Je suis arrive au Paoua

Today I flew to Paoua, in the Northwest part of CAR to conduct field visits of displaced people in the area. The trip here was much smoother than I thought it would be. I traveled on a small UN plane. I'm not sure what the capacity is, probably about 16 passengers, but there were only 8 of us. Considering how small the plane was, I slept the whole way. Could be because I havent been getting much sleep, but I didn't feel much turbulence at all and was knocked out before we even reached the highest level of elevation.

Once we entered the city, I was shocked that it was even considered a city or town... It is the most rural, country, and underdeveloped place I have visited in a loooong time. People still live in huts, the roads are not paved, there is no mobile phone service (which is unheard of for even the most underdeveloped communities!), and access to clean water, health care, and education are virtually non existent. It is quite disheartening that this region is referred to as an "urban center".

The people in this community have been through quite a lot. They've been displaced quite a few times due to political insecurity and through it all, have suffered from government neglect. Its a classic case of the failure of a centralized government, except Bangui, the capital of CAR, is in the deep south of such a massive and sparsely populated country, that the north doesn't seem to exist.

I'll have pics up in the coming days.