by There are four ways to get around in Congo: the regular bus, the big bus, the taxis, and the “cent-cent.” All the transportation in Brazzaville is colored green like the jungle and all the transportation in Pointe-Noire is colored blue like the ocean. Pretty cool.
Below is a POV from the front seat on the regular bus. It’s very rare to get to be in the coveted front row seat to yourself. Normally you are in a row in the back with 3 other people.
The regular bus is a 16-passenger Toyota mini-bus that is colored green and covered in stickers. Be prepared to sit in these things for hours while listening to music in Lingala and people calling you “Mundele“. They are always cheap around $0.40 for a 30 minute ride one way and you use them to get to get to your area everyday. The buses are often really crowded and you will be squeezed sometimes for hours but you just have to deal with it. Just taking the bus can make for some funny experiences.
Getting a bus to your area can be an experience in of itself. You first have to go to a main bus stop where buses will drive in and someone working for the Toyota bus will hang out of the bus and yell out the endpoint of the bus’s route. You have to wait patiently for the right bus that is going where you want to go to come. It’s always cool to hear the people yell out the endpoints and having to find the right bus especially if you are in a busy market.
The taxis is the best form of transportation. They are private, so you don’t have to share it with any strangers. They drive around everywhere and wait for people to call them over. You flag it down and tell the driver where you want to go and a price usually it is always 1000 francs or $2, but when it rains it’s usually 1500 francs $3. We used the taxis to go to the mission office, to carry our groceries after shopping at the market, or to get places fast without having to take a slower bus.
The “cent-cent” is a minivan that goes on a circuit like the bus except the circuit is smaller, like around a neighborhood, for example. It’s called a cent-cent because normally the price is cent francs or 100 francs for one person one way which is $0.20 cents.
The last form of transportation is the big bus which can take you really far distances for really cheap. They are more rare and are only in certain large bus stops and they take a more direct route to a place deep in the city from the periphery.
The funny thing about the transportation in Brazzaville is that they are all Toyota and they are all colored green.
