Africa Calling

As mentioned in my previous post, an Independence Day(s) party was held in Brazzaville. It was a blast (by Brazzaville standards) and both Pakistanis and Congolese had a lot of fun. The cake cutting ceremonies were patriotic and displayed a unique intersection of two nations which probably had never crossed paths before we came to Congo.

You can see more pictures of the Independence Day Party.

Labels: brazzaville, congo, independence day, pakistan

The cheesy line of the title is taken from the movie Independence Day. In a Survey conducted for Warburton in 2000, it has been rated as the 7^th most cheesiest movie line of all times.

Today is Pakistan is celebrating 60 years of independence. Since, the only Pakistanis in Congo are the ones who work in Warid Congo, we decided to get together at one of our guesthoues at midnight. As the clock struck 12, ten of us started singing the national anthem Pak sar zamin shadbad (Blessed be the sacred Land) at the top of our voices. Unfortunately, we are not very good at it; not only we sang out of tune, but also forgot lines. The performance can be view on YouTube video below:

For those who are neither Pakistani nor Congolese, the national anthems are as follows:

Pakistan

Pak sar-Zamin shadbad
Blessed be the sacred Land
Kishwar-e-haseen shadbad
Happy be the bounteous realm
Too nishan-e-azm-e-aalishan
Symbol of high resolve
Arz-e-Pakistan
Land of Pakistan
Markaz-e-yaqeen shadbad
Blessed be thou citadel of faith

Pak sar-Zamin ka nizam
The order of this sacred land
Quwat-e-Ukhuwat-e-Awam
Is the might of the brotherhood of the People
Qoum, Mulk, Saltanat
May the nation, the country, and the state
Painda tabinda bad
Shine in glory everlasting
Shadbad manzal-e-murad
Blessed be the goal of our ambition

Parcham-e-Sitara-o-Hilal
This Flag of the Crescent and Star
Rehbar-e-taraqqi-o-kamaal
Leads the way to progress and perfection
Tarjaman-e-Mazi, Shan-e-hal
Interpreter of our past, glory of our present
Jan-e-istaqbal
Inspiration of our future
Saya-e-Khuda-e-zuljalal
Symbol of Almighty's protection

Written & Adopted in 1952.

En ce jour le soleil se lève
On this day the sun rises
Et notre Congo resplendit.
And our Congo stands resplendent.
Une longue nuit s'achève,
A long night is ended,
Un grand bonheur a surgi.
a great happiness has come.
Chantons tous avec ivresse
Let us all, with wild joyfulness, sing
le chant de la liberté.
The song of freedom.

Congolais, debout fièrement partout,
Arise, Congolese, proud every man,
Proclamons l'union de notre nation,
Proclaim the unity of our nation.
Oublions ce qui nous divise,
Let us forget what divides us
soyons plus unis que jamais,
And become more united than ever.

Vivons pour notre devise:
Let us live our motto:
Unité, travail, progrès!
Unity, work, progress.
Vivons pour notre devise:
Let us live our motto:
Unité, travail, progrès!
Unity, work, progress.

Des forêts jusqu'à la savanne,
From the forest to the bush,
Des savannes jusqu'à la mer,
From the bush to the ocean,
Un seul peuple, une seule âme,
One people, one soul,
Un seul coer, ardent et fier,
One heart, ardent and proud.
Luttons tous, tant que nous sommes,
Let us all fight, every one of us,
Pour notre vieux pays noir.
For our black country.

CHORUS:

Et s'il nous faut mourir, en somme
And if we have to die,
Qu'importe puisque nos enfants,
What does it really matter? Our children
Partout, pourront dire comme
Everywhere will be able to say how
On triomphe en combattant,
Triumph comes through battle,
Et dans le moindre village
And in the smallest village
Chantent sous nos trois couleurs
Sing beneath our three colours.

Written & Adopted: 1959, replaced 1969, restored 1991

Labels: congo, independence day, pakistan

I arrived at my final destination – Brazzaville, Congo – on Thursday. As I had narrated in my previous post, that the journey was a very long and tiring. And Although I survived it, my luggage was not so lucky. One of my bags is lost and is expected today (it was expected in Friday and Saturday as well). I never thought I could be thankful for being a little overweight. Since my belt was in the other suitcase, its my love handles which are holding my trousers up while I go around wearing trainers under my suits.

This is an interesting place and I do not want to write too much about it cause I fear that if I write too much in this post, I might not have anything left to write. What I mean is that I went out for about 45 minutes on Saturday night and saw the whole city. Yes, this place is so small and so entertainment-ly challenged, that you can do all what is to do within a few hours.

More about that later, this is a “checking-in” & “I am alive” post.

Labels: brazzaville, congo

I am in Dubai (or at Dubai Airport to be more precise)! How I come to be here is a long story (which some of you already know). For the benefit of those who read this blog to learn more about the ways of the world, I will narrate the story again.

The easiest way to go from Kampala, Uganda to Brazzaville, Congo is to take Ethiopian Airlines. First you fly from Entebbe airport to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and from there you take the flight to Brazzaville. Although, the total flying time for the both flights is around 4 hours; the main problem is the connection. The flight from Uganda arrives Ethiopia in the evening, the fight for Congo does not leave for another 14 hours. While the Ethiopian airlines is happy to put you up in a hotel, our green passport does not qualify for a visa to get into Ethiopia (I hope you are suitably insulted). Thus you have to stay at the airport for the whole 14 hours.

The way around is to fly Emirates from Uganda to Ethiopia (because the Dubai flight stops at Addis Ababa for 1.5 hours) and then from Ethiopia to Dubai. You arrive in Dubai 30 minutes past midnight and stay at the airport for the next 4 hours. Then you take the Ethiopian Airlines flight back to Ethiopia which arrives there in time to catch the same flight from Addis Ababa to Brazzaville, Congo. So instead of sitting at Addis Ababa airport for 14 hours, you spend most of that time flying around. Below is a diagram which I made with Paint (as that is the only software available on this PC in the lounge) to explain the journey.



As enjoyable as it may sound, but it does play havoc with your internal clock. You change three time zone within 24 hours (GMT+3, GMT+4, GMT+1). And just like any flight through Dubai, you cannot sleep for 24 hours.

I am sure you would agree that Dubai has become the "Bus Terminal of the World". The whole airport is like a huge waiting area in which either people are queuing or waiting (or queuing outside their gates so they can wait inside). The duty free has so many people on checkouts that you would be forgiven for thinking that they are giving things away.

So busy is the airport that they have ran out of gates and planes are parked on tarmac from where the bus takes you to the airport. There are so many buses running around that we almost has a traffic jam at the airport. A glance at the screens in the Departure area showed 32 flights departing within 45 minutes (1.45am to 2.30am). That just over 1 a minute!

Having said that, if it was not for Dubai we would have to wait days to go anywhere. Since most of the international airlines have suspended services to our airports, Emirates is our only option which connects us to the rest of the world.

I am gonna go now and have a cup of tea (they have Earl Gray in the lounge), relax and try my best not to sleep as I have to get going in 45 minutes!

Labels: addis ababa, airport, dubai, emirates, Entebbe, ethiopia, ethiopian, kampala, uganda