Je suis arrive au Bangui!

After encountering the rudest air hostess I have ever met in my life, I am in Bangui. The flight itself was fine, though 2 hours late, but I encountered the most confusion ever in securing a flight. In a nutshell, we reserved our tickets from Douala to Bangui weeks before we left DC. After assuring my colleague and I a million times that a simple phone reservation without payment since they only accepted cash would be okay, we arrived at the airport office to pay for our tickets only to hear that there was no such reservation and the flight was sold out…
Unfortunately, the airline office manager encountered the most aggressive people she would ever encounter in her life and had to find a way to get us on that plane because we weren’t leaving that office without a ticket. Let me preface the rest of this story by explaining that you can only fly in Bangui from Douala on Saturdays and Tuesdays. Therefore, if we did not get on this flight, it would throw off our whole itinerary and we’d be stuck in Douala with nothing substantial to do.
Somehow, the office manager found us a ticket on a completely booked flight, but suggested that even though the flight was scheduled to leave at 3:45pm and check in didn’t start until 1pm, we should be in line before noon… We had a host of other errands to run that morning, but arrived the airport by 12:30 and stood in line behind 10 other people, who had seemingly received the same advice.
After a series of other incidents which I will discuss in a later post, we both received our boarding passes, but there was no seat assignment. When we inquired further, we were told the plane had open seating. My colleague and I promptly changed into our sneakers! No, not really, but we knew that this was an indication that we just might have to summon our inner track stars.
But all in all we got on the plane and secured our seats. We watched the rudest air hostess I’ve ever seen blatantly curse out a passenger for about five minutes and threaten to kick him off the plane mid flight. I’m not sure what he said to her to deserve such a verbal tongue lashing, but you better believe I was all “please and thank yous” for the rest of the flight!
Once we arrived in Bangui airport, there was another long wait for baggage, but our fixer and driver were already there waiting for us, which made me feel very comfortable. Because once we left the airport, the city was a cloud of darkness. Pitch black to the point that I was forced to use my phone as a flashlight. In the following days I will tell you more about Bangui. I haven’t witnessed the extreme poverty that reports and my colleagues have described. Right now I am staying in a very nice apartment/hotel with wireless internet. And I have only visited places that are frequented by expats and high level officials and lucrative business men. But I am sure once I venture out into the North it will be quite a different story.

Je suis arrive au Doula!

Once I arrived, I was reminded of the Douala humidity. In Washington, DC we complain of the high level of humidity during the summertime, but it does not compare to Douala humidity. By the time I walked the long stretch to the baggage check, my hair has shriveled into an afro and I felt dehydrated. It didn’t help that the baggage claim area was crowded with people who had gotten off the plane as well as family and friends there to meet them, and porters soliciting baggage service. And did I mention that beyond the humidity and well above 80 degree weather there was no air conditioning in the airport…

Nonetheless, after an hour wait, both of my bags arrived in tact and I went out to meet my brother and his girlfriend. It was a great relief to see them there and I was happy to have completed this long leg of my journey.

That night we had a delicious dinner of roasted fish, plantains, fries, and meondo. It was the best way to start of my trip, especially since I had to leave on Thanksgiving morning.

The city has changed for the better since I was last here. For one, it is no longer as polluted as it once was. I remember in 2005, my skin broke out in a rash almost immediately when I washed my face with the water and I could barely breathe in the city because of the pollution from cars and burning trash. But so far is has been quite different. Besides the fact that the city is much cleaner than it used to be, the air and water seem to be as well.

Now, I’m off to Bangui, Central Africa Republic!

You Can Find Me in the "A"

It’s been over a year since I’ve been in the “A”, over 3 years since I’ve been back to Cameroon, and my first time in the Central African Republic. Needless to say, I’m a ball of excitement as well as anxious and nervous about what to expect.
This will be my first time in Cameroon without my mother. It will give me a chance to get closer with my brother, but because they’re as I’ve coined them “family strangers”, I don’t know what my interactions will be like with them, without my mother. But in due time I will see.
As for the Central African Republic, I’ve yet to read anything good about the country. They fall in the bottom 5th percentile in almost every category of the development index- education, infrastructure, health, etc. I’ve been told by those that have lived and visited there that I have nothing to look forward to. Thus, this will be a very interesting trip considering I’ve been encouraging foreigners and pessimists to discover the overlooked beauty and potential in Africa. But perhaps if I ignore the overwhelmingly negative outlook surrounding the country and approach it with positivity, I will still be able to discover the beauty in a country so large and filled with so many natural resources.

YES WE CAN!!!

On November 4, 2008 Barack Obama became the first African-American president of the United States.

It was a very emotionally charged accomplishment with celebrations taking place all over the world- most notably in Obama's father's hometown of Kogelo, Kenya.

However, beyond the historical implications of this feat the world has so much to learn. For centuries Africans have been underestimated as a people and we have admittedly underestimated ourselves. Obama has not only shown young Black people in America and the Western world what they can some day be, but he has proven to the whole diaspora what we can strive to one day become as leaders of ourselves and the free world.

An editorial in Kampala, Uganda's New Vision newspaper summed up my sentiments exactly. Africa should use this excitement as an impetus for democratic reform and realize not what Obama can do for Africa, but what Africa can do for itself in cooperation with the US due to an Obama administration (a sentiment encouragingly echoed by President Kagame).

Yes we can!

EDITORIAL
5 November 2008
Posted to the web 6 November 2008

Kampala

History was yesterday made when Senator Barack Obama swept the polls to become the first African American president since the birth of the USA more than two centuries ago.

Obama's victory sealed his catch phrase: "Yes, we can," and demonstrates how determination and high level of organisation can deliver effective results against all odds. The Developing World and Africa in particular, has a lot to learn from this.

First, they should stop blaming their woes on others, put their act together and come up with strategies to pull the continent from backwardness. Yes, we can.

Secondly, the economic and political systems in the Developing World should be geared towards empowering the masses to recognise and promote talents and ability rather than mere party loyalty.

Thirdly, John McCain's acceptance of defeat and promise to work with Obama demonstrates that race and intrigue has no place in the modern world and that losing an election should not result into sworn enmity.

Obama has become president of the most powerful country in the world at the time the US is experiencing the worst economic crisis in a century.

However, the big problems he has at home should not obscure his view of the rest of the world. In particular, positive policies towards the Developing World like the African Growth and Opportunities Act, the President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief and the Millennium Challenge Corporation - whether put in place by the Republicans or not should continue.

As the world celebrates, the Developing World should not expect immediate windfalls from the Obama administration. Because the US is facing the worst economic down turn, it is very easy to forget the rest of the world, especially Africa.

The Developing World should therefore, continue pressing for fair trade policies. As President Yoweri Museveni has always said, it is trade and not aid that will pull Africa out of poverty. Yes, we can.