Ordre de Mission: Revision
Ah! Ah!! Ah!!!
Of course, I thought I didn’t need an “ordre de mission.” But it came in handy much to my surprise. Which really should not be surprising at this point. There was some sort of disagreement between the person who was accompanying me on my departure and the customs officials about where I could be processed. I have a “regular” (non-diplomatic) passport, but I have a special “Courtesy Visa” from the DRC stamped in my passport. It allows me to stay for a year without paying a fee. (Normally I think a multiple re-entry visa for six months costs about $300.) I am not sure what the visa entitles me to at my departure--I think it might be a seat on a leather sofa in a fancy waiting lounge--but the dispute, which took place in Lingala and was difficult for me to follow, was settled once the “Ordre de Mission” was produced.
And I used it again when I cleared transit security in Brussels. Belgian customs officials are very “interested” in anyone coming from Kinshasa. Curious in the way colonizers feel about their former colonies. I couldn’t tell if they were asking me questions out of earnest curiosity or challenging skepticism. Perhaps that is their job--to make an interrogation sound like a friendly chat. In my case, I am certain the US Passport made things relatively smooth. When my explanation that I am a Professor teaching at the University of Kinshasa for the year and that I was returning to the US for 11 days of officially sanctioned “recherche documentation” got a puzzled stare from my Belgian interlocutors that I was unable to interpret, I presented them with my “Ordre de Mission.” It made me a little bit less confusing.
I was, in fact, traveling with a suitcase full of contraband, which all the security folks noticed, told me was “interdit,” but then allowed me to proceed. The contraband: 7 avocados, 7 mangustas, and 3 maracoudjas. My driver who is growing a breed of enormous avocados gave me six avocados; Maman gave me one avocado and three maracoudjas from her garden. A maracoudja is a fruit that looks like a golden apple but tastes a little bit like a pomegranate. Mangustas only grow in Bas-Congo and I bought them. I have heard that they originated in Asia, and that they may be in Brazil. It has a thick, tough deep red-purple skin. You don’t eat the skin though I suspect it has some use, perhaps as dye or coloring (though nobody has been able to tell me for sure). Inside you have soft white fruit that is the consistency of a soft orange with a pit in the middle. For taste, the closest thing I can reference is lychee, but it is deliciously unlike anything I have ever eaten.
Of course, I thought I didn’t need an “ordre de mission.” But it came in handy much to my surprise. Which really should not be surprising at this point. There was some sort of disagreement between the person who was accompanying me on my departure and the customs officials about where I could be processed. I have a “regular” (non-diplomatic) passport, but I have a special “Courtesy Visa” from the DRC stamped in my passport. It allows me to stay for a year without paying a fee. (Normally I think a multiple re-entry visa for six months costs about $300.) I am not sure what the visa entitles me to at my departure--I think it might be a seat on a leather sofa in a fancy waiting lounge--but the dispute, which took place in Lingala and was difficult for me to follow, was settled once the “Ordre de Mission” was produced.
And I used it again when I cleared transit security in Brussels. Belgian customs officials are very “interested” in anyone coming from Kinshasa. Curious in the way colonizers feel about their former colonies. I couldn’t tell if they were asking me questions out of earnest curiosity or challenging skepticism. Perhaps that is their job--to make an interrogation sound like a friendly chat. In my case, I am certain the US Passport made things relatively smooth. When my explanation that I am a Professor teaching at the University of Kinshasa for the year and that I was returning to the US for 11 days of officially sanctioned “recherche documentation” got a puzzled stare from my Belgian interlocutors that I was unable to interpret, I presented them with my “Ordre de Mission.” It made me a little bit less confusing.
I was, in fact, traveling with a suitcase full of contraband, which all the security folks noticed, told me was “interdit,” but then allowed me to proceed. The contraband: 7 avocados, 7 mangustas, and 3 maracoudjas. My driver who is growing a breed of enormous avocados gave me six avocados; Maman gave me one avocado and three maracoudjas from her garden. A maracoudja is a fruit that looks like a golden apple but tastes a little bit like a pomegranate. Mangustas only grow in Bas-Congo and I bought them. I have heard that they originated in Asia, and that they may be in Brazil. It has a thick, tough deep red-purple skin. You don’t eat the skin though I suspect it has some use, perhaps as dye or coloring (though nobody has been able to tell me for sure). Inside you have soft white fruit that is the consistency of a soft orange with a pit in the middle. For taste, the closest thing I can reference is lychee, but it is deliciously unlike anything I have ever eaten.
posted by irad at 11:34 PM
1 Comments:
Dear Ira,
You never cease to amuse me with yoru witty recounting o fevents in Kin. To say th eleast I am baffled by the factthat an maerican Full Bright scholar returning to hios hom ecountry needs an order de mission! What a joke! But the joek proved helpful in the end.
Iamgine what troubles yoru Congolese colleagues would have endured at the Airport in Brussels! I tasted the fruit, simply by your delicious description.
Always enjoying the stories.
Gustave
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