Afrique Nana

So since I last wrote you far too long ago, I’ve visited nearly all of our field offices—of which we have 10! (And no—being in N’Djamena does not count as living “in the field.” Try implying that and you might get punched by someone who actually does!) We have seven offices in the desert in eastern Chad dealing with refugees from Darfur and internally displaced Chadians, and 3 in the south dealing with refugees from Central African Republic. While I love the fact that, being based in the capital city, I cover the entire Chad operation and can get a glimpse of the situation in all the different camps, I do often feel like a tourist. I visit camps and field offices for a week or two at most, trying to get a feel for the ... read more

As the captain announced that we were descending into N’Djamena, just after midnight on Sept. 1, I looked out the window and saw only a faint smattering of lights; it was hard to believe I was landing in a capital city. The airport was unnecessarily chaotic, considering that there are only two international flights a day (hours apart); as expected a couple of immigration officials tried to give me a hard time—until they saw my UN laissez-passer that is. And yes, I will drop that term obnoxiously often . The UNHCR driver took me straight to Le Meridien hotel, which is one of the three “luxury” hotels in N’Djamena. I just booked there for the first two nights until I had a sense of the city and could find a safe place to stay that was ... read more

So Bétou is basically a village, though it’s referred to here as a “small city” because it’s the capital of a province. Aside from local mud or wood dwellings, it has a big Italian-owned timber company whose processing facility is a few steps from the UNHCR compound, a small market that for some reason has a large proportion of vendors from Mauritania (which is nowhere near the Congo), one "restaurant," and three bars/discos. I am particularly thrilled about the discos, because possibly one of my favorite kinds of music in the world is Congolese music - you may recall I took dance lessons in Malawi…those were with Congolese, who are possibly the best dancers in Africa. I didn’t know this until I came here, but apparently Mobutu (the former DRC dictator) played a large role in ... read more

It’s pretty amazing, if a little nerve-racking, flying into the next place you’re going to live without ever even having been there before. It’s funny but this is something I’m getting quite used to, starting with our move to a beautiful-sounding town picked out of Frommer’s France ‘91 back in 7th grade. I had heard rumors about the flight from Chiang Mai to Mae Hong Son, and although it didn’t quite compare to the Rwandair Express flight from Arusha to Kigali—on a turboprop so old it had been sold to the airline by a now defunct Ethiopian one—it gave me goosebumps (for a variety of reasons surely). Although we were flying over Thailand’s mountainous area, it was the peak of the hot season which is notorious for forest fires that are so numerous the sky is ... read more

Last weeks in Malawi Soon after my return from Zimbabwe something many of us mzungus had been looking forward to for months was finally happening: 'Indecision 2008' to use Jon Stewart’s terminology . Chameleon’s, a mzungu-owned bar in Lilongwe, had promised to stay open all night and broadcast the U.S. presidential election live on CNN for us. After sleeping for a few hours, Maki, Avik, and I, as well as most Americans and a great many foreigners, all congregated there around 1am and plopped down on couches or on the floor to watch John King get frazzled by his touch screen malfunctions and Wolf Blitzer talking to a hologram (?!). (I can’t wait to see what they come up with next year to keep people from changing the channel—topless anchors? Good grief.) Anyway it was a ... read more