Daily Happenings ...

As I'm writing this 10 days into my Gabon adventure let's just say that the theme of being in Africa and things very rarely being as expected continues. Mind you having grown up on the beautiful island of St Lucia in the Caribbean (where naive me), I assumed that I'd have a leg up on those who went into culture shock here on the continent. I was wrong of course.  Would you believe that in general, in the parts of Libreville that I've seen, people walk in the streets and cars park on the sidewalk because there is a shortage of parking and an overabundance of vehicles? Also on a recent trip to the store I realized that tuna fish costs about $8 a can but a baguette costs about 25 cents.  I'm coming back with a suitcase full of tuna the next time I'm in the US.

Well turns out that the internet here is extremely spotty and unreliable and although I began this post about 2 weeks ago I haven't been able to update it or post it because I haven't had the internet at home. That's been the hardest adjustment so far. Anyway I'm trying to take advantage of the fact that the internet is up and running so I will get on with this update.  Since getting here almost a month ago I've done very little apart from work. That's probably not surprising since I did come here because of my job but I've also been doing Engineers Without Borders with a local chapter of the organization on the weekends and that has been very rewarding. Here is a hodge podge of random photos from the last few weeks.

Yup that's me working and not just managing the work :)

Taking a break afterwards with a coworker and one of the locals

The bulk of the locals who showed up to help were kids

Taking a break with the locals at the end of the work day

Yup still digging out the ditch

This little girl was helping while carrying her little brother around

Random guy walked by with a sewing machine

Kids trying to help to dig out this stump. Yup that's a machete on top of the stump.

The men working on the stump

Yup still working on the stump

The ladies taking a break from digging the ditch

This guy fell into the ditch while he was showing off. Hopefully he didn't catch anything

So besides Engineers without Borders I have been exploring a little. I've obviously gotten over my fear of getting arrested taking photos so here are a few more from last weekend. It was a weekend of paradoxes as evidenced by the pictures. I had drinks with some new friends in the swanky part of Libreville near one of the President's residences and witnessed the most beautiful sunset. I've included photos of course. :)

Sunset in Libreville

Sunset in Libreville

The following day I went with some other friends to check out a local market and that in itself was an experience. It was exactly what I pictured in my mind when I thought of an African market, bartering and the constant fear of being pick pocketed in the back of my mind included.  I did not feel comfortable taking pictures here but I found an amazingly accurate one online and I've included it below for your viewing pleasure. :)

African Market near Petit Paris

By the way for the runners out there planning on coming out to run the Gabon marathon, it is widely publicized over here and quite a few of my coworkers are planning on doing it. I might do the 5K or 10K for this year's race since it's the inaugural one.  In terms of exploring outside Libreville, that hasn't happened yet but it will happen sometime soon. There are about ten national parks in Gabon so I should make it out to one or two of them sometime soon. Don't worry I will take pictures and provide animal sighting information when that happens.