Congolese politics (lesson 2)

This weekend is the deadline for candidate registration for both presidential and parliamentary elections in June. There are now 273 parties and ... 49 candidates for president. I guess they won't organise a debate.

Until then, Congo has an interim government called 1+4, because it has 1 president (Kabila, favourite to stay on) and 4 Vice Presidents (a bit like in an american company ;-) And of course the 4 VPs want the top job.

Let me introduce one of the 4 VPs, please meet Jean-Pierre Bemba, leader of the MLC party (or ex-rebellion given his attire). The whole country is convinced he's a cannibal after allegations that he ate pygmeas a few years back. To convince the people otherwise, he started travelling with always two pygmeas on his side to show he was friends with them. On the contrary, everybody thought he was travelling with his food for the day ("ration de combat" is the term used here). Bemba is running for president too, but the pygmea story was a PR blow.

Now & Then

Bukavu today and 50 years ago when it looked like an american suburb!

Funny shop names (for French speakers sorry)

J'ai eu beau chercher, je n'ai pas trouve ce saint dans le calendrier. Remarquez il y a bien un parti politique Congolais qui s'appelle "Parti des Chretiens Laics du Congo". C'est peut etre ce que Tony Blair appelle la troisieme voie?

Saving Private Raffi

Great swimming suit !

Paillote

On a lazy rainy Sunday afternoon, we had a long tea session at a friend's paillote by the lake (a paillote is a wooden made little hut). This one has nice chairs, a big sofa, pop corn and blonde babes from around the world (message to all my single male friends: hurry to come see me ;-) And we all went swimming (once the rain stopped of course), no crocodiles nor snakes, just a few congolese watching the blonde babes from the shore.

Jah does it better

Far from Jamaica, rasta culture is strong here. The 'association' is mainly young students (boys & girls) who are usually found sitting around the building "working on peace". Interestingly this morning, they were cutting grass ...

Tilapia & Fufu

More on congolese food with its two biggest local stars: the Tilapia fish and the famous Fufu. Tilapia just looks like an angry fish but tastes very good. Fufu is made of manioc and looks like a big sponge. It has no taste at all (like its cousin chikwanga) and has the texture of a huge chewing gum. I have to admit it tastes worse and worse every time you eat one...

Don't fly in Congo

The European Union has established a list of airline companies banned in Europe for safety reasons: out of a total of 90 names, 50 are from Congo. Nice ! That's why everybody walks here.
http://europa.eu.int/comm/transport/air/safety/doc/flywell/2006_03_22_flywell_list_en.pdf

Congolese politics (lesson 1)

Congo will have its first ever presidential and parliamentary elections in June this year. There are officially 267 parties ! Let's start at the top: Joseph Kabila, the interim president, who is the favourite to win in June. Kabila has chosen Bukavu to be its Headquarters for the campaign: the tennis courts of the Cercle Sportif. So you can play tennis while being watched by the fierce looking soldiers of his Garde Presidentielle (i will try to get you a picture if they let me take one).
There will be plenty of opponents including women: ok, this one is not as good looking as Segolene Royal in France or Hilary, but she looks tough !

And finally, guess who's coming here in 2 weeks time...Nicolas Sarkozy of course.

Le facteur sonne toujours 2 fois

If you want to know why there is no postal service in Bukavu, here is a picture of the main post office...

"Le dimanche a Bukavu c'est le jour du barbecue"

(sur l'air d'Amadou et Mariam)


On Sundays (and Saturdays also), the local sport here is to have a barbecue, usually in a nice garden with friends and gin tonic. The local meat is usually goat (very good indeed) with bananas. The red sauce you see is pilili: it is very spicy. And the grey 'thing' is chikwanga (sounds like the mosquito disease): it's made of manioc and has no taste at all. Soon I will show you another big specialty from here: the foufou !! So yesterday Alex & I went to a barbecue at Pierre: a french guy who spent his entire life planting mines for the French army and who now works at the UN to take them out. We were with Pamela, a friend of Alex from South Africa. As for me, I am already working on my tan ;-)

And bananas can be very big around here.... (as shown by Jaya)

Life goes on

Hello,

Everything OK down here. Haven't found a house yet but still looking (it's as hard as in Paris or London). In the meantime, I am walking all the streets, learning swahili and making tons of new friends ;-) The big news here is that Koffi Anan might stop by in a week to shake everybody's hand. Sorry not many new pictures today but I promise more for soon.

A quick picture of Alex's office inside the MONUC base camp (she drives one of the white vans parked in front).

The UN has different levels to assess the threat. We're in zone 3, which is basically OK (because the UN is not needed if it is in zone 1 or 2). Level 4 is when there's shooting and level 5 means 'let's get out of here'.
Mosquitoes favorite moment: when the sun goes down

Woman's Day in Bukavu

For those who wouldn't know this, there is a Worldwide Woman's Day on March 8th every year. Here it's a pretty big thing: women get to show their power and men watch from the sides (literally). There's a big parade under a blazing sun (nice sun burns for me ;-)

It starts with a nice fanfare (with military dresses though) playing some local funky music. Please note the name of the shop in the background for French speakers. Local shops have amazing bizarre names. I am preparing a series of the best ones (not to be missed).

After the fanfare, women are organised into different groups depending on who they represent. Normal enough Police comes first, but you also have corporations like the one below (selling gas). This is all under surveillance from UN soldiers of Pakistan (who probably have never seen so many women at once, same for me ;-)

More photos (Woman's Day)

Live from Bukavu

Finally made it to Bukavu (eastern Congo, on lake Kivu, a swim away from Rwanda). A long trip from Paris, over the Sahara, down to Ethiopia and then to Kigali, and finally a 4 hour taxi ride in the rwandan hills. Just got to the border in time, and was invited to my first party same day.

It's still rainy season out here, but it's summer from me after the cold winter in Europe. Not fully settled yet (we're looking for a house), there's not always water & electricity but it only took 5 minutes to get a phone ($3 for a sim card) and I already found a nice cybercafe. Alexandra is doing well, working very hard as usual, while I'm enjoying long naps in the afternoon, admiring the view from the balcony.

Stay tuned...