After working in Lubumbashi for a little bit more than two months, it’s time to hit the road again! Of course, I am not using the plural form now, since I will be travelling solo, like I was doing some years ago… Indeed, this job offered me everything that I was wishing when I decided to let my motorbike rest on its sidestand for a while. It was a really interesting experience… I learned a lot more about the way the Africans live, work and cooperate with their white masters.

Suddenly I got a key of this house between my motorbike’s keys…

   Unfortunately, the opinions I had formed while travelling around Africa were confirmed here. In Africa you can experience racism on its zenith, while slavery has just a different form now. Nowadays, the master’s whip is replaced by money and the chains which hold the slaves are replaced by poverty… When the salaries in this country are usually between 100 and 150 euros (per month!), how can somebody get out of poverty and misery? Somebody could say: “by education”. Unfortunately, even the educated people get similar salaries, if their skin is black.

The lake was my favorite part of Lubumbashi!

   The only way for a local in this country to get out of poverty is through the infinitive corruption. If somebody decides to forget his ethics and step on others, then, if he also has some connections, he can make a huge fortune. The thing is that when somebody gets in the higher class, he doesn’t only forget his past, but he also expresses all the spite that he was hiding for years. This way, this situation is going on for ever… So, the locals are the ones who are mainly responsible for the terrible life quality of their compatriots. The worst employers are usually the black ones… They pay almost nothing, sometimes they don’t pay at all, yelling and insulting their employees is part of everyday life, while the use of force is not unheard.

My most beautiful two-day getaway from the town was in this farm, where I camped on the lake!

   Some people believe that 150 euros per month may be enough for a six-member family, because Africa is cheap. That’s not true at all… The only cheap product here is the food which grows on this land. Everything else is really expensive, usually more expensive than in the West. For instance, milk, like most other products, are imported through South Africa. So, on top of the product’s value a lot of expenses are added: transporting and above all, the fat bribes which are demanded by custom officers, tax collectors, policemen, military officers, ministers and anyone else who has power. Without all those people’s favour, no business can survive in this country. That’s how huge the corruption is here…

The locals carry almost everything on their bicycles which are so heavily loaded that they cannot ride them. They just push them.

   Of course, the numbers for white people are different. Africa has two very different faces: one is for the poor majority and one for the few wealthy guys. When I had to put a simple filling on my tooth, I visited the only serious dentist in the town and I paid 90 euros for that. It’s obvious that most people in this country don’t have access to the health care system. When somebody gets sick, he just waits to get better. If he is not so lucky, he may visit a traditional healer, who will not help him probably. So, many people spend their life with serious diseases or they die a bit sooner…

I stayed so long in Lubumbashi that my friends organized a farewell party for me! They wrote on the dessert: “Elias, have a nice trip!”.

   After all, I feel that I experienced enough here and it’s time for me to hit the road again… The only issue is that the rainy season is about to start (not again!). So, I’ll change my route a little bit. I decided to travel relatively fast towards South Africa, which means in a period of two months. I hope that the weather will not be so rainy there. After a few months, when the rains will come to an end, I will return north to visit Botswana and Zimbabwe.

   So, get ready, wear your helmet and… we’ll start the engine again because the savannas, the desserts and the mountains of Africa are expecting us 😉

Here you can watch the second part of the video about our adventure in D. R. Congo (with English subtitles):

Soundtracks (music from D. R. Congo):
Rumba music