On July 4th Michelle and I spent a sunny and warm morning at the pool. During gravanna the weather tends to be overcast and windy making it just a bit chilly at the pool, but that day was wonderful. Later that afternoon we met up with our new friend Beth to go búzio and beer hopping. You see, there isn’t much to do here so the only real way to celebrate the 4th was with sea snails and local beer. Beth has joined our circle now that Polly left. She is here for her 2nd time working with STeP Up. She actually works for a company that helps train teachers and students who receive computers from 1 Laptop Per Child – which apparently is good at distributing laptops but not teaching people how to use them. Anyway, nobody was particularly in the mood for búzio and beer so we only had it at one place before switching venues for coffee. We sat by the sea after dark (it gets dark at 6 pm so it wasn’t actually that late) and listened to the waves crash against the beach wall and talked for a couple of hours. It was a really nice day, although Michelle discovered later that night at home that she had eaten something that made her sick and she would have to go to the clinic on both Monday and Tuesday with stomach issues.
By Friday Michelle’s stomach was finally feeling well enough for her to venture out of the house which was good because on Friday the 9th is when the American embassy from Gabon came to São Tomé (they are a joint consulate) to celebrate the 4th. We got our invitations from our friend Isilda who works at Voice of America and is the contact for Americans on the island. The invitation was very fancy and said ‘formal’ attire but we figured that was a mistake because we’ve never heard of a formal 4th party. The tradition is spitting watermelon seeds, grilling hot dogs, and lighting sparklers, right? Well we showed up to the affair, which was in fact VERY formal. Of course Michelle and I, keeping up a long tradition of being just a little inappropriate, were not formal at all. I was in khakis and an untucked green plaid cowboy shirt and Michelle was in brown shorts and a flowy top. Even Beth knew to bring a dress to ST after having someone comment to her last time that she always dressed “like a tourist on vacation.” So it was Michelle and I dressed for the mall mingling with the Prime Minister, Chief Justice, Head of Health Services and American ambassador all dressed in the nicest suits I’ve ever seen. When we arrived everyone was just standing around so an American woman in a navy uniform approached Michelle and I, after deducing that we were there to party and not network, and told us to go get a drink so everyone else would know they could too. Fortunately the drinks and food were free. It was really nice to drink wine and eat fried foods after so long on a diet of mostly fish, rice, and bananas. Michelle figured that people who were at an American party had to know English so she worked the room, because she’s been really frustrated that she can’t speak Portuguese. The highlight of that was when she introduced herself to the Portuguese ambassador and said, “Hey I see you around a lot watching the world cup at that restaurant Sabor da Ilha.” To which he replied, that in fact he had watched all the games at home. So Michelle informed him that he must have a twin on the island. Jared topped off the night by trying Scotch for the first time. All in all our two 4th of July festivities will not soon be forgotten, no matter how hard we try.
