Malaria Story

My head is so heavy, my neck hurts, I feel electrical sparks in my brain and my whole body is so tired that even climbing a few steps is beyond my capacity... Welcome to malaria world! The disease is endemic in Congo, so I am not really surprised to have caught it. I tried to be careful – i.e. sleep with a net, use insect repellant, avoid short sleeves and shorts at night – but in the end I guess I was just not lucky. Mind you, malaria is very common here, Congolese regularly get it, just like the flu. But since they are exposed to the parasite since their birth, they develop a natural immunity... Hence, the disease is generally trivialised; but it does not mean that it does not kill. Most people here will tell you they know someone who died of malaria. But few apply preventive measures, that is just the way it is, in a culture which is predominantly fatalistic and where people have very limited means to protect their houses/shelters against insects.

Foreigners who come to Congo generally take preventive treatments, but these are not 100% effective and their side effects can be rebarbative. Doctors have different approaches. Some do not recommend preventive treatments for long stays, others recommend it anyway. In the end, to each his own decision! The bad news is that the parasite prevailing in Congo, Falciparum, is the most dangerous, the one responsible for the deadly cerebral malaria, if not treated. The good news is that if treated, the parasite should not trigger further episodes contrarily to other existing malaria types...

Reconnecting...

Je reprends ces pages après 2 mois d'absence de la blogosphère... il faut dire que la notion du temps ici est un peu différente... Et puis, ici, on dirait que les barrières se multiplient dès que vous entamez un projet; dans ce cas-ci, par exemple, il faut préciser que l'accès à internet n'est pas très facile. Il y a bien quelques cybercafés, mais souvent ils ferment assez tôt, comme tout le reste d'ailleurs! Après 18h ou 19h, difficile de trouver une boutique ouverte! Mais je reviendrai sur les heures d'ouvertures dans un prochain post, je parlais de l'accès à internet. Difficile en effet. Outre les cybers, on peut bien sûr espérer avoir un accès à domicile. Mais cela reste l'apanage des plus privilégiés.... Une connexion de base pour un accès illimité commence à 60 $ ÉU par mois, c'est-à-dire le prix d'un loyer pour une chambre dans un des quartiers populaires de la capitale. Et à ce prix là, vous avez une connexion d'une lenteur extrême (56 Kb) via le réseau de téléphonie cellulaire – rappelez-vous les débuts de l'internet et les connexion dial-up avec les modem 56K! Autant dire qu'avec ce débit, vous êtes coupés de la plupart des fonctionnalités modernes du web... Alors pour être vraiment « connecté » il vous faut délier les cordons de la bourse... Les services « haute vitesse » proposés peuvent vous faire sourire (128 – 256 Kb) mais leurs prix (150 à 300 $ ÉU/mois) vous font plutôt rire jaune... Ainsi en est-il de la fracture numérique... La République du Congo et ses citoyens sont absents du web ou presque. À croire que cela arrange les autorités: auraient-elles choisi de ne pas investir dans les infrastructures afin d'éviter que la « masse » ne se connecte? À suivre l'actualité ces jours-ci, l'hypothèse ne semble pas sans fondement...

Pointe Noire en images

Pointe Noire: capitale économique du Congo. Petite ville en bord de mer, port commercial, chef lieu des entreprises pétrolières qui pompent des millions de litres grâce à leurs plateformes que l'on aperçoit facilement au large... Pointe Noire qui n'a pas été touchée par la guerre et qui a conservé de nombreux bâtiments coloniaux... D'ailleurs, les "mundélés" (blancs) sont plus nombreux ici qu'à Brazzaville. Malgré tout, les deux villes se ressemblent, avec leurs quelques avenues goudronnées, les restaurants et les hôtels tenus par les Libanais, les boutiques des ouest-africains, la cité, le grand marché... Ah, j'oubliais, la différence fondamentale: ici, taxis et mini-bus sont bleus plutôt que verts!!

Le lavage... à la main. Pas de machines ici. Dès qu'on en a un peu les moyens, le recours à une ménagère est pratiquement inévitable...

Enfants de la "Cité" (quartiers périphériques).

Commerçant devant sa boutique.

Vendeuses de fruits au Grand marché.

Ici, tout se transporte sur la tête: le bois, l'eau, le manioc...

... même les oeufs!

La gare qui date de l'époque coloniale.

À titre d'info!

Les voies sont libre d'accès pour tous les types de véhicules.

Sans commentaires...

Plage de Pointe Noire avec les vestiges d'un ancien pont.

HAPPY BELATED NEW YEAR!!

Ok I have to admit this is the african rythm influence on me, I am wishing you Happy New Year and January is already almost over... Yet I mean it, and I really do hope that wherever you are on this planet, and no matter how impossible your dreams might seem, you do follow them, or at least keep them alive for the right moment to come. Having said that, I'll respond to some questions regarding my previous post, eventhough the answer is only a partial one... Sorry, but actually, I could not find the explanation to the fact that in the middle of Congo, there is a small village called Ottawa... Actually, part of the answer might be that another village close to it is called Cannada (no that is not a typo)... and further down the road, you'll meet Chicago. One of the very few Ottawa resident did tell me that it was another man that came up with the name. I did not succeed in understanding whether there were any canadian projects in the region or whether someone had gone to Canada. That is the way it is here, most of the questions you have will remain unanswered.

A landscape from a the Lefini Natural Reserve not far from Ottawa (4 hours northwest of Brazzaville). In this park, supposedly there are still some wild elephants. Spent two days there without seeing them... Will have to go back!

The Lefini river... Could not get a definite answer from the ecoguards as to whether there are some crocodiles there. Did swim though because the water was so appealing after a hike in the sun!

In every village you'll hear music and see people dancing, just like these kids dancing along a sound system connected to the cell phone relay antenna.

Some kids love to be photographed, while some adults, especially women, prefer to hide. Still have to figure out whether it has to do with specific beliefs.

Greetings from Ottawa...in Congo

Outside the city

As mentionned before, it is hard to get any information in Congo. However, if you insist and ask around, you can discover that there are a lot of nice places to visit if you like nature... You just need a 4x4, the sense of adventure, and some patience in case you deal with any local authorities on your way.

The Congo River is the second in the world for its flow after the Amazone. It separates the two Congos. This natural border is very porous as along its way, it sometimes becomes very narrow.

Pirogues are still the most common travel means on the river

Impressive to note that those huge canoes are carved out one single piece of wood

The plastic chair on the pirogue is the utmost of comfort!

Around Brazza, there are numerous sites along the Congo river or some of its small affluents that offer places to rest, swim, eat and even camp if you are up for it!

Congo - Basic info

Congo Brazzaville...Yes, Congo it is... The one you probably never heard of, or barely know how to place on a map; yet it is Congo. Compare to its neighbour DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) it looks small. But in fact it is not that small, around 340,000 km²(a bit smaller than France). So it is kind of big, and it is kind of empty: about 4 million people for all that space, mind you, that is only an estimate as results from the last census have not been published yet even though it was carried out about 3 years ago. Congo has two big cities, the capital Brazzaville and the economic centre Pointe-Noire, and it has lots of small cities and villages disseminated along a sprawling wilderness. You probably never hear of Congo because its giant neighbour, the other Congo or ex-Zaire, grabs all the attention with its endless internal conflicts. You also probably never heard of it because this country suffers from a profound information deficit. There are very few communicational channels; just as there are no roads, no functional electrical distribution grids or water distribution systems, no efficient public education system, no local investments, no entrepreneurial initiatives... Ok, that is a bit of an exaggeration one might say, I admit it, however, generally speaking that is the impression one gets when arriving in the country. This general lack of everything is partly the result of the 90's period which was dominated by a civil war that lasted well into the years 2000. Up to now, only about 30 % of the ex-rebels have accepted to disarm in and around the capital which was one of the main combat field in the 90's. Despite all of this, security is not really an issue anymore for anyone willing to come to Congo, as Brazzaville is surprisingly safe. One can walk or take a cab alone at night without being bothered, you can withdraw money at one of the very few existing bank machines and continue your way normally, in short, you don't always have to watch your bag or your back like in many other underdeveloped countries. However, you do have to be ready to negotiate for everything.... specially if you look like a foreigner, as prices can be multiplied by 5, 10 or even more if you really have no clue on the real value.

So, as I said, there is a profound information deficit here... There are a couple of local medias, however, their content is more than questionable. Indeed, journalists are asking private or public entities to pay them a “displacement fee” in order to cover any of their events... And that is generally known and accepted... Beyond the fact that this interferes deeply with anything relating with the so-called objectivity, one might say that it does not really matter because in the end, local medias are simply very overtly not objective. There are the official channels that are controlled by the government (i.e. the President and his kins), and other private medias mostly controlled by Generals turned into businessman... Beside the lack of quality information in the medias, there is also a generalized lack of information on everything... Don't expect to find anything that resembles a tourist information centre...If you are a tourist in Brazzaville (well, actually, chances are that you are not, because, there are simply not tourists that come here) anything you want to know, you have to ask around and compare answers you get to eventually forge your own idea... Libraries are also very rare, if not simply non-existent. Internet cafes exist, but the connection is so slow that it is a natural barrier to accessing information. In the end, the word of mouth is still the dominating communicational mode: after all, this is Africa, and the oral tradition is still very alive. Rumours start and spread quickly here, sometimes having a real impact on people that believe what they hear and react accordingly.

So Congo is big, empty and isolated from the rest of the world... A black hole, a place where those in positions of power can do pretty much what they want...