Adongi alango na keke? So nyen la? (Bats sleeping in trees? What up with that?)

 I am in Bangui on my way to second vacation in as many months - an accident of administrative oversight that serves me well.  Meantime, some only in Bangui scenes:

A COVID PCR is required to leave the country.  Why?  Because.  Anyway, to get one within the 72 hours from departure requires a visit to Institut Pasteur.  Quick, my NGO picks up the bill, and I am documented COVID free to leave.  But, has anyone ever seen this, a bunch of bats roosting in trees in the middle of the city? Probably 20 trees are full of them (all those black things hanging from the branches), just settling in for the day as I arrive at 7am.  Is this a thing anywhere else?  No one I asked has seen it elsewhere in the country.

Folks have mentioned the front page NY Times article on Wagner/Russian forces here in C.A.R.  It is an accurate portrayal as far as my experience goes.  The article does not capture the soft power that USA still wields here, souvenir of the long-gone Peace Corps and also Christian Missionaries.  Jeffrey, Douglas, Cynthia - these are common first names here now (not way back when).  On rave recommendation I check out Mbiye2 bar/dancing, above whose door a sign I think intending to discourage Wagner patrons at the entrance.  For those of you who knew Bangui back then, it reminds me totally of Punch Coco (which lives on only in memory, like Bar Etoile).  You must stop by if in town.  It's on my NGO's "green list" so safe!  Music, ambience, prices, clientele are just what you (well, I) would want.

I return to post in a little over three weeks, with less than 3 months remaining.  I have a long quality improvement to-do list which is way too ambitious and will be impossible without administrative support and coordinated hand-over to my eventual replacement.  Neither of those things is assured.  We'll see.  I am a little sad and angry, because a girl I had for a month in PICU and I thought was an awesome save came back one month later - I didn't know until her mom came up to me and asked what was going on after two weeks readmitted and she's getting worse?  I asked my boss to check out what was happening - he asked the Peds ward doctor taking care of her to write up a case presentation to present to telemedicine.  He does not seem to have examined the patient.  I assumed care in that ward the next day - she was obviously critically ill.  We stopped rounds and transferred her immediately to PICU; she died 12 hours later with multi-organ failure.  Who knows what might have been?  Both of those doctors - the one who sat on her, and the boss - are leaving this week for good.  On those same peds ward rounds I find a kid with typical but aggressive bullous pemphigoid, inpatient for one month getting one useless antibiotic after another now  missing 80% of his skin.  I write a schedule for steroids and skin care, write in big letter WATCH FOR TUBERCULOSIS AND SEPSIS AND DEHYDRATION, and we'll see what's what when I get back.  

But CAR is so fun!  On my trip now I have passed through a series of escalatingly modern and efficient airports - Bangui to Douala to Addis Abiba to Bangkok.  But, where else but the adventure calling itself an airport - excuse me, I mean Bangui Mpoko International - could this happen:

I have now passed through Bangui Mpoko airport 8 times in 4 months (back and forth from abroad to CAR, and between Bangui and Bambari).  I am something of an oddity with my aggressive use of Sango, but really - the staff now greets me by name.  The boarding-pass checker laughs that I forgot my lunch this time (last time I brought some koko na gugu I made to eat in the airport.).  The passport control woman tells me that her "brother" (not sure how literal she means the relation) who works with me in Bambari is currently visiting in Bangui, too.  The customs agent notes that I work for a medical NGO, and I should give her some Tylenol, now.  She is smiling, but she is not kidding.  She smiles as I describe all the hospital paperwork and administrative approvals it takes just to get one Tylenol - boy do I wish they would let me just take some in my pocket!  We share a good laugh, and I'm on my way.

On the other hand, Bangkok has blazing fast internet, a free luxury passenger lounge even for economy class (if you're taking Bangkok airways) with all you can eat/drink lots of fun stuff: