From dusk till dawn

I've spent the last weekend in Bata. The purpose of going was the football tournament - they were hosts for the first time. The company allowed the building of the football court in their residential area, so they decided to organize the tournament and host all the camps. It was great, as far as I'm concerned, as we've won the trophy without conceding a goal. Afterwards, we've enjoyed the delicious food and a few beers.


The feast was over around 22:30 and the night had just started...


I took a shower and then we went to a friend's flat, drank more beer and called a ride at around 00:30. That was quite late beginning of a night-out, even for Serbian standards, but it's not the case here. 


The first stop was, Mamayta, a bar/club. It's got two parts - outdoor and indoor area. The music is not so loud outside, so you can communicate normally, and you can breathe, even though the humidity and the temperature is high, despite the fact that it's well over midnight. We went inside and it was like in the Tarantino's movies - abnormal temperature, smoky atmosphere, loud music. Whole club was filled with people dancing, rubbing their bodies on one another moving in the rhythm of the music. The atmosphere was on the verge of erupting any second. One guy was dancing facing the mirror that covers the whole wall and he was constantly smiling like crazy. People were switching their dance partners constantly, everybody was dancing with everybody. The dance moves varied from "shaking your ass like a pro" to "a middle aged white guy who's stiff as a board". I believe that one can't depict a place like that so it correlate with the things seen (or at least I can't, since I'm not so good with words), but you can just try to imagine the above mentioned movie, locate it in the heart of Africa, add more money and more poverty to the equation (what a paradox) and you're on the right track.


The was mainly mainstream - I haven't recognized a single song, but they were in English and Spanish and resembled the MTV type of songs so I assume that most of them are popular songs in Europe's clubs as well.
In this club, the ratio of Africans vs People from other continents (mostly Lebanese and Serbians, with few Cubans and Spaniards) was 60-40, African guys vs African girls 20-80 and Guys vs Girls from other continents 98-2.


We were standing in one corner, close to the bar, facing our back to one of the booths. My friends told me that I should "beware" of the girls, cos they have the "instinct" of recognizing the new guys in town. Some 45 minutes after we've arrived the power aggregate went out, so we found ourselves in pitch dark. Right there and then, a girl grabbed my ass, twice - she was sitting in the booth behind us, giggling with her friends and shouting something. They've told me that they know her as she's been with some guys from the company in the past. I was, once again,  surprised with their direct approach and the lack of shame.
We went outside to finish our beer and have witnessed another strange thing. The power was back on but we decided not to come in again so just stood and talked in front of the entrance. Then a commotion started. The girl that grabbed my ass and her friends were yelling and trying to get back inside but the bouncers wouldn't let them in. (My friend told me that the Africans pay entrance fee of around 8 euros, cos most girls go to a places like this to get guys and "earn some easy money", they don't order anything so the club wants to profit on them somehow. Nobody charged us for entering since they know we would drink that amount several times. You can also take a girl in without her paying for the same reason - they know that you're gonna buy her drinks the whole night). The girls then started beating the bouncers, forcing they way in on several occasions, but the guys were stronger so they gave up and sat there, took of their high-heels and waited for Godknowswhat. It was very strange to see chicks in mini skirts, top shirts and high heels fighting. Even if we wanted, we couldn't interfere as we, as a strangers, can't get in a conflict with the locals as law is firmly not on our side. These girls were, too, expatriates, coming here from the surrounding countries Gabon and Cameroon.


We've decided that it was time to change our location before something worse happens so went to a discotheque. It's interior was similar to European ones, but with a lot of African wooden masks and cool drawings on the walls. It's a pretty large one and was half empty when we arrived. As it was 2am I assumed that the closing hour was approaching and that it was the reason for not so many people inside. But I was mistaken once more. As the time went by, it was getting fuller and fuller. The music was the same as in the previous club and the people were, too - they've just changed the scenery. At one point, a song started and the mass around me erupted - they've formed the circle and, one after another, started going in the middle of it and showed their best moves. It was F.A.N.T.A.S.T.I.C. That lasted for at least 15 minutes, than a DJ switched to another type of music. It was definitely the highlight of the evening. The ratio of Girls vs Guys was well on the side of the guys when we arrived, but it leveled throughout the night. And the girls were tireless - they were "attacking" us, shaking their booties and dancing provocatively. Four girls have asked me for my phone number - the situation here is completely different from the one in the rest of the places I've been before. Even though it was flattering in a way, although I know that they only wanted my money (it sounds so harsh), the health must be always in the first place as there's a high risk of various sexually transmitted diseases. We've stayed there until 6am - I haven't stayed that late since coming here and it was time to wrap it up for the night.


Slept for three hours, then went for a walk with some friends, afterwards to the beach and around 3pm headed back to the camp.


Weekend succeeded ;)

The day after

After we woke up, we went on a walk along the coast of the ocean. The promenade is one of the longest I've ever seen. We only walked a small part of it as some friends were waiting for us in a newly built hotel at the beginning of the promenade. 

The kid was riding a bicycle without tires on it's wheels :)

On our way back to the hotel, we've seen the head coach of Zambian football team, jogging with his assistants. Catch up with our friends, and after finishing our coffees and juices we went to have some lunch and then to the beach. By the way, the service at the hotel was horrible (waited for 20 min to be served and that it took her 3 turns to bring everything as she kept forgetting things). 


The road to the beach is a bit bumpy but once you get there, it's all worth the effort. The part we went on is called the American beach, cos it's near the American military base. There's one restaurant with a terrace plus a few tables in the sand and some sunbeds. The sand is almost white and the water is pretty clear. The temperature of the water is phenomenal, it's like the Caribbeans. I so love salty water. Minor drawback is that the water is shallow so you have to walk a 100m if you want to swim and I didn't want to take that risk as in this time of the year there's a lot of jellyfish around. Someone said to me that in January and February the water is the hottest here. 

I enjoyed the salt in my hair and the sand in my pants, but unfortunately we could stay there only for two hour, as we needed to return to our beloved jungle. So we packed up, refreshed a bit and headed back to the camp. Didn't have problems with any of the roadblocks, none of the guards were drunk enough to molest us ;)


I'm already looking forward to the next weekend in Bata (just hope I won't have to wait another four months for that)  

CAN 2012

In the past month I had a lot of work, since my colleague have been on a vacation. Didn't go anywhere, spent my free time relaxing, watching movies.

Equatorial Guinea, together with Gabon, is a host of this year's Cup of African Nations (CAN). When I read that information in Novi Sad, I set my mind on going to at least one match - it is, after all, once in a lifetime opportunity. I did not know how difficult it would be to put my plan into action...

CAN started on the 21st of January. The matches in Bata, the only place where I could see a match, were to be held on five occasions, one of witch was the opening clash between EG and Lybia. I still haven't received my permanent residence, so the risk of going out of camp is still high (it's not that something horrible is going to happen to me, but they can lock me up and make me pay a lot of money). In addition to that, we worked till 6 PM the day of the opening, so I couldn't go to this one.

Several days before the beginning of the CAN everybody was talking about it. These guys really don't have a respectable team, they have never qualified for the championship before and were the lowest ranked team who played in the final stage, so we didn't believe they would pose a threat to any team. But the folks were optimistic, they've had fate and trusted their team. The opening match showed us poor football, a lack of organized plays and a surprising victory of Nzalang (that's the nickname of the national football team of Equatorial Guinea, meaning thunder). The people were ecstatic. Everybody was retelling the story of the fantastic match in the days that followed. 

The next match in Bata was Nzalang against Senegal, firm favorites in that group. It was in mid-week, so it was out of bounds for me. The rain postponed the matches for almost two hours. Incredible last minute victory qualified Nzalang for quarterfinals and put the idea of wining the trophy in heads of all Guineanos. The third match in Bata was on Sunday, 29th and it was Senegal-Lybia - missed this one too. Nzalag played their last match in capital Malabo, lost, so ended second in the group and were to play Ivory Coast in Malabo, too. Unfortunately for me, that meant I wouldn't be able to watch them play. Only two games left to be played in Bata - and I had a chance only to watch the quarterfinals (it was on Saturday and I worked till noon). The problem was that, despite sending positive thoughts, my my ID still hasn't arrived. I was in despair. Another "great" thing was that the board of the directors banned economists to go to Bata on weekends, except with the written permission of the director of the camp and the approval of the board (so I'm officially in a prison from that day). After a few days of going through pros and cons of me leaving for Bata, I decided to give it a try - you only live once and who know if the chance like that would ever again arise. 

Found the car, found the company, got the permission and  organized the tickets and a place to stay - it was all set. We had to go through at least five police road blocks in each direction, plus the random raids in Bata. I was the only one without the valid documents, so I equipped ourselves with Fanta, water and a small bills in case someone ask for IDs. The trip to Bata went pretty smoothly, only one guy asked us for a refreshment ;), so we got there and were really hipped. The feeling of being in the city, doing something different, something you wanted soooo much was amazing. 

We left our stuff and headed to the stadium. Some fifteen people from the company came to the game. We all knew that the attendance was going to be low, but I didn't mind. I just knew that I'm gonna watch the CAN match live and everything else was irrelevant. The stadium itself was a newly-built complex, completed for this purpose and a lot of European club can look at in with envy. 

As expected, less than 3000 spectators (my observation) showed up so the stadium was empty. The game was Zambia vs. Sudan. The prior were favorites and had about 20 supporters on the stands. The later had a larger group of supporter, 150, and were located on the south stand where they hanged their flags. When the game started, they weren't there, but later on they organized and started beating the drums and chanting song in their native language. A small group of Marocans  near me also supported Sudan, I joined them.

Zambia fans

Sudan fans

At the half-time, we changed the stand in hope of the TV camera catching us (don't know if the plan succeeded). Despite seeing three goals in Sudan's net, the game was not so interesting. But the experience of watching them celebrate goals, fans chanting and dancing and the atmosphere in general was priceless. I'm sure gonna remember that day and retell the story for the rest of my life.

Serbians

After the match, we went to eat something - first fast-food since coming here ;), and then watched Nzalag game (they lost as expected, despite the help from the sorcerer who was supposed to summon the rain). That was the end of the dream for the hosts of CAN.

     

   

The thing that fascinated me over and over again is that I was again in the city during the night - I saw street lights, I heard traffic, it was amazing I kept smiling the whole time. People need to learn to appreciate the little things in life. On our way back to the flat, the police stopped us in the street raid. I was prepared to give a large sum of money, just not to spend a night in jail. Luckily, we were all surprised by the kindness of the officer - he saw that I recently got here and said I should carry my passport (not the copy) and let us go. I was incredibly lucky that night. 
I felt asleep with the sound of the cars coming from the street next to the building (yes, the building, oh what a joy...kill me for being a city kid).



The next day was awesome, too.