Never-cease-to-amaze-me-Congo

Ever since I set foot in this crazy country last June, I've had such a fascination-rejection relationship with it. Nothing works properly, everyone is incredibly slow and inefficient, there’s some sort of danger at every corner you turn… And yet, somehow, this place is mesmerizing. And just then, when you think you’ve gotten it under your belt, there will be something else to surprise you in completely bizarre ways.

This time it was the new visa regime. Before, you could easily get a $35-7-day-visa at the border, which was perfect for tourists and businesses alike (then, in case you’d stick around, you would get a much more expensive 6-month-visa from the Immigration Directorate in Goma or Kinshasa). Now this is all changed (‘to avoid the bribery at the border,” they say). They created this ‘visa volante’, which costs $250+$35 for 7 days – and which you can’t even get easily anymore (either you apply to the DRC consulate in your own country – which could not have been my case – or you get someone to write a letter for you in Goma, depose it at the Immigration, get the A4 paper approved, take it to the border, get it signed, then get it to you in Rwanda, and then hopefully get you across the border, without being stuck for hours in no man’s land (which, in fact, had just happened to my Dutch colleague last week – 6 hours on the dirt strip between the two countries, because some papers had not been signed properly)).

When I tried to inquire what this was all about, I got Jackson (our PR guy in Goma) to answer brilliantly “C’est un vol organise. Visa VOLante-VOL – c’est tres simple”… So there, after paying this absurd amount, to basically just get my foot across in Goma, we gave my passport and another $470 to a guy named Paul in Immigration for my long-term visa (Paul greeted me like an old friend, as he already ‘knew’ me from my passport pics that had been circulated around…) So there, fantastic working for an NGO (which always complains about money), in a decrepit African country, where the right to enter and do some good costs $270+$35+$470…

At least I was in Goma again! YAY! Curiosity to see our new house/office was eating at me. While I mourned the change of our FABULOUS, but too expensive, lake property, I was excited about this new house – which was pitched to me as this wonder-place, ‘where EVERYTHING works AT ALL TIMES”. (Having water, electricity and internet in Goma, on a constant basis, is truly a matter of dreams). So here we came, on this very rough volcanic-lava road, just behind the Governor’s house, to this two-story, imposing building. My English colleagues Sandy and my new Dutch colleague Luitzen were already here, so it was going to be a fun few days, trying to figure out a work-schedule for our 2011 DRC programs. Instead, our priorities turned out to be quite different, in a house where the never-ending scenario is along these lines: the water goes away, but we have electricity and internet; then electricity is cut off, and the generator cannot be turned on, because we use the same battery for the generator and some car office, and some wise-guy leaves for the night with that car; then electricity comes back, but the internet is hiccupping; then the water also comes back but floods everything downstairs; in the meantime, we have light in the rooms upstairs, but the sockets are not working, and neither is the light in the bathroom; finally we try to start the boiler to heat water, and in the middle of the luke-warm shower the water is cut again. ALL this in a house where “everything is working properly”… And I didn’t even get to mention all other logistics problems (we have several cars and several drivers, but when you need to go somewhere noone is ever ready, while the cars are all unusable for some reason - no fuel, need of washing, need of registering, etc, etc.)

When you finally move, everything turns into a real expedition: even if you have a very precise destination set out in your mind, you will need to incorporate a million other things: dropping off and picking up people everywhere, going to get some receipts for God-knows what in some God-forgotten alley, stopping every 5 minutes to chat with this and that, turning back because someone forgot something or someone is calling for something… So yes, you are always guaranteed to arrive late and be already exhausted, and then sit in another meeting where noone is ready for anything (for example, I was summoned today for 10 a.m., and at 10.30 I am writing this blog, as everyone is just bypassing me completely unfazed and unprepared… At least I had a HOT shower today (miracle!), and the best, juiciest, sweetest pineapple of my life for breakfast, and I am wearing a beautiful green dress to match the sunny day. So, ultimately, I am smiling and being happy for another day of adventure in mad Congo!