Girl Fights and Sao Tome

I was debating on whether to update about recently finishing Far From The Madding Crowd, by Thomas Hardy, or Angela and I's recent trip to Sao Tome, when a series of angry shouts from the street interested me enough to stand up, and look out the window.
I was on the second floor, so I had a clear vantage over the wall surrounding the school, to where two groups of girls stood facing each other next to a little road-side stand. I know they were two separate groups, because half of the girls were wearing white shirts and bright turquoise skirts, and the other half had white shirts and navy skirts. Each group seemed to have a "spokesperson," who would shout and shake their finger in the other's face. This went on for two or three minutes, when a boy wearing only whitie tighties ran out from an alley and grabbed one girls arm. She put the palm of her hand in his face and pushed him (he looked thirteen or fourteen, so no toddler, and old enough to be wearing pants), and while she was distracted the other girl went to town, first landing a few solid punches before settling on an impressive looking choke.
My first instinct, perhaps unfortunately, was to find someone to show, so they could watch as well, but this presented two problems:

1) I did not know who to show. I played with the idea of tapping the two seventh grade girls who were talking behind me, but somehow it seemed inappropriate, and
2) I did not want to leave the window, and miss something good.

They fought for a few minutes, with the young gentleman in his underpants dancing around everyone like a trained monkey, until some adults came and tried to get in between to break it up. If the fighters were anything though, it was persisitent. One would run away, and circle around behind the group, then rush in for a surprise attack. Anyway.

Sao Tome was great. Saturday, we had a taxi driver takes us 30 minutes along the coast to a mostly abandoned beach, where we swam in turquoise tinted water, so clear that fish could be seen out in the lagoon.
For those of you that don't know, Sao Tome is an island nation off the coast of West Africa. It's tropical, they speak Portuguese, and their national currency is the Droba, although the airport would not accept it. Here are some pictures.






These two are taken where we went swimming. The first one reminded me of Lost.


A Golden Orb-Weaver spider.

A few pictures of the hotel we stayed at for two night.
Very nice, Angela!

Today I was checking my mail before school started, when another teacher sidled into the lab and began hovering around me. If he had papers, he would have been shuffling them. After a minute or so of being ignored, he leaned in close and whispered to me, approximately, this: “I am busy. Can you do P.E. by yourself today?” After a long pause, during which I opened another e-mail, I said: “Ok. Do you have anything planned today?” No, shockingly, he did not. I said sure, and minimized my mail so that it could not be read. Ten minutes later I was outside sipping a cup of coffee, and watching the kids play an international version of capture the flag. About halfway through the game, one of the girls got her foot caught in netting of a soccer goal (the students use them as prisons), and stood hopping on one foot, struggling to get it out. A little fifth grade student saw the plight, and ran over to help, just as the caught girl fell over, pulling the back posts of the metal soccer goal out of the ground. The whole thing started to fall forward just as the little fifth grader arrived, and the top bar came down right on the bridge of her nose, pushing her little glasses sort of up into her face and knocking her down, and of course completely bowling the older student over, and trapping her in the net. I had to laugh, it was so comical to watch. My reaction time isn’t so quick in the morning either, and I was kind of hoping the fifth grader on her knees with her face in her hands was covering her embarrassingly loud peals of laughter. The other students swarmed over like concerned ants, righting the soccer goal and gathering around their downed comrades. “Ok, ok,” I said as I made my way over. I told them to get back to their game, and pulled the older girl’s leg (she was still struggling like a caught fish) out. Then I took the little fifth grader up to the office, put some ice on her face, and got her a drink of water. Twenty minutes later, I saw her gingerly making her way down the fire escape. Very funny. Other news, our apartment flooded for the third time this week, but it really wasn’t that big of a deal. We soaked it up with towels, shoveled it with dust pans, and poured it down our stairwell in big plastic buckets. It was because our water-heater had broke in the night, so we got a new one installed on Tuesday, courtesy of our landlord.
Here are the pictures- for once, I have delivered. The top photo is obviously Angela, with her multi-cultural classroom. They are in the process of show and tell.

This is Angela on her October 19th, celebrating her big 2-4, with a big Jean Philleas. (I think that's how it's spelled.) We were at Tivoli's, a place we really enjoy.

This is a photo from a time we were trying to drive to a beach that was suppose to be incredible, called Santa Clara. The roads outside of Libreville are awful, and if it wasn't for the giant four wheel drive Mercedes SUV we were in, we would have gotten stuck like everyone else we passed. You can see me in the side mirror, considering what road we should take. (We choose wrong, and never ended up making it to Santa Clara, although we did come upon some French Military running excercises in the Jungle.)

Me at a different beach we ended up at.


Angela and I at Vicki's, a CMA Missionary here.

Finally- would you want this guy making your pizza? I think not.

Parent Teacher Conferences

This number represents your childs effort in class and the number for conduct reflects their behavior in class. Here is the pumpkin that he made in class. . . Two half days off this week for Parent Teacher Conferences (its good because they only really take up 1/2 of 1 day)!! Two days off school last week for All Saints Day, two half days this week, and two days off later this month for Thanksgiving makes for a quick month!

I am excited for Dad to come back into town next week. He is coming through Libreville where he will catch his flight for the USA -just about in time for Mom's birthday! It is nice for us but a lot of traveling for him because we only have school for two weeks in December and then he is coming back out with Mom and Larisa for Christmas in Bongolo! Who knew that would ever happen . . . EVER - it is perfect timing though. Brett and I are here and Dad has this building project going on at the Bongolo Hospital all at the same time. God is good!

I am going to make no promises of when I will get more of our pictures up because I have not been living up to my promising of pictures. However at some point I will post a picture from my birthday when my Dad opened up the world of Le Meridien to Brett and I. It is just a two minute walk down our little dirt road and Voila! Le Meridien! (I just found some pics on the internet!)

This is the lobby - it is like a real deal hotel. This is shocking because it is extremely different from everything else we see. I mean we walk on a dirt road to get to the hotel.

This is the cool spot by the pool where Dad surprised us for my birthday. They had a grill guy who would grill the fish, beef, or chicken that you picked out. Then they had a buffet with new things I had not tried before - all very good. We still love our Commador Shwarmas but this was a nice change of scenery!

This is the bright workout room where we go to get all buffed up! They are overly nice and helpful. It is the best place for me to practice my French. However picking up a weight, looking confused, and pointing to one of my arm muscles is a quick and easy way to be introduced to a new exercise. (and it requires no French)

Brett and I have only spent one day at the pool but it did not take me long to decide that this is my favorite spot! The ocean is behind the chairs and it is just beautiful!

I have probably lost all complaining priviledges because it looks like my life is just a day at the pool here in Africa! I miss you all very much but am having fun getting e-mails from everyone and checking your blogs! Thanks for keeping in touch:)

- Angela

Wednesday Afternoon

I am well aware that 1) This blog has not been updated for some time, and 2) I have been promising video footage soon. Although I'm happy to rememdy the first issue, I don't see the second happening today. I have two videos transferred from our camera to the computer, however I'm experiencing technical difficulties in uploading them onto the blog. I see videos being posted in the next month though, so take heart.
Not a whole lot is new in Libreville, the weather continues to get hotter, and it still rains just about everyday. There's a power outage every now and then, so we keep flashlights and candles handy, and we stay after school most days to get on the internet, and check our mail. That's about all I have to say right now, but more is to come.

Pictures!

Our Apartment



This is Brett on the front stairs with Puffy - the neighbors cat. She is always trying to get into our apartment! We are taking the water jug in front of Brett to school with us because they have filtered water there. We bring it home and use it!!

This is our front door (from inside our apartment.) We have lots of locks on our door but only one works with our keys - we are working on that:)

This is our living room. We were surprised because its bigger than our apartment
in Kentucky!

This is our bedroom. It is weird to just use sheets for blankets, but we don't really need them!


Brett found this little guy on our wall! He isn't like the lizards we see on the street - he is smaller and a bit slimy. We turned on the AC and haven't seen him since.

However we did come across this in the window sill. Maybe he is still around?!

Our washer was leaking all over the floor a couple times. The school found out and bought us a new one!! It is a crazy set up in there but we are so glad to have the new washer. I tried doing laundry by hand one day -all of it - I just know that washers are designed to wash clothes better than me!

Here is the lonely dryer. The apartments aren't designed for dryer vents and the walls are cement so I don't see one being put in any time soon. We open the window when the dryer is on but it makes it so humid we took everything else out! I will take an empty room any day if it means we get a dryer!!:) Brett has been doing quite a bit of writing lately and the best spot is on one of the school's balconys. It overlooks the ocean and is beautiful!

This is a look onto the schools playground. The green fence is the end of it and on the other side - OCEAN! Not a bad view.

Sorry it took so long for us to get pictures on the blog. Hope you are able to get a glimpse at our world over here. It is a busy and exciting time! We are in a transition time with getting a new teacher - hopefully that means I will only be teaching 1 - 2 grade levels soon. Thanks for your prayers!

- Angela

Declined, Brother

I've noticed that the blogging world is unusually quiet, which says quite a bit about the lives of the writers who post in it. It's almost the end of September, and everyone is probably very busy with families, jobs, and school. Updating on the internet comes at the end of a long list of things, at this time of year.
Angela and I certainly keep active. We're actually walking a rather fine line of accepting, and declining social invitations, and so far we're batting 1000. (I can't say I actually know what "the best" possible batting average is, but "1000" came very naturally, and everyone knows what I mean.) In the past three days, we have accepted one invitation, and declined another.
On Friday Angela and I were walking back from school, and we said hello to a Lebanese man we had greeted once or twice before. This time, we actually stopped and talked with him for a few moments, and then he said, "You will have dinner with me." (Word for word, marc.) We said we would love to, and agreed to meet at 7 o'clock on Monday, at Comodre- which was last night. It was, really, a wonderful time.
His name was Youssef, and he is in the timber business, mostly ookume trees. When we met was the first time that he was going to eat that day, because of the feast of Ramadan. We talked about Lebanon, ignorant Americans (us), and he asked us questions like, "Why does America view Muslims the way they do." It was a terrific conversation, especially so because we had gone into the situation so conscientious of protecting information about ourselves. Youssef ordered for us, food we never would have known to get by ourselves, and then we went on to have dessert, and tea with him. He payed for everything, we exchanged phone numbers, and he told us to call him if we ever needed anything, or got into any sort of trouble.
This morning, we declined an invitation. Our house-keeper Rose said she had someone who wanted to meet with us in our apartment. When I pressed her, asking, "Who is this person," she smirked at me and said, "A brother from the church."
Thanks, Rose, but I prefer to hang on to my video camera and computer for another week or so.

Finally, I would like to address what an enormously profound day this is for album releases in the United States. The strongest line-up I have ever seen, hands down, and I would have dropped 80 bucks in Best Buy without a second thought. If you pick one of these up, let me know how they are.

Stars- In Our Bedroom After The War
Iron & Wine- The Shepherd's Dog (Great album cover as well. Intriguing.)
Will.i.am.-Songs about Girls (I'm not ashamed of this one. And the kicker is, I am well aware that Mr. Will.i.am. is almost certainly not being clever in the least bit. Doubtless he has filled up an entire CD with, literally, songs about girls. Oh well. I own Elephunk too.)
The Darjeeling Limited Sountrack (If there's one thing Wes Anderson can do besides make movies I love, it's make soundtracks I love.)
Matt Pond P.A.- Last Light (This is last, and also least. I really like Matt Pond, and would buy the CD, but he's out of his leauge today.)

Ok, that's all for now. Angela is going to put up a post with pictures later, so you don't have to visualize what is happening, or envision what we look like. You can just indulge your big fat peepers. Drop us an e-mail, we'd love to here from you-cheers.

Cranberry Text

A blog update with cranberry letters! At first when we arrived I refused to blog (no one really asked - I was just telling myself that I would not). To say I was overwhelmed would be a bit of an understatement. New country, new city, new apartment, and school starts in 3 days! At the time I felt frozen as if I could not process things fast enough to have a reaction. However the dust is settling here (only figuratively) and I am able to enjoy the city, the school, the people and our time here in Africa.


After our first week here we were invited to a picnic at the compound where the American Embassy workers live. The area is called Sablier and many of the Embassy workers and Ambassadors from other countries have houses there. It is beautiful!

We just found out today that occasionally they get movies from the military and when they find a good one they will watch it in the yard with a big projector so everyone can see it together. We are excited for the next one.

There is a big brown metal gate on the street level in front of our apartment. Open that and you walk up an entry way to the barred gate which opens to the stairway of our apartment.

We got dropped off in front of our apartment the first week here after running some errands. As the family drove off we opened our gate to see a refrigerator. Apparently while we were out a few guys dropped it off with a rented truck to move it in. (The school had an extra fridge and was letting us use it) We were not home so they left it next to the front of the gate. It was going to rain soon and we didn't know what to do but each take a side and carry it up the stairs. It is seriously a miracle that we lifted the fridge up the stairs. I mean it is a big refrigerator, there are a lot of stairs, and there was Brett and I in our flip flops!


This is the view from the front of our apartment. We have a balcony that looks out on the street. There is a bar/motel across the street that our night guards brother is the night guard for the bar (I thought I would throw in that extra tidbit of information). The ocean is straight ahead and the big brown building to the right is the La Meridian hotel.

This is the view outside one of our windows at the back of our apartment. We did not notice all of the satelites on top of the roofs until we took the picture! It is fun to hear the rain on all of the tin roofs behind our apartment. You would think it would be this soft peaceful sound but it is like the heavens open up and just let all the rain fall at once. It is almost like a thunder sound.

I was going to title this blog something like The rains in Africa thinking there was a song about I Miss the Rain Down in Africa. However upon Googling it I found out the lyrics are really Bless the Rain in Africa which is nice but not what I thought. (Apperently it is a common misconception because they had a couple websites clearing up the confusion with the lyrics)

I miss having face to face conversations with family and friends, but would not go back and trade this year here in Africa. I am learning a lot on all sorts of levels and want these new things learned to create a lasting change in me. I have loved the e-mails, reading other peoples blogs, and catching up with everyone. I wanted to let you know that we can see evidence of your prayers! Thank you.

- Angela

Bwitism, and Lists

Last night, Angela and I filmed an engrossing tour of our Libreville apartment, and we were planning to post it today- however, I didn't anticipate the need for video processing software on our computer, so it will have to wait until tomorrow.
Meanwhile, we're slowly starting to get adjusted to life in Libreville, teaching at the American International School,and our new schedules in general. I'm going to go ahead and take a break from speaking for the both of us, and say that on top of all those things, I am also beginning to enjoy myself here very much.
There's a lot to say since the last somewhat melancholy blog, so much so that I am not going to actually say any of it, except for the most very recent, which took place last night. (The rest will follow in three lists, which will contain the following information: Memorable Moments in Libreville, Things I Enjoy Most In Libreville, Things I Miss in America)
But first, last night. The local religion in Libreville is called bwitism, which mostly involves spirits, or rather keeping the spirits away. There are not really many friendly ones for a bwitist. Our apartment is right on the edge of a very large neighborhood that consists of many narrow, twisting little streets, houses that lean and run into one another, and just gobs of people in general. Bwitists are very active in this community, and Angela and I have heard them chanting, singing, and yelling multiple times in our short two weeks. Once I was able to catch the tail end of a crowd marching past our door, and once I was able to see a snippet of a witch doctor.
At around 9:30 last night I heard the now familiar whooping, and then singing, coming down the street, so Angela and I killed the lights and ran to our glass doors. (A perfect vantage point as we're on the 2nd floor.) There was a crowd of people coming right in front of our building, and two witch doctors were at the forefront, covered in long, white robes, pieces of straw, and they had giant white masks over their faces. It was, as you can imagine, an eerie sight. The two figures were dancing, and swaying back and forth, and people were "chasing" them, swatting at them with strips of wood bundled together. I want to try and get some video footage of it next time. If I do, I'll post it- and now for the lists.

Memorable Moments In Libreville
1. Going to church these past two weeks, and seeing true fervor, especially in music.
2. Seeing a parent get set on fire at the school picnic, stop, drop, and roll, ripping his clothes off, while people screamed and ran for water. Ouch!
3. Seeing the biggest penis on earth, a man was just standing on the corner showing it off. Who wouldn't?

Things I Enjoy Most In Libreville
1. The food. Wonderful.
2. Select people. (Our neighbor Rodika, the Solvigs, the Stambaughs...lots of them.)
3. The schedule.(You'dbe surprised at how much you can do without a TV)

Things I Miss In America
1. Of course, family and friends.
2. Lost Season 4. (I know it's not out, but I yearn for it.)
3. English
4. Movies in the Theatre (IMDB, why do I torture myself?)

First Impressions

Africa is so different from what we're used to in the United States, that it's difficult to know where to begin, or what to include. Angela and I arrived here in Libreville on Thursday night, and stayed in a guesthouse used by missionaries from the Alliance Church. The streets were a warren, with walls around the houses and apartments on the street, and people all over the place, kids playing in the street, and adults selling food they were barbequing on the side of the road. There were also all sorts of stands, most commonly selling cigarettes like Marlboros and Dunhills, and then a few other miscellanious items. People drive like maniacs here, and we've already seen two or three fender benders.
Our second day here the guest house operator, and our main contact over here, Arnie Solvig, was driving us somewhere, and a car stopped in the road to talk to the driver next to them. As it was only a two lane road, traffic was halted- it wasn't really a huge deal, however, because there was a traffic light a little ahead, and it was red. Arnie started honking wildly, waving his arm out the window for the car to go, and the two drivers in front started yelling in French (I won't say that again, just assume it's French), and finally one of the cars drove away. Arnie then proceded to pull up next to the car and a mintature argument enfolded, window to window.
Our first morning here I was awoken at around 4 o'clock by rooster after terrible rooster screeching and gargling their African cu-cu-cu-cakoo (or whatever), where they wheezed the end out. A few hours previous we fell asleep to people shouting, dogs fighting, and tribal drums played over a radio.
There are 7-10 foot walls around everything, and the tops often have broken glass and spikes layed over the top. It seems like most of the white people have guards at night as well. Angela and I have one named Drahmine..(sp?), who sleeps outside our apartment building. When we woke up and went out to school this morning, Drahmine was rolling up his sleeping mat and sheathing a knife somehwere in size between a bowie and a machete. The guards I've met are all very nice, and if you give them some CFA's, they'll go buy you bread and something to drink. The bread they sell around here is great, you can buy a big loaf on the street for about 25 cents, and they have an amazing drink here called D'Jino, which is sort of a carbonated lemony-grapefruit juice.
If you buy a bottle of D'Jino or Coke, which come in about one liter glass bottes, you keep it, and a big truck will come around every night and refill your bottle for you. Sort of like an African milkman, from what I understand. I haven't tried it yet, so I'll fill you in on that process as soon as I've tried it.
Angela and I have eaten twice now at a restaraunt down the street from us called Comodore, and each time I ate a Schwarma, with a small bottle of D'Jino. The first one was beef, and the second one was chicken, and the had snuck french fries inside. Delectable. The Comodore is Lebanese (there is a very large population here), and a schwarma is like a gyro, sort of, with lots of garlic, and, I guess sometimes they jam fries inside. We also got hummice as a side our second time there.
Right now I'm just writing surface sorts of things, but there's a lot of things going on that are hard to bang out, and are going to take some time to think over. For instance, obviously, we are stared at everywhere we go. We're the only white people that I've seen in the entire city our 5 days here except for the missionaries and people who work at the school, so everyone is naturally curious about us. Going though large crowds can be a little nerve-racking at times, especially once when we went by a bus-station (I think it was. There was definitely a bus, but there were a lot of other things going on as well.), and a large section began chanting soemthing at Angela and I. (Angela thinks it was the word white. I had assumed before that it was some sort of honor, for me. Perhaps they had heard I was coming? Surely not...and yet....)
Our second floor apartment is very fun, luxriously spaced, a large patio that you can see the ocean from, where different lizards run around, accompanied by our neighboor's cat "Poofy," who has twice ran into our house, and been followed in by our neighboor Rodika, who is very kind, and also our apartment was very flooded last night. The water turned off in our building, and when it came on in the night, the washer started pouring out onto the floor, so that we awoke to an inch in three rooms. We used towels to mop it up, and then squish it into a bucket. I tried to find a mop, and was told they don't use them here.
No sign of any snakes yet, unfortunately, although I did get to pick up a dead spitting cobra someone had killed earlier. It's not very big, but we'll post a picture of that later.
I suppose that's enough for now, hopefully you begin to get an idea of what it's like here. Everything is different, but we're learning so much, from the practical to things like patience and understanding. We miss everyone very much, and we'll update with a video tour of the apartment (merci, adam for the idea) and some pictures later this week. Cheers.

Also- If my feelings sound mixed, guess what?

Don't Drink and Skype

Finally. It's 1:10 on a Monday afternoon, and in approximately an hour and a half, my family is driving me to Detroit Metro, where we will meet up with Angela's family, and off we go. I've never flown internationally, so I'm excited about that experience, and then it's the start of a whole new year overseas.
I brought eight dollars worth of Life-savers and various candies at the Pump N' Shop, and I have bought several books over the past week that I'm excited to get into. Among them are: The Woman Lit By Fireflys (Jim Harrison), The Shadow of the Sun (Ryszard Kapuscinski), Jude the Obscure (Thomas Hardy), The Complete Poems of Hart Crane, and Brighton Rock (Graham Greene). I haven't read any of them, and I've never read anything by Thomas Hardy. So.
Well the main reason I wanted to jump on the old blogger was to put a plug in for Skype, for anyone who is interested. It really is an amazing program, and I'm sure some of you are familiar with it already. It's a video telephone that works through the internet, and it's completely free. No joke.
Simply go to www.skype.com, and download the program. From there it works a lot like instant messenger, you add contacts, or you can search for them by their e-mail address, and you can see when your contacts are online, and so on and so forth.
Now if you want to do the live video while you talk, obviously you will need a web-cam. I recommend going to Best Buy, they had lots of options when I went, and I bought one for my parents that works wonderfully, and was only 29.99. You can just talk to someone if you have a microphone, and don't want to do the video-feed. I actually recommend not using the video-feed if you think you might be tempted to drink, and then decide to start drunk-skyping people. I imagine that the akward silences that come about from that sort of thing would be magnified by about ten.
I can't stress enough that this is a free service that allows you to make international calls, with live video feed. Very cool. If you do decide to get it, feel free to add Angela and I as a contact, I believe our user name is simply "Brett and Angela Strickland." I'm not sure how often we'll be on, and keep in mind that Libreville is 5 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time...but that being said, hope to see you on at some point.