Mosquito Nets and Rooster Alarm Clocks - or in other words, We are in Sao Tome!

Well, we are in São Tomé and it is HOT! We arrived on Friday morning (March 19^th) and were in a hotel for the first day and night. During that day, we met up with one of our contacts here on the island, Sabina. She showed us a few apartments from the outside and then one (hers) on the inside. It is totally tiny! I have never seen anything so little, but it is cheaper than a hotel.So, for the time being, probably a week or two, we are going to be staying in an apartment complex across the street from the UN and the Nigerian Embassy. The city is small, so everything is (conceivably) within walking distance, but with the sun and heat, some walks are just too far. However, Jared’s archive and national library are very close, as so are 2 markets (not outdoor, but little grocery stores), a couple of snack shops, and the Hotel Mirimar. The Hotel Mirimar is a resort right on the sea. It’s lobby, bar and restaurant are open to the public though, and there is wireless internet in them. So, the lobby is sort of a hang-out for visitors and non-São Tomeans. You can also buy 30 day pool passes there for a reasonable price, but Jared and I are not sure if we will be staying in this apartment and are waiting until we are settled to get pool passes. You would think that since we are right on the ocean that we could just swim at a beach, but the beaches here are very rocky and the most of the areas of smooth beach have a terrible undertoe and are unsafe for swimming. We did see several people at one spot today, though, so that is cool! Here are a few pictures of the tiny place we are in now…they do not really show the scale of how tiny it really is, but maybe you can guess.

The kitchen is directly inside the door and the bathroom is where I am standing to get the picture of the kitchen. Yes, that is the shower in front of the toilet; and let’s just say that if I were anymore bigger, that shower would be impossible! (And yes, everything in the bathroom gets a bit wet!) The bed has a wardrobe at the foot of it with some shelves next to it and a TV on top. We do have electricity, but there are frequent power cuts and it is difficult to cook on the one electric coil at night because of them. However, the place is so small that in between the power cuts, the room doesn’t loose ALL of the AC. Jared and I only woke up once last night covered in sweat and praying the power would come back on. (which it did) The power is cut for like 10 to 20 minutes at a time and last night it happened about 4 times from 8 till 11 pm, and this morning about 3 times from 7 till 10 am. It will take some getting used to, but its not too bad yet.

On Monday we met Adam, the director of ADRA, the non-profit that I will be working for, and discussed what I will be doing as well as life here on the island. His wife, Kristie was very nice. She took us around the town, showing us where to go if we need a malaria test, what clinic is best if there is an emergency, and a good place to buy local fruit that is away from the confusion of the huge out door market. Adam was very nice as well and I hope that he, his wife and their children become our friends. There is an intern from Michigan working at ARDA as well. His name is Camden, he is 20 and seems cool too. It was nice to speak English for a while with all of them!

Besides all of this, Jared and I are getting set up here fairly quickly. With a contact of Adam’s at the Ministry of Finance, Jared and I received a tax ID number and were able to set up a bank account at EcoBank, which is in Ghana and several other African countries as well. Wiring money transfers online is a bit tricky with the very slow internet connection on the island, but it should work out fine!

Love and miss you all,

Jared and Michelle