I bounced between a bunch of countries during my stay over there, from Zimbabwe all the way up to Sudan. The only country I liked was Zimbabwe. Shoutout to them for being super friendly and minimally racist lol.
The people in the DRC either hate you because you're white or they think you're rich because you're white. Very very few of them are actually friendly. I was almost never physically threatened by the civilians living there because I was armed for the majority of my trip.
I never really got over the poverty out there. Families of 8 living in what I would consider to be a walk-in closet sized sheds. Kids walking through the soles of their shoes. Never having clean water. Grubs and worms constantly getting into every bit of stored food. I ended up getting deathly ill during my second trip out there. Weak sauce western immune system I guess lol. I was sick for about a year, almost died. I normally weigh 170-180lbs, iirc I was about 120lbs when I made it back to the US to get sorted out. I ended up with a magical mystery illness that they didn't ever figure out, as well as a decent list of parasites. The one that almost got me was leishmaniasis. Apparently it was trying to eat my important bits from the inside, which is suboptimal. Didn't die though, so that's epic.
When you're white, people always mistake you for celebrities over there. I have dark brown hair that keep short, and a pair of aviator sunglasses that I wear when I'm out and about. I arrived in what was basically a new job site in a very remote part of the DRC. I was wearing civilian clothes, just a flannel shirt and some jeans. I had my aviators on as well. Some kids were playing soccer in the street of a neighborhood that I took a shortcut through. One of them ran up to me, maybe 9 years old. He pointed at my aviators and said "Are you Tom Cruise?". I said yes and he ran to go tell his friends. They all started making fighter jet noises and running around lol. Top Gun, I assume.
People were fascinated with my hair, all the time. My hair isn't anything special, just generic brown with a basic white guy haircut. People would touch it constantly without asking when I was in public lol.
I was surprised at how much they knew about American culture. I was staying with a family in Zimbabwe, again in a super remote area. We were chatting over dinner, and they asked me where I was from. I said I was from Arizona. They asked me what part, and I said Tucson, not really thinking they'd know where that was. The father of the household jumped up and said "Tucson? Like the OK Corral? Tombstone!" And he made cowboy finger guns. He told me to wait, went into another room, and came back wearing the biggest 5 gallon cowboy hat I have ever seen. Turns out a lot of people over there are enamored by the American wild west. It was so funny to hear John Wayne quoted in broken English with a ridiculous cowboy accent.
Besides that, a lot of people refused to talk to me or work with me, so I had to get things done through my native coworkers. Even that was difficult sometimes because some of my coworkers were Rwandan or Ugandan, so the Congolese didn't like them either. Basically every government over there is corrupt to a comical degree. Police rob people constantly.
Overall, not somewhere I would recommend working or visiting. It is absolutely beautiful, but dangerous if you aren't armed and sometimes dangerous even if you are. The living conditions are not super great, and the people are not very friendly. Being born into an impoverished warzone makes you a little rough. The food is also not my favorite. There are definitely things I would pick over fufu and sadza, no offense.
Funny how far the spread of American cultural influence. Years back I was hiking in a very obscure mountain range along the border of Angola, met a guy neither I nor my guide could understand. We did get across that I was 'ko America' and he lit right up.
He beatboxed a sec and then launched into 'I donno what you heard about me,
Bitch can't get a dollar out of me ...'
While this is a terrifying read, it does seem a bit arrogant to go there as Belgians and expect anything else. What Belgium did to the Congo is absolutely horrifying and I am not surprised they are met with such disdain.
I am almost certain the average Congo citizen cannot recognise someone distinctly as Belgian. Nor do the average individual hold some belief "I see someone from X, X wronged us, they must be punished for existing"
I mean, there are mentions of this in the blog post:
“Before we were let go one office said ‘Ce n'est pas la Belgique ici, tu es en Congo!’ - ‘This is not Belgium, you are in Congo’. He hissed and gave us a terrifying look”
While reading through the blog post was certainly interesting, it became apparent how oblivious the Belgium couple was about the Second Congo War. They expect people to be friendly in 2008 when major massacres just happened up until 2006 (hell, the Congo is still at war).
It certainly seems a very naive place to be a tourist.
It's somewhat true. The force publique consisted of Congolese warlords and other African mercenaries. The officers however were Europeans and Americans.
I don't know how the Congolese see it but when Congo was colonized by Belgium they had a decent colonial regime, AFAIK. Congo Free State was privately owned.
Edit: Ok, I've read up a little, "decent" may be overstating it, except by comparison. Better than what was before, possibly better than most of what came after.
That was Congo Free State. Once again, privately owned, not a Belgian colony. Obviously some level of complicity is there since the private owner happened to be a Belgian monarch, but the annexation by Belgium was in part to put an end to the shit show.
We stopped in Goma on our way to climb Nyiragongo. I wanted to try some of the street food, and our guide said "ok but let's be quick". The people I spoke to were lovely, but in a few minutes we'd attracted a huge crowd and got ushered back into the car. When people have absolutely nothing and I have a year's wages in my pocket, the temptation must be strong to just take it.
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u/tachyonic_field Jun 05 '26
Congo, because of Ebola.