Backyard Flora

Living on the equator has its advantages and disadvantages. Giant cockroaches climbing up through the drain of your bathroom sink, for example, is one of the more unpleasant aspects to life with constant heat and humidity. On the brighter side, however, living in the tropics means year-round beach weather and really cool plants growing effortlessly in your backyard. Here's a sampling of what's growing behind our house:

This beauty is called "l'arbre du voyageur" (the traveler's tree). I've been told the name stems from the fact that its leaves always fan out from east to west, pointing the way for any lost desert trekkers. I don't know if I buy that one, as our neighbors' trees seem to be pointing in all different directions. Others, however, have told me that the name is due to the fact that each branch contains potable water down at its base, always ready to quench the thirst of lost desert trekkers. Testing this theory, I asked Amadou to cut a branch off so we could inspect its insides. While it was indeed filled with water, I haven't yet dared drink any...
And here is a flower called "la trompette de la mort"(trumpet of death). I'm told you shouldn't boil it to make a drink. Fine by me. We've got a whole bush of these pretty things.
We also have numerous hibiscus bushes around the house. These grow with great ease in this climate, and Cecilia enjoys picking the flowers for inside decoration and an occasional tropical behind-the-ear look.
We are fortunate enough to have a great deal of these heliconia flowers growing in a few different spots around the house. They sure make a beautiful bouquet on the dining room table!


Here's a wide shot of our mango tree...And then there's the baby banana tree we planted a year and a half ago that grew to full banana-growing status only recently. Seems like a long time to grow bananas to me, but it was definitely well worth the wait!

Here's the plant from a distance. If you look carefully you'll see a large, purple flower dangling down in the middle. The bananas grow row by row beneath each petal of the flower.
As each petal lifts up to reveal a row of mini-bananas (look closely under the raised petal here), the flower grows slowly southward, reaching closer to the ground while a new row of bananas is revealed under each layer.

As you can well imagine, the kids and I had our eye on that bunch of bananas in the backyard as it grew bigger and bigger over the months. I figured we'd have to pick it while still green, but I didn't know exactly how green. Then one day, like magic, Amadou announced that it was time. So we cut the darned thing off and boy was it heavy! Home-grown bananas have a much sharper flavor than those cut and shipped to the store, and with all the mangoes we've collected from our mango tree we sure are enjoying Gabonese fruit these days! I plan on letting a number of these bananas go black so we can use them in our next batch of banana-mango bread. So while life on the equator may not be perfect, I quite enjoy that the kids' school snacks are baked with fruits grown right in our tropical backyard! Yum.

Port-Gentil Parking Technique

So here's the side view of a gutter safe enough to drive your 4x4 over when parking in front of the stores on the main street in town. While it certainly looks topsy turvy, experience so far has proven that this is nothing to worry about. Of course I do try to aim just right when pulling up, as any large, loose cement block lying in the way could do enough damage to my car to get Olivier all worked up. Now compare the above to this less-well maintained gutter cover in front of the main pharmacy in town, just a little way up the road. You've got to pay some serious attention to what you're doing when parking, but even more so when backing out into traffic. Any false move -- however slight -- and your steering wheel may slip just enough to get you seriously wedged into an unpleasant spot.


My solution, therefore, is to drive in at an angle and take up as many parking places as it takes to ensure my saftey coming in and out. I've heard some non-driving bystanders (such as the ones to the left in the picture) whisper "regarde comme elle se gare" (Look at the way she parks), but to be quite honest, I don't see any alternative.

Park with Care

As my experience in other African countries is quite limited, I am not able to compare Port-Gentil to most of the rest of the continent. I'm often told by those better traveled than myself, however, that our little town on the west coast of Africa is a hidden pearl among many much less pleasant places. Since I really do like this town and the life we have as a family here I am ready to agree that we are very lucky to be living in Gabon, and in Port-Gentil in particular.

I had to chuckle recently though when I was told that one of the nicest aspects to our town is that the drainage is at least covered, something unheard of in most countries running up and down the coast. (And when I say drainage I mean water and every piece of paper, plastic and refuse that somehow ends up collecting down in there.) Well, up until then I hadn't really gained a full appreciation for the drain covering in town, as there are gaping holes pretty much everywhere you try and park, and I am constantly having to tell the kids to watch out for the big hole of gunk as they jump out of the car. I'll go out and take a few shots of some of the more, um, traditional parking spots tomorrow, but until then keep in mind that these images here are of my car parked in a GOOD place.

Touring the Ship

When chatting on the island that Sunday the officers agreed that Monica (Dutch), Gina (South African) and I could bring all six of our kids for a tour of the ship later in the week, even though they're all much younger than 10, the minimum age to board. By the time the day arrived everyone was pretty worked up to see the Big American Ship up close!
As I knew there'd be lots of ladder climbing, we got them geared up in sneaks and shorts (although Cecilia would have much preferred a dress for such an outing).

Once aboard everyone was pretty much in awe of all the machinery and metal everywhere. It was just like being in a movie!
A pretty patient sailor named Purley was assigned to give us a tour of the entire ship, explaining as best he could to a pretty rambunctious audience.

I actually think the moms were more interested in the tour than the kids...
Until we got to the bridge which pretty much fascinated us all. Of course I'd love to explain to you how this here equipent works, but then I'd be giving away national security secrets. Sorry.
And then there were the big-gun-torpedo-thingies (I don't think that's the actual technical name) which shoot out thousands of bullets the size of a shoe in 1.2 seconds. As I looked around I figured the gun must be manned by........
the silent look-out guy standing near by.
We did our own looking-out too while on the ship, but we were just trying to see if we could see the African cockroaches from this high up.As we left we realized we were quite privileged to be given such an opportunity to see this type of ship. I just hope the kids are old enough to remember it one day!

Sailors on the Island Conclusion

After a few days of not being able to access Blogger.com at all (why-oh-why do they do that to me?) I'm back with a final picture and film of our day at the beach with the US Navy!

Here's the group picture of the regular Sunday Island Cabana Team interspersed with officers from the USS Fort McHenry.



And this was the general feel of the day....

Sailors on the Island

During our second day interpreting a very nice Commander Smith (a.k.a Byron to us civilians) inquired if I happened to know of a place he and a few others could get a boat and possibly go fishing over the weekend. Hmmmmmmmm I thought, well, why, yes! We have a boat, and friends with boats, and we have fishing gear, and friends with serious fishing gear, and would they all want to come out to our island for the day and go fishing too?

And so it was agreed that we'd all spend the day together on the island on Sunday. We called our friends and spread the word, and off we were! This is Gina and Emile ready to hop on the boat!

There were so many of us that Olivier made a few trips out to the island and back dropping people off. I was one of the last people to get there, and as I arrived with Noah strapped to me Cecilia came running out to the boat to greet us (while Jourdain and two friends played off in the background). It was very low tide, so we had quite a walk along this bare sand bank over to the cabana to the left in the picture.
As I approached I could see a few more figures in the cabana than we usually have on our Sunday outings, and the BBQ was roaring along, cooking up a fish just caught earlier that day.
Yep. 'Mericans in the cabana! They had even brought beer from the States. It was a very friendly group, and of course for us it was impossible to know at the time that we had some serious Navy bigwigs hangin' with us.

Take a look at this, for example. Byron (in the middle here) tends to look like this when he's working:And when he's taking it easy fishing on the island he tends to look a bit less... um... formal.
Our friend Bo, on the other hand, always looks relaxed, but of course he works in the oil industry.
And when it was time to pack up, everyone pitched in, and it wasn't until later in the week that I realized that the guy rinsing the plates here was the captain of the ship!
As the sun started to set we all headed back to reality, with a lot of fish in our bellies and a good feeling overall about having shared our little island getaway with a group of seriously great people.

On the Boats

I was fortunate enough to be put in the small boats class on the first day interpreting. Before I knew it, the class of Gabonese sailors and I had donned our life vests and were headed out to sea with the US navy! First things first, though, as we needed to climb down a dangling rope ladder (to the right in the picture) to get into the boat we'd be learning to drive. I did my best to put on a face that said "this is sooooo old hat" and climbed down with feigned ease right behind the US instructor. Nobody laughed at me so I let myself believe I had pulled it off like a pro.

The instructors pulled the boats out from the dock while the Gabonese students and I prepared mentally for our first lesson. Although I've been told many African people are quite smiley, I can tell you that this is decidedly not the case with the Gabonese. Their constant poker faces throughout the week made many of the instructors wonder if they were enjoying themselves at all. The Americans quickly taught the Gabonese how to high five and what it meant (which I interpreted as best I could as "cinq dans l'air") so that as each sailor left his position driving the boat he could at least high five the instructor, proving in some small way that he was indeed having fun.
The instructors were all very outgoing and lively, appearing to be genuinely enjoying their job. This is Jason Dean on the right here in the picture below, a nice fella who said "New Hampshire?! Jeeeeeeesh, that's a place you just never hear about" when I told him where I had grown up. Must say I feel quite the same about Missouri (of all the places to be from!), which he pronounces Mizurrah, of course. After many long talks, though, Jason was able to convince me that his state is one that just may be worth my visiting one day. Who knew?
And here is Christal, the kick-butt female boat-maneuvering instructor. Her presence incited numerous questions among the Gabonese sailors for me to interpret for her, including "How old are you?" "Are you married?" "Do you have kids?" and "Why did you join the military?". I won't give you the answers here as it may embarrass her, but I must say she was awfully patient, giving honest answers to everything, albeit with a hint of a blush once in a while.

After a while out at sea we pulled up next to one of the security boats for a chat. Christal told me when not teaching these classes she often works shifts on one of these boats.

This guy was my favorite student. He was a "ship rider" from Cameroon and had this exact smile pasted on his face the whole week. I guess he felt as lucky as I did to be learning to drive a small military boat! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!
We spent the whole day out at sea (save a break for some mystery meat back on board the ship), with the whole class encouraging me to try out all the moves too. We've since learned that the ship and crew will be back in March, and I can't wait to do this all over again!