Outta the car, longhair

Man, what a weekend. The water was out from Saturday morning to late Sunday afternoon, so no toilet, shower, washing machine, or kitchen sink. The power was out from Saturday afternoon until late Sunday afternoon, so no air conditioning, internet, TV, lights, kitchen stove, or refrigerator. It was a hot weekend which made for tough sleeping on Saturday night with no AC and I was smelling rather ripe by Sunday afternoon. From what I hear, most of the city was suffering from extended power and/or water outages.

On Friday a driver from Acme took my wife and I out for a "driving lesson" in Kinshasa. I knew this was important to do - it was so we understood the way traffic flows in the city and knew how to deal with intersections, taxis, roundabouts, and of course, the cops. I heard from other expats that the cops here are something else. They hassle drivers all the time with made-up infractions in the hope of getting a little cash thrown their way for them then overlooking it. No joke, we were stopped by the cops three times in the course of driving around for four hours.

Allow me to recap our offenses:

INCIDENT #1: Boy, you know... I'm pretty sure your turn signal wasn't turned on early enough there as you approached this intersection.

INCIDENT #2: I think your stop at this intersection was a little too sudden for my liking.

INCIDENT #3: Umm... your, uh... let's see... um, your papers might not be up to date.

In each case, we were stuck on the side of the road for at least 20-30 minutes while our Acme driver argued with the cops about these bogus charges and they did their best to not come out and simply demand a bribe from us. Keep in mind that the bribes they're looking for here are very small, maybe $2, but it's the principle of the thing. They think we're rich white folk aimlessly driving around with fistfuls of cash, trying to decide how best to idly spend it. Obviously, this is not true. If we pay them this time, they'll pull us over again and expect more money. And then do it the time after that, and after that, etc. There are no hard and fast traffic laws here so the police make up whatever they want and see if they can get you to pay.

What's sad here is that the police officers don't make a decent living from their salaries. They can barely afford to pay rent each month (and I mean that quite literally - the average rent is equal to their monthly take home pay) so whatever cash they make on the side goes to feeding and providing for them and their families. I get it, but come on... I just want to drive to the grocery store to buy some oatmeal. I don't want to argue with the police for a half hour on the way there and the way back so they can come out of it $5 richer. Maybe I can just toss money out the window as I drive past each police officer so we save everyone some time.

We drove around on Sunday without any run-ins with the law. Sundays are pretty slow days in Kinshasa so it seems like the best time to be out and about. We went out for Indian food after church with some people we know and it was a tasty and not terribly expensive meal.