Interpreters

Pretty early on in the week the team of interpreters got to pose for pictures with the navy men and women giving the courses we were working on together. Quite a change of pace from daily expat life in Port-Gentil!

In the Navy!

A few weeks back I was contacted by a woman in town about working as an interpreter on a US ship that would be coming to town at some point this spring. I had expected the work to take place in March, and calculated that Noah would be a "bottle baby" by then, making things easy on me, but...well...the Navy came to town a couple of months too early for that! Needless to say, I jumped at the chance to work on the ship and started up my first day of interpreting with three other ladies on a Friday in January.
On our first day to the ship it was explained to us that in response to growing US interest in West Africa (oil) the US Navy has embarked upon a new mission dubbed the Africa Partnership Station. From this point forward there will be a US ship (or ships?) somewhere off the west coast of Africa at all times. The ships will be manned with an international crew, and this particular ship has a crew representing many European nations while also carrying a number of African "ship riders" who apparently came aboard at some point along the trip. The goal will be not only to provide maritime security along the African coast, but more importantly, to teach the African nations how to protect their own coasts, maintain their ships, track and stop illegal fishing, react in a medical emergency, and much more. An additional goal for the sailors on board is to carry out goodwill work in each country, including re-roofing schools, building orphanages and delivering prepacked meals to the poor. Looks like an interesting (and welcome!) change in US foreign policy to me.

See here for a military explanation: Stars and Stripes

Each week I drive to the port twice to teach French in one of the oil companies located there, but on my first day driving out to the ship I was very excited to see the outline of the USS Fort McHenry wayyyyyyyyyy off in the distance!


And here she is, right at the end of the road, nestled in among the "traditional" African paraphernalia on either side of the road. What a rush it was to know there was a whole community of Americans visiting Port-Gentil for a week!
The interpreters' job, we were told that day, was for each of us to join a specific training course and interpret between the US navy "teacher" and the Gabonese navy "students". There would be one interpreter per course, and we could decide which interpreter would cover which course. One subject was martial arts (!!), another was about how to manoeuvre small boats out at sea (wooo-hooo!), and then there was tropical medicine (interesting) and computers (no one wanted to interpret for that one).

Ratri (Indonesian), Mary (Nigerian) and I were excited and ready to get the interpreting underway! (Fourth interpreter Elodie from France took the picture, with the USS Fort McHenry behind her back.) As Port-Gentil is a tiny town, we already knew each other and were very happy to be working together on the ship.


Containers had been stacked two high and were being used to protect the ship from any possible danger on land. A little welcome tent was then erected in front of the blockade and used as an assembly point each morning for the Gabonese military men arriving for training.
Out at sea were four well-armed small boats guarding the port side of the ship (I actually learned port from starboard while interpreting). I sure felt sorry for those guys out there day and night under the hot African sun and in the harsh tropical rains! Click to enlarge.

I was quickly asked to run to the head of the line of Gabonese soldiers to interpret between the US sailor signing everyone in and each individual as they approached the table on the first day. While there were seemingly hundreds of Gabonese sailors ready to board the ship for training, the vast majority had brought nothing but the uniform they wore as ID. Most acted quite surprised and relatively offended when I asked them to present proof of identification. "What? Are we in school?" asked one outraged sailor, while another one told me that military men from one country should automatically be accepted by the military of another.

I got so frustrated with their comments that I took it upon myself to break out of interpretation mode at one point and tell the Gabonese sailors that this was a safety measure and that surely they couldn't expect to board a US military ship without ID, could they?!!!!! The bemused young US sailor signing them all in told me the situation had been similar in all other African countries visited so far, although he couldn't understand why. It seems, I responded, that the military is above the law in Africa, and it's only ordinary citizens (and expats) who are expected to carry ID at all times. We had a good laugh a while later when we saw a group of civilian nurses approach the table, each with ID in hand!

Here's a shot of one of the few Gabonese sailors to bring ID on that first day.


And here's one I snapped of the nurses boarding as we were all entering the ship for the first time.
Next post tomorrow!

Small Boats

Not much time to post these days as the Navy is keeping us busy with interpretation during the day and translations at home in the evening, but here's a scene from the Small Boats class I interpreted for yesterday. I was told you could see my smile all the way back up on the deck of the ship. (We were out in the bay with the instructor teaching us how to guard your port.)


This is where they let me try! I was practicing bringing the boat up close to the ship in order to let people on and off. I wasn't posing here, I just couldn't wipe the smile off.

USS Fort McHenry

The US navy has come to town for 10 days and I've been employed as one of four interpreters on board while they're here! So far it's been a great experience, with the crew on board so nice it's like a fresh breath of "back home" here in our little African hide-away. Of course up to now my experience with Navy officers has been pretty...well...non existant, but I can tell you there is nothing nicer than spending a day with such a friendly, welcoming group of people.

One of the many highlights thus far has been eating the American-style canteen lunch in the officer's mess, where things taste just like I remember from hot lunch in high school!! Mashed potatoes with strange meat and gingerbread cake with frosting for desert. WOW has it been a looooooong time since those flavors hit my palate. There seems to be some sort of store on board too and the other interpreters and I are dying to get a peek and see if we might be able to grab a few 'Mercan goodies.

This here is Jerry Mosley, a very funny guy (he is a Chief, whatever that may mean...) who gave a tour of the boat to a group of Gabonese Navy sailors, with me as the interpreter. Pretty interesting cultural experience, I may add!!
Here are three of the four interpreters, with me in the back. This was as we left the boat at the end of our first day of interpreting.
Sailors looking on as we left the ship.I'll write more specifically about what the ship is doing here and what our work on board entails, but in short it seems the US is taking on quite an interest in the west coast of Africa these days (oil!) and will be carrying out this type of goodwill mission regularly up and down the coast on a permanent basis now. Luckily for me very few of these guys speak French! For a bit more info, click on the title of this post to read a military article about the boat's mission here in Africa.

Tomorrow we're taking a bunch of the officers to our island and beach cabana for a lazy day of fishing and BBQing. Will post more soon!

Fishing Village

When going for a walk along the beach past a small fishing village recently I was followed by these three kids who were very excited to get a "bonjour" out of the strange white woman collecting shells in front of their house.
We walked along together, mostly in silence, until one of them asked me if I had any candy. I told them I had nothing with me for them, but if they let me take some pictures of their boats and village I would come back sometime with crayons. They agreed, and I continued on my way, staying until the fishermen came in with their catch...

but leaving with that feeling of despair that hits you often when you leave the comfort of your own neighborhood here.

The Look

This is Cecilia's faaaaaaaaaaaaavorite outfit these days. Pink flowers, pink stripes, pink ribbon, pink, pink, pink. (Note that the lunch box and sippy cup were chosen with care here as she headed out the door.) The outfit was found on the market in the Grand Village in town, and I've been told we must go back soon to be sure we get the next size up.

This is Cecilia's favorite hairdo right now. Once the entire look has been accomplished she can shake her head furiously from left to right, making each squiggly little "braid" flail wildly in the air, making a sort of halo of crazy braids around her head, all while slapping her cheeks and making her feel reeeeeeeal purdy.

Of course it's a process that takes Ines well over an hour to perfect, but that doesn't seem to bother either one of them at all. Cecilia's been getting African braids of all types from Ines since age two, so asking her to sit still for a couple of hours is no big deal, especially when she knows the result will be....


so very, very nice.And the combination of the outfit and hairdo is just so pretty that even her big brother can't help telling her so. (OK, so he is unnaturally nice to her anyway, but let's just pretend it's the outfit)