explosions rock kinshasa

so last night, when we were on the balcony of our cheaply fabrikated chinese 5 story high rise, gazing out into the greenery (we have a little game, where we pretend we are in the caribbean, and make comments like, want to go to the beach and have a pina colada?) and then someone made the usual comment that "it's a good thing kinshasa isn't in a seismic zone." these buildings would crumble in a second.
the next morning, around 8 am, i was literally knocked from my bed by what felt like a truck ramming the building, or maybe an air conditioner falling from the roof. it happened a few more times and i went out of my room, like wtf guys is there a horse locked in the bathroom? but instead there was a giant mushroom cloud rising in the distance.
it thankfully does not appear to be close enough to our downtown, but everyone is out in the street, on the balconies. our shaky poorly installed windows rattled some more, and there was a moment when we all ran into the kitchen.
i made instant coffee and connected to the news. we heard a lot of windows broke in the centre of kinshasa, will which inevitably turn into open looting. a woman with a bleeding elbow, says she was closer downtown and basically fell over from the blast.  
if it weren't for the annoying visa process, i would have actually been in brazza right now to meet with a master's student i'm trying to help out there...anyway, we've been told to stay inside, and we will. though we're kinda out of food (lots of johnnie black label and champagne though).
i'm reading the book "the fortune teller told me" and it makes me think i should go see one now...