I.R.T. - Goma, Congo

The next day, we decided to cross the border to Goma, Congo. The border was just a short drive from where we were, and we had talked to several people who told us that the town just on the other side of the border was safe for us to go to. So we drove to the border, parked the truck on the Rwanda side so that we wouldn’t have to get insurance for it, and walked across to the Congo!

(between the borders of Rwanda and Congo)

(Congo border)

There was only one factor that we were concerned about for being able to get across the border. The border crossing fee had to be paid in American cash and usually the bills have to be recent (at least 2003). Becca R. and I didn’t even have American cash on us because going across this border wasn’t in our original plans and crossing the Rwandan border was free. Becca E. had enough cash, but it was the year 2000. We just decided to go for it and if it didn’t work then at least we tried. We all got processed through and then when they asked for the money, sure enough, they wanted a newer bill. There was a brief moment of sadness that we wouldn’t get to enter the Congo before an American man standing behind us spoke up and said that he had a newer bill that he would trade! Another unexpected blessing!

So, I can now say that I have been to the Democratic Republic of Congo! We only spent a few hours there, and there really wasn’t that much to do, but it was still an interesting experience. It was incredible how drastically different things were on the Congo side of the border. Almost immediately it was dirtier, poorer, and less organized than Rwanda had been. Goma had been covered by lava sometime in the 90s and so the street level was significantly higher than it was before. There were buildings that you could see where almost the entire first level was covered in lava. They just rebuilt on top of everything and second floors of buildings became first floors.

There were walls built entirely out of volcanic rock and piles of volcanic rock everywhere.
We stopped and talked to some people to see if there was anything in particular that we should do or see while we were there and they told us we could walk one way to see the lake, one way to see the market, and one way to see the monument from the volcanic eruption. We had already seen the lake on the Rwandan side and the market wasn’t too appealing, so we decided to seek out the monument. Here is a picture of what we found.
It is a statue/monument of a bunch of stuff tangled together and covered in lava. Of course we had to take a picture in front of it! That was about the extent of our Congo excursion, but again, I can now say that I have been there! I have the stamp in my passport to prove it!