Kinshasa vs. Bandundu – quelques comparaisons

Être de retour à Kinshasa veut dire :

1. Manger la bouffe qu’on a préparé nous-mêmes. Même une omelette avec du pain grillé est délicieux après avoir mangé chez des autres pendant si longtemps. Au Bandundu, nous avons goûté des spécialités telles que les larves noirs salés et séchés qu’on achète en route comme du fast food. C’est croquant comme des chips mais mon système digestif ne savait pas qu’est-ce qui lui est arrivé. Les anguilles et les petits poissons de rivière (« maboke ») étaient aussi nouveaux. Notre diète de tous les jours consistait en fufu, pondu (feuilles de manioc pilées), viande (poulet, chèvre, porc, boeuf), riz, et autres légumes. Mais le fufu et le pondu étaient le plus souvent au ménu. Je suis vraiment prête à prendre un petit break du fufu et de préparer moi-même mes légumes avec beaucoup moins d’huile. Aujourd’hui j’ai visité un petit marché et je suis revenue avec une grande courge (je vais essayer une tarte de citrouille), des concombres, de la coriandre fraîche, des tomates, des onions, du gingembre pour soigner la gorge de John qui est enrhûmé, et des haricots verts. Quelle satisfaction!

2. Respirer plus difficilement à cause de toute la pollution dans l’air. Il y a aussi moins de soleil à cause de cela.

3. Retrouver des moments de solitude et d’intimité. Pendant le voyage, j’ai bien aimé le fait d’avoir toujours quelqu’un avec qui passer les soirées, avec qui discuter. On a eu beaucoup de bonnes discussions la nuit autour d’une lampe à pétrole à Mukedi, et dans l’ancien salon de missionnaires à Kajiji.  J’avais presque oublié qu’est-ce que c’était d’avoir quelques minutes pour moi seul! Je me sens même un peu désorientée devant le choix de comment passer mon temps, car je n’ai pas eu à faire ce choix seule tout au long du voyage. Ici je peux planifier ma journée et savoir que je pourrai probablement accomplir tout ce que j’ai planifié – j’en ai perdu l’habitude.

4. Passer nos soirées plus souvent seuls, ou avoir à planifier d’avance toute sortie.

5. Ne plus se sentir comme un phénomène bizarre qui attire l’attention de tous. Pendant le voyage en jeep, il était difficile même d’arrêter pour quelques minutes près d’un village sans que des dizaines de personnes nous entourent pour nous regarder à bouche ouverte. Tout ce qu’on faisait était fascinant. À Kikwit, il était parfois même désagréable de marcher dans les rues car il y avait tellement de personnes qui nous suivaient ou qui criaient après nous. Ce matin, ici à Kinshasa, je suis allée au bureau en taxi, et pas plus de trois personnes m’ont fait des remarques du genre « bonjour chérie, comment vas-tu? ». Je me sentais presque invisible! Une personne m’a même demandé des indications pour une école biblique, au lieu de supposer que je suis une touriste ignorante. Oui, on est toujours la cible des enfants de la rue et de vendeurs, mais tout cela semble maintenant supportable.

6. Payer 2500 au lieu de 250 francs pour un ananas.

We’re back (English version)

(This is the English translation of “De retour”, published on July 29. Thanks to Lesley Fast for the translation. See the French version for the photos mentioned here).

Our trip planned for June 29 to July 15 was extended for 10 days, so we’ve only just returned after almost a month. Thank you to all who have faithfully continued visiting our blog in spite of our long silence. During our trip we revisited the hospitals at Kajiji and Mukedi, and held meetings with the two coordinating doctors. Here are some photos [see previous post], followed by a fairly detailed diary of the trip.

June 29 – Travel from Kinshasa to Kikwit on Kin-Avia airline. Dr. Benza, who lives in Kikwit, welcomes us and we spend the afternoon running errands downtown. We expect to leave for Kajiji (500 km away) the next day. We pay a deposit on the jeep that the doctor has rented, and we purchase groceries to take with us: rice, instant coffee, powdered milk, “Vache qui rit” cheese, soap. Whatever we don’t use ourselves will be left as gifts for those who prepare meals for us. We also spend some time with the doctor discussing our work schedule for when we get to the hospital at Kajiji.

June 30 – Today is the DRC national holiday. We leave at 06:15 hoping to arrive at Kahemba (390 km) before dark. The day has several surprises for us. First, the roads are very sandy and the Jeep (Opel) is not built high enough off the ground. After the midday break (fufu and sardines at the house of someone we know) we get stuck several times in the deep sand. It is very dusty because of it being dry season and because of the fires in the fields (people usually burn the vegetation in the dry season). Several times we have to drive very near a fire (we try not to think of the fact that we have five 20-litre containers of gasoline with us in the vehicle!). One time, stopping for a few minutes, a fire starts under the vehicle (the engine, which overheats in the hot sand, is in contact with dry grass underneath). We panic! We jump out of the vehicle, take out the containers of gasoline, the driver and the doctor throw themselves on the ground to put out the fire. Fortunately the fire is quickly put out. Meanwhile, the engine continues to give us problems. Right after getting past the sandiest section of road, it breaks down completely. The driver-mechanic checks things out – it’s the fuel pump. He immediately begins to take out the fuel tank in order to replace the pump. The doctor, John and I take essential supplies for spending the night and leave on foot to look for a village that is supposed to be 2 or 3 kilometers away. After 20 minutes, it is beginning to get dark, but happily we arrive at the village of Mbenga, where we ask the villagers for help. A large group of young people leave right away to go and help with the car. We wait for several hours, tired and very dirty. Eventually the jeep arrives, being pushed. The driver was not able to complete the repair job. We eat (fufu, eel) and arrange for a room in the little “hotel” (bamboo mat on a pallet, sand floor). The driver and the doctor sleep in the jeep. Despite everything, we sleep quite well. The next morning the driver succeeds in fixing the problem by doing a fancy electrical bypass; people offer us hot water for our coffee; I get to know two women, one of whom (Augustine) suffers from infertility like me. We offer to give her a ride so she can be examined at the hospital in Kahemba. The village of Mbenga is very poor – does not even have a health centre. It is cold in the mornings in dry season, and there are lots of children wearing hardly any clothing and shivering. Except for when we sleep, we are never alone – there are always at least 40 children who look at us with great curiosity. Despite the circumstances, we feel a bit sad to leave because we were shown warm hospitality. We plan to stop there on our return trip to drop off Mama Augustine. By afternoon, we have arrived at Kahemba (80 km). There, we find a nice guest house with water to wash, a mirror (I see that I have become black from all the dust) and a bed with real sheets. We are all very tired, so we take the whole day to rest. In the evening, we work again with the doctor, preparing for the visit to Kajiji.

July 3-7 – From Friday to Tuesday morning, we are at the hospital working with the whole team. Since our last visit, some of the reports were sent late and others were not done correctly. Also, in some cases we suggest new report forms. There is much work to do to get all the missing data and to put them in the correct format. Dr. Benza, John and I work together at times and at other times separately with small groups. To give you an idea of the kind of work that was done: we had to 1) redo the monthly inventory for June in an improved format, adding several articles which had not been counted the first month; 2) calculate the average monthly consumption for all the products (this calculation is necessary in order to be able to place a reasonable order); 3) prepare the quarterly medication order using the freshly calculated CMM; 4) find data on the performance of the hospital, such as the percentage of beds occupied (varies between 18 and 35 percent of the 32 beds depending on the month); 5) redo a number of financial reports in a new format;  6) reconstruct the global situation of the pharmacy and get an overview of the traceability of previous orders. In general, we were satisfied with the results, but it was hard work for everyone.

July 8-9 – Return to Kahemba, and then Kikwit. We arrive at Kikwit at about 6 pm, very tired, but unfortunately the room that we had reserved has been given to someone else. The alternative room is dirty, moldy, dark and damp, next to a very noisy generator, and beside a bar. We are about to agree to take the room for one night with the idea of then looking for something better, but Dr. Benza suggests that we look at one more establishment; happily they have something available: a large, clean room, with private toilet and shower, and with a meeting room where we can hold our meetings. What a relief.

July 10-13 – Meetings with the two coordinating doctors at Kikwit (Dr. Gaspard had come from Nyanga for the meetings). The meetings go very well. We have the impression that the level of mutual trust has greatly increased since our first meeting in April. Even when we have to broach sensitive subjects, we succeed in finding solutions that everyone can accept. I again feel very privileged to have such a good relationship with these colleagues.

July 14 – Dr. Gaspard leaves to go back home. We will see him again at Mukedi (the hospital that he is supervising). Meanwhile, we stay for several days at Kikwit to finalize and print some documents, and to work with Dr. Benza on the quarterly order for medicines. The doctor gets malaria during this time. We have a somewhat more relaxed schedule.

July 19 – We leave for Mukedi, where we will do same work we did at Kajiji. Dr. Gaspard will arrive by motorcycle on the 21st. The trip to Mukedi seems so easy after the one to Kajiji – only five hours and we’re already there. We spend a very peaceful week-end, sitting around and reading some novels that we fortunately brought with us. We stay in a guesthouse with livingroom, bedroom and bathroom. All the water has to be carried on someone’s head from at least a 20 minute walk away, so we use the outdoor toilet as much as possible. We have all our meals with the Ngangula family. The father of the family is the managing doctor of the hospital. The family atmosphere does us good. It is a family that often talks in French, and so we feel more included in the conversations (Lingala, which we are still learning, is less useful here where the main language spoken is Kikongo).

July 20-23 – With the management and pharmacy staff of the hospital (about 8 people in all), we spend four intense days updating all the reports. There is a good team spirit and we have many interesting discussions.

July 24 – We leave early in the morning for Kikwit. I feel very sad to leave the Ngangula family and Dr. Gaspard! At Kikwit, we rest, and have one last meal with Dr. Benza in the evening.

July 25 – Return to Kinshasa. I could write several paragraphs about the Kikwit airport experience – like the last time, I am frustrated with all the useless formalities we have to go through, and how incredibly slow it is. Kinshasa seems so ordered, calm and neat after Kikwit! We are very happy to come back to our apartment. We feel satisfied that the trip has been a great success.