Epilogue

Well, 30 short hours in airports and airplanes, and I'm happily back at home now.

With three updates which occurred to me while I was on the road.

First, in an effort to keep my weather reporting as accurate as possible, I should amend my last report which would have you thinking that there's a significant change in the weather once the dry season starts. The fact is that there's really not much of a change at all. It just rains less. Otherwise, the temperature pretty much year round is going to be the same -- somewhere between 73 and 88 degrees every day. And the clouds will come and go. Just during the rainy season, you can expect that there'll be water dropping out of them more often.

Second, after my second pass through Charles DeGalle Airport in Paris, my outlook on the place has changed considerably. This time through, it was a very enjoyable experience, unlike the first time around. This time we came into Terminal 2E, which is very nice and extremely modern -- and my connecting gate was just down the hallway. I'm thinking that flights coming out of Africa may get routed through the nicer terminal, while the flights into Africa -- well, they must figure what the heck, these folks need to get indoctrinated. And then again, maybe the fact that I was able to sneak into the Air France lounge (thanks, Eric!) may have helped to improve my outlook. In any event, I no longer dread the thought of going through Paris, should I have another opportunity to do so.

And finally, some very very good news. At one point, way back in the beginning of all of this, I think I made a comment about cats -- and how there just didn't seem to be any of the domesticated types of them over there. Or at least I hadn't seen any at that point. Well, I am very happy to be able to close out my reporting duties by putting all the cat lovers' minds at ease. Cats are alive and well in Equatorial Guinea!

The End

Well, folks, the time has come for me to call it a blogging day. I'm heading home tonight. And honestly I have to say that I can't wait to get there.

But I'm truly going to miss this place. It's an incredible, wonderful little island that I've had the unique privilege to be a part of over the past nearly three months. The whole experience has been one that I won't soon forget. There were the trips into the incredible countryside. And the Sooner football games that started at 2am and ended as the sun was coming up. And the chance to get to know a country I hadn't even heard of much before my arrival -- a country full of arguably some of the most humble and friendly people you will ever meet.

There's a lot for someone like me to learn here. Like compassion, for example. The natural tendency to complain about these people who don't smell like us disappears after you've been here for a while -- once you realize that a great many of them have so very little. And that a bath means going down to the local river and doing the best you can to keep yourself, your kids, and your clothes clean. You have to admire them. But that's all part of how Equatorial Guinea grows on you.

And some of us learn to do other new and interesting things. Like cooking, for example. I've never really been much for doing much in the kitchen, apart from picking up the plate of food that some other kind soul (AKA, Kathy) has fixed. Here, it's been a much different story. It's provided me with the chance to learn how to fend for myself in a grocery store, fix meals on a hapless little electric stove top appliance, and to actually enjoy doing it. I've still got a lot to learn, but I've made some progress while I've been here.

And lastly, there's been this blog thing. What a fun pastime it's provided me with (okay, with an occasional game of online cribbage tossed in). Thanks, Sam (and Jess), for giving me the inspiration. And thanks, Katie, for being one of my loyal blogger groupies.

Okay, that's going to have to do it for this chapter at least. I'll close by just encouraging anyone with the least inkling to visit Africa to consider this little place. May your adventures here be as wonderful as mine have been.

As they say here, "gracias por haberme acompañado durante este viaje tan increíble" -- thanks for having joined me on this incredible journey, my friends.

EGian Sights and Sounds

This place has been full of surprises -- some of them small and seemingly almost unnoticeable; others, bigger and way more obvious.

Let me start with some of the more interesting sights. It's hard not to be fascinated by the abundance of animal life here -- and that's without even getting into the monkeys, the jungle cats, and the turtles that attract the attention of folks throughout the world.

By just going out your front door, you're almost certain to see a variety of lizards of assorted sizes and colors.

And occasionally, there's no need to even open the front door; the little guys aren't above dropping by on their own. This cute little fellow showed up in my office just this morning. I think he just wanted to play.

The lizards here, quite simply, are everywhere.

Then there are the birds, which contribute not just to the sights but are a significant part of the sounds. Walking through the jungle, it's like a bird symphony that goes on almost constantly, with sounds ranging from the high-pitched tweet tweet of the little guys to the louder, more ominous squawks from the bigger fellows. Catching a glimpse of the little fellows isn't always easy, but it's hard to miss the big guys. I'd have to think that there are almost as many blackbirds with their uniquely white chests around here as there are lizards. The smart lizards tend to keep their distance from the birds; while the not-so-smart ones wind up as blackbird lunch. This guy was trolling along the wall outside my office the other day, perhaps just coincidentally around noontime.

And then there's the occasional major surprise appearances. Like these guys, for example. I had to wonder whether we were really on an island in Africa when they suddenly appeared on the road out of nowhere. Sort of a scene I might have expected to see in Pamplona, Spain. Fortunately, though, these fellows weren't on the prowl looking for liquored up fools to trample -- even if they do just by coincidence speak the same language as their Pamplonan cousins. Probably just as good that I had left my red bandana in the room that day.

Just one of the more unforgettable Kodak moments I'll have over here.

And then there are the flowers. The gazillions of flowers that grow everywhere. And enjoy their life over here with the warm weather and frequent water treatments. Here are but just a few of them.

Heck, if you didn't know better, you might just think we're in the middle of a jungle over here.

AMEX Card, Anyone???

If a visit to Equatorial Guinea is somewhere in your future, the good news is that you probably won't need your American Express card over here. Or any other credit card, for that matter. They generally don't work here. It's pretty much cash only here, with the CFA (Communauté Financière Africaine) Franc being the currency that's recognized. It can make your business dealings very interesting sometimes. For example, if you were to choose to spend a night at the very upscale Sofitel Hotel in town where rates start at $414.53, your bill in CFAs for a night would come to 199,389.34 at today's exchange rate of 481.001 CFA/USD. With the biggest bill currently in circulation being the 10,000 CFA, you'll need a handful of them. You might want to allow just a few extra minutes come checkout time. Actually, I did just discover while checking the Sofitel rates on Expedia, that apparently they do in fact take credit cards there! They must be one of just a very few businesses here who do, though. So feel free to ignore what I've said here and come on over with your Amex Card in hand, if you'd like. If you're staying at the Sofitel, that is. If you're not and you're planning on doing any other shopping, you're pretty definitely going to need a big wad of CFAs.

And generally there just aren't a whole lot of bargains here. Among the few exceptions would be the fresh bread available at the local panadería -- the best deal on the island -- for 50 CFAs (just over 10 cents) per small loaf. And then there are the beers ($0.78 per 16oz can) and the box wines ($1.42 per liter) which rival the cost of bottled water ($0.83 per 2 liter bottle when bought in quantities) and are less than a box of orange juice ($1.65 per liter).

And at $2.76, perhaps a gallon of diesel deserves a spot on the bargains list. Or not, depending on the price of oil. Here, gas prices at the pumps may not fluctuate like they do in the States -- just my impression, partly based on the fact that you won't find the prices posted anywhere other than on the pump itself. But I've only made two stops for gas during my time here, with the diesel going for 350 CFAs and the unleaded at 480 CFAs ($3.79). I'll have to check them again, should I be filling up again.

If you're interested, here's a sampling of prices I've encountered over the past couple of month, for the most part at the local grocery stores:

Rock Gardening

We have a little fellow who comes by every few weeks to cut the grass around our place. While I appreciate most all yard crews, I'll have to admit that I have a special regard for the fellows who don't mind an occasional encounter with the snakes in the grass. If I were a snake, I could come up with at least three good reasons to dislike grass crews -- they make noise; they step on me; and they mess up my hiding place -- all of which would cause me to want to bite the bejesus out of the next one to come near me.

But the most curious thing about yard workers over here is that none of the ones I've seen have caught on to the idea of lawn mowers. They all show up with their weed whackers and spend hours upon hours whacking away at what would otherwise be about a thirty minute job with a sit-down mower. And it's not like they get paid by the hour; it's just that they prefer a good weed whacker.

So I asked our little man the other day if they just don't have lawn mowers in this country. To my surprise, he said that they do. "So why don't you use one?" I asked him. "Rocks," he said, "they mash up the blade." "And what about snakes?" I asked him. "No problem," he says, "I chop their heads off with the weed whacker." Okay, hard to argue with that sort of logic.

So I really have yet to see a lawn mower of any sort. But I have seen tons of weed whackers in action. Makes no difference how big the yard is -- this, my friends, is weed whacker country.

But it does seem as though there's a real job opportunity available here for any young Spanish-speaking entrepreneurs out there with a lawn mower handy.

Nigerian Sour Grapes

For all you foodies hoping that this one's going to be one for you, my apologies for the misleading title. It's actually about the rest of the amazing sports story that's just recently unfolded here with the girls' soccer tournament.

Assuming you've missed the CNN coverage, the EGian women did in fact beat the Nigerian women 1-0 in the semi-finals. But it was not without some much needed controversy to keep things interesting. After the loss, some of the Nigerian women were complaining that the EGian team not only had a few Brazilian imports on their team, but they claimed that they were also playing with some women who weren't exactly all women. There's apparently a more diplomatically correct word for these "women" with excessive amounts of testosterone but, whatever the correct term may be, the Nigerian women claimed that they got screwed.

That sort of set the tone for the finals, which pitted our EGian assortment against the South African team. I'm not sure what the official betting odds in Las Vegas would have been for that one, but I believe there were plenty of folks who, like me, weren't holding out much hope for the local team. So you can imagine how wild it must have gotten when the EGian gang actually DID beat the South Africans, 2-1, and won all the marbles. While I wasn't there to witness it myself, I did have a report from an unbiased, impartial observer to suggest that there was at least one very masculine-looking player on each of the two teams. Apparently, the South Africans opted to just fight fire with fire, but still ended up on the short end of things. Perhaps they could have used a few Brazilian ladies. Or men.

So the celebrations have begun here. With the Christmas decorations already lit up in the streets, it's only right that the many women's soccer team fans around town are also getting lit up. Anyone who's looking to have any real work accomplished by the EGians might just want to wait till sometime in 2009.

Sports Report

It's a big day for women's soccer here today, with the semifinals of the CAN Women's Games scheduled to start at 2pm. We've been told to expect that not much will be getting done this afternoon. If their Independence Day was any indication, we might more reasonably expect that very little other than women's soccer-related things will be happening for the next week or so. Should the local actually win, we might expect the celebrations to just ease us on into the Christmas holiday break.

In any event, our mostly EG girls team is 2-0 at this point, having already beaten Cameroon and Mali. It's a mostly EG team, with the addition of a few Brazilian ringers who have apparently been recruited to become EGians for a short while -- who do a lot to increase the odds of our extended Xmas break period. But on the other side of the draw are the South Africans, Nigeria, Ghana, and Tunisia. I really have no idea how good any of them might be, but I just sort of imagine that South Africa might have a pretty serious team.


We did actually get to see our girls win their first match against Cameroon, 1-0. That was the weekend before last. Quite an experience it was, not so much for the game itself but for the opportunity to see the packed stadium up close and personal. The halftime show was particularly entertaining, with two different groups of school children meandering onto the field and then doing some sort of slow-motion calesthentics. Riveting stuff it was. Then some fellow appears on the sidelines with a microphone and does a combo breakdance and song routine. Incredibly good stuff. Oh, and along the way, he would from time to time jettison various pieces of his clothing. That pretty much sealed it for me as being one of the finest halftime shows I've ever seen.