dimanche, mars 13, 2011

Là c'est sur, je suis pas au Brésil... :-)

J'ai ouvert mon compte blogger pout vérifier un truc, et j'ai voulu aller sur ma page principale. Je l'ai trouvée comme ça:


Donc là tu te dis... euffffff, ou je vais là??? Les petits inconvénients pour un européen ignorant face aux régionalisations de l'internet...

Et maintenant je me retrouve avec les vieilles joies de l'Afrique, les stress des vols de retour que tu n'es pas sur de prendre à cause des prix... vive SLB!!

vendredi, mars 11, 2011

Sudan... and time goes by

I am on a blitz visit to Sudan that has been decided last minute and it is my first Muslim country and US embargoe'd. My feeling is that after just this short period that country lives under different principles. The end of the winter is pretty dry and not that warm. I mean you're pretty much surrounded by desert so don't expert a lot of humidity. A lot of what we have in the West is just not here at all. Leaving in a religious country sure takes what we can call priviledges out. Internet is limited, you do not find most of the US trade marks, yet you drink Coca Cola and I saw a Levi's store. I found small similarities to what I saw in West Africa: a lot of chinese, sand , dust and Toyotas everywhere. Apart from that it seems you are in a totally different place here. The country is big, so what happens in the southern border of the newly created South Soudan or Darfour doesn't come in Khartoum. Now the first time I step foot outside the airport I was strucked by the amount of nice looking cars, not that expensive but well maintained. Probably the fact that Muslim culture doesn't have what we can call the "money-is-bad" complex from the Christians. Yet according to my collegue, even for a chinese it is complicated as you do not have much of a life here and believe me chinese can live on far less than us to be happy. In a certain way we are too assisted and leisure orientated but that's our culture, it comes as far as the roman empire.  The feeling I had when I was cruising the street was more of peace and calm, like the sound of the wind blowing around carrying the wind. It is probably an impression of mine, like preconception or else, but it seems things were more spiritual, philosophical or religious, I could not really tell exactly but there was something I like whistling around these streets. Just like these picture of desert nomads feeling the sandy wind blowing. My impression is of course not the best one around, I mean it's my second day and I stay absolutely idle for 1 entire day as my suitcase was forgotten in Frankfurt thanks to zee german efficiency!! So no clothes for the past 2 days, I did buy my toothpaste on the only supermarket that seems more like a convenient store (obviously sudanese people go to open market, not supermarket). Couldn't get a book (well that's part of my faults, and also zee germans that did not announce they were about to close the flight) cos the embarking was closing so I'm left with TV and listening to the muezzins calling the devots to pray. Talking about Muezzins I heard the one next to the staff house nearly at all calls he made at night, that really doesn't help you out to sleep. 
So that's my first stop to the easternest part of the world I have ever been to...

vendredi, mars 04, 2011

ER Bahia style

Yesterday was a bit weird. My step father suffered a athma attack and we had to bring it to hospital. We had plan to go to the street carnival (Salvador in February man... it´s unmissable) but we had to change our plans last minute. As an ex officer of the brazilian Air Force he had a special hospital with a cover plan and everything. But the man was down, like real down with breathing problems and else. So we arrived there rushing cos the treatment is simple but you need to give it quick. Arriving there, nobody... or barely.  Then you say ok, wont be long till we admister the treatment. But then after giving his ID they said he had to wait for the decision council to approve the injection... and my step father hardly securing himself... surreal. Then we wait... and wait... and wait..(advertizing spots.... hemorrhoids, headaches medications on TV WTF??? they don't have anything better to show it's carnival for sake!!!). Then they said ok, he can get the holly injection. Now for the nurse, where is she?? going inside the hospital looking for her. Right... now @ least we can get my step dad in. Then what... aah found her and oooh great, the medic is with her. That was emergency for you, after 35 min waiting (we were the only one in the emergency that night) we could get him the injection. Hurray!!! Man I don´t wanna come there with a deadly wound otherwise I know I´m cooked.