Joni the German & Angola patience – Kinshasa, DRC Congo 24th April 2010
Date: Tuesday 18th May, 2010 | Country: DRC Congo | Tags: africa, Angola Embassy, blogsherpa, DRC Congo, Kinshasa, Letter of Invitation | 5 Comments »Arghh my camera got broken in Brazzaville when I accidently dropped it so all photos now are taken with Reka’s camera!
After the stress of getting through the port from both Brazzaville and now Kinshasa I was very surprised to see a fairly relaxed entry into the city as I read Kinshasa would be hectic and frenetic but within 10 minutes we had reached the main blvd 30 Janv which has recently been renovated and allowed for a relaxed drive through part of the city. We heard that one of the cheapest places to stay was the Protestant Church in Gombe and it was very easy to find as it is parallel with the main blvd.
History
The Portuguese discovered this part of central Africa in the 15th century and traded goods such as ivory, cloth, pottery and ironware. They made contact with a highly developed kingdom known as the Kongo. Little more was heard of the Kongo until Dr.David Livingstone began opening up the African interior to European exploration. After Dr Livingstone went missing for more than 5 years in 1866, a New York newspaper sent out a Welshman Henry Morton Stanley to track him down. The two brits met in November 1871 in Tanzania. It was Stanley’s subsequent African adventures now under the sponsorship of the Daily Telegraph to trace the course of the Congo river that marked his own place in the History books. His exploits were quickly seized upon by King Leopold II of Belgium. Devious, greedy and ignorant of African affairs he decided to acquire a colony in his own right going against the Belgian government. In 1878 Leopold summoned Stanley and commissioned him to go back to the Congo under the smoke screen of the International African Society a supposed philanthropic organisation. Over the next five years Stanley signed more than 400 treaties with Congo chiefs on Leopold’s behalf, tricking them to hand over their land rights in return for paltry gifts. At the Berlin conference called by Bismark in 1884 to carve up Africa, Leopold managed to convince the famous Iron chancellor to declare the Congo a free trade area and cede it to him as his own personal fiefdom. Leopold inherited a country 75 times the size of Belgium and he then began to fleece the Congo of it’s Ivory, copper and in the wake of the pneumatic tyre – rubber. Hideous crimes were committed by Leopold’s rubber traders and they decimated and raped the villages that were based in the forests that supplied their rubber. As Leopold’s crimes gradually became more public, the Belgian government paid the king the equivalent of $4 million dollars to annex the land mass now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Belgian administration built clinics, schools and roads and by the 1940’s the Congo was Africa’s richest country. In the 1950’s under the revolutionary Patrice Lumumba the independence movement finally wrestled control in 1960. It seemed that the country was moving politically towards the soviet union, army chief Joseph Mobutu was installed as the countries leader. He renamed the country Zaire and embarked on a campaign of Africanisation with people dropping their Christian names and getting rid of their westernised apparel. Proving himself to be more incompetent than Leopold, Mobutu was heavily involved in corruption and tallied over $2 billion in US loans over a 30 year period and put over $5 billion into Swiss bank accounts. With a sea of political change rippling through the world in the early 1990’s Mobutu was overthrown by Rwandan and Ugandan troops as they marched through Kinshasa in May 1996 after he backed the Hutu Rwandans during the 1994 genocide. He escaped execution but died a few months later of cancer in Morocco. The new leader, Laurent Kabila (a one time confidante of Che Guevara) immediately outlawed any political opposition and renamed the country the Democratic Republic of Congo (at the time ironically to most!) and very soon afterwards the country went into civil war with the Tutsis he had once claimed to represent. This war started in 1998 and Laurent Kabila was assassinated in 2001 by one of his body guards. His son Joseph Kabila took over and proved to be every bit as different to his father, setting up a peace treaty with the warring fractions so that in 2002 an all party transitional government came in. By 2003 more than 3+ million people had died in the war and another 3+ million displaced.
Angola Embassy
So many people had told us different stories about the availability of an Angolan visa and the versions change depending on the time you apply so we were a bit apprehensive if we were able to get it in Kinshasa. The best place to get it would have been in Abuja, Nigeria which would have been relatively hassle free but from there you have 2 months before the visa expires so again you are limited with the rest of your journey getting to there. In Brazzaville only those that are flying to Angola can get their visa there which left us with either applying for it in Kinshasa or going straight to the border at Matadi. One of Joni’s friends an American cyclist had been refused entry at Matadi a few days earlier and so had to cycle 300km back to Kinshasa to get his visa so on that advice we went through the application process in Kinshasa.
The process we went through was as follows:
Monday – Mass queuing with DRC locals trying to get into Angola, no information, 4 booths with one person moving from booth to booth, every 20 minutes the one person behind the booths would disappear and everyone is left wondering when he’ll be back. Eventually we are given an application form and told to come back on Wednesday when we can submit this. Together with the application form that asks some basic info about yourself and where you are heading too, we also have to bring photocopies of every single visa in our passport, copies of our vaccinations and carnet du passage. We are also that that as there is a British embassy in Kinshasa they also require a letter of invitation from them stating that I am a British citizen and I am travelling to South Africa. Joni also had to do the same with the German embassy. Reka was told she didn’t need one as there was no representation for Hungarian citizens. It cost me $46 to get this poxy letter from the British Embassy and Joni’s cost 20 euros.
Above: Left – The British Letter of Invitation, Right – The German equivalent
Wednesday – Arrive at 9am when the embassy is meant to open, doors finally open at 10am, again with no system we are left continually trying to ask one guy behind a booth if we can submit our transit visa applications as we had all the paperwork with us, ‘Attende’ he would tell us, eventually a few hours of watching plenty of other people get served we were able to submit our applications and told to come back the next day at 10am.
Thursday – Full of expectation we arrive at 10am, the embassy is full of people and we are told to wait, hours pass by and then we are told that Reka needs a letter of invitation as well as Joni and myself, she then had call the Hungarian embassy in the UK who kindly sent a fax to the Angolan embassy saying that Reka is Hungarian and travelling to South Africa. After another few hours and seeing jubilation and dejection depending on who was given either there visa or citizenship that day and the embassy started to get emptier while we were getting thirstier and more tired from the agonizing wait! At 5 min to 3pm when they were about to close they informed us that there printer for the visa was not working so we should come back tomorrow!
Friday – With slight apprehension we arrive at 10am again to be shunned into a small waiting room full of expectant people but this time we are all expecting the worst and to be told that there is something else needed for the visa and low and behold the one guy that operates all the booths tells us that we now need to hand write a letter on behalf of all of us as to what we are intending to do in Angola and where our final destination is to which we then had to sign it. After listening to one guy read out a thousand names from a book and watch the audience fall asleep as they waited for their names to be read out and then waiting for another few hours we then see our hand written letter come out again but this time someone has typed the same letter and then printed this out for some bigwig behind closed doors, after another few hours and a few games of Uno in the waiting room the embassy started to get emptier and emptier until it is just the 3 of us waiting like lemons for this magical visa, we did get to watch Shaolin soccer with French dubbing on the waiting rooms TV which made for the most ridiculous film I have ever seen and then a few minutes before the embassy was about to shut our man comes out with our passports and we finally have the 5 day transit visa! They managed to throw my old passport away in the process (as according to them why would I need it) and so I had to ask them that I want my old passport back but nevertheless we had our visa’s and we could leave with a smile on our face!
Left: Our daily visitor badge Right: A rare sight of an empty embassy waiting room
Kinshasa
I had read that the 3rd largest city in Africa after Lagos and Cairo would be absolutely hectic, but after going through some fairly densely populated cities along the way you become accustomed to the craziness and the madness. I spent a good week in Kinshasa and after a few days I was wondering where the 6 million people actually lived! We found a protestant church that we could camp there for $5 a night and it was close to the Angolan embassy and a relaxed place to be in so we stayed there for a week while waiting for our visa.
Above: The protestant mission
I found Kinshasa an easy place to get around and apart from Joni our German friend being mugged on his first day by some fake policeman with guns but thankfully they had a change of heart and gave him his wallet and passport back, I saw nothing that told me that Kinshasa was an unsafe place to be. The local bars on the side of the road were good places to grab a beer (and much cheaper than going into any of the bars that had seating) and people were constantly selling food on the streets so there was never an excuse to be hungry. Street sellers sell amongst other things; boiled eggs, French sticks (normally with ground nut/peanut paste), an assortment of sausages (the chilli dried ones were my favourite), peanuts, fried corn. Between Joni, Reka and I we covered a lot of Kinshasa by foot over the week and drank a lot of beers, played a lot of Uno and had a great time.
Above: Enjoying Kinshasa
Above: Photos of Kinshasa
While walking through a district of Kinshasa we found a ‘Medicine Man’ that advertised that he had cures for all sorts of ailments as seen in the photos below, one of his show pieces was for worms as he has several worms all live in a row and showed us that with a pharmaceutical drug called wormex the worms once in contact with the drug would still manage to be alive but with his own concoction the worm died immediately!
Above: Street Medicine man
Had to spend a few Congolese francs at a Land rover mechanics called CMC in Kinshasa to sort out more wheel bearing problems as well as getting to do a full service on Maggie, the garage is professional and specialises in Landrovers but expect to pay a premium here compared to all the other mechanics I have been to so far.
Above: CMC Garage, Kinshasa
After a week of Kinshasa I found the city to be a great place to visit although in certain areas at the weekend the city comes to a close and can be quite ghostly walking around. There are plenty of food options available and there are plenty of supermarkets (which are costly), otherwise street food does the job at 4/5 of the price. There are plenty of taxi’s and buses to take you around the city or driving as we did is a pleasant experience. You can find money changers in many parts of the city, it was easier and safer to do it with a changer that sat outside one of the local drinking places we frequented near the protestant mission and at the time of writing got 9000 Congolese francs to $10. All in all a great city to go and see and surprisingly chilled for all the reports of the city that I had read previously.
The road to the Angolan Border
There are a few border entries to Angola that you can do if you are lucky enough to obtain a visa, one is a ferry from Pointe Noire –> Cabinda –> Soyo, another is by road at Matadi and another is Songololo which is just before Matadi. We had drove the 350km from Kinshasa to Songololo and managed to sleep in the grounds of a really friendly church called St.Joseph although be prepared for kids and adults to watch you for hours as they don’t see too many tourists come this way!
We drove to the border post for around 7am as we wanted to be in Angola as early as possible but at the DRC side, the staff there mill about and smoke a few cigarettes until the chief is ready to open up for business which happened for us around 8am. When you are let in, there is another outpost down the road where you fill in their fiches as well as get your passport scanned believe it or not in such a remote place. Everyone there is friendly and the only thing you need to get through it like most places we have been to is patience!
Above: The DRC Border before entering Angola
Conclusion
In a way I really wanted to see more of DRC but many people have advised that it is not entirely safe as yet to do this and some of the roads are non existent in certain areas more centrally so it’s somewhere I would definitely like to come back to another time. I found the people of DRC from the places I went to, to be really friendly and social and make sure we were made to feel welcome wherever we were, I enjoyed exploring Kinshasa and I have the Angolan Embassy to thank (ironically) for waiting 5 days before we got the visa (although I have heard people get refused now at Matadi or have to wait 2-3 weeks). Hope you enjoyed this small blog for DRC Congo and look forward to hearing from you all.
Left: A novel approach to an outdoor bath Right: Answers on a postcard as to what this is!
Reka – HUN:
Igen, mielott panaszkodnatok a kepek minosege miatt, Noel fenykepezogepe sajnos bekrepalt egy fel meteres zuhanastol, ugyhogy csak az en gepem mukodik, ami sajnos kevesbe minosegi kepeket produkal….
Az legutobbi bejegyzesben nem irtam le reszletesen, hogy milyen mizeria volt vegulis bejutni a Kongoi Demokratikus Koztarsasag teruletere, ugyanis Maggiet fertotleniteni kellett $60-ert, amit mi persze megprobaltunk kikerulni, de a vegen sajnos be kellett adni a derekunkat. Lenyeg a lenyeg, hogy kb. egy fel oras vita utan (ami mellesleg egy mocskos irodaban – a helyi egeszsegugyiek buszkesegeben – zajlott), Maggi kerekeit lespricceltek egy kis hipoval. Az, hogy a tobbi utas milyen jervanyt vagy betegseget hoz be magaval az nem szamit…
Sebaj, megerkeztunk! Azt hallottuk Kinshasarol, hogy Afrika harmadik legnagyobb fovarosa, igy hat Lagoshoz hasonlo forgalmi remalomra szamitottunk, de a valosagban egy normal lepteku, otthoni viszonylatokban talan Gyor meretu hely. Hamar meg is talaltuk a szallasunkat a Protestans Misszioban, ahol $5-t fizettunk fejenkent a kempingezesert. Miutan mindenfele remtorteneteket hallottunk arrol, hogy mennyire veszelyes is ez az orszag, viszont az angolai vizum miatt maradnunk kell egy par napot, es hat ugye az nem allapot, hogy ki sem mozdulunk, ugyhogy felkerekedtunk, es 2 perc mulva mar meg is talaltuk a helyi kocsmat (ami mondanom sem kell, az elkovetkezo napokra torzshelyunkke valt). Immaron Jonival (a nemet biciklissel, akivel meg Brazzavilleben talalkoztunk – Berlinbol kerekezik Del-Afrikaba) kiegeszulve lehajtottunk egy-ket sort, es a masnapi vizumbeszerzesi eselyeket latolgattuk.
Az angolai vizum: Hetfo – reggel sorbanallas a kapuban, majd tulekedes, hogy leadd a taskat, mobil telefont, majd mar a varoteremben tulekedes az ot ablak egyikenel (bar ha tudnal, akkor mindegyknek sorba allnal), ugyanis az egy szem emberke barmelyikben felbukkanhat, majd fel orara megint eltunik; de amikor ujra kijon, zsakbamacska, hogy melyik ablaknal szolgal ki. Szoval kb. 3 ora mulva mar meg is kaptuk a formanyomtatvanyt (amiert meg raadasul fizetnunk is kellett). Majd amikor visszavittuk az immaron kitoltott formulat, az emberunk kozolte, hogy csak szerdan adhatjuk be okat, de kell meg egy level is a brit/nemetkovetsegrol, ami igazolja hogy kik vagyunk es mit csinalunk. Mivel ugye magyar kovetseg nincsen Kinshasaban, en mentesultem ez alol. Vagyis hat azt hittuk…A fiuk el is mentek a kovetsegeikre kedden es ugyan eleg borsos arert, de beszereztek leveleiket. Szerda - a papirok beadasakor kiderult, hogy megiscsak kell nekem ez a level. Hal’ Istennek Petyko Csaba a londoni magyar konzulatosrol nagyon segitokesz volt es nem tobb, mint fel oran belul elfaxolta a levelet. Megegyszer nagyon koszonom! Csutortok – nyitastol zaroraig ucsorogtunk a kovetsegen, amikoris kozoltek, hogy elromlott a vizummatrica nyomtato gep, ugyhogy jojjunk vissza masnap. Viccelsz, ugye? Nem… Pentek – nem reszletezem: a kovetseg du. 3-kor zar, mi negyed negykor keptuk vegre kezhez az 5 napos atutazo vizumot huh…
Egyebkent ebben az egy hetben nagyon jol ereztuk magunkat; rengeteget setaltunk a varosban, sokfelet ettunk az utcai arusoktol (mogyorokremes kifli, chilis bab szendvics, szarazkolbasz, padlizsankrem es tarsaik). Egy-ket dolgot erdemes volt boltban is venni, mint peldaul magyar kolbasz a hentestol, vagy edami sajt, de egyebkent a kozertek nagyon dragak voltak.
Szombaton meg rapihentunk a vizumbeszerzes faradalmaira, aztan vasarnap reggel nekivagtunk, hogy estere mindenkeppen a hatar kozeleben szalljunk meg, hogy aztan amilyen koran csak lehet, megkezdjuk az 5 napos hajszat. Keso delutan meg is erkeztunk Songololo-ba, ahol a katolikus templom kertjeben vertunk tabort es a helyiek furkeszo tekintetei kisereteben foztunk vacsorat – nem sok turistat latnak erre fele. Masnap reggel aztan mi mar ott voltunk a hataron kora reggel, de a hatarorok raerosen kozoltek, hogy ok ugyan csak 8-kor nyitjak fel a sorompot. Aztan az angolai oldalon is varattak meg vagy 20 percet, ott a fonokre kellett varni, hogy lepecsetelje az utleveleket, de vegulis megerkeztunk…
Angolarol bovebbel legkozelebb (mar amennyire boven az 5 napot lehet ecsetelni). Addig is udv mindenkinek!