Muzungu – Amafaranga!

The next ‘morning’ after coffee and breakfast we went down to the border again to pick up our passports and get the car. We met some friends from Kigali there too – small world!

The staff had changed and there was a woman in charge of issuing the visas now – somehow that made me feel more comfortable; women seem less corrupt and nasty – I should be proven wrong only a few hours later. We were told that they had run out of some forms needed for the visas and that we could not pick them up today – they would be arriving tomorrow. I had understood that we couldn’t pick up our passports that day and got a bit edgy; she went ‘mais non – il n’y a pas de problème’ you can have your passport, you’ll have to come back for the receipt for the visa though – ok – what do I care about a receipt for a visa anyway? As long as I have my passport back I’m happy. So we sat in the little office again and waited for them to fill in the book ‘entrée – etrangers’ with our details, whack a stamp in the passport and tick the ‘entry’ box on the stamp; this cost us 35$ - come to think of it, I’m not so sure that ended up in the state’s account – after all we never saw that receipt.

Once we had the passports back, there was the issue of the car. It turns out we had to pay another 45$ for insurance in Congo as the current insurance did not cover us abroad – again, this could have been complete in utter bollocks; but how would 4 muzungus know? Honestly, at points at this border station I felt like on the road when we’d stop and all the kids turn up and shout ‘muzungu, muzungu – amafaranga!’ (white person – money!) once the insurance had been paid some dude walks up to the car and goes – vaccination certificates please! What? Did they not check them last night? (I didn’t even have mine with me…) No, they didn’t. Well, next time you must not forget to bring yours, but this time we will let you go (after getting money of course…) – and of course we also had to pay the guy who had ‘guarded’ the car. I have lost track of how many people we had to bribe in the end, but it was too much! Bastards – is all that went through my head… and you call this a civilised country!