Bienvenue à Gabon!

6/22/13

I’m heeeeere! I arrived in Libreville the evening of the 21^st and got picked up by Gleen’s sister Arlene and her friend Astrid, who was kind enough to let me stay at her house for the night. They took me out to dinner (thanks for the makeup Arlene) with Arlene’s father and their friend Gwen.

Just Gwen being her sexy self.

We went to a place in the old port area, which had a really nice view of the water. Tons of fun, even though I couldn’t really communicate with her father because he only spoke French. Pretty much I only understood him when he said “americaine.” So now one of my goals is to learn enough French to be able to hold a conversation with him when I go back to Libreville at the end of my time here.

Astrid had two little kids, the youngest of which was a wee little baby who liked pulling my glasses off my face and then trying to put them back on. We did this for like, probably an hour total.

We tried to go out to karaoke but couldn’t really find any and we were all super sleepy so we ended up just going back and sleeping. It was really weird because it gets dark here by 6 PM, but I’m used to it getting dark at like 9 PM so my little internal sleepy clock has been hella confused.

This morning Arlene and Astrid drove me to the airport at 6:30 AM, and I got to Gamba at about 10:00 AM or something. The flight is only an hour, but there were issues that delayed it.

The Director of the program, Lisa Korte, met me at the airport and whisked me off to a boat christening. From what I gathered, the boat basically represents an effort by Gamba business people to make it more economically independent, because right now the entire town is very dependant on Shell Gabon for transport, trade, and cargo. If Shell ever pulls out of Gamba, this boat, appropriately named Le Gamba will be able to haul cargo and cars back and forth.

I guess it would make more sense if I put it like this: Gamba is really isolated. Except by flight or by boat, there isn’t an easy way to get here. So currently, goods are driven to a nearby town, and then shipped twenty minutes up river to Mayonami and then Gamba. That goes for everything, even cars. Which brings me to the next event of the day, official discussions of building a permanent road to make the transport of goods easier because right now the road is dirt, sand and mud. There is some contention about how much the road would ultimately help the people of these towns, versus the amount of money and energy it would take. Also this is the first time that I have seen a village so ramshackle and yet the residents have iPads.

SO! That lasted most of the day, and we got to ride on Le Gamba for a good while, up to l’embouchure, où la mer et le fleuve rencontrent; where the sea and the river meet.

I’m getting even sleepier, so I’m going to summarize the rest: Got back to the dorm at like 6:30 PM, decided to nap, sort of wanted to sleep through dinner so that I wouldn’t have to deal with awkwardly trying to say hi and converse with people in French since I met like a million and a half people at the ceremony today (there aren’t any other girls in the dorm right now, which is another reason why socializing is intimidating). But then there was a knock on my door and so I was like fiiiiiiiine and I got up and a very nice gentleman named Etienne had come to let me know that they eat at 7 PM. So I went with him to the dining hall, which was full of boys who had just finished eating, and then this skinny white girl with big glasses comes in and silently starts eating. They were pretty cool about it but I felt bad because the guys at my table felt obligated to stay while I ate, so I kinda shoveled it down. AND WILLIE, just so you know, I ate grilled fish, rice, and a pea/carrot mixture. Along with a giant water bottle and soda.

I also showered in the co-ed bathrooms for the first time tonight (don’t worry mom and dad the doors lock firmly).

Also I’m becoming an avid bug killer (malaria etc.), bottled-water-drinker (because my wee American intestines can’t take the water here), and user of air conditioning (it keeps out insects and mold as well as the heat). BUMMER but what can you do.

À toute l’heure!

- A