Bangui Hotel

... work is at a standstill because it is difficult, make that impossible, to find good batteries in Bayanga. No one, myself included, likes the idea of walking night transects "sans torch," so here we are. I decided before we left Bayanga that I would find some way to stay at a hotel as I felt it was time for a mental getaway and a few days of relaxing, recharging, and reflecting. In the past a semi-spontaneous ...

... for a big tourism influx:problems with the infrastructure, electricity blackouts for many hours on a daily basis,no rent a car companies and no tourist hotels make the CAR a difficult destination. On my first day I was almost arrested while making a photo of the Bangui cathedral. There are still some laws from the time of the infamous emperor Bokassa (1976) that forbid making pictures without a special ...

... t) I found an unknown source of patience in my body and just waited for everyone else to get their bags first so that I would not have to fight the crowd! Things here are going well so far, fingers crossed, and I think have adjusted well to this point. Being here in CAR gives me a very different feeling than I have had when visiting other countries, it's almost like I have been here before, it ...

... knowledge I've gained from these books. So, will Tom return or not? Who knows? At the moment, they are still attempting to deal with his kidney stone. We had a whirlwind day last Thursday. We arrived in Bangui Wednesday night. Thursday morning off to the French hospital for an ultrasound where said stone was discovered. We then acted quickly to get Tom on Thursday evening's flight to Paris with help of his parents. [By the way, there's only one ...

... written in Lesley's bad handwriting. Bertain is from Bayanga and his wife who still lives there will be helping us with the kids and with other domestic chores. She has helped previous researchers who have come to Bayanga with their children and comes highly recommended. I'm happy that we will have some help but at the same time I feel weird about it. I've never been one to be comfortable asking for or receiving help ...

It's been crazy around here the past few days. Lesley has been going into Bangui with Jean Bosco to get supplies and other things we need to make it down to Bayanga. On Saturday the car she was riding in was hit by a drunken police officer that caused the car she was in to hit 2 people on a motorcycle. She is fine but the 2 guys on the motorcycle had to go to the hospital. Obviously it put a cramp in their activities for the day. Lesley got to go down into the local ...

So we are staying at the WWF Compound here in Bangui. It is walled off with barbed wire and a guard at all times so I feel pretty safe. The first day we were here we had a small room (12x12 approx) with a king size bed, an amour, desk, and bench. It had an A/C, which was nice, but the room was pretty small for the 4 of us. Today the boss, Yarasim, here moved us to a room with a living area, private bath, and large bedroom that is connected ...