Expectations and Extremes

Before I left for my internship my dad told me that living in the middle of Africa would be like living on a huge beach without the ocean: hot, dry, sunny, and sandy. (Being a beach lover who had the option of going to grad school in Hawaii, this was supposed to make me feel better about choosing to live far away from the ocean in the very middle of a “hot and dry” continent). Well Dad, as it turns out there is way more water here than there is beach. You were right about the heat, though.

Now that I’ve been in Africa 2 ½ weeks people are asking what I think of it. It’s interesting to me how perceptions and expectations are so often different from reality.

class

one of the Bosembelli schools

On Thursday I got to go “up country” to the village of Bosembelli to photograph some kids at a couple Hand-in-Hand schools. These are rural schools for orphans that are run by the Grace Brethren Church in the village and are more what you’d expect an African school to look like. The orphan care center in the city is very different. Besides working, I also got to be a tourist and see the waterfall at Boali. It was beautiful and very wet.

The falls at Boali

Me and Caitlin very wet from the rain and spray of the waterfall

looking down on some lower falls

A lot of people asked me to come home with pictures of elephants, giraffes, monkeys, lions, and gorillas. Believe it or not, there’s not much wildlife here. All the animals in and around Bangui have been eaten. But I couldn’t let you all down so I found some real live monkeys to take a picture with!

me and a monkey!

there are at least two monkeys in CAR that haven't been eaten yet!

 The Central African Republic is a country of extremes. For example, it’s been so wet recently because it’s the rainy season but I’m told that come springtime when it’s hot and humid we’ll be wishing for rain like this and rain won’t come for months. The scenery is full of extremes as well. In the past few days I have been in the colorfully cluttered city, driven through the suburbs full of dirty red brick houses built right on top of each other, and out to sparsely populated villages.

There are extremes in people too. Friday morning I was hanging out with orphans and widows (who aren't very respected in this culture) and Friday night I was attending a classy party at the US ambassador’s house surrounded by wealth and prestige. It certainly is an interesting country and I would have to say my experiences here so far have been different than I expected them to be. I'm still processing what I think of it all.

p.s. the US ambassador and his wife are super nice! They have a grand piano (probably the only one in the country) and they told me I can come over to their house and play it whenever I want to! This made me so happy!!! I certainly didn’t expect to find any pianos in Bangui, let alone a beautiful grand piano that I can play whenever I want to! Things being different than you expect can be a very good thing!