Traffic Takes on New Meaning

While riding down the roads in the northwestern part of CAR, I’ve felt like a celebrity. Children rush out of their homes when they hear the truck rumbling through the dusty, bumpy roads and drown you in a chorus of “Bonjours” and “Barraallahs”, the main greetings in CAR, while waving feverishly. It’s the cutest most joyous site ever and it never stops feeling good. Even four hours into the ride when it’s still happening.
As a person of African descent, I’m not used to this type of attention in rural settings. My white counterparts almost always get it because many times children in rural settings have seen very few and sometimes never seen a White person. But in a truck with two Blacks, two Central Africans and two Cameroonians (the neighboring) country, this type of rejoicing seems odd.
But then I thought about what these villages and children have been through. Consistently for the past two to three years, Central Africans in the Northwest have heard trucks roll through their villages only to be caught in the middle of government and rebel cross fighting and having their homes looted and burned in retaliation for “supporting” military factions that have taken control of their villages. For years the rumbling of trucks has been an ominous sign to gather your family and belongings as quickly as possible because trouble was coming.
But in the last year, the rumbling of trucks has taken on new meaning. As aid agencies have began to set up in CAR, their trucks brought assistance to these families in great need. What was once used as an alarm of intruders has now become a ring of hope for improving their living conditions.
So though it was apparent that in some villages, the citizens where still petrified of foreigners in trucks (especially those villages who were currently occupied by military factions), there were others that rejoiced at the site. It was especially powerful that the children recognized what the presence of aid agencies meant for them and sent their good blessings.