Trains, Planes, and Automobiles

Well, not quite. It was really landrover, train, taxi, walking, bus, landrover. Last Sunday, 7 of us from 5 different nationalities made a day trip to Dolicie, Congo. It is a fours away from Pointe Noire. The adventure actually began last week when the only person in the group that spoke French and I made a quick trip during lunch to buy the train tickets. We quickly changed our scrubs tops, grabbed hats and sunblock to apply on our way out of the ship.When we arrived at the train station, we saw two clumps of people standing in front of two windows. There were no labels above the windows stating which train tickets they were selling. After being shoved out of the clump a few times, we found out we were at the incorrect window. Once we were standing directly in front of the correct window, a gentleman came in and handed his passport through the slot in the window right over ours. We were able to purchase all 7 first class tickets for Sunday's adventure. We then experienced walking through the port in the middle of the day as quickly as we could.  We were actually moving much quicker than the cars as there was a traffic jam.  Mission accomplished!

At 6:15am, we were able to catch a ride from the ship to the train station from a shuttle that was making an early airport run. We made it on the train at 6:30 as they CFCO (train company) recommended. Our seats were in pairs facing each other with a table in between. The train actually left on time: 7:00am.  The scenery was very neat to see. It changed from the city, to railroad cars, to rolling hills, to thick trees, to randoms houses, even a flare from oil processing burn off. We even had the pleasure of a grand mare (policeman)sitting with us pointing out were previous train accidents had occurred and giving us information about the building of the railway.  Four of us took advantage of the dining car on the train. We had some delicious fried plantains while still enjoying the scenery.

Upon arriving in Dolicie, we were quite the scene. Not only were we the whitest colored people as far as you could see, but we all quickly pulled our bottles of sunscreen out to apply. The looks we got were saying, "Why are these white people painting themselves even more white?" We then made our journey to the bus station which was about 20 minutes away by taxi. We purchased the last tickets on the 30 seat bus. We were very excited about getting these so we would not have to pay for the taxi back to Pointe Noire.

We all piled into the two taxies again to go to the Market. The market had food on the bottom level of the building and cloth and shoes on the top level. The balcony provided a great view of the streets surrounding the market which were full of vendors as well. We also had time to walk down the road a little ways past the market. We happened upon a lady who was cooking the equivalent of fresh doughnuts. We purchased a few. When we ate them later, we had a wonderful surprise as there was banana inside. 

We got a taxi back to the bus station where we promptly piled onto the bus. The lack of personal space reminds me very much of riding on chicken buses in Guatemala. Five of us were in the very back of the bus with every square inch of the bus filled. We also had the privileged of having live chickens that were tied together at their feet behind out seat. We had African AC which works well only when the vehicle is moving. We began our journey to our surprise once again on time. The chickens in the back would make their presence known with every bump in the road. Every thing was going smoothly until we heard a pop that sounded like a tire blowing. 

The bus driver promptly pulled over towards the side of the road and all 30 of us piled out. The tire appeared intact, but there was a set amount of fluid leaking from under the tire. They decided to take the tire off anyways. We sat on the side of the road for 2hours. We were told a vehicle was bringing something to fix it. After two hours, there was no sign of any movement forward literally or figuratively towards getting back. At this time, darkness was arriving and we decided to call the ship to notify them of our situation. 

The Safety officer stated he would get someone and they would be out to get us. We were told by the passengers on the bus we were half way between Dolicie and Pointe Noire. This would mean at least another 2 hour wait. We were all together with most of the people who were on the bus too sitting or standing on the side of the road. We moved from behind the bus where we were either playing a card game or reading to the side of the bus between the bus and the gutter that was 2.5 feet deep. Here we were able to watch the stars. I saw the Southern Cross constellation for the first time. Another girl saw fireflies for the first time. We prayed, sang worshiped songs, talked about how we celebrated Lent and Easter. 

Two and half hours later we were overjoyed to by the sight of the Mercy Ships logo on the landrover. We were informed that we were only 70km from Dolicie...much closer to Dolice than Pointe Noire. I was surprised yet again, that the safety officer was not upset with us. He said we did everything right. It just happens sometimes. He said in orientation that the ship will come to our aid. We found out that they are definitely true to their word. What a blessing! When we left after waiting 4.5 hours, the other passengers of the bus were still sitting on the side of the road with no sign of a vehicle coming to their rescue.

All in all, it was a very nice day of seeing and experiencing places different than the port area of Pointe Noire.