Roasting in Comoros

After a dreadful series of flights on Kenya Airways to Mombasa last week, I started on this trip with some trepidation. My concerns were for naught really though. The inbound flight from Nairobi to Johannesburg arrived on time which gave me a lot of confidence that my flight would leave on time. In the end we left a half hour late but this was due to a passenger not having the correct travel documents and his luggage had to be unloaded. The wait in Nairobi was quite endless but I spent my time getting some exercise by walking up and down the departure gate corridors. There are only two so it was a bit monotonous but better than just sitting around. The flight to the Comoros departed quite late as the inbound flight was late. This meant that instead of arriving in Comoros at 23:35 we arrived at about 00:30.

The Dreamliner arriving at OR Tambo International Airport

There were ten of us that were arriving in Comoros for the same meeting and all of us needed to apply for a visa. Besides us there were also two Ukrainians in the queue for a visa and it took well over an hour to process the 12 of us. I was second to last in the queue but spent my time chatting to a colleague from the Seychelles so it was not too bad. Well all except the heat - as I was standing in the queue I could feel the sweat pouring down my back. It would take a bit of getting used to this heat! We had a further wait after the visa application process because the luggage for the Seychellois and a Mozambican had not arrived and this needed to be registered on the system. Finally we were all loaded on the bus and the long trip to the hotel got underway.

Eventually we arrived at the hotel at around 2:30 and in our exhausted state had to deal with a very slow check in. While I was waiting I looked out the door and there I saw a gardener sorting out the flower beds - AT 2:30 IN THE MORNING! Maybe he chooses to work at that time because during the day it is so hot but I was a little astounded. After a mini-riot from everyone at the slow check in pace we were given our room keys and directed to our rooms.

The hotel

My room was quite comfortable but unfortunately reeked of stale cigarette smoke. The bedroom section seemed to have been renovated fairly recently but the bathroom looked quite dated. All in all it was an okay room and much better than some other places I have stayed in here.

A nice room except for the strong stale cigarette smell

A little dated in contrast to the rest of the room

By the time I had settled down in my room it was well after 3 am so getting up early the next morning for the meeting was rather challenging. This was exacerbated by the heat which the air conditioning failed to conquer. So Day 1 was very long! At the end of the workday (around 17:30) I headed to my room and settled down to catch up on a little reading. I woke up about two hours later having not read a word. I showered and headed straight to bed! At least the next day I felt much better.

That day I decided to try go for a run on the treadmill at the gym. I temporally forgot about the inconsistent electricity supply but was rudely reminded of it when, after 20 minutes, the treadmill came to a very abrupt stop. Fortunately I did not end up on the floor but it was very close. After that shock I gave up on running and returned to my room for a shower. On the way I met up with Baraka (from Tanzania) and he suggested we meet up a little later to watch the sunset.

A beautiful end to the day

We came across the Kenyan contingent also waiting for the sunset and had a very nice time chatting about African politics. The Kenyans went off to bed and Baraka and I had a long chat followed by a pizza from the restaurant. The pizza was surprisingly good and I went to bed well fed.

The following day I decided to attempt a second run at the gym and this time there were no power interruptions and I had a good run despite the heat and humidity. I was completely exhausted after that and headed back to my room for a quiet evening.

On the last day of the meeting we had the morning off. The Scientific Secretariat had to prepare the meeting report so that we could approve it before leaving and he needed us out of the way. Our Comoran hosts organised a small tour for us to a fishing village, to the university and to the museum. The fishing village was on the shore and it would have been an idyllic view but for all the rubbish lying around. It was really good though to get up close to the boats (pirogues) and to have a conversation with some of the fishers. We didn't really see much of the university as it was closed but it was really nice and cool as it is quite far up the side of the mountain. After the university we drove down the mountain to the the museum. We were given a guided tour of the museum which was good as all the annotations were in French. It looks like a very old museum that could do with a bit of a face lift. The highlight was two coelacanths - a dried specimen and a preserved specimen.

A pirogue on the beach - such a pity about all the rubbish lying around

A goat, a boy and plenty of trash

Our group learning how pirogues are made

At the university campus for law, geography and foreign language studies

Some of the lecture rooms at the university

The entrance to the museum

Inside the museum learning about the history of the Comoros

 

The dried out coelacanth

The preserved coelacanth

After our tour we got back to the grindstone, going through the report line by line. It is quite an endless and tedious process but very necessary. Once the work was complete we had the closing ceremony where it was announced that we would be taken to a restaurant for a cocktail function hosted by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Fisheries. It was a very nice evening with good food and lots of laughs but it was extremely hot. 

This has been a very enjoyable stay in the Comoros and a good end to the work year.

Another beautiful sunset