congo

[waelalathram]

next month I am going to live and work in Brazzaville, republic of congo for a period of three years, any advice for taking with me my 6 month baby boy.

[qapmoc]

Hi , the thing is, is this your first visit to this sort of place or have you been there or somewhere similar before even for just a quick trip. 

[waelalathram]

many thanks, I been in Cameroon last July for short visit.

[luckystrike]

I'm not sure that I'm fit to answer this question - I would seriously suggest speaking to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office.

 

Anyway, and I'm sorry to tell you this if you do not already know, Brazzaville is officially the world's worst city to live in, according to the BBC.

 

The civil war in Congo, which resulted in thousands of casualties and the forced evacuation of expatriates, has made Brazzaville the lowest rated city in the whole world for personal security, social stability and public service standards, beating Jerusalem and Baghdad hands down.  About half of the city's houses are still in ruins, you never know when there will be electricity, and some areas of the city only have water for two hours a day.  Furthermore, the United Nations estimates that there are some 40,000 weapons in the hands of Congolese civilians.

 

A 'short visit to Cameroon' will not have even nearly prepared you for the Congo.

 

It must be one seriously good job which you are going for, especially if you and your baby are white.  If you have not done your research please reconsider - as Brazzaville must be hell on earth.  Good luck.

[qapmoc]

Sorry,  forget to answer you the other day, but the others have already made enough comments and I agree with all they say about congo. 

More generally  you should know that visiting a foreign country is easy, stay in hotels, service, special imports of food and goods kept for tourists etc...etc... hotels with their own water and sewerage purification systems, their own generators.  Living there long term outside that environment is a completly different thing, the first thing you have got to get in your head is that anything I am accustomed to may not be available at any price, included power and clean water. 

I have lived abroad for some time now and can tell if people who move to a foreign country will fit in and stay - If they have a fixed idea of what they want to do in the future and they moan about can't get pickled onions, pork pies or whatever they will be back in the UK before too long.