Logistics

I do come from a country where we looove stamps and signatures in order to make anything look official, but the DRC is certainly many steps ahead of us. My two-way plane ticket Goma-Butembo-Goma (made out to MR. Sinziana Demian) has four receipts attached to it ($10 go-passes and some redevances) and seven stamps and signatures - for each, of course, I had to go to a different office and stand in another line. Add to that six more stamps on the accompanying Ordre de Mission A4 paper (you cannot travel anywhere without such a document), and I do feel incredibly important (or, alternatively, very suspicious and closely scrutinized) - considering, of course, that these were 'just' 45-minute internal flights.

Landing at Goma was very testing also for a different reason: the moment we set foot on the airstrip, we were literally attacked by some 15 guys, who work for the "Association des Bagagistes". They all wanted to be our porters, although our luggage would be officially taken to the baggage claim area by some other guys. It was quite a challenge to walk up those 20-30 meters to the airport building, since they were quite like vultures fighting over their pray. I did lose my temper a bit (I admit, they were quite scary), and I shouted from the top of my lungs in French, which took them somehow by surprise, especially as they wanted to snatch our tickets and compare the bag tag numbers against the pile of luggage. Luckily our guy from the Goma office, Jackson, came to our rescue, but he did have to dish some $10 for them to share (even if they hadn't really done anything more than fight amongst themselves). Money had to change many hands until some other guy was finally convinced to lift the barrier and let us go.

Trouble would not end there, though: I was, for the first time in my life, denied a border crossing. There was some misunderstanding with my papers between the central immigration office in Kigali and the border point "La Corniche", so after lots of discussions with different officials (I didn't try bribing), I decided I would wait another day in Congo. Goma is right at the border, and DFGFI actually has this amazing house at the lake, so I took it easy and spent a relaxing night there. My papers were cleared first thing the next morning, so I could cross into Rwanda again (after having to fill in a new pile of documents). My new single-entry visa was another $60 (the second time in two weeks we had to pay that amount). Add to that $500 for the Congolese entry visa and work permit, plus a few more hundreds $$$ coming up for a similar Rwandan permit, and the bureaucracy is anything but cheap here.