If you travel a lot over a long period you will probably have an accumulation of currency which is very colourful but now quite useless. It will either have been devalued to the point of irrelevance or no longer be in use. I was looking through my stash the other day and came across a 50,000 Nouveau XZaires note from Zaire before it became the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1997. I have traveled to DRC several times, both when it was Zaire and as DRC. I recall going to a small streetside shop to get a sandwich for lunch once and noting that the wad of notes it cost was thicker than the sandwich itself. On one memorable trip to Kinshasa I learned that it is probably better to have a driver than to drive your self …. Continue reading “Getting around in Kinshasa”