Email from Bangui
Lucy Jones @ Bangui
Mon 30 Sep 2002 01.41 BST
In sub-Saharan Africa one would hardly expect
to find a brothel run by two female engineers from Bucharest. But in pockmarked Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic,
Alexia and her friend entertain many traders and civil servants - for a price.
Pockmarked : If the surface of something is
pockmarked, it has small hollow marks covering it. In general it refers to the
image of smallpox (viruela) on the skin. In this case I think it refers to the
bullets’ holes.
Even by the standards of this impoverished
country, their surroundings are far from boudoir-like. At a
heavily fortified villa, nylon curtains do little to curb
the huge marauding flies while glass crunches
uncomfortably under the feet.
Boudoir:
A
boudoir is a woman's bedroom or private sitting room.
Curb: Avoid, limit
Marauding: If you talk about marauding
groups of people or animals, you mean they are unpleasant and dangerous,
because they wander around looking for opportunities to steal or kill.
Running such an establishment was not of course
a lifelong ambition, explains Alexia, but when one of their husbands died and
another left they had nothing. "We solve our problems in the same way as
some Central African women," she says.
A community of Romanians has been stranded in
this former French colony since the end of communism. They arrived in the 1970s
and 80s, the result of a bizarre friendship between Jean-Bedel Bokassa, who
crowned himself emperor of the Central African Republic in 1977, and Romania's
Nikolai Ceausescu.
Bokassa started courting Romania's favour in
the 1970s, feting Ceausescu with diamonds. (This country may be poor but
diamonds are plentiful.) He sealed their friendship in 1973 by marrying a
Romanian dancer, Gabriella Drimba, (*) whom he spotted performing in Bucharest
and brought to the mango tree-lined capital.
(*) Gabriela
Drâmbă
While Drimba languished in a luxury palace
Bokassa had built for her, which is something of a tourist attraction today,
the leader forged ahead with a number of ventures with
his European partner. Romanian lecturers taught at Bangui University. The police
force was whisked off for training in Bucharest. A
forestry company formed by the two countries stripped
the bush of hardwoods for shipment to Europe.
Central African students sent to study in Bucharest married Romanian women and
brought them back to Bangui.
Forged: Of or relating to metals that
have been shaped by heating and hammering (forjar)
Whisk
off: If you
whisk someone or something somewhere, you take them or move them there quickly.
Strip: To strip something means to
remove everything that covers it.
Hardwoods: Hardwood is wood such as oak,
teak, and mahogany, which is very strong and hard.
"For weeks, I couldn't eat the food my
husband's family ate. I lived off fruit... but I was in love," sighs the
Romanian honorary counsel. Her compatriot remembers being taken by her Central
African husband to their roofless marital home in the bush. "I couldn't
believe people lived like this, but I stayed," she says.
When Ceausescu was executed in 1990,
cooperation between the allies ceased and most Romanians left. But a few stayed
on - especially women who had married Central Africans. Not all share the
dismal fate of Alexia and Alexandria. Some work in the hotels and the telephone
company, or test blood at the Pasteur Institute. "To return often meant
leaving children behind. These women were torn," says
Polly Strong, a US missionary. The dilemma led several women to suicide.
Tear /
tore / torn: If you tear paper, cloth, or another material, or if it tears, you pull
it into two pieces or you pull it so that a hole appears in it. So, in this
cases , torn means be broken
A decade ago, most Romanians had the money to
leave. A drastic decline in the country's economy, partly due to the withdrawal of French assistance, means many can no longer
pay for an air ticket out. Denise Cristodor, an accountant for a French
supermarket, is saving hard. "It's as difficult for us to go to Romania as
it is for a Central African," she says.
Withdrawal:
The
withdrawal of something is the act or process of removing it, or ending it. departure,
retirement, exit, secession
Situated in the heart of the continent, with an
abundance of natural resources including diamonds, uranium and possibly oil,
the Central African Republic has never been short of suitors.
North Korea built the country's national parliament. Chinese officials are busy
ensuring the ruling party wins the local elections. Robed Kuwaitis fly in on
their private jets to buy briefcases of diamonds.
Suitor: A woman's suitor is a man who
wants to marry her. A suitor is a company or organization that wants to buy
another company.
Briefcase: A briefcase is a case used for
carrying documents in.
Libya's Colonel Gadafy sent troops last year to
help President Patasse fight off a coup attempt. Blasting
Arabic pop from under the palm trees, these "peace-keepers" cruise
around in pick-ups emblazoned with the word "Censad" - Gadafy's new
alliance of central and north African states. It was thought that he shored up the president as part of his widely mocked plans for a "United States of Africa". But
the colonel has had the last laugh - he recently signed an agreement to exploit
the country's diamond and oil resources for 99 years.
Blasting:
In this
case refers to the sound of the speakers.
Shore up: If you shore up something that
is weak or about to fail, you do something in order to strengthen it or support
it.
Mocked: If someone mocks you, they show
or pretend that they think you are foolish or inferior, for example by saying
something funny about you, or by imitating your behaviour.
More information about
Gabriela Drâmbă
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