Bugs and plants

Centipede about 25cm long

Coconut

Coconut tree

This is where the pineapples grow

From dusk till dawn part 2

Sequel is almost never as good as the original, but still this one is worth mentioning.


It was the first time I went out on Saturday night in Mongomeyen, a village near our camp.


That night, after a football tournament, two guys were having a farewell party - just a bunch of drunken guys listening to a folk music. The booze is free but I don't like the atmosphere. So, after a few beers I proposed to a friend that we should go to some bar. As I mentioned, I've never been to any of them before and people told me that it's boring, not a lot of people (read:girls) to see and places to go. Me, curious as always, wanted to see it for myself. 


We'd headed to an only discotheque, but it was closed. Other bars in that (only) street were almost empty even though it was only 11pm. The driver told us that only one bar is somewhat full, so we went there. A few guys from the camp were already there, so we sat with them outside, on an unpaved porch. People were sitting at two more tables outside and around 30 more were inside, some standing at the bar, others dancing. 


That phenomena of a "village/country" DJ, as I like to call it, which is present in every small place in Serbia has apparently spread all the way here. The phenomena is that a DJ first plays popular, usually house, music followed by the transition to  Serbian pop/soft rock and climaxed with turbo-folk hits. When I heard Serbian music in a bar in Guinea, I almost puked. I was disgusted. Some wise guy wasn't lazy and had burned a CD so he could poison these people, too. Luckily for me, they played only 3-4 songs. The rest of the music that night I would describe as a mixture of MTV pop from 2008, Spanish pop and African hits. African music, the commercialized one, is full of beat which suits their mentality and the way they dance. 


And I couldn't get enough of the way they dance. The movements they're making are surreal. They are really enjoying themselves, having fun but at the same time trying to look at their best. The bar's got a huge mirror on one of the walls and the biggest crowd is in front of it, constantly checking out the way they look while dancing. One particular guy caught my attention. He was dressed similarly to a hipster (and had a red Chuck Taylors, same as me), looked like he's 14 (but told me he's 19, and told me that he wants me to find him a job in our company) and danced like crazy. He want to the dance-floor, danced for about a minute of two and than went out of the bar - and he repeated it at least 10 times. It looked to me that he only came to the dance-floor to show the rest of the people how good he is and than left them to practice. Apart from this "show-off" dancing, you always have that seductive one and they can move their bodies, yes they can. 


The atmosphere in the bar was hot as always, a blend of the weather, a lack of A/C and human sweat, a lot of alcohol and sex crave. Some told me that it used to be better, but most of the girls now go to Bata on weekends. Howsoever, I stayed there till 3:30, danced my ass of and my legs were weary the next day. 


Overall, it was an interesting night.      


       

A wooden bridge and a baptism

Interesting things only happen on Sundays (occasionally Saturday night).


I finally got my ID (well, it's not actually ID, just a paper saying the ID is in the process of making, but that's enough), so I can travel without a hassle on road blocks during the day. 


This is a small country and there's not much to see - two places on the seaside, one national park, a dam and a few villages (but they're all the same). Nevertheless, going out of the camp fills you with so much energy that it doesn't matter where you go, you just wanna breathe different air and see different part of the same jungle.


So this Sunday we decided to go to one wooden bridge nearby. The place is about 20km far from the camp. You go on the highway that our company's building than enter the part of the highway of another company, exit on the dirt track and you are there. You would never notice a bridge is there, except the fact the water runs under it. It is just a dirt-road. Probably some guys who went fishing discovered it. When you go through bushes and down a slippery path to the bank of a river, you realize how amazing the bridge actually is. It's built entirely of huge logs. They put'em in water, build it in height and than connected two banks. Chinese built it, what a smart nation.

While we were there, three hand built canoes went by and we've seen them later near our car - the people riding canoes, not canoes itself ;). We decided to make a picnic one time at this place.


Afterwards we went to see Oyala. It's the next presidential town. They are building it from scraps. I expected it to be a bit bigger, at least 2000 inhabitants, but there's only a maximum of 50 houses (out of which 15 are bars). When you go through Oyala you see the work-sites, highways and avenues being build, portions of land reserved for residential area etc. It's close to the same river we were earlier that day and tree bridges are being build over it.

Road through a rock

We've returned to Oyala for a drink in one of the bars. It was surprisingly live, given it was Sunday noon. The music was loud, disco ball was on and some 15 people were inside. This place was sure the place to be on Saturday night :). We've agreed to give it a go once.






Later that day some of us were invited to a baptism of a child of one of our worker. She was in a relationship with one Serbian guy, but it's not his kid, it's of some German dude. Anyway, we got there and it was really hot, the temperature was at it's high. Older women were chanting traditional songs inside the house and all the rest were under two tents. Unfortunately, we've missed all the ceremonies. The good thing was that I've tried a local food. It wasn't that different (fried chicken, something like russian salad and a tomato/lettuce/avocado salad). The exception was some spicy dip. They've warned me but it was stronger than me - I had to try it. And it was really hot, but I didn't embarrass myself and they were amazed that a Serbian can eat their spicy food - WIN.


Afterwards, the music started and the people danced. They are really born to dance. From the smallest child to the oldest granny, they all have incredible moves. That was definitely the highlight of the fiesta, as far as I'm concerned. 

My batteries have charged for another working week.