Saturday & The Cops

 

Saturday, we usually run errands and then relax at the house. We needed to go to Hyper Psaro, one of the many grocery stores here.  We like this one because the selection is "fantastic" but it is farther away from our house.  Along the way, we passed a furniture store selling couches.  They sit them outside in the dust and just leave them there.  Sam said, even when it rains, they stay outside.  

                   

We made it to the round about in front of the grocery store and all of a sudden there were four cops that stopped us, right in the middle of traffic.  I didn't get the best pictures, because I was so scared and shaky.  We were stopped in the middle of the street, blocking a lane of traffic.  There are some rules here for when you are stopped by the police. 

1. Only roll down your winding an inch or two.  If you do more, they will reach in and grab your keys.

2. Don't give them anything. If they ask for paper work, show it to them but do not give it to them, they will hold it for ransom.

3. Try and block as much as traffic as possible so the cars behind you will get annoyed and start honking, more than normal, and they will eventually let you go.

Well...Cory didn't follow all of the rules.  They stopped us and he only rolled down his window a little bit.  When they asked for paper work, he got it out and then gave it to them.  He was flustered.  Had he not handed them the card, we would have just driven off but we couldn't without the card. I immediately called Dona, our office coordinator, and he is from here.  We wouldn't give them our phone, just had it on speaker and held it up to the space in the window.  There was a lot of French going back and forth and then Dona asked us if we had any Congolese Francs.  We only had 6500 CF (which is equivalent to $2.70) and he said they would let us go for 10,000 CF ($4.16).  We didn't have that much so he told us he is on his way. 

Eventually three of the cops walked to the sidewalk and the one holding our card stayed by the truck.  Eventually, I think the honking got to him because he gave us our card and took the 6500 CF and let us go! I know the picture is blurry but you can see our card in his left hand.

                

Once we got home and the groceries put away we hung out with Jason, Junior and Ella.  Junior was teaching Cory what he was learning in math.  Then Jason and Ella wanted to play hide and seek so Cory teased them and pretended he was hiding because he couldn't see them so they must not be able to see him!