The Great Escape

March 2013

Time to put your feet up and grab a coffee methinks.

It has been an interesting few weeks back in Central African Republic! 

I was evacuated to Dubai following a rebel uprising in CAR and returned at the beginning of Feb ready to get going again on the Mercy Corps project. So after a few days in the capital, I flew out to Bangassou to see where I would be living and working for the next year. It is a simple, post colonial town with some big old houses formerly inhabited by the Portuguese in the wealthier times of coffee, rubber and diamond trading. A little short on the restaurant front but no lack of bananas and "green vegetables". 

After a week or so of settling in there were rumours of a potential rebel attack, so we packed our bags and pick up trucks and headed out east to one of our other Mercy Corps offices in Rafai. The terrain is tricky to say the least.

Chonuku River Ferry

As you can see crossing the river isn't straight forward. This "ferry" was motorised back in the heady colonial days but there is a bit of a shortage of mechanics, so now the ferry operator has to take a big stick and pole his way across the river whilst attached to a cable. We loaded the ferry with 2 pickups and 4 motorbikes so you can imaging the size of the guy's biceps. The wooden log on the right is the tradition way to cross if you're in a hurry.

River Trout? No apparently a Tiger fish

 It was great to meet the other Mercy Corps staff in Rafai and the local fisherman knew we enjoy our food so he popped round with his catch to see if we were interested. We were - it cost $6 and fed the staff from both offices. I have been joking with the locals about their reluctance to swim across the river but after hearing about the crocs and seeing the teeth on this thing, I agree with them.

Life at the Nunnery

 There is a choice in Rafai of accommodation. Here with the three lovely nuns or at the other side of the church with the three priests. Next to me is Aimee, Project Manager at Rafai and on the other side and opposite are Morel and Bernard who I share a house with in Bangassou.

Fast Food

Following the all clear security wise we returned to Bangassou and met these cheery chappies on the way. Always on the look out for good food, some of us were tempted with the gazelle they had caught - check it out on the bike! 

Mirror,mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?

Back in Bangassou we carried on with work which includes repairing boreholes, building 4 schools and  a youth club and training in health, education,water and hygiene. We were interrupted again (pesky rebels) and headed back to Rafia. This time we were caught a bit short with mud and rains so spent some time in a village negotiating the mud ruts and towing cars out. These chaps realised they could see themselves in the car windows and laughed their heads off at each others' reflections.

Things started to get a little more serious at Bangassou. When we arrived back on the Sunday we were told of substantiated rumours of a potential invasion by rebels. We packed up the cars again, loaded the fuel, generators, computers, luggage and basically anything of value ready to make an early get away in the morning. I managed a quick run to the local garage for tinned sardines,spaghetti and a carton of red wine.

Monday - we were rudely awakened at 6.00 am by the sounds of rockets and gun shots. So now being highly practised in evacuation procedures, we jumped in the vehicles, on the bikes and legged it at 6.08am.
The journey to Rafai was interesting. The local militia had also decided they would run for it, so they joined our NGO convoy 8 pickups and 4 bikes out of town. It wasn't very encouraging being overtaken by loaded pick ups of soldiers. It got worse when they asked for fuel. So we stopped of course and they kindly jumped out of their trucks and guarded our rears with rockets against the rebels who were on their trail - yes and on our trail as well. One thoughtful soldier helped me out of our pick up and hid me behind a shack during the manoeuvre.

Part of the Convoi

 We headed east across the aforementioned river ferry to Rafai. Having empty stomachs, we thought we should be OK to stop for a bite to eat. Yours truly even managed a shower. However, a leisurely lunch was not to be, there were more shells and gun fire and the town literally leapt to its feet with everyone screaming and running in all different directions. Our convoy had split up and we saw our colleagues racing all over town trying to locate their staff. Given that the only way out of town was the opposite way to the ferry we all linked up again, this time though leaving the soldiers guarding the ferry crossing. We carried on for around 300 kilometres to Zemio where MSF and ACTED provided excellent overnight  hospitality with tea and nutella sandwiches.
The next morning was a little more relaxed. We were all hoping the soldiers had managed to defend the ferry crossing. We carried on eastwards for another 400 or so kilometres through LRA territory, another hazardhous zone known for its random shootings, past a burnt out vehicule and onto to Obo. This time Merlin and COOPI looked after us and we exchanged stories and updates on rebel progress.
Obo has a US army base and a Ugandan military stronghold who are trained to hunt down the LRA, so it was a relief to arrive at a safe place.

Charlie - one of the heroic bike riders

 The heavens opened on the way into Obo and the poor bike riders got soaked, but I still think they were pleased to get there!

Top Gun - eat your heart out

Mercy Corps had organised a flight out for the first half of the team to fly to Bangui. We had to refuel so the junior pilot got the job of sitting on the wing with the pipeline from the petrol drums.

Unfortunately no pictures of the CAR military with their rockets in their pockets or their prized machine gun being shipped out of town, but I thought it might be just a fraction too risky to start snapping away  in the fractious environment. I had planned on getting back in one piece!
We arrived back in Bangui without incident, everyone safe and non too traumatised. The rest of the team are due back any day soon.

We know we were lucky and have heard some rotten stories about what has subsequently happened in Bangassou, but the Mercy Corps team are safe. What a great bunch of people, no panics, no tears. Lets keep our fingers crossed that the situation is resolved quickly and peacefully and then back to work!