After 7 hours of train journey I reached to a small place called Booeu. And my god, if you do not know French here your life is hell here. So far I was always accompanied by one or another person who helped me in interacting with these. But on the train, no one was there to help me out. And I was damn worried about how I am going to alight at my destination. It was night journey and everyone was sleeping and I was worried that if I go to sleep, might miss the station. I tried to know from other people that when I ll reach at Booeu, but what I managed to get from them did not make any sense to me, I thanked (â??merciâ?? the French for thanks) them for their help.

So I did my own calculation based on the info provided by my Libreville friends and slept for 3-4 hours and set the alarm in my cell, quite well earlier to my calculated arrival at Booeu. Somehow or another I managed to alight at Booeu. The station was very small station, just like any small station in divine land of Bihar. So a feeling of nostalgia crept in. Four-five people were there on the station. I did an exploratory scan of the whole place to find the person, supposed to be there to receive me. But I realized the futility of the exercise, how I am going to recognize that fellow, to me all faces are alien.

I waited and waited, no one so far. With a laptop on my shoulder, a camera hanging at my hip and a face, distinctly different, were giving invitation for trouble at 4 am. After 15 minutes, I saw person approaching towards me, 6 â??5â?? tall, double my width, dressed in blue denim and t-shirt. He pointed his finger to me and spoke in voice which sent  chill through my spine: “you Mr. Singh?” I could not belive my ear. All I could manage was an ‘Yes’ and deep sigh of relief. But for make it doubly sure, I asked “Are you from Olam?” Answer was a soothing “oui”.

He took my luggage and I followed him to a Toyota pick-up, I hurriedly snuggled into back seat. I was happy that within a few hours I am going to reach my hotel and settle for at least 20 days. No more travel with the entire luggage. But I was mistaken. We started for Makakou and after few minutes it started raining heavily. After 15 minutes of concrete road, we shifted to kachha road. And after another 10 minutes we were surrounded by big giant trees and no trace of any human being. Huge trees, and here these kind of forests are called a ‘bush’, I could not help but smiled. I remembered my trip to Vellore, Tamilnadu, where all they had was some patches of 2-3 feet tall Acacia nilotica, and Subabool plantation and they called that forest.

It was a journey which seemed never ending. After 20-30 killometer drive I could see some small house made of wood. The population density is very low in all part of Africa. Barring a few countries or for that matter cities. Kinshasha (capital of Cango) was an exception, when I visited the local market there, it was very similar to any market in India full of people and a lot of buzz. After 3 hours of journey finally I reached Makokou. Small city with big wide clean roads. Very less population. My first stop was to Mr.Anandâ??s house. The only Indian family in Makakou. And there I was greeted with south Indian breakfast and lunch. It was delightful to get some really good homemade Indian food. After visiting the Olam Office here, I checked in my hotel. Belinga Place. Nice hotel by any standard. If you just remove food served here as one of the parameters. For a person, who prefers vegetarian food, its tough life here. You have to take non-veg food or starve. There is no other option, if you are not cooking yourself. So, I had only one option to resort to non-veg foods. Here, the first thing I learnt was what they call chicken and eggs. As they serve hell lot of different types of meat. So it is better not to experiment, unless and until you know what they are going to serve. You get monkeys, frogs, beef and god knows what not. 

So I decided not to experiment and go on staple breakfast of Omelet, coffee, orange juice and breads. Even the bread served here is different. It takes hell lot of time to explain them what I want. I got hold of some French words but the pronunciation, these idiots right something and speak something entirely different. In the evening, Mr. Anand too me to a round trip to city which lasted for 45 minutes and I had seen all nook and corners of the city. Nice clean city. And best thing is that, it is as safe as any other city in India, or even safer than that. So I can easily roam around without any fear. A relief from security concerns, which were quite restrictive in Kinshasha, where I could not move out from my hotel room. #iifm #africa