Congoleze trying to leave the country

By Peter on Sep 29, 2008, 03:19.

"Take me to America" - a great post about how people in Congo will often ask you to get them out of there. I had it happen to me as well, many times. Someone would ask about scholarships. Or would ask for a reference letter. Once someone even asked me if I could help him organize an X-ray machine to be sent. Here's the post: http://www.me-go.net/rtw/blog/2008/09/25/take-me-to-america/ "In Rwanda a man in an internet cafe asked me to translate something from English to French. I don’t speak French but I saw what he was looking at and tried to warn him. He had received an email from the “U.S. Department of Labour” about a job opportunity. There were so many red flags that it was nearly impossible to fathom anyone would fall for this. The email was sent from a Yahoo address, the logo was badly photoshopped, the body text was brown and many words were misspelled. Apparently this man had already wired the contact a large sum of money (hundred of dollars, which was probably his life savings) and received a request for more money. I explained that this was not the U.S. government and that at this point it was best to give up and accept the lost money. I can’t imagine how anyone would think the U.S. government would ask an applicant to wire money to a bank in The Congo. This man was from The D.R.C. (Congo) and was somewhat educated but not enough to qualify for a skilled laborer visa. I suggested he apply for a refugee visa, as it would be the easiest to get but his pride would not allow that despite telling me he was “going to die in The Congo.” He kept glancing back at the screen with the fake email and I insisted not to pursue it. I even showed him the real U.S. government’s immigration website. We looked at the requirements and there was no way he could fulfill them. The amount of money needed to immigrate is substantial for someone from Africa and I understand why. If someone shows up with little money and no family how will they assimilate and support themselves? He had thought about getting the money together for a plane ticket but nothing else. I felt bad breaking the news to him but can only hope he listened to me and didn’t waste his savings on an email scam. "

Is anyone actually travelling in Congo these days?

By Peter on Jun 15, 2008, 12:05.

I was there in like 1996 (don't remember the exact year)... and it was great, although the country was already falling apart (or had fallen apart a long time ago). I've got lots of pretty good pictures but they're not in digital format, so that's a project there, to make them digital, then I can share them here. Anyways, even though the country was in such bad shape back then, there was a small trickle of travelers. I was based in Kisangani for a while, and there would be a traveler or two coming through every other week or so. There was a track you could do coming from west Africa, going through Congo, into east africa. I don't imagine that's possible or reasonable anymore, with all the violence the last few years. So is anyone still actually traveling to Congo?

Congo still for travelers?

By Peter on Jun 4, 2008, 04:20.

I traveled for 3 months in Congo in the 90s, it was great. But since then all the wars have been going on, are people still going? Anyone going beyond just Kinshasha.

Congo forums on Poorbuthappy.com

Congoleze trying to leave the country

Is anyone actually travelling in Congo these days?

Congo still for travelers?