République Centrafricaine

The Central African Republic. A country in the middle of Africa with better known neighbours Cameroon and the Congo. A negative travel advice and the lack of attractive travel guides prevent many of us from ever being there. And that is a great shame.

Because it is beautiful here. The countless species of beautiful butterflies that love to land on the colourful panties hanging on the (hand) washing line. Those panties are in sharp contrast with what the rest of my body is wearing here every day. The clothes come only in sober, but useful, rank colours. Nature here is diverse and always present. I hear the birds sing from early on in the morning and the monkeys make the treetops sway when they make huge leaps at high altitude in the afternoon. Briefly, tails and heads flash between the towering greenery, but so far I have not been able to identify these animals.
And then a major heavyweight here; the forest elephant. These guys unexpectedly waltz their way through dense vegetation and give my movements here on the ground and in the rainforest just that little bit of extra excitement every day.

Before I reach my final destination, Bayanga, I will spend a few days in the capital Bangui. A lively, African city, where merchandise is advertised on every corner and fine rhythmic music sounds from loudspeakers all day long, just like I saw before in Kenya. However, the street scene is dominated by cars from the United Nations and NGOs. 

The flight from the capital to the beautiful Dzanga-Sangha nature reserve is a real experience. One that is difficult to capture in words now it seems, hence the picture at the bottom of this post. 
I board a small plane with old stickers that may refer to its history in the service of WFP and United Nations. Carefully, my 8 pieces of luggage of lab material and crocs are weighed and distributed over the somewhat romantic aeroplane. For the right balance during the flight, the passengers are also equally divided and I immediately consider myself lucky to have a window seat behind the pilot. The 50-minute flight over the wild, unspoilt nature of this rainforest leaves me silent. Shortly before landing, we fly over Dzanga bai, a unique place in the world where huge numbers of elephants quench their thirst together. I look, enjoy and feel myself and my thoughts rising within the plane. This immense piece of green is going to be my temporary home and I realise that it will be an unknown big adventure.  

Early sunsets give long, dark evenings and time for reflection and (self) study by candlelight. There is an endless amount to study and learn about this country, its animal species, my research and the French and Sango languages. In my temporary house, there is a rich biodiversity that I readily accept. From the army of ants that painfully expose my poor cleaning skills, a poisonous yellow exotic frog on the toilet seat, spiders in different sizes and shapes to all kinds of hoppers that often give you a heart attack at night with their dive into the deep or on my body.

My stay here is still short, and in the coming months the dynamics of research and the challenging life here will surely provide many more insights.
Nevertheless, it already feels like an enormous privilege to have a temporary home here.

One of the next blogs I will dedicate to my fellow veterinarian Frédéric, a tall young Centrafrician who deserves an international stage. Because of his ambitions and his courage to live in a country where opportunities are not as easy to grasp as they are for young people elsewhere in the world.  Like in this world of mine.

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