{"id":1021,"date":"2010-12-21T19:48:50","date_gmt":"2010-12-22T00:48:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/?p=1021"},"modified":"2010-12-21T19:48:50","modified_gmt":"2010-12-22T00:48:50","slug":"border-crossing-at-zongo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/2010\/12\/border-crossing-at-zongo\/","title":{"rendered":"Border Crossing at Zongo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Border crossings can be such fun. \u00a0\ud83d\ude42 \u00a0Here is what we experienced leaving Bangui and crossing the Ubangi River to enter Congo at Zongo.<\/p>\n

To leave CAR (Central African Republic – the capital of which is Bangui) you have to complete several steps of formalities.\u00a0 Step by step we:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Discussed the price for the porters to unload our bags and freight and carry it to the dugout canoe.<\/li>\n
  2. Paid 5% of the value of the purchases to the customs agent.\u00a0 We had 4 gas bottles plus 2 boxes of groceries.\u00a0 Paid $15.63<\/li>\n
  3. Paid $11.00 to the Husbandry Office because we had cheese and butter<\/li>\n
  4. Paid $11.00 to the physosanitation office because we had gas bottles<\/li>\n
  5. Paid $11.00 to the Office of Water and Environment for the gas bottles<\/li>\n
  6. Paid $4.17 each for 3 people for the health inspector to look at our health cards<\/li>\n
  7. Paid $17.08 each for immigration to stamp our passport<\/li>\n
  8. Paid $11.00 to the soldiers there for security because we had to.<\/li>\n
  9. Then we had to renegotiate with the porters because they had to carry the bags and freight an additional 20 feet.<\/li>\n
  10. Next negotiate with the driver of the dugout canoe.\u00a0 Of course he really wanted to increase the price since the gas bottles were full.\u00a0 We had brought over empties to exchange.\u00a0 Arguing that there was no significant increase in weight and fuel consumption was pointless.\u00a0 The boat cost $41.67<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Arriving in Zongo we repeated much of the process:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Negotiate with porters, cheaper here<\/li>\n
    2. $5.82 total, not each, to the sanitation officer<\/li>\n
    3. $4.17 to the security guys to not look at our bags.\u00a0 That\u2019s the way it goes.\u00a0 You can\u2019t get around not paying something.<\/li>\n
    4. Then the CEUM truck picked us up and didn\u2019t go to the customs office.\u00a0 OK, I guess they know what we can and cannot do.\u00a0 That saved at least $50.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      The whole process from unload to leaving on the Zongo side took ~45 minutes which I guess really isn\u2019t too bad.\u00a0 The stress points are the negotiations which are loud, in-your-face discussions.\u00a0 What is a fair price and what is unreasonable? \u00a0Example: the boat driver started out asking for $41.67.\u00a0 An individual can cross the river for $1.00, so his starting price seemd unreasonable.\u00a0 We ended up paying half the starting price.<\/p>\n

      Such fun!!<\/p>\n

      Report This Post<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Border crossings can be such fun. \u00a0\ud83d\ude42 \u00a0Here is what we experienced leaving Bangui and crossing the Ubangi River to enter Congo at Zongo. To leave CAR (Central African Republic – the capital of which is Bangui) you have to complete several steps of formalities.\u00a0 Step by step we: Discussed the price for the porters […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nBorder Crossing at Zongo - Ekstrands in Congo<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/2010\/12\/border-crossing-at-zongo\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Border Crossing at Zongo - Ekstrands in Congo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Border crossings can be such fun. \u00a0\ud83d\ude42 \u00a0Here is what we experienced leaving Bangui and crossing the Ubangi River to enter Congo at Zongo. 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