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Published: November 2nd 2006
It was sad to leave Kisangani, I was there for several days, and I still spent time and took meals with people I had met on the boat. But in the end I decided to buy a plane ticket to Goma, in the far East of the DRC. I would’ve liked to go by land, but quite a few sources said that it was not advisable because of security, as well as bad road conditions, in spite of this, I still would have gone, but it would’ve ended up being about 50 dollars more expensive than the flight, so I flew. Flying was easy enough, but nearly every official asked for money, though it was easy enough to refuse. The one honest immigration official was completely disgusted when he looked at my passport; the officer who had stamped it upon entry had accidentally used the EXIT stamp before asking me for a twenty dollar bribe, which I evaded. There were a number of random stamps and letters inside that had no business being there, but that various officials had put in hoping they could get some money for them. He covered the EXIT with white out and put ENTRY instead. Then
he let me go without asking for money.
On arriving in Goma the first thing I noticed was the runway ending in lava fields. And I remembered reading in 2002 a volcano destroyed the whole town. Later, when I found a hotel after dodging about 10 taximan scams during a rain storm, I went out looking for something to eat. An old man volunteered to show me a place, and as we were walking I asked him where the down town area was. He said “Well, this is what’s left of downtown… after the volcano.” As if Goma didn’t have enough problems, wow. So all of the streets are black volcaning ash, and you can see the hardened lava flows under the streets. I went to sleep early that night, but didn’t sleep well due to some rowdy soldiers in the room next to mine.
In the morning I went out and ate some beignet and a kid started following me. He was one of the few nice ones, and spoke excellent French. I bought a big piece of sugar cane and we sat down by Lake Kivu with a couple of other kids who didn’t speak French.
A downside of the election is that all of the schools have closed during the election , so kids wander around… and for most of them the only phrase they know I guess I could translate as GIVE ME COOKIE! Lake Kivu and Goma’s surroundings are beautiful, and the climate is cool, but it’s about half as friendly as everywhere else in the country I went.
Two days there was more than enough, and I left early in the morning for Kigali. Rwanda, well, it basically seemed like Europe to me. More like Central America, many green hills, terraced agriculture, all of the land has things growing on it very efficiently, but man is that country developed. It’s so developed, I don’t think I have been anywhere so developed since I left Spain, though statistically I think Morocco is better, but I don’t know. Especially Kigali. I also couldn’t believe how little they speak French, considering it’s the official language and English isn’t, but when I first got there I’d say “Bonjour” and get as a reply, in a tone as if to correct my mistake “Good Afternoon, sir.” It seems that this country is more or less a
colony of the US. I’ve never seen such a big embassy and USAID office in such a tiny country. The capital has taken after the US in that it is impossible to walk anywhere and there are loads of cars. The motorcycle taxis are still there but they make you wear a helmet… my jaw was hanging open the first couple of days in the country, I just started laughing the first time a moto taxi man asked me to put on a helmet. Unbelievable. What’s more, the cheapest hotel I could find was 18 dollars in an African style annex to the fancy Hotel Okapi. Breakfast included, which normally means a piece of bread and some tea, but here, another American innovation, the buffet, greeted me. After living on scraps of dried fish, monkey, bread, and other bush foods for about a month, I was unleashed my first morning on a buffet. Again I started laughing in disbelief in the immaculate white terrace restaurant, causing all of the Africans and Indians in their business suits to stare at me and my filthy clothes. All I could eat of fresh pineapple, papaya, good scrambled eggs, American fried potatoes with herbs,
real coffee(I’d forgotten how much better it tastes than Nescafe) as well as fresh bread with real butter and honey. Just absurd. I tried to eat 18 dollars worth, getting more angry stares as I took my 5th and 6th plates full of food and 3rd cup of coffee, and it was painful too walk out. But wow, what a shock.
Kigali was a nice town though, I saw plenty of white people, even some chubby, unhealthy looking girls I immediately recognized as AMERICANS. Well I even talked to one Canadian in English. But I decided to leave quickly for Tanzania. I wish I had taken some photos of the Rwandan country side, really beautiful, misty, green, cool, and Rwanda I found much more friendly than Eastern DRC, though not as friendly as northern DRC. Travel is almost comically easy, and I had to muffle laughter again each time I crossed the borders, as no one asked me for money, and instead of accusing me of being a mercenary saying things like “Welcome! Have a good stay” What really cracked me up was the fact that the Rwandan border post had a suggestion box… I just can’t even imagine
in the Congo, someone should tell them about that.
As usually happens on a first day in a country, with a few exceptions, I got immediately ripped off on transport, paying 4 dollars for a 50 cent ride. I threw a huge fit when I realized he had lied about the distance and got in a big fight, refusing to give him the money. My big mistake was trying a bluff… “Just take my bag then!” since it was in the trunk, so he immediately tried to leave with it. There is probably less than 5 dollars worth of things in it but it had some photos and cassettes and books that have sentimental value so I finally payed the price, making sure to shame him and threatening him with hellfire for being a thief.
This really made me paranoid about Tanzania, so the next morning I bargained so violently for the next trip that I ended up paying about a dollar less than what the locals pay for the trip, as I later found out. I also almost twisted a guys arm out of the socket when I thought he was trying to take a dollar from me, but someone who spoke English showed up and explained to me that it was his dollar and it was a miscommunication…. I felt like a complete fool and tried to apologize. But in the end I arrived easily and cheaply in Mwanza.
Mwanza is very Western, but Tanzania is really very cheap so it has been a pleasant place to spend the last 5 days wandering around the shores and islands of Lake Victoria. I haven’t traveled for so long because I have been feeling ill. Finally a couple days ago I was feeling particularly weak and dizzy and I passed by chance a clinic, so I went in and got my blood tested and saw a doctor. The problem is that I have both major strains of malaria at the same time, and that is why the last treatment made me feel like I was better but the fevers came back. But this time I got some good medicine.
I have really been cheap when it comes to my health. After the big wound on my leg after a motorcycle wipe out got kicked open by my driver and got badly infected by wading through Congolese jungle puddles, I finally after the wound had tripled in size went to a nurse. She wanted a dollar to clean the wound but I haggled her down to 60 cents. She ground up some penicillin tablets on it and put on a bandage which fell off after 5 minutes, so I just left it, and it has just know finished healing. The first time I was diagnosed with malaria, the medication was 5 dollars, and I haggled it down to 3. But this time I shelled out a full 16 dollars without bargaining for medicine manufactured in Switzerland, not Cambodia. So after 2 days of treatment I am feeling like a new man and I think I am going to move on tomorrow.
I’m enjoying how friendly, cheap, and surprisingly Indian Tanzania is, and looking forward to finally reaching the Indian Ocean.
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Edmund
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Great blog
Now this is a true adventure! Great blog! Keep it up.