Cameroon to Chad – via Paris

It sounds silly. Travel between two adjacent African countries via another continent. This is exactly what I did last weekend in returning to Chad’s capital N’djamena after a little over four weeks in my safe haven of Cameroon.

It isn’t that there is a lack of transport between the two locations. I almost went overland, which would have taken four days and required two military escort vehicles because of insecurity in northern Cameroon. As far as planes, Air Toumaï (also known as Air Tchad) makes the journey several times a week. It is, however, a question of safety. And for all official UN business, Air Toumaï is not a travel option. Thus, many of us must make the 22-hour transit that includes two transcontinental flights with a layover in Paris, France instead of a 2 hour flight on Air Toumaï.

In January, BBC published an interesting article titled African blitz on ‘flying coffins’ :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4619866.stm

In it, it is reported that Africa accounts for only 4% of global air traffic but 27% of all air crashes. This is enough to convince me to take the longer, more inconvenient flight.

The BBC article is well-founded. Air travel can be dangerous in Africa. On Christmas day 2003, 151 people perished in a plane crash that left Guinea and had a layover in Benin heading to Beirut. It is reported that “Exact passenger numbers are impossible to determine, as it is thought that there were more passengers aboard than were listed on the manifest.” The overload of passengers and baggage is precisely the reason why the plane was unable to take off correctly, clipped a building, and plunged into the ocean off the coast of Cotounou, Benin.

So I mentioned the inconvenience of 22 hours of travel; however what if it was made to be a 46 hour voyage with a day and a half of roaming around Paris? That changes things a bit! I had just a bit of luck, I suppose, because this was actually the least expensive option. Advantages included: Iranian and French cuisine, good wine, a night out in the Latin Quarter, strolling past Le Louvre and onto Le Champs Elysée, a little shopping at Gare Saint Lazare, the smells of really stinky cheese, and even an Egg McMuffin at Micky D’s. Hey, if I am going to be sent to Paris, I am going to indulge a bit!

The other evacuees who returned to Chad did not share my same itinerary. The UN sent a plane on the 15th of May to pick up my colleagues and return them to Chad. My “special” transport situation was because I attended a workshop all of last week. The workshop was on “Emergency Food Security Assessment,” which essentially means an assessment performed during an emergency situation that determines what people need, with a focus on food needs.

The Cameroon days are over, and now I am falling back into a routine in Chad. Things are calm for the moment, even if the rebels are still planning attacks. Any major conflicts should remain dormant for now, at least until after the rainy season when movement around the countryside will not be restricted because of the temporary rivers (called “waddis” in Chad) that arise suddenly at this time of year.

My life in Chad has returned, but only temporarily. In six weeks, I will be coming home for a month break before returning to Chad in August. This time, I will spend almost as much time travelling as I did last weekend, but I will have a much more sensible layover – but what can you do with only 5 hours in Paris?

Return to Chad - Coming soon

The Chad presidential "election" came and went with little noise, and should it remain calm, I am slated to return "home" on or after the 15 May.

Now it is Friday afternoon. In every African country that I have worked in, the office is officially closed after 1-2 PM. This is primarily for the Muslims who go to Friday afternoon prayer, the biggest prayer of the week. This means, it is time to leave the office.

But before I go, just to share something interesting that I saw in my hotel room - it was on a National Geographic commercial. I was amused.

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Stereotypes of a Foreign Land

Today is election day in Chad, and we already know who will be the winner. So far, all is quiet. This in itself is a bit worrisome, as no one is certain what will happen next. For the moment, many UN staff are still here in Cameroon and waiting for some sort of sign that might tell us what will come next. Not much has changed in our status since a last wrote.

Currently, Chad is doing a good job of living up to one of Africa’s primary stereotypes – a war-torn country with a power-hungry and corrupt leader. Unfortunately, there are many stereotypes of Africa, many that I remember growing up with. I remember the associations of Africa to poverty and starving children, to wild animals, to naked people with weird objects in their lips, and of course to war. Then, there is the image of the white guy standing in the giant cooking pot surrounded by African village people (I like this one!). These types of generalizations are being unfairly applied to a diverse continent four times the size of the continental US and are far from representative of the whole of Africa (particularly the cooking pot!)

Through my experience, my own stereotypes have changed. How could they not? In Guinea alone, I lived two years in a small village, two years in a regional capital, and two years in the country’s capital city. In addition, I have visited 11 of the 52 African countries, and I have lived in four.

I have seen historical lands like Ethiopia (albeit very briefly), and former slavery centers like Goree Island in Senegal (many times). I have lived in oil-rich Chad, and I have lived in the musically and culturally rich land of the Mandingo. I witnessed too the UN nation-building in Monrovia, capital of Liberia, a nation created by former US slaves and now led by Africa’s first female president. And this is just a hint of my experiences.

It has been almost eight years since I first came to the African continent and since then, I have spent little time away. When I share my experiences, I sometimes wonder “What are they thinking?” By “they,” I mean you - you who read what I write; you who listen to my stories; you who see Africa as a completely alien world. And I hope that my experiences somehow aid others’ perceptions of the world, and particularly of Africa.

If all one does is watch TV to learn about Africa and the world, you might learn something, but it will likely be very narrow in scope and not tell you the whole story. It is like this picture I saw of a young girl in the Disneyland Haunted House who is carrying her umbrella; it is not until the room physically stretches to a larger dimension that you see the tightrope upon which she treads lightly and the crocodiles below ready to have lunch!

If American television portrays Africa as somewhat of a living hell, then TV in Africa leads people to believe that America is a paradise. Only the very few Africans that are lucky enough to get to the US find out that TV did not tell them the whole story.

Many young African men that you meet want to go to America. When I talk to them, they ask about America and how they can get there. They would love to play their part as an illegal immigrant if they could. The images on TV are too convincing. Often, African people tend to block out the other information – that of a cousin or friend who returns from a US visit and tries to explain that in the US, people work hard, people must work hard to survive, to lodge themselves, to put food on the table. This seems ludicrous to many people here. It must be that this person returning from the treasured land must just be jealous and want to keep the secrets of the golden fruit hidden from the others!

It is human to generalize others that we don’t know, and I don’t think that there is anything necessarily wrong with that – stereotypes often hold a lot of truth. Even more interesting is seeing the stereotype from the other side - seeing what other people think about me, an American. The problem is that the stereotype does not show the whole picture. Instead of a physical stretching of that room in Disneyland, it requires an expansion of the mind to understand, to sympathize, and to care. And we hope that in lieu of hungry crocodiles, we will find a pleasant garden awaiting our petite fille.