And I finally get to meet the cops!

It’s been a while and a lot has happened! I finally had my first encounter with the police in Kinshasa and witnessed a real protest, not the non-violent type that we are used to, but the type in which everyone around starts running and cars make a quick 180 to drive away. Luckily I was in a car and we had no trouble getting away, but the poor Spanish doctor that was driving was a bit shook up. There were supposed gunshots and all that comes with a real protest and still no one really knows why the students were protesting (it was by the one of the national universities in Kinshasa).

As for the encounter with the police here…I will admit that I was a bit scared. I was with one of the drivers that my residence lent me for a few hours so one of my English students (who lives with me in the residence—she’s hilarious!) and I could attend an event that I was invited to by the director of the U.S. Cultural Institute. It was at the Protestant University of the Congo, in which they have an “American Corner” where students come and practice their English every Saturday afternoon. So, on our way there we stopped at an intersection in which the police where controlling traffic and checking people as they drove by. We were of course stopped since there was a Mundele (I have come to learn that the literal translation is the color white in Lingala, the native language in this region of the DRC) in the car. I was already expecting this but what I was not expecting was what would come next…our driver actually being told to drive of to the side of the road with one of the officers that had forced himself inside. They were convinced that Teo’s (the driver) drivers license was expired—which of course they were making up. Teo had to get out of the car and there was one point in which one of the officers almost took the keys from him and tried to drive of with Gaelle and I still in the car. Teo finally convinced the officers to let us go where we needed to go (30 minutes lalter J) and that he would return right after—they kept all his documentation to make sure he would return. I had to give Teo a few dollars in order to assure that he would get his documents back and we were dropped off at the “American Corner.” Luckily by the time the event was finished Teo had returned. The officers had thought that I would return with him because in their eyes I was his employer, but once he returned without me they understood that he would have no more than a few dollars to offer and gave him back his documents. The poor guy was so agitated because he knew that he had to behave with the officers today because it was Saturday (the day they get most anxious) and had alcohol in their breath.

It’s sad to know that the mundele has done so much harm in this country. I was expecting this type of treatment but at the same time its hard to come to terms with the fact that they also view you as one of those rich white people that they want to rough around. In the end I felt a bit sorry for those officers, their dismal pay causes them to seek out other ways of gaining an income--and with the few dollars they got from me they continue drinking.

There is so much harm that has come to this country because of what has been done in order to get to its resources--but on the brighter side, the people still have a lot of hope for their country. That is the hope that I see everyday in the eyes of the girls that I live with. It is that hope that keeps them going and which keeps me going today as well.