Guest Post: The Congo, Part II: Ebola
If you are foreign, you are sure to be joined on a portion of your walk by one of several African artifact salesmen who will gladly sell you a mask, a rug, or anything else you could want for an excellent price (according to them). They are very persistent and skilled bargainers. I was hit up one day by a guy who wanted to sell me an instrument for $5. Just $5, he said. Well, I'll buy anything for $5, and it was quite a nice little stringed guitar type of thing. When I got out my $5, he said, "Oh no, madam, we said $25". I'm pretty sure we had decided on $5. Anyway, we bargained back and forth and somehow by the end, he had squeezed $20 out of me for the instrument. Considering that it was handmade with a carved top and some metal work, I felt okay paying $20 although I probably thinnk it was worth less. I felt it was okay, as he clearly needed the money more than me and now I have some Congolese instrument that I don't know how to play or what to do with.
On one of my walks on the river loop, a young couple ran up to me and wanted to have their picture taken with me. How odd, I thought but I posed with a photo with each of them and they went away really excited. While I walked, I wondered why they wanted a photo of me, and then I thought about some of the photos that I've had done in the past made with a weird looking water man in his traditional costume, a snake handler in Marrakesh, or a yogi with the painted face in Kathmandu. And then it hit me that I'm the weirdo in this scenario. I wonder what they are saying to their friends when they show them the photos. I'm going to have to process that a bit. I walked so many times about the loop that one of the locals asked me what I was doing. I think I was starting to look suspicious as well as weird.
Talk of Ebola is everywhere now that it has been confirmed in southern Congo and carries a huge stigma, as people are terrified of the spread of this highly deadly disease. Who can blame them? The good news, though, is that it does not spread quickly, and now that there have been nine outbreaks of Ebola across the globe, aid organizations such as the WHO and CDC have a good handle on what to do to identify, contain, and treat it. At first, the symptoms of Ebola look similar to malaria, so people don't know to take precautions when helping a sick person, and this is when the virus really gets spread around. It is transferred via bodily fluids like sweat, vomit, and blood. Although there was a case of someone traveling into Nigeria via plane with Ebola during the last outbreak, most people with Ebola are too sick to travel, and no one on the plane was infected by that sick traveler, fortunately. In many African countries, there are rituals that require washing and handling dead loved ones, which is a major way Ebola has spread.
It has been very challenging to get people to change their burial rituals, as there are strong taboos against burning bodies or putting people into body bags, etc. Once a person with Ebola has been identified, they are treated with major transfers of fluids, as their body is purging out all the fluids, and their blood vessels eventually collapse. They are quarantined, and then anyone they've been in contact with gets monitored for fevers twice a day for 21 days to see if they come down with the virus. So far, 90 percent of contacts have been traced to the current outbreak, so the medical response has been robust and can do a lot to contain the geographic spread of the disease. It's much easier to handle outbreaks in small villages than in large cities due to the need to contain and monitor the contacts.
Where does Ebola come from, you might ask? No one is sure, but they think it originates from some infected bush animals such as bats and spread to people via bodily fluids. I heard a story of some tourists in a cave somwhere during a prior outbreak who slipped and fell and got cut and had landed in bat poop and got it. Not sure if that's true. There are people in rural areas, though, who are hunters and gathers who rely on bush meat for survival and eat things like large rats, monkeys, gorillas, etc. They can get infected by prepping the meat to cook. When people don't have access to bush meat as a food source, they turn to other options and there are ripple effects felt throughout society that cause other problems. Luckily, the international response for the Ebola task force is promising.
Lastly, there are some beautiful hotels in Kinshasa. The one where I always stay has an amazing breakfast with so many types of food, and you can eat until you explode. What you can't do is get more than 1-2 cups of coffee. Coffee is only served by a waiter walking around and doling it out like caviar. I asked if coffee is really expensive in Congo and everyone agrees that it's not. I'm not sure why, but the waiters cannot seem to see anyone who is wanting a cup of coffee. They are always standing or wandering around but have perfected the non-eye contact or bring the coffee to a table near you without ever making it to you. Every time I have to go find someone and ask for some coffee, then rarely do they have coffee, tea, and milk all in hand at once. They only hold the thing that you weren't wanting, so they have to go retrieve whatever you wanted and often in multiple trips. Oh, you want coffee? They are only holding the tea and have to go get the coffee from some mysterious safe behind the bar. They bring it. Oh, you wanted milk in it? Oh, they have to go get that from that same mysterious vault. What, you drank the coffee you were given and want more? Back to the vault. Normally half an hour is sufficient time to eat breakfast in the mornings, but not if you want 2 cups of coffee. The other crazy thing was that they charged me a $200 deposit for anything I might use from the minibar. One night, when I had left over pizza, I decided to put it in my little minifridge, only to discover that they had locked me out of the minibar, so I had them unlock it. I was dying to see what was in this very valuable mini bar, and it turns out it only has a bottle of water, plus four soft drinks. It would take a lifetime to consume $200 worth of minibar items from what I could see was available.
All in all, after my third trip, I can say that I like Kinshasa, as it has a lot of character. I'd be curious to see more of the country some time and will definetly try to get to Brazzaville on my next trip now that my curiosity has been piqued. I wish the best for the Congolese as they have a beautiful country with so much potential. They really deserve to prosper.
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