Congo diary: 70 kms travelled in over 5 hours

It will be an understatement if I say that Congo has got bad roads. Congo simply does not have road infrastructure.

Travel to centres outside main cities and you will find roads that look like the ruins of an ancient Mayan civilization. You can only marvel at the audacity of life as people still makes use of what I hate to call erstwhile roads.

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Even peacekeeping forces have adjusted like good wives; the distance between two points is measured not in kilometres but in time. The official operational maps of militaries do mention distance but time is displayed more prominently.

Roads are also a signature of lawlessness in the state.

Whether armed forces, private militias or adventurous individuals -- all one needs to do is to block a road (track?) and demand money in lieu of passage. I was fortunate since I was part of the UN Peace Keeping contingent but people at large do not have many options.

The joke is that Congo has better air infrastructure than roads since resource pilferage through airplanes is more sophisticated and discreet.

Coming to myself, I covered the 70-km distance distance between Khwinja and Goma in over 5 hours. I wore a bulletproof jacket through the journey.

Apart from protecting me, it also kept my back straight. So I’m doubly grateful to the heavy jacket for in its absence my spine would definitely have crumbled into pieces.

For the first time, I missed roads in India and felt grateful for what has been built in the home country.

I could be blamed for thinking small but to see the state of the world on another continent, it just made me remember what I had. Be it democracy or roads to travel on.