The next morning I did as I was told and waited around the hotel for the Immigration guys to turn up. By about midday they hadn’t arrived so I went out to search for breakfast. The hotel is in a pretty boring area on the main street out of town and so there wasnt a great deal going on. Needless to say the officers turned up just as I was walking out, and told me again not to leave without them. So they escorted me for breakfast and then to an internet Cafe to contact folks back home, I think sight seeing was out of the question so didn’t ask. They told me the necessary documentation would be ready in the afternoon and I would travel today.
I sat around scratching my ass all day until about 7pm, when one of the officers turned up. Apparently I would travel tomorrow now. I took Gabe (the immigration officer) out for some dinner and a beer, he turned out to be quite a cool guy. We had a good chat about the situation in the DRC and the upcoming elections, the first for forty years! What made a refreshing change was his nationalist mentality, rather than searching for a European visa he actually wanted to stay and help sort out his country. The beers also helped me sleep a bit better.
The next day was pretty much the same, a visit in the morning ‘you will travel today’, a visit in the afternoon ‘you will travel tomorrow’, and then out for dinner. All the meanwhile the hotel bill was burning a hole in my pocket and the small payments for ‘documentation’ weren’t helping either. I chatted with a few friendly locals who were staying in the hotel, and they agreed that it looked like they were extorting me for a bit of petty cash.
Very early the next morning (4am) I snuck out to the transit station and got a ride in the first truck. Sure enough we got to the check point on the way out of town and they asked for my ‘Documentation for the Interior’, which of course I didn’t have. They asked for a $150 dollar payment, no chance I was paying that. So it was off to the Police Station and sit and wait four hours for the Immigration Officers to turn up, they got me off any charges if I pay $30 for the Police car petrol (expensive petrol for a five minute ride), but I paid to avoid any escalation in the problems.
Everyone had a good laugh, and then it was back to the hotel, and for me back to square one.
