Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Beach life


So here is a shot of my foot and the "crowds" at the beach here the other day. (Double click to enlarge and see this man is throwing out a fishing net) I'll be offline for a few days traveling to the States with the kids as of this afternoon, so thought I'd leave you with a few pictures of our weekend activities (and where Olivier will be spending his spare time when the kids and I are gone!). This is to show you why we actually don't complain about the potholes and traditional African architecture you saw in my past posts here. Weekends here make up for a lot of the African inconveniences!




Monday, June 26, 2006

World Cup - African Style





Here's so you can get a feeling of what the World Cup viewership is like in town here. If you've read my Amadou & Mamoudou blog below you'll know this is Mamoudou and his buddies from neighboring houses.

While many of you sit around on cozy sofas with drinks and snacks, or others are inside a neighborhood pub enjoying the general friendly football atmosphere, we here in Port-Gentil don't need to actually watch the matches (thank God). I just check in on these guys out in the street to see what the score is every once in a while. Or even better, I send Jourdain and Cecilia out for me.













Sunday, June 25, 2006

Le Grand Village


I tend to take loads of pictures of us all lounging at the beach each weekend, but until yesterday I had never attempted taking shots of the daily African life we see in Port-Gentil. Many friends and family have asked me what things LOOK like here, so I loaded the kids and Ines up in the car yesterday and drove into her neighborhood where she took shots of her neighbors and the local market from the passenger seat while I drove on pretending I didn't know what she was up to. Needless to say, we got yelled at by plenty of people who thought we were trying to take pictures specifically of them. (Click on picture of woman selling bananas to get a feel for this.)
We stopped the car numerous times to show them that no, we were actually taking a picture of the FOOD in the market, or the BUILDING that people just happened to be walking in front of. It wasn't an easy sell, but having Ines with me helped (two small kids in the back seat didn't hurt either).

One exception was a man who came up to us and asked us to take a picture of his boat in the canal (first canal picture, closest boat) and was then so excited by the image on my digital camera that he asked me to please be sure to print out a copy for him. I told him I would do so as soon as I got to my father's, where I'll be heading next week for a vacation. The guy can't wait for my return.

Keep in mind this is a part of town you have to actually go into to see, as the main street of Port-Gentil and the areas the expats (and middle and upper class Africans) spend most of their time in don't look nearly as "traditional" as this. You might also want to know that when Olivier reads this blog tomorrow it will be the first time for him to see this part of Port-Gentil too!! The kids and I go to this area--called "Le Grand Village"-- almost daily, to drop Ines and her children off at their house or to buy local products or veggies at the market. It's entirely safe, with the only offence ever carried out against me or the kids being a SERIOUS price hike as soon as we step out of our car.



Friday, June 23, 2006

Amadou & Mamoudou











After our first week here in Port-Gentil Olivier told me he found it "a bit scary"as to how long it took me to get used to having domestic help. In my opinion, though, it's not the getting used to that's worrysome, it's the going back to real life that scares me! We'll have to do all those things everyone hates doing - like bringing out the garbage (or washing your car, mowing the lawn, sweeping up fallen leaves, or even making your own bed..... the list goes on and on!) We have friends in town here who've been traveling the world like this for some 25 years, and they tell me the hardest part for their kids when they went off to college was to understand that their dorm rooms were not the "self-cleaning" type they had always known.

So, this blog is dedicated to two men who have become very important to our family in the short 8 1/2 months we've been here so far - AMADOU and MAMOUDOU. Since everyone knows how we got here, here's the short history as to how these guys ended up here.

Port-Gentil is a small, calm town located on the Atlantic coast, at the tip of what from a distance looks like a peninsula. The land is actually cut off entirely by rivers and waterways (including a beautiful, seemingly limitless bay), making this a very small island (30 miles north-south by 15 east-west I believe) populated by the local Gabonese, the expat oilfield peronnel and their families (us), and a few thousand men from much less affluent African countries, all here to carry out the "non-office" work that the Gabonese refuse to do. And that's where Amadou & Mamoudou come into the picture. They were hired by Olivier's company to "guard" the house, which in some countries I can imagine it's essential, but here it's more a form of providing employment and ensuring your guard mingles with the neighbors' guards and provides a general feeling that all is well and there's not much to steal in our house anyway.
  • Amadou (from Mali) works at our house house during the daylight hours. In addition to 'guarding" the front gate, his tasks include pushing the kids on their swings, taking Cilia for a walk to the local store (small shack down the road) to get a lollypop, watering the plants (as seen above), feeding the Koumba the dog, washing our cars, and much more.
  • Mamoudou(from Senegal) arrives in the evening and takes his TV set out into the road in front of the house, invites all the other guards from the neighboring houses, and watches the kids play in the dirt while watching TV (World Cup right now). I've learned it's best for me and my nervous system not to actually watch Jourdain and Cilia play out there, but to tell them not to drink anyone else's water, and then give them a good scrub when they come in. I just assume everything is cool if they don't have diarrhea the next day. All I know is they go out looking like little foreigners and come back as dark as the Gabonese kids they play with.
As for Olivier, he's completely confused as to which guard has which name, and shouts out a general "BONJOUR/BONSOIR (mumble mumble)MOUDOU!!" when he comes home. I try to explain "AMA during the day, MAMOU at night." Nothing works.

For a map of Port Gentil and its location on Manji Island, click here:

Weekend Beach BBQs





















Many people ask us how we're handling life in Africa, assuming, it seems, that we live in a grass hut. In answer to that I must say that life is actually not bad at all here on the equator! We're enjoying this crazy expat life filled with social activites like meeting with friends at one of our homes for a wall-projected movie each week (closest movie theater is a plane-ride away), or last-minute sunset barbeques with friends, kids and all the newly-adopted stray puppies we've taken on. It's a bit like being back in college, only the food's better and there aren't any mid-terms. It feels a lot like I imagine life on those US sitcoms where neighbors pop cheerily in and out of each other's kitchens to snack and share the latest chit chat. Very social, and very laid back. What more could we ask for, really? Even if we do have to live in a grass hut.

Cilia HAIRDOOOOOOOOOOs

The humidity in Africa gives Cilia's naturally curly locks a life of their own! (See below - Here she's sporting a look I tried desparately to acheive in the 80s with a curling iron every morning.) Luckily for Cecilia, Ines (shown below), is a trained hairdresser and loves to give her little African girly hairdos, taming her wild curls and making all Gabonese mothers and grandmothers stop and admire "la petite blanche avec des tresses africaines!" - Needless to say, Cilia rather enjoys all the attention.

















Thursday, June 22, 2006

They have Become Inseparable

How are we going to get them off to separate schools in September?




Jaco the Parrot


He was here when we arrived at the house, and now thanks to him we'll need to ensure we have grandkids one day. How long do these guys live, anyway?

We're working on his English, and he can now say "Hello!" Just like my grandmother Meema!! What would she ever think of THAT?!

Two New Kittens!!





Knowing I can never say no to a snuggly ball of fuzziness, Olivier called me after work the other evening to tell me there were two furry things cuddled up against a wall in the Schlumberger parking lot. Did I maybe want to come bring them home, he asked. Didn't take long before our newly-adopted puppy (Koumba) was welcoming the kittens in her mouth.

To give them African names we had our day guard Amadou from Mali name one Moushi (cat in his language), and Ines our multi-tasking cleaning lady/babysitter name the other Pousse (Cat in her language). Now we just have to teach our parrot Jaco how to scream out their names as well as he does Koumba's all day and night! (picture of Jaco in separate link)

Life in Gabon


In an effort to do a better job at keeping family and friends in touch with our daily events and expereinces here in Port-Gentil, Gabon, I'm starting a family Blog filled with stories and pictures that I will try to update very regularly. (Note I don't dare say daily - yet. Neither my organizational skills nor our African Internet Provider make daily updates a sure thing!)

We've been in Gabon for almost 9 months now, so we've got plenty of pictures and stories to tell! Now if I could just figure out how to make separate links, each with a theme. Hmmmm.....

Will be back soon!
Sarah