Bien-être

Latest shells collected from Point Dick with Clayth on Sunday.

My last week on the job! This week I’m wrapping things up with the database, turning in my different projects to Lisa, and saying my goodbyes. It’s such a bummer because the mangos in the backyard are just now starting to turn a yellowish orange. Just a few more weeks and they’d probably be ripe.

The other day Tobi was checking our insect collection for damage to the specimens.

There was an oil spill at the Shell Gabon terminal on August 29^th from an underwater pipeline that was transferring oil to a tanker offshore. It’s been deemed a “small” leak, and although exact numbers are difficult/impossible to tell, it was something between 6-18 barrels. Shell Gabon has been monitoring the oil from the air via planes and satellite images, and they have people on the ground going to the beaches to clean up. Evidently a type of barnacle growing on the pipe produced a natural acid that corroded the pipe leading from the terminal to the tanker caused the leak. In response, the terminal shut down and stopped producing for a time, which is impressive given that 60% of the oil exported from Gabon comes from the terminal here.

I had never seen oil on a beach before but on Monday Lisa, Axel, Gotye and I went to Point Petras because that was as far north as the Shell clean up crews went and we wanted to see what was there. Since the ocean current pushes everything north, all the attention was in this area. We didn’t see much, but there were small, pea-sized globules of oil that had washed up all along the shore. I had never really thought about what “cleaning up” an oil spill really means, but in this case it means people walking up and down the beach and then skimming sand with these oil globules, putting them in plastic garbage bags, and then hauling them out.

After rubbing one of the globules between my fingers. It doesn’t wash off unless you scrub against something abrasive like sand.

On Sunday September 8^th, Clayth and I went to the beach at Point Dick, right by the terminal. When I went into the water just up to my ankles, I came out with this waxy resin on the bottoms of my feet. It was bizarre because I couldn’t see anything in the water or on the sand, but it was most definitely from the leak; we could see the tanker from where we were sitting on the sand. I hadn’t heard about the leak until that day when Clayth told me at the beach. It made me curious about how many people in Gamba knew since urgent information like this isn’t dispersed by specific means like a daily newspaper, Twitter updates, morning news stations etc. There’s word of mouth and a local radio station, but I don’t know how far this news carried. In addition to the more general concern about wildlife being impacted by the leak, it is ill timed for the sea turtles who will be coming to lay their eggs soon on the beaches.

Waxy resin from the oil spill on the bottom of my feet from standing in the ocean for about a minute. It’s difficult to get off your skin once you’ve touched it; I still have dark brown on the bottoms of my feet even after scrubbing with a t-shirt.

Luckily Gamba has a whole host of local NGOs and concerned parties. Ibonga, who focuses on sea turtles, WWF, Agences Nationales des parcs nationaux, and le Ministére des eaux et fôrets

Apparently ANPN, Agences Nationales des parcs nationaux du Gabon found oil on beaches at Point Catherine which is at the northern most tip of Loango National Park and quite far from the terminal. It’s not clear at this point whether or not this oil is from the leak at the Shell Gabon terminal; oil is a big industry in Gabon and it is possible that it is from another source, so ANPN and Shell teams will be testing it to see if it did indeed come from the August 29^th leak.

Unrelated to the oil leak or anything, but on our way to work today we saw this crew of guys in the back of a truck. I counted 17 heads in first photo, but that doesn’t count the people on the other side and the drivers in the front. Luckily the driver was going pretty slowly, which means at least less than 60 k/h since we were able to pass them.

Other than that news, all is well! Actually, yesterday was a bummer because I got le chique again. I can’t believe it! If Lena, Gigi and Perez are reading this right now I’m sure they’re laughing. I explained le chique in a previous post, but it’s worth repeating. Les chiques are these little bugs that are tiny, you can’t even see them until they start feeding on you. Anyways they live in dirty sand (aka not sand at the beach) and hop onto your toes, then bury in and eventually start making babies. After the babies hatch they hop over to your other toes and the process starts over again You don’t feel it until a while has passed, I guess until they start getting bigger. It mostly just feels uncomfortable and for some people it itches really bad but it didn’t for me. The English translation is “chigger,” but we don’t have these in the US. The only way that you can get it out is to cut open your skin and pull it out. Similar to a tick, you really have to dig and twist it out. The first time it happened it had already laid an egg sac, and Clayth helped me pull it all out. This time I figured I could do it by myself but this one was a lot deeper and I ended up calling Clayth to help me. He even brought me cotton and cologne! The cologne is for sterilizing it, since all the alcohol here is just for drinking. No I’m just kidding, but it’s easier to find cologne. But the reason why I can’t believe my luck is because, for example, Clayth and Lena have lived in Gabon for almost their whole lives and have never had one. I live in Gabon for three months and get two, and one in my last week! But, like Lena pointed out last time, at least it hadn’t burrowed beneath my nail. That would have been ten times more painful.

Bien-être cologne for sterilization, cotton for the blood, and a big scary looking needle. All you need for a successful operation on le chique!

Also yesterday was Marlyene’s birthday (32!) and so Pamela, Liz, and Marlyene and I went out to the Yenzi Club for dinner. Tomorrow my friend Hugo and I are going to go to Le Perroquet because I’ve still never been there, only to Belair.

Sidenote: This last weekend we didn’t have any power in Gamba. I don’t know why, but it made for a quiet weekend!

But anyways this Friday I’m going to go out with my Smithsonian colleagues to Mississippi, a restaurant in town. Then I’m set to leave Gamba on Sunday and then I’ll be in Libreville for a night, leaving at around 22:30 on Monday. I’ll be staying with Arlene and Astrid again, so it’ll be tons of fun to end my trip with them. Hopefully now I can converse with them in French instead of making them speak English with me.

At Vembo lake. I believe that this is Merops pusillus, or the little bee-eater!