Finally I did it and survived. In six weeks as a rambling single white female in the Congos, I have to admit that I encountered relatively few problems. Of course I was arrested, interrogated by an army General and put under police surveillance, all for taking photos in places of strategic importance, but not a single franc was paid in bribes and I always parted with more friends and telephone numbers than when I arrived. Tourism is not really a concept widely understood in the Congos. Few people could grasp the idea of visiting a country to see how other people live or simply to experience daily life. A white woman who travels alone is still quite rare, even more so when she spends most of here time visiting les quartiers peuplés and insists on taking
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