So, upstairs I went to my bathroom. Stood under the shower, turned it on, then closed my eyes as I started to lather up the shampoo. However, when I opened my eyes there were no lights, and the generator had gone off. Before the pressure died, I quickly finished up my shower. Elvis called up to explain why he had had to turn the generator off – it should never be on if the water heater is on. Who needs a hot shower in the Congo?? Well, apparently the expats who come in from the field. This was Tuesday and a couple of expats had been in for the weekend for their R&R. They turn the heater on, yet never turn it off, AND the heater happened to be in the room that was currently locked. I called down to Elvis that it didn’t matter, that it had been just enough for me to shower. I continued getting dressed and packed in the dark.
Just as I had requested the night before, Jean Barnabe, the driver, showed up at 5h25 to give me a ride to the office. Roger, the driver who would take us out to the field, was already there. Everything was looking good. I checked emails one last time, packed up my computer, and we were all in the vehicle and rolling out of the compound by 6h00.
First stop… the market on the way out of town where we always buy baguettes for the trip and for our comrades in the field. Roger also picked up some avocados and then gave Romeo, the Landcruiser for the trip, another look-over and noticed a drip from the radiator. Traveling with us was Gilbert, our stylin’mechanic, and together they decided we should change vehicles. S0, back to the office.
By 6h44 we had swapped all our gear into Gazelle and were off again.
Our final destination was project Mango in Mindouli. But first we would do a KISS in Kinkala, or KPC - Kinkala Pleasure Compound - as they like to call it. A KISS means we meet one of our vehicles coming from the other direction, trade vehicles, and carry on to our respective destinations.
Kinkala is about 100km from Brazza. They say that it used to be about a 45-minute bus ride, but that was when there were buses and something that you would recognize as a road. Now, it takes us (with our Landcruisers) anywhere from 4 to 6 hours, and then 2 hours further past Kinkala is Mindouli. Not many others are even able to make the trip. They might walk, or maybe catch a ride on one of big ol’ commercial trucks transporting loads of bananas, flour, … but then it might take days, with lots of problems along the way. There certainly isn’t any “public transport” available.
At about 10h00, 17km this side of Kinkala, we met Erik, our LogCo, in Mobile 20 for our KISS. All passengers traded vehicles and we continued on to Kinkala with Gabi, the driver of Mobile 20. At 10h25, about 15km from Kinkala, we ran into the only other vehicle on the road – head-on! Coming around a slight bend in the very sandy, very narrow track, approaching us rather fast was a Landcruiser for the ICRC… and it didn’t look like they were slowing down.
Next thing I remember was letting out a bit of a shriek as I banged around, then settled into my much smaller front seat.
My tongue was chomped up and my seat belt gave me some bruised ribs, but fortunately, aside from minor bumps and such, no one was hurt too badly.
First thing we did was call Romeo on the radio… please come back, we’ve had a little accident.
We finally pulled into KPC just after 14h00 in Jupiter – as the name suggests, Jupiter is a monster of a vehicle, one of our Unimogs, towing in the ailing Mobile 20. It was now too late in the day to attempt the trip to Mindouli, and we had had enough excitement for one day anyway!
Bert, KPC logistician from Brussels, spent the rest of the afternoon radioing Mango and Brazza adjusting the travel plans for the coming days… we wouldn’t be going to Mindouli the next day either.
Martine, KPC nurse from Montreal, suggested we get a couple bottles of wine. You can’t get much in Kinkala (we deliver food to the expats once a month from Brazza), but you can find drinkable red wine.
