Archive for 1 July 2009
You are in Mongolia… really?
Tamara Sanderson is a Kiva Fellow with Xacbank in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
Continue Reading 1 July 2009 at 20:04 tamarasanderson 6 comments
My Run-in with the Congolese Police
By John Soleanicov, KF8 DRC
I could feel the beads of sweat rolling down my face. Sitting in a makeshift police station under a tent, I was surrounded by three Congolese policemen and my accuser, a young man that could not have been past his mid twenties. My crime: videotaping in public.
As I was returning from a group visit with Hope’s Kiva Coordinator, Robert, I wanted to capture the infrastructure realities of Kinshasa (more on this in a later post). The young man noticed I was taping and began to follow our motorcycle. You can actually hear him in the video.
Once we arrived at our destination, he made a big scandal, refusing to let us leave peacefully. Since he was clearly not a police officer, Robert suggested going to a nearby police station to settle the matter “officially.” Having heard horror stories of the notorious corruption of Congolese police, I feared the confiscation of my camera, passport, or worse.
