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)

Holiday Spirit

Weekend Beach Cabana

Looking out from inside our cabana on our little island that we rent here in Port-Gentil. The voices are those of friends over for a BBQ last weekend, and the first person in the shot is Cecilia jumping around in the water.

Santa made it to Gabon!

Here's our tree as it stood on Christmas morning, guarded by a bronze pygmy king and queen pair. We sure were glad to see Santa made it all the way down here to our house. Seems his bag was too heavy to bring every wooden Thomas train Jourdain had asked for, but we've been told a few more will be on their way via Canada, when Todd (apparently a good friend of Santa) brings them over in January.

We added our very own little pygmy to the scene and we were set to open the presents!


In an effort to ensure the kids don't grow up ignorant of their American heritage, I managed to make some gingerbread men and women last week using the jar of mollases from our shipment last year. OK, so no one liked the taste, but that just means I get to eat them all. I'm hoping it's a taste that'll grow on them, but we'll have to wait and see next year!

School Dance

The end of the year dance at an elementary school here in town. This is where Ines' kids go to school, so a it's tad more traditional than the type of dances Jourdain and Cecilia perform at their schools!!

An African Christmas

While real Christmas trees are flown in from France and sold at the high-end supermarket in town, Olivier is strongly against the idea of killing trees for our own pleasure, and I myself enjoy working with local plants each year to get a similar, yet slightly African effect. When looking for ideas this year though I kept wishing I could just decorate the very odd pine-looking tropical tree in our back yard (still must look it up to see what the heck it is). Unfortunately though we've had such terrific rain storms over the past few weeks that I just didn't dare.

The idea I got then was to just use the top of the tree as our own indoor Christmas tree. This, of course, involved having it cut off, which Amadou proudly told me he could do with his machete.

With the help of handyman Abdoulaye and a very taaaaaaaall ladder, Amadou shimmied right up to the spot I had been eyeing for a few days. As you can see, Cecilia was right there with them to give them her advice:




Here's Amadou in his handy orange coveralls, and if you look carefully you'll see his machete aiming straight up in mid-chop:

I guess he keeps the darned thing sharp, 'cause in no time our Christmas tree came crashing down!
Some of the branches on the left broke off during the fall (landed halfway in neighbors' yard, much to their curiosity)...
but when I potted the whole thing I managed to stuff one of the broken branches in to fill the tree out...
And with a bit of decorations we've got ourselves a truly African Christmas tree!! I've since added tinsel and put Christmas hats on two bronze Pigmy statues guarding it. Will post the final "look" later tonight with the presents under it!

When it rains...

it definitely pours. Here's the road out in front of our house at the tail end of a good rainfall the other day. Strangely the camera kept trying to focus in and out on the raindrops, so it's a bit painful on the eyes. Sorry!

Gone Fishin'

While fishing is a brand new sport for him, Olivier comes home once in a while with a whopper. This fella was his very first catch, which has definitely proven to be beginner's luck! This one's a barracuda, which we've since learned is absolutely juicy-licious on the BBQ!!!! I won't go into the details of how Olivier actually got it out of the water into his boat, but his story involved a huge stick (presumably to club the poor thing) that the fish grabbed and chewed in half . All I know is Ol's enjoying learning a new sport, and while I'm happy to have fresh fish from the African Atlantic coast, I also prefer to remain ignorant about how it gets on my plate!