Sunday December 21st, 2003
The rather ambitious goal of today was to head down to Karagua, the other village involved with the Gorilla Habituation project. We fell a bit short of that. I spent a full day trapsing around Lomié trying to track down Achille, who was in Among Mbang, either sick, or visiting his girl on the side; trying to get a car to take us down, trying to get food for the trip, sending Mary and Ludo to get water from the pump; trying to get into the CIAD office to get the tents and sleeping mats… I started negotiating at 9 am, and it didn’t stop until 8pm.. with.. well, not much accomplished. I mean, I had some fun doing the over the top negotiating, but I think that the others were a bit nervous about all of the yes/no/yes/no/maybe nature. The status at the end of the day was: one tent and food. No other tent, car, permission to go (well, a note really).
My guests spent the day relaxing around the house… sitting on the porch, and watching Lomié pass by. Everyone stopped by to see who all was there. One drunk crazy man with a bad arm kept coming by. Begging for money. Every time I approached him, he stuck his bad arm out and started to yell that the white man was beating him, then he would collapse on the ground in a heap, again, keeping his bad arm in front of him like a shield. I picked him up, and escorted him away. He came back every hour or so, only to be chased away each time.. and not always by me. My neighbors show far less tolerance of him. My drunk landlady made a visit. Justin, the baka con-artist made a visit. So between negotiating and chasing away crazy people and drunk people begging, I had a busy day with some of humanitiy’s more irritating social traits.
Monday December 22nd, 2003
The day started where Sunday left off. Negotiating. I start the day with a visit from Michel the eco-tourist man in town, who was hoping that I would be going with him into the jungle with my guests.. (who in the meantime have been sitting on the porch and getting talked to by everyone in town.) only to be visibly dissapointed when I ask him if he has a tent that I can borrow. He tells me I have to talk to the ECCO fac guys. Which I put on clothes and do. I spend some time talking to them, schmoozing really, and then they let me take a tent. Very nice of them, I must say. I get word while there that we may have a car. How much are we willing to pay. I say 30, but 40 if necessary. Now I’m off to the hospital with Anne to pay a visit to Jeanne, George’s girlfriend, who has the worlds first case of communicable Heart Disease. Apparently, she went to the hospital the day that George left with Pete, showing similar symptoms. Hey, she doesn’t want George to leave, so she’s trying everything.. including ‘catching’ a heart attack. Sick is sick right? So, why are we visiting? George has the keys to CIAD’s inner sanctum where they keep the tents. It was suggested that Jeanne may have them in his absence. I doubt it.. seriously,.. but Jeanne had called me from her death bed the night before, either to ask for money, or get a message to George. I blew her off. Today, I came with a white doctor to make up for it. So, Anne spends a few minutes checking in on her, and I ask about the keys. Anne and the doctor make an appointment to chat in a few hours. We head back. The word comes through that man with the car is set on the price of 40k (80$ for a 40 mile trip, back and forth for 4 people..well 5 if Alex is tagging along). I get back, and the driver is there. I think the deal is done, but no. The negotiation starts all over again. 25 minutes of over the top “someone get me a knife, so I can cut open my arms and give you the blood from my veins, because that is all I have left to offer” kind of negotiation. He agrees to 40, and with the ECCOfac tent, we have everything. Meanwhile Anne heads up to the hospital for the courtesy visit. We pack, and finish getting provisions, and pick her up as we head out… saving her from a long visit to a place she will probably never see again.
We take the same fantastic ride through the jungle that I took last time down, in a very packed car.. with Alex. I have some fantastic video from the ride. We get to the village Monday at about 2pm. We meet the chief, and some of the other people in town. No question of us going out today. We spend the afternoon and evening chatting with the chief, presenting our gifts, taking a walk to the local fishing hole, and visiting in the village, and cleaning up. The ride got us nice and dirty. We had ant-eater and rice for dinner, then we listened to a bit of radio from Congo (the chief’s pride and joy is his radio so that he can stay on top of world news). Bed at around 9. The Chief and the pisteurs seem confident that we will see Gorillas. I think they are blowing smoke up our ass, but you never know. The important part is: torrow we go looking for gorillas. I am very excited.