Home at Elikya

We are finally home at the Elikya Center. Our travel this time around was, in some ways, easier than the last and in some ways more, shall we say adventurous. Our flights were on time, all of our luggage arrived with us and we had only a couple hours layover in Paris. Once in Bangui, CAR we settled into the Brethren Mission guesthouse for a couple nights. We ate our evening meal (chicken and French fries) at a local restaurant. As we were waiting for the food to arrive I felt a tickling on my toes. I pushed back the tablecloth and leaned over to take a look, expecting to find a cat or a small dog sniffing my feet. Instead I saw a large cockroach crawling on my toes, welcoming us to Africa.

Our first full day in the city we took a walking tour of Bangui, visiting such hotspots as the US embassy, the fridge store and a grocery store. That night both of us got only about 3 hours of sleep. As I lay wake my mind was busy with Lingala words and phrases. I ended up with a song in my head and even tried translating that into Lingala with mild success.

The next day we crossed over the Ubangi River into the town of Zongo, Congo. We were hoping to cross the river at 8 AM to get an early start but…As usual the customs process took awhile on both sides of the river. When we finally got on the road it was about 1:30 in the afternoon. We were anticipating something like a 9 hour drive given the report that a bridge was “out” along the way and it was the rainy season so the roads were bad. Michelle quickly showed us all that she was the possessor of an important skill: the ability to fall asleep anywhere. I think it is a safe assumption that if you can sleep in a truck bouncing along Congo roads, you can sleep anywhere.

The bridge required some minor adjusting before it could be crossed. We got out of the vehicle and walked across, though, just in case. We were delayed a couple times for minor repairs to the suspension and changing out the bulbs in the headlights. Finding a place to go to the bathroom was always an adventure. At one point we walked back off the road a ways through two people’s yards and to a third house where the man in charge got the generator running, turned the lights on and let us in. He yelled something about a scorpion to somebody right before he invited us in so we were left guessing a little bit about that.

Back on the road it got dark and we finished the trip, most of us nodding off from time to time (except for Edison, the driver, of course). We had a few encounters with animals on the road with a chicken and a cat being the sole casualties. A cow once suddenly and unwisely averted course and turned immediately in front of us. It got knocked on the head but walked away from it. We arrived at a checkpoint in a town just over an hour from Gemena around midnight. There we were taken into a small room and looked over by an official who registered us after examining our passports and shining a flashlight in our face to confirm our identities.

By the time we arrived in Gemena we had been on the road for 11 ½ hours. We made a stop at the CECU President’s house for a very late supper (or early breakfast) of goat, rice and plantain. Then we finally got to bed and ended up sleeping until just before noon the next day. Now we are continuing to unpack and put everything in order. This afternoon we will register with the regional chef du poste and apply for a residence visa.