring Zaïrois (in English) to be nice to them for the sake of their "touristic future." Every official does his best to make life miserable until paid off in U.S. dollars. The customs area is dominated by a portrait of the President wearing a natty leopard-skin pillbox hat.

After a string of bureaucratic shakedowns, Adams and Carwardine leave Bukavu in a "taxi-like thing" that brings them to a surprisingly comfortable hotel overlooking placid Lake Kivu. Having...