STRIKE!

On Friday morning, Jared and I woke up without any power. Now this was not a big deal, as most mornings our power does not turn on until 8:00 or so. What was odd though, was that our water pressure was gone. I usually clean and do a few loads of laundry on Fridays, and luckily I finished cleaning before the water ran out, but by 10:00, the power was not on and I had not been able to do laundry yet. The power outages are not scheduled and it’s not like we can depend on power, but this was the first Friday morning that I had not been able to do laundry. With that and the water issue, I figured something was up, but Jared and I went about our usual chores of walking into the city for some groceries and stopping for to make a withdraw from the bank. As we turned the corner to the bank, Kristi called me and asked if we had heard the news. (Which, no, we had not.) The local electric and water company was on strike indefinitely. The workers were demanding a 60% salary increase and would not turn on the water supply or the power until their demands were met!

Clearly, I freaked out. How would we shower? How would we flush our toilet? How would we clean our clothes? Now, in Ghana, we had very bad water pressure and our upstairs apartment did not have running water most of the time. We had to manually fill the toilet to flush it, we had to bathe out of buckets, and we had to hand wash our clothes. The only difference between Ghana and here though, was that we got our buckets filled downstairs. If the water was out all over the island, then were would we go? To the river, I guess, right?! Its not completely undo-able, but I was a bit nervous about how our daily life would change if the strike lasted long. After our stop at the bank, we went to the store and bought candles, 2 cases of 12, 1.5 liter bottles of water and 2, 3 packs of 5 liter jugs. We took a taxi home (b/c let’s be honest, we can’t carry that amount of water for a 20 minute walk) and unloaded it all into the apartment. While we did this, the ladies in the apartment below us were filling up buckets, bowls, bins, pots and anything else that can hold water, out of a faucet in the wall. I immediately went up to them and asked how they had water and we did not, and I asked if the rumor of the strike was true. They told us that yes, the strike was on and it would last for 5 days, that the water coming out was the end of the city’s well, and of course we could have some too. So, Jared and I filled 4 big bowls, 2 pressure cookers, 1 cooler, and 2 pots full and set them all over the house. This water was the same as the water we usually have, which means its fine for washing dishes, clothes, and our bodies, but not fine for cooking or drinking, so all the bottled water was still useful. However, there was the issue of filling the toilet. Clearly we decided to use the “If its yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown, flush it down.” method, but in order to flush Portuguese style toilets, you need a lot of water. I mean, like a whole bucket full. I personally thought the water from the tap was too precious for this, so we went across the street to the park and filled 2 buckets with the nasty, mossy, dirty pond water, hauled it home, but lids on the buckets, and told ourselves that the pond water was for the toilet ONLY!

By this time, I felt much better about our situation and was pretty sure we could wade through 5 days of no power and water. Of course, there was the annoying and worrisome thought at the back of my mind saying, “what if the strike goes longer than 5 days?” But I chose to ignore it. Jared and I went about the rest of our day fairly normally at this point. I went to the hotel to charge the computer battery because the hotel has a generator system, their Internet was working so I checked my email, and then that night, we were having our friend, Polly, over for dinner. In the evening, Jared and I read on our veranda in the last of the sunlight that day and at about 5:30 I got up to go start dinner in the kitchen. When I walked into the living room, I noticed the clock on the DVD player – it was lit up. “Um, Jared,” I said, “we have power.” And within an hour, the water was running again too. Polly came over and was as astonished as we were at our good luck, because nowhere else had power on her drive to our house and Kristi did not either at the ADRA compound. We turned on the TV, watched the news and heard that the strike had been suspended for 2 days and that the government had to come up with a contract in that time, or the strike would resume Monday morning.

We decided to keep the all the water (except the pond water – we replaced it with tap water) in the house for the weekend incase the strike resumed, but I was really excited and hopeful that it would not happen again. On Sunday, we heard through a friend of a friend (so maybe not too reliable) that the strike had been resolved and raises had been agreed upon, but it was not mentioned on the news so we were unsure. Also, we heard from another friend, that the strike was postponed for 12 days and that the government is to use this time to come up with a new contract. So, who knows what to believe.

Well, its Monday morning now, the power and water are still on, and we still have water sitting all over the house in buckets and pots just waiting for the official word that the strike is indeed over. I’ll keep you posted…

Recent Events

Jared and I have been having a great time these last few weeks. I was very fortunate to meet Maria, the wife of the Cape Verde Consulate (soon to be the Ambassador) here in STP. She is one of the nicest people I have ever met! Maria and her husband Jose, had us over to their house not too long ago, and we had a pizza party with Michael Jackson videos playing all night! The Kis family (ADRA's director) were there too, and together, we all discussed our time here on Sao Tome and certain situations. It was very nice to hear all the different angles on topics. Jose spoke of the government, Adam on the people in communities outside of the city, and Jared from a historical perspective. It was a really interesting evening! I am not sure if any of you are familiar with Cape Verdean music, but the island has a fabulous music culture! I definitely suggest researching or You Tubing some of it! Anyway, Jose is an amazing guitar player and he played for us a bit, Maria sang a bit, and we all danced a bit! It was a wonderful night and one that I will never forget!

Last week, a group from the Gabon Embassy (the closest American Embassy for us - it serves as STP's US Embassy) came to STP for a visit and there was a town hall meeting at the Pestana Hotel for all Americans on this island. (Right now, there are about 11 of us, and 3 of them are leaving on Friday.) The meeting was to discuss safety issues and concerns, but STP is totally safe, so we all just chatted instead! Ambassador Eunice Reddick was there too, which was shocking because the email that invited us to the meeting said she would not be coming, but it was awesome meeting her! She ended up sitting right beside me and asked me how Jared got interested in Sao Tome in the first place. So, I told her the story that started it all...

When Jared was at Indiana University (IPFW) for his undergrad, a professor in his African History Pre-colonialism course told a story about a tiny country in Africa called Sao Tome. Apparently, in 1997, this island country decided to get a Navy. So, it ordered a 4-man fishing boat from Michigan, put 4 guys in it with 1 gun and they rode around the island making sure it was safe. Well, Nigeria did not like having another Naval force in the Gulf of Guinea, so one night, Nigeria's Navy stole Sao Tome's fleet (its one boat). Sao Tome is a very poor country, so instead of getting another boat, it choose to just not have a Navy anymore. Jared thought this story was hilarious and could not believe that in this day and age, a story like that could be true, so he started to learn about Sao Tome and eventually choose to go to graduate school for African History, and now we are in Sao Tome.

This is the what I told Ambassador Reddick. She just smiled and said, yes, that is a good story. Then she pointed to a lady across the table from us and told me that she was on the other end of it. The woman across the table (an American visiting from the Gabon Embassy too) was stationed in Nigeria at the time of the incident. Sao Tome filed a complaint, which Nigeria denied, and it was this woman's job to find the stolen boat. (I don't think she ever did, though.) So, not only is the story true, but Jared got to meet someone on the other end of the story and now he has come full circle! Pretty cool, right?!

Besides hanging out with ambassadors and such, we are also hanging out with other friends. Last Saturday, Jared and I went our separate ways and he hiked to Blu Blu waterfall in Madre Deus with Camden, our friend who interns with ARDA. His pictures are beautiful and the two of them had a wonderful time! I, on the other hand, went to the beach at Club Santana with Polly, our friend from Boston, and a group of people from Portugal. My day was totally relaxing and I had a wonderful time! It was nice to get to know some of the Portuguese community on the island, we see them everywhere (because it is so small here!) and it was a nice change of pace to get out of the city for a day!

We'll write more later!

M

Really Good Things

There are good things here, really good things that I will miss when we are gone. Like the stars...they twinkle here. They actually twinkle different colors like blue, red, green and yellow. It is so beautiful!

Also, we are completely relaxed here. Our schedule is our own and we can go to a beach or a pool anytime we want! I mean, when else are we going to be members of a 4 or 5 star hotel and visit it on a regular basis? (Um, never.)

And we are starting to get to know some people here. It is all about connections and networking. If we try to start a friendship on our own, people are non-responsive, but if we meet someone through someone else, then they are very kind, helpful and super nice. So it is just a different way here. We actually know a lot of people on the island and b/c it is so "small town" here, several people know who we are, that we are Americans, where we are working, and so on. Another difference is that people do not go out to bars or restaurants. What they do is buy drinks at a store, take them to a spot and sit and hang out, talk, and such. So to try and hang out with someone is hard b/c they do not make plans or have a schedule, they just do whatever comes up at the moment. (they call it leve-leve)

And, there is no violence here. STP is totally safe and harmless. People may jeer at us, blow kisses, heckle and such, but we are totally safe. No one would hurt us here, and they will not hurt each other, either. That is very comforting! It gets dark here really early and we regularly take a 15-20 minute walk to either Cafe e Compania or Miramar Hotel to check our email. We walk in the dark with our laptop and are totally safe. You could not do that is parts of the US, you know? And even if people are jeering at us, if we stop to talk to them or ask directions, they are very helpful and nice, so its just an act, or more likely they are bored.

In the mornings, we walk to the church where I am picked up with the other ADRA employees and driven to the ADRA compound. The morning walk is one of my favorite parts of the day. Its not too hot yet, people are out and about going to work, school, or just enjoying the day before it gets too hot, and the air is not dusty yet. The way we walk is through the park, where we say hello to the old men who have just finished their morning soccer game (one guy is our neighbor), past the casa de cinema (which does not show movies...), down the Presidential Palace road, which is shaded, has a very decent sidewalk, and has guards that we say Bom Dia! to, then past the Cathedral where people are always washing something in the mossy fountain, we cross Agua Grande, which is a river that flows through the center of town - there are always people hanging out by it, then down Kwarme Nkruma Avenida to the church. This last part is the most crowed with taxis and motorcycles and tiny kids trying to cross the road to get to school. The kids are so cute! They are all in uniforms and they hold hands all the time! It is so cute how affectionate the children are here with each other. You will see 7 or 8 year old boys walking down the street hold hands - but it is totally fine b/c men do it with each other here at times too! People show friendship in a different way and it is so sweet! The church is very close to the market and it is on a busy road that heads out of town and goes to several communities just outside the city proper. So while I stand there and wait for the ADRA van to come, I am passed by so many vehicles - taxi buses that should hold 9 people, squeezed with 14 or 15 instead, and lots of baskets filled with all kinds of food to sell that day - motorcycles with families on them, regular taxis filled with people going to the market to set up shop for the day, fabric, fruit, veggies, and all sorts of other things are in baskets and buckets, crates and bowls. Then, there are tons of people walking on the side walks. Some are carrying things to sell, some have book bags, others have babies tied to their backs...its a dizzying time and I love it!

Safu

Safu is a common food here in Sao Tome. It grows on trees and is sold in the market or by women in the street. Safu is purple on the outside and green on the inside, with a dark brown pit in the center. They are oblong and about an inch to an inch and a half long. To cook safu, you first need to scrape off some of the outer purple skin so that there are stripes on the outside. Then, you put the safu into boiling water, turn off the heat, and let them sit for about 3-5 minutes. They get fat from the water and the green flesh turns mushy. Then, you bite/suck off everything until just the pit is left. The consistency of prepared safu is much like an avocado and it is greasy like one too. People who have their gull-blatter out can only handle a few safu at a time because of this. The taste is hard to describe, but they are a bit bitter and the taste is located on the sides of your tongue. Pictures of safu are at the end of this photo album.

Michelle is 30!

For my 30th birthday weekend, Jared and I decided to leave Sao Tome island and go to a 5 star resort on an island just south of ST. Pestana Equator is the name of the resort on Rolas Island and it is amazing!

On Saturday morning at 7 am, we walked to the Hotel Mirimar close to our house (which is also owned by Pestana Group) and caught the bus to the Rolas dock. The ride to the dock took 2 1/2 hours and was the same route we took to Praia Pescina just the week before. It was a completely different ride in the bus! (Clearly since the first ride took 4 hours and the bus took 2 1/2!!) Anyway, when we got to the dock, we boarded a boat and rode for about 20 minutes to the island, Rolas. It was about 10:45 when we got there and HOT! When we stepped off the boat, there were staff members waiting for us with ice-cold towels to wipe off our faces with! (Ahh!) And they had cocnuts with straws in them for us! Nothing is as refreshing as coconut water! It was such a nice welcoming and it totally set the tone for the whole weekend! We checked it and were escorted to our bungalow, number 501! Yes, I said Bungalow!! How awesome is that?! So neither Jared or I have ever been to a resort before so we had no idea how it worked, but you do not need to carry anything with you. Your room key is all you need and if you buy something extra, you just sign for it! It was so awesome! The first thing we did was go to the pool, which was a HUGE saltwater pool with one area that was an infinity part looking into the sea with Sao Tome and all its mountains in the distance. There were several beached on the island that you could use as well if you preferred the Ocean to the pool.

Lunch was served in the dinning hall on the far northeastern tip of the island - about a 10 minute walk from our bungalow. The meals were buffet style with several options. Fish, chicken and a beef dish were available with rice and fried bananas and then there were several types of salads - my favorite being the cold corn and shrimp one! There were lots of choices of fresh fruit too, cheeses, and rolls too. Oh, and soup. It was all delicious! After lunch, Jared and I hiked to the Equator marker, which marks the exact spot the equator passes through. On our walk, it started to spit a bit of rain, but I thought it was fitting seeing as we were in the "rain forest"! The view from the Equator was amazing! You could see the whole resort as well as Sao Tome and the 7 rocks that the Angolaries supposedly crashed on. On our way back to the resort, we passed a village and bought some cloth and a necklace from an artist. Pretty sure we payed way too much for it, but oh well - I looked at it as a birthday present! When our hike was done, I was totally nasty and went to the pool again! I couldn't get enough of it! After this pool dip, Jared and I went back to the room, freshened up and then went to one of the 3 bars for a drink. There were a few other people at the resort with us - some Americans who were in ST to help with the tax system, some Portuguese people on vacation, 3 couples who looked like they were on honeymoons and a few other families with kids. Overall it was pretty sparse and we loved it! For dinner, we ordered a bottle of wine and hung out for a while there just enjoying ourselves, and then we went for a night swim under the stars! It was a really great day!

The second day (our last), after breakfast, we went our separate ways. Jared went for a hike to try and find a blow hole and I (you guessed it!) went to the beach! I found a few shells and got sand every where and then floated in the pool for a bout an hour while the pool bar played a Michael Jackson CD! It was pretty much the best birthday morning ever! So yes, I just said pool bar. There was a bar in the pool. You could walk to it and sit, or swim to it and sit in the water on stools in the pool. Totally cool, I have to say! Oh, and I got a bunch of tropical flowers from the staff too! How cool is that?!

The rest of our day was spent eating, drinking and swimming until 4:30 when the boat left for Sao Tome. It was really hard to leave. We totally wanted to stay more and do some more hiking, but we are planning a day trip in August to do that. There are pictures posted on facebook and you can see them by clicking here.

Love,

Michelle and Jared

Pria Piscina

On Sunday, Laura, Polly, Jared and I all went to the most southern tip of the island to visit a beach that is said to be THE best beach on the island. One way took us 4 hours. (4 hours for a 65 kilometer drive – if that lets you understand how horrible the road is!) The road simply disappeared at times and we were driving over rock pits, or the road was there, but there were huge chunks and holes missing out of it. After the way there and back, we all were so sore! Beast, our car, is a champ – but with no power steering, and no shocks, the trip was painful. Good thing the scenery was beautiful! The road to the south travels along the coast of the island, so there is ocean on one side and tropical jungle on the other. We went through lots of districts of the island that are way different than the city and we got to see how life for most São Tomeans really is. Most of the houses are on stilts and there are several ideas of why this originated. The top three are the heat – its cooler with air-flow under the floors, mosquitos – I guess they don’t fly that high, and rats. What the real reason is no one really knows, it has just always been done like this.

About 3 hours into our trip to the beach, we started questioning whether a beach could really be worth the bumpy way. I mean, we were passing tons of beaches that looked fine to me, so I was wondering what was so great about Pria Piscina. Well, it was worth it! The water was blue and green and completely clear! The sand was perfectly white! And, it was secluded for the first half of the time we were there. (Later, a group from the church we go to showed up.) The beach is bookended by black volcanic rocks, which just make the sand look even whiter, and there are shallow rocks pools along the left side, which break a lot of the dangerous waves. The only thing that could be bad about this beach is the sea urchins – and of course, with our luck, Jared stepped on one and got a spine stuck in his foot. Luckily, it was a small urchin and not a big one, so he did not get much venom and is not sick at all. The large sea urchins can cause a fever and the spines need to be removed by a doctor. The only way to stop the pain is to inactivate the venom by heat – so soaking your foot in very hot (but not boiling) water for about 30 minutes. With us being 4 hours from home, we were very lucky that it was a small urchin and that he is fine!

We took a ton of pictures! This was one of the most amazing places we have been and it was totally worth the 8 hour round trip drive! Click here to see our photo album.

Saturday with Polly and Laura

Today, Saturday, Jared and I had the opportunity to get out of the city and into the interior of the island a bit. Click here to see all the photos from our day.

The bat researchers from Cambridge that we met had a friend, Laura, fly in on Friday morning to give them more equipment and then they left that afternoon for Equatorial Guinea. Anyway, Laura is stuck here for a week because the TAP flight to Lisbon only leaves once a week. So, we all decided to explore the island together. (She has a rented car and can drive a stick-shift!) We also invited Polly, another American who is here in ST until July working with the NGP Step-Up to start a micro-finance program. Did you get all that?!

Anyway, the four of us went to the center of the island to the second largest city, Trindade (which is actually quite small!). Trindade is really important to the history of ST because it was the place of refuge when pirates raided the main city, and because two of the biggest revolutions/revolts started in Trindade and came down the mountain to the main city. The ride to Trindade was beautiful and much cooler temperature-wise that down the mountain in the main city. The tropical forests were amazing! Anyway, after Trindade, we went to Cascata São Nicolau, a waterfall further up the mountain. It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen! We took a ton of pictures! We all had our bathing suits, but it was so cold there that only Jared dared to wade into the pool at the bottom. The road to the waterfall was horrible! Rocky and bumpy – and the car we were in is the worst car in the world! Nothing works on it, except the engine! We named it Beast, because it is one! Poor Laura! – It had no power steering, so she had to crank Beast around every turn!

After the waterfall, we stopped into the Rossa, Monte Café. A Rossa is an old plantation. The island had several of them and now they are little villages all of their own. The people who live on the Rossa’s were born there and their families have always lived there. This Rossa was really busy with lots of people. All the old colonial building are still there along with several newer ones. Every Rossa has a school and a hospital, and this one had a soccer fields, homes, and restaurants/café-type places. Everyone was very nice to us and let us take all the pictures we wanted. A really nice man gave us a guided tour – which I do not think is normal, but Laura bought some São Tomean coffee from him, so this might be why we got the special treatment. The Rossa was amazing! It was like stepping into another world! Some of the Rossa date back 150 years or so, but I am not sure how old this one was.

It was such a wonderful day! The interior of the island is all jungle and volcanic mountains, and I had never seen anything like it! I can’t wait to get back out of the city some more! Tomorrow (Sunday), the four of us are going to a beach at the most southern tip of the island! (A 3 hour drive over horrible, bumpy roads – inside Beast to boot!) Should be a blast!