The rain has made it worse. We are waiting for hours to move 1 m. Everybody pushes for an inch. Everybody waits for an opening but there is none.
You are drenched in water if you step out of your car. It is exhausting, menial and tiring to move 100 m, which takes 30 minutes. There is no end in sight, inch forward, only to see more cars stuck. Everyone pushes left and right, back and forth. You turn your head left or right and there is nowhere to go.
It would be so easy for someone to break a window and steal what you have on your seat.
Don’t expect any courtesy, don’t give any either because, if you do, someone will take an inch more and another inch. Eventually, every car will pass by you and you will be left with your own stupidity, thinking somebody will give you an inch. Almost no one will ever give you an inch, you need to take that inch.
You indicate left or right because you think that is what is expected: to indicate that you will turn. But if you do, they will make sure that you cannot merge or change lanes, they will speed up and stick to the car in front of them to make sure you do not pass even if you insist a little. Don’t indicate, just turn, it’s better.
They will make sure to touch your car just enough that you get their message. “You shall not to pass” is the message. It enrages you to see such lack of courtesy. You’re left with yourself, screaming and shouting in your own car.
You don’t know what to do, so you just yell out your window and immediately accelerate avoiding the wrath of their anger.
They just laughed because you were just a funny foreign person getting mad. What do you know “Mundele”? They are used to this, you’re not.
They scream something at you in Lingala but you closed your window. At least you got your message across. You have no idea what it is they said and don’t care. They don’t give a damn, they don’t care about your anger.
Only you care about your anger.
It’s not worth it if they get mad. It might be worse for you. Just shut up and drive. It is extremely frustrating to drive in the DRC. You could try it. Don’t get a driver to see if you like it, maybe you love it, maybe you hate it.
It has been 10 minutes and you have not moved but you are 20 m from your destination.
What a nice feeling to be stuck in traffic and being so close to where you want to be!
It makes no sense why there is so much traffic, it makes absolutely none at all that you are just stuck in the madness, in the insanity of Kinshasa’s traffic.
I hope other countries don’t have this, but maybe they do.
What usually takes five minutes has now taken an hour. For no reason at all.
It’s just the fact that it’s just rained a lot and maybe cars are stuck on the road and cannot move.
Tomorrow, the battle starts again.
Emilio in Congo (DRC) 
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