Something happened to me in 2013 during my visit to Republic of Congo. I had just finished my studies and was received this international assignment. It was the first time in my life that I was going for an international trip and that too in a Francophone country. I mentioned in my resume that I knew basic French (took a 1-month French language course on campus) and that was apparently enough for me to be considered for the assignment. Most of all, I was traveling alone to complete assignments because, due to cost pressures, the client could not purchase more than one on-ground resource.
Trouble started as soon as he landed in the country. I was kept at the immigration counter because my client's invitation letter was in English language and the immigration officers only understood French. After a few calls and an hour, the situation was finally resolved. But that was just the beginning of the problems.
During my 3 week stay outside the office, I have rarely come across anyone who can speak English. So to talk to hotel staff or taxi drivers, I memorized a few sentences in French. During these weeks I realised the importance of common language and how much we value it.
The worst part during the entire stay was at the airport at the end, when I was leaving for India. The police officer took all my Congolese currency at the checkin counter. When he tried to ask 'why' in my broken French, he said you were trying to smuggle Congolese currency out of the country and even threatened to put me behind bars Gave. It was a small amount and I tried to argue that I want to eat that amount at the airport as I had not eaten since morning but to no avail. I tried to go to his senior but he also reprimanded me. After giving up, I just moved on. But I saw from the corner of my eyes, both the officers were distributing money among themselves.
The first thing I did when I came back from the trip was to remove the mention of French from my resume.
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