Military Bases and Beaches

I got the opportunity to head back south to our field site in Kalemie which is situated on the northern end of Lake Tanganyika. Kalemie is much hotter than Bukavu. Luckily, since the FH expat house was full, I was bunked on the UN base where they rent rooms to NGO’s. Why would I say luckily….my room had air conditioning and it was really, really hot! The accomodations were a long trailer separated into 5 units. There were two units with en-suite bathrooms, but sadly mine did not.

My room at the UN Base
The lady who took me to my room said that since there were no guys staying there I could use the men’s washroom/shower trailer as it had hot water showers. Of course, that was only one night of the 7 I spent there. So my only real option was the women’s shower; since you don’t find too many women heading off to stay at a UN base in southern Congo, the women’s washroom/shower was a concrete room with one toilet and one shower. No hot water, bugs on the floor, one sink and no mirror. Good times! Now, you need to know that I intensely dislike cold showers…unless it is so hot that at the end of the day all you can think of is getting rid of layers of sweat and grime and a cold shower is the most refreshing thing in the world and doesn’t really feel that cold since your body is already overheated. And the other nice thing about being on the base was the cantina or Welfare Club as it is called. CNN, good food, wine…it was a nice respite. I worked lots and hard, but also got a chance to relax at the beach on Lake Tanganyika with my friend Keith. It was a good trip and I look forward to going back again in February 2009. This time for a month…but I am hoping to stay at the FH residence this time. I am not sure I can take a whole month of cold showers no matter how good they might feel!

Me running on the beach
Keith and I enjoying Cokes at the beach cantina