Morocco and Equatorial Guinea

A lot has happened in the past few months but I don't want to let "trying to catch up" get in the way of posting a new blog. So...

The King and Queen of Morocco are coming to Malabo tomorrow. The incessant painting (and tree-removal, sadly, in my front yard), which was rumored to be for the opening of the new governmental building – or possibly palace, has only increased pace. Today in addition to men painting my neighbors roofs and walls, there are also men adding cement to uneven walls, tearing down badly built additions to buildings, and repainting the sidewalks and roads. The area around the palace was barricaded off today – this area includes the house I am living in. This is no problem for me, since I don’t drive and the barriers are permeable to pedestrians. There are bored-looking men with guns at the barricades, who politely say hello to me and don’t ask me any questions about where I am going or what I am doing. There is a new – temporary I think – guard hut at the end of my street and another one on the other side of the palace. In addition to the men who do the painting, there is another group of men that has taken down a temporary addition to a building near the palace. I don’t know where the people went who used to live there. The road that goes to the port (in my mind I call it the perimeter road – I think it is called “Avenida de la Independencia) is lined with pictures of President Obiang and King Mohammed. On alternating light posts are the set of two pictures and the flags of each country. Tomorrow will be a holiday with national citizens expected to either to march in a parade or to watch the procession. It's not a good idea to take pictures of government buildings so I don't have pictures of any of the new paint jobs around town except the ones inside my courtyard, which were painted as part of the same beautification project. As you can see in the picture the government also cut down my trees: two mangoes, an avocado and a small citrus tree. The trees are sprouting a little new growth but I do miss them. No shade. No mangoes. The laundry in the background is not mine, it belongs to the watchman.This picture shows that they only cut down the trees in my front yard and part of the side yard. Here is a picture of the palace, as seen from my house. I have been told many things about the reason for the trees being cut. The two most popular reasons are security (of the palace I assume) and to make the area look nice.

Expedition Pictures

I haven't posted in several months. In early January we left on the Gran Caldera and Southern Highlands Expedition and haven't stopped to take a breath since. Here are a few photos from the expedition. Above is a plate of fish the porters caught at the beach camp.

The trails we used for primate and duiker (small antilope) surveys and the trails we used to go between camps were marked with flaging tape. Most of the tape was either blank or said things like "1000m." In case you can't read the tape in this picture, it says "Ho Dios Mio"

After ariving at one of the camps late in the day (and being passed multiple times by the same porters carying 18-26k dry bags on their backs) one of the porters dumped his sack in the middle of the camp kitchen. Here are the contets. Lots of canned pork and canned sardines (huge favorites of most of the Equatoguineans on the trip) some powdered milk (tasty) and cola cao (hot cocoa).

More pictures and a story about drills to come.

Tool Board

The tools on my porch are finally organized!

Kids in the street

It is the dry season and is raining. It hasn’t rained in a long time, maybe a week or two. I am sitting in the house, working, listening to the rain and enjoying the smell of rain on dry ground. A group of kids is giddily singing outside in the street. It sounds like gibberish but the tune is familiar. I think it must be some rhyme from childhood until I listen closer and hear that the children are shouting Michael Jackson’s “Beat It.” They don’t know English so the syllables are just syllables and not English words, but the tune and the beat and a letter or two here and there are right on.

Dias de Fiesta (navidades)

A few nights ago, I went out to buy plastic cups. I stopped and talked to Blas (who you met in the post about the farm) for a while. I tried to buy plastic cups from his mother, who runs Abaceria Sen, close to the house. She didn’t have any but pointed me to another store, close to a green car. She meant the store with the kittens inside but I went past it to the green car and peaked inside. There were dresses. I went to return to the store with the kittens but the two women outside engaged me in conversation. They asked what I was looking for and I told them, plastic cups but I thought I had been directed to the store next door. They asked where I was from and we started talking. One woman owns the store, Candi and one woman, Juanita, owns a bar nearby. They offered me a beer so I sat and talked to them a while. After about an hour, and a few more beers, Juanita says, “come with me, you have something to buy?” I said “ yes, plastic cups.” And she said. “ok come with me, I will show you my house.” So I did. We first dropped off candles with her relatives – the power was out. Then we went to the store next to the grocery store. It was closed, but she caused a scene with a man outside who was insisting that it was closed but was not affiliated with the store. The men inside recognized her and opened the doors. She asked if they had plastic cups, I asked how much they were and bought them. Before we returned to the steps outside of Candi’s clothing store, we stopped at the supermarket so I could buy beer. When I told her it was for them she said, no no I’ll take you somewhere cheaper. We stopped at her bar, where I promised to take my students when they arrive, and she said to drink whatever I wanted, she would pay. I took the same cheap beer we had been drinking outside of Candi’s clothing store. She disappeared for a long time and finally came to collect me. She took me to some new construction where she had a long argument with one of the workers. She, and the construction supervisor, wanted him to stop and continue the next morning in the light. He did not want to work the next day (Christmas eve). I’m not sure why she brought me in for that conversation – maybe I was her exit strategy. Just before we left, she said I have to take this girl home (but in Spanish she said niña, which is like little girl, or daughter). She said I have hair like her mulatto daughter. We returned to Candi and her clothing store with the candles lighting it. Candi’s husband bought the next round but I had to bow out and Juanita walked me home. At the house we met the electrician who I have promised to pay for the air conditioners tomorrow. She told my watchman (who only speaks French) in Spanish to take good care of me. Then I baked chicken.

Farming in EG

A week or so ago I took a trip to visit a farm. This farm is an old cacao plantation. The family that owns it is planning to reactivate it as a farm. It was last operational during the Spanish colonial period. One family that worked for the Spaniards who then owned the farm has stayed on the land and are now employed by the EG family that is trying to make the farm profitable. Thier plan is to start by selling off the wood on the land and use the money from that wood to finance other projects. First on the list is fixing up the buildings and roads. They also have plans to do some processing of cacao beans on the farm. Other plans include aquaculture and growing a variety of other crops. We also ate a delicous lunch at Cuatro Ases in Luba, which may also be called Hotel Jones and went to the beach.

Southern Beaches Waterfall