So, in my new place, there’s a woman who comes and cooks and cleans the apartment three days a week. Nice, right? Sure.

But, the whole thing just ends up feeling weird for a variety of reasons, chief among them not being accustomed to having someone pick up after you, it ends up being more of an annoyance than anything else . . . you begin to wonder, what can Flore (the femme de menage) be doing all day? The apartment isn’t THAT dirty. My clothes are only washed once every two weeks. She’s only making a meal for two. Why is she charging four cell phones at once?

But this all goes back to my expectations when I came here: I brought utensils and a camping bowl. I brought headlamps and flashlights (which, to be fair, I definitely use). I brought hiking boots. I brought a sleeping sack (different from a bag in that this is really just a sheet). I didn’t know whether I’d be camping out or sleeping in a bed. Or if I’d have running water or a rain barrel.

Now, I realize that I have basically every convenience I had in Brooklyn (minus food delivery and internet — although if I asked my neighbor, I might be able to get on his satellite connection). This is very weird to me. And what makes it so weird (beyond that we’re in one of the poorest countries in world and my standard of living here is incredibly high) is that this is pretty standard for many, if not most of the westerners staying here.

I think I expected that things would a little bit more raw, I guess. In a way, I’m disappointed: I thought that the situation would be harder on me, by necessity. I didn’t expect to be carted around in SUVs and cabs. I thought I’d be walking to work in the heat every day. I didn’t expect to be sitting in an ACd office all day. I didn’t expect to have access to such delicious baked goods (seriously, the bread and pastries here are pretty impeccable).

Of course, I say this, but I also have to remember that one of the important things to remember about being in a place like this is that things can rapidly get very bad — people are beginning to stockpile fuel in beer bottles and sell it by the side of the road, for example. So, I guess I should be careful for what I wish for.

But, for now, I have to say that this place is pretty beautiful, relatively relaxed, made up of mostly peaceful people who are very poor.

This weekend we’re going to try and go up to Boali, 25km north of Bangui. It’s where all of the hydroelectric power for CAR is generated, so I’ll try and take some pictures (or video). Alternatively, we might go up river to this place where a mother hippo abandoned her baby hippos — and now they spend all day swimming around the river. That sounds fun enough . . .

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 10th, 2008 at 4:06 pm and is filed under Red Hot CAR. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.