Cars of Kinshasa

While I have now accumulated scads of cat and foliage pictures to spam you with (read: boring), I want to start documenting the things I will miss in Kinshasa so as not to forget them. And this brings me, immediately and without a doubt, to the most adrenaline pumping and never-dull experience in all of Kin: driving a car. Even riding in a car can get interesting, so you can imagine that the driving part is extra-exciting.

First there are the intersections. To get to most shopping and activities that I do, I have to pass through two great intersections: Kintambo and Socimat. Kintambo is a at least 5 way intersection with a square in the middle for pedestrians. (That is shaped like a triangle. HAHA) There is really no way to illustrate the insanity of this intersection... it is just madness. There are no lights, (the robot is not near where I usually am) no signals, occasionally there are traffic police but people listen to them only about 40% of the time... my favorite is when cars sneak behind the police officers (who are on foot) while they are not looking and the officers are surprised when the cars have disobeyed their signal to stay put.

People are crossing the road, cars are driving in the wrong lane, taxis and buses are stopping wherever they like to let people out and take people aboard, traffic cops are telling you to stop and go and sometimes both. Usually I deeply enjoy this chaos, only sometimes am I angry... usually I stay very close to the car ahead of me if he/she is doing what I want to do and just follow like mad. This works for me much of the time.

Then you head down a very smooth, (usually except for the traffic of one school that is on the way) easy, three lane paved road to the next intersection. Socimat is a very straightforward 4 way lighted intersection, but equally as amazing. You could almost fit a soccer field in this intersection, it is so huge. This means that people can basically do whatever they want and there is room to get away with it. On a good day, when no accidents have occurred and the power is on, all the lights are functional and have protected left turns and everything. (The things we take for granted) They also count down to when you will get a green light again. This is only a suggestion, however, and there are so many crazy things going on (including pedestrians), it's excellent. Street sellers trying to get you to buy their wares, people sneaking an illegal left turn through oncoming traffic, a police truck that they push from a service station (ironic) into the intersection every morning because it is non-functional and just for show. The whole thing just makes me so happy to witness.

Then there is the matter of the cars. You see ALL MANNER of vehicles driving in Kinshasa.

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http://carwallstar.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/white-ferrari-california-convertible-A0174465-3sm.jpg

As you know, Asia has very strict emissions laws, and when the cars no longer meet them, guess where they come? We have an inordinate amount of these: most, inexplicably, in Easter colors...

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Although you do see the occasional Ford pickup or Edge, usually you see TATA trucks, MAN trunks, or other Asian trucks (Nissan or Toyota) as well as SUVS ( Rav Quatre (frenchy Rav Four) Prado: the school has two) and the occaisonal EuroDumper (my favorite) It's a real thing: Look it up!

My favorite car, detailed below, is a good old-fashioned Jimmy: the picture speaks for itself.

While I really really hope not to jinx myself, thus far all of my driving has been very successful and safe - just hair-raising, sometimes sad and always fascinating. It gives me so much confidence to go out into the world successfully when the driving is like this!