Last night we went grocery shopping in the dark. The traffic is insane--imagine Los Angeles but with no lanes, everyone honks at everyone else to get out of the way. I learned today that the "traffic lights" are really just men (called roulages) who stand on enormous cement stands in the middle of intersections and wave cars to and fro. It seemed ridiculous to me, but when I asked if people obeyed I was told that if they didn't the traffic cops would hail a car from the side of the road to cut them off and they'd have to pay a hefty fine. They're fierce and everyone is terrified of them.
Regardless traffic was terrible last night, and in the heat and dirt and pollution approaching lights look like mysterious shapeless beasts flying by. We waited for about 10 minutes to take a left turn into the parking lot, with the hired help of a boy standing in the middle of the road who waved us through. Just as we were turning in we accidentally backed into a car behind us (to get out of the way of an SUV barreling at 40mph into our path) and a man started screaming at us in Lingala, and came and tapped on our window in French asking us to come see how we'd destroyed his car. I didn't even feel us hit it, so we ignored him and went inside to go shopping.
The price of food is mind-boggling. Two heads of red lettuce were $28, plums were $3 each, and a small tub of sugar was $8. Luckily I'm not paying for food! Everything is imported from Belgium and my carbon footprint is flying through the roof.
When we came out of the supermarket the man whose car we "hit" was waiting for us. There was a small dent in the driver's door (to match the dozens of other dents all over it) but he wouldn't let us off the hook, bargaining and arguing with Owen and making a fuss until we finally agreed to pay him $20.
I was on set for 8 hours today in the docks on the Congo River. Once in a lifetime experience as that area is government run and totally off limits. It was utterly exhausting but I'll try to post photos and more about it tonight or tomorrow.
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