For Mom, Love Steve

I’m a bit feverish. I’m sweaty. I can’t write. So I am just going to shotgun it.

We got into Kananga, the capital of the Kasai province, the mineral area. Hot, dusty, dusty, dusty, with a look of a town that once was.

I found a cheap place to stay just up from the train station. The first thing I wanted and needed was a shower. The hotel was a goliath of a place with huge rooms, but after many wars and no way to maintain them, it had gone the way of the town. There was no water or electricity. I asked the manager for some water to take a bath and he said there was none. Huh? No, you must be mistaken, I would like a bucket of water, I know the showers don’t work. Nope, there is none. There is no water? Nope. Holy Shit!!!!!!!!!!!! I begged and even offered to buy some water. Nothing. I even offered some kid off the street money if he could find me a bucket of water, nope. Finally, the guy says alright and goes to the back and brings back a half bucket of water. It was dark by now and when I looked into the bucket it had this shiny glaze floating on the top. Oh well, you gotta do what you gotta do and four days on a train means a lot of scum on the skin. Well, I took my bath and got on with life. The next day it rains and I go out back to wash some clothes as you take advantage while you can. In the back there sits a dumpster. What they did was use the water that collected in there to fill their buckets and containers. Nice. Now I know why the oily ring. It was half filled with dirt and bits of trash. I just keep sliding down hill.

The next leg of my trip is another train from, Kananga to Ilebo. It is not a long way, but only accessible by train from Kananga. I thought I was going to be lucky when I found out that the train would leave the next day and that I could pick up a ticket in the morning. When I went in the morning they said the train would not leave until the next day and I could pick up a ticket the next morning. the next morning I got my ticket and was all set to go. They said in the evening so I came back with all my stuff. I got settled into my compartment and said hello to one of my roommates. A guard stopped by and said that we wouldn’t be leaving that day, so I opted to go back to the hotel and sleep in a bed. The following day I was back and for the next three days we played “we’ll be leaving in just a bit.” The assholes would blow the whistle every so often to make it seem like we were leaving but we didn’t. They wouldn’t say that we weren’t leaving, so I couldn’t go to the hotel. We had to just sit by the train for three days. It fucking sucked. I and everybody else was miserable. Finally, on saturday, the day before Christmas Eve, we left.

This train was definitely not like the first train. Here there was a lot of guys with maching guns. First class cabing means you got nine people in the same room. Outside the room people were jammed all along the hallway so moving about was almost impossible. There was no dining car or any luxury. This was more realistic Congo travel.

Here, we went through the jungle. It seemed like the train might lost against the bush in some areas. It was very beautiful and picturesque however, and a lot more of what I was expecting. It was the same with the villages and people, except with so many people crammed on board, I felt sorry for the villagers when we stopped because people jumped off the train and basically attacked the villagers for their food.

After three days and two nights we finally made it to Ilebo. That was how I spent my Christmas 2006.

Well, Mother Congo is going to do her best to make my life a living hell. The DRC Embassy is closed so I can’t get my Visa. I was desperate and figured they must give visas at the border. The Immigration officer on this side said that if I went without the Visa, they would just send me back. There is nothing I can do. The office has been closed since Monday and will supposedly be open on Thursday. I can’t stand this place. I am sick, tired, miserable and just want to be out of the Congo. I am paying more per day here in this miserable place than I have any other location except for Cartagena.

Even though I am not in a happy mood, I figure I could use my free time and get some stories posted so I don’t fall too far behind, so here goes.

After a decent time of waiting in Lubumbashi, the train was finally ready to depart. This time I knew we were leaving because when I walked to the station, there were thousands of people milling about. With ticket in hand I waded through the crowd getting stopped every ten paces by somebody asking for my ticket, my passpost, or money. It was about fifty-fifty in which some were legitimate and some were assholes just trying to rip me off.

The train and my compartment were surprisingly nice. They were well worn of course, but it was a four bed compartment with enough room in the center to squeeze two people through. They even had clean sheets on the bed which was a surprise. Other pluses were private security for the train. The guys were actually very well trained and in special uniforms which they were all quite proud of. They kept people out of the first class areas and also people from off the train from getting onboard. I made small talk with most of them and was very appreciative of their help. There was also a dinner car where we got free breakfast. Pretty good I might add as we had omelettes with bread and jam. They served this milky tea with tons of sugar that I really liked. Unfortunately we only got three free breakfasts. For lunch and dinner they offered nshima and some kind of meat. That too was not so bad. We stopped at a lot of villages on the way and the people sold everything you can think of through the windows so that is where you could pick up snacks. The main travelling diet was raw peanuts, corn, bananas, nshima, pineapple, toasted termites, and other things I am not sure what they were.

Now, it wasn’t all good as there was no electricity or water. That’s right nada. At night it was up to passengers to bring their own light. For water you bought it at the different stops from the water kids who sold water out of containers. The toilet was what you might expect, a nasty toilet that basically was open to the ground. That was also the shower room. You would buy a tub of water from the kids and use that for a bucket bath. The secret was to let a few people go first so that they douse the room down before you go in.

Our first stop was only maybe a half hour away, but as another train was coming from the other direction we had to wait for it to pass, six hours, beautiful. Oh, a surprising fact, the first quarter of the run was by electric car. They have power lines running along which the engine was linked to just like city Metro systems. I was pretty surprised and we actually only lost power once the whole time. We ended up breaking down a couple of times though when we switched to the diesel motor.

At first the compartment was fairly comfortable with the four of us. There was a gentleman who spoke pretty good English, so that made the ride a lot easier. It seemed most everyone could speak some English. I guess it had to do with travelling first class. Next door was even a Bishop who lived part time in the US. He was a very nice fellow and you could tell wielded some power as people basically were bowing and running around like they were his servants. A bit of a problem occurred when at one stop we picked up a lady and her four kids. I am not sure what happened but she got put in our cabin so all of a sudden everyone got a kid to bunk with. That made things a bit tight but not too bad. About half way through at a city called Kamina, we seemed to have dropped off about half the train as it was a big city. My cabin mates changed with the exception of the English speaking guy and we picked up a police chief and a business man. In all, every one was very personable and helpful.

The scenery going through the Congo was very nice. The closer towards the central part we got the more jungly things got. Surprisingly, rolling grassy hills made up the most of it. Just miles and miles of perfect grazing/farming land. That was probably the biggest surprise.

The villages where we stopped were the funniest part of the ride. We would pull in and the people would come running carrying all their wares. The people on the train hung out the window and bartered for all kinds of stuff. Me, I hung out the window and would draw a huge crowd, mainly consisting of kids. They definitely haven’t seen anybody like me out there in the bush. At one point, I had a hundred kids playing the “what do you call this”, where they would point at something and I would tell them the name in English, then the whole crowd would repeat it. A couple of times the security guards had me go back into the compartment as they were getting worried about so many people. The other fun thing would be catching a little kids eye which would in turn cause his jaw to drop. Then with one little smile that would turn into a screaming, rolling with laughter. I think that part of the trip will be my most memorable.

Four days and three nights later we rolled into Kananga. That much time on a train really wears you out and I was extremely happy to be getting off as was everybody else. Being my first long term train ride, I was still pretty pumped and being deep in the Congo was pretty exciting.

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