Ducks, Lobsters and Mona Lisa

I had never thought that eating out could be so hilarious.

But eating out in Gabon is something I'll never forget .... its priceless .... I mean, the experience :)

I went out to eat for the first time almost immediately after landing in Gabon. 
My husband and I were invited for lunch by a French couple. They took us to a Moroccan restaurant ..... a nice, quaint place. 
Our hosts wanted us to try sea food. While I jumped at it, my ever cautious husband decided to eat chicken. He did not want to take the risk of remaining hungry. On the other hand, I was ready to explore.

As we could neither read nor pronounce what was written on the menu, our hosts did the ordering for us. All I could understand was that they had ordered Lobsters for me. I have eaten prawns before ..... but lobsters..... never. This was my first attempt.

My food arrived...... mmm....  piping hot and decorated in the most appetizing way. The chef had also been smart enough to keep us waiting till our stomachs were growling. I quickly picked up the weapons kept on the table; determined to attack the lobsters. But what was that? The flesh was firmly attached to the shell. And the fork and knife were not weaponly enough to deal with it.

My hostess saw me struggling with the stubborn creature and took pity on my plight. She deftly scooped the flesh out of the shell for me to eat. I was too hungry to even feel embarrassed, and in  my heart I blessed the kind lady.

A few weeks later I was in the soup again! It was a formal dinner at a Chinese restaurant this time and the rest of the people were hard core non vegetarians. My husband and I looked at each other and then at the lavish spread of  various meats in front of us. As usual, my husband decided to be on the safe side and opted for chicken. Being a little more adventurous, once again I wanted to try other things. 
There were some preparations of beef and pork. 
NO!....... I could not eat cows, buffaloes or pigs!! 
Simple reason..... cows are holy, pigs are dirty.
I decided to try duck. As soon as I sank my teeth into the bird, I could hear a strange quacking in my body. That was probably my conscience making its presence felt. I told it to shut up and continued eating :P
I think it was good... I am not really sure.
Umm.... on second thought, maybe it wasn't.

Next time, it was a Lebanese restaurant where we decided to try our luck. We had heard a lot of good things about this place. We also had a friend accompanying us. He was absolutely bonkers about Mona Lisa, a delicious wrap, and wanted us to taste it.
 The children wanted a simple cheese and tomato pizza. Thankfully, a pizza is a pizza in any corner of the world and we asked for it right away.

We studied the menu for a long time but could not find Mona Lisa. 
"Oh, language problem." we told ourselves. Anyway, Mona Lisa it was for the grown ups.
We placed the order. But instead of a polite smile  and a nod of the head from the waiter, we drew such a blank look, that we felt as if we were the biggest fools on earth. After 15 minutes of trying to understand what we wanted, the poor waiter finally gave up and called a lady from the kitchen. He probably thought that two ladies would understand each other better. But she was equally lost. 

I had used up all my french vocabulary which at that time was around 15 words ( its a little more than 50 now) and was left with only gestures and dramatic facial expressions to do the explaining.

Now, this lady turned out to be slightly smarter than the waiter and came up with a brilliant idea. She took me by the hand and led me into the kitchen. She directed me in front of the counter which had a few items kept on it waiting to go out.
Among them, I could see a wrap. Pointing at it, I nodded my head furiously and shouted,"Vi! Vi!"

"Pikasso!" she said.

Good Lord! Now I got it! The root of all confusion. Our dear friend had got mixed up between a painter and a painting!

After this, the next time when I ate out at Nyonie, there was chicken in the salad, minced meat in the mashed potatoes and fish in the gravy. 
The concept of vegetarian food was almost non-existent in this place. And I resigned myself to it.

Anyway, the ducks and lobsters did not excite me much. 
But one thing is sure, Mona Lisa is deeleeshious ;)

Fly....Mango fly!

"Take a look at this", said my neighbor, holding out a small plastic bottle in front of me.
I peered into it and saw a small white worm wriggling inside.
Why was she showing me a creature like this?
"Alright." I said, " But if this your latest hobby, I think I'll have to find a new friend."
"Guess where I found it." she said, obviously not getting the sarcasm.
" Under my skin!"

I shot up as if I had been hit by a bolt of lightning. "What??..... How??"
She explained, "Yesterday, I had a terrible pain near my shoulder. I could see a small boil coming up. But it was unusually painful. When I got up in the morning it was worse. I went to the doctor. He popped the boil and out came this worm!"

Creepy!.......The stuff nightmares are made of.
The creature reminded me of a scene from a strange sci-fi movie called BILL AND TED'S BOGUS JOURNEY, which I had watched long back when I was a teenager. Today I shuddered exactly the way I had two decades ago, when one of the boys is shown pulling a worm out of his ear.......Uggghh!

That worm happens to be the larva of a mango fly.
This little fly lays eggs on clothes which have been put out to dry. Needless to say, the eggs hatch when they come in contact with the skin and the larva feeds on living tissues in our body. Its best to iron the clothes really well after taking them out of the sun.

After all, prevention is better than cure.

Nyonie

"Safari!!!..... In Africa!!!..... Am I really going???"
 I broke out into goose-bumps while going to the port.
"This must be a dream!"  I said and pinched myself.....ouch....  No....this was real!

The thought of going for an African Safari itself was immensely exciting for an urban dweller like me! 
My first experience in the jungle.... how thrilling!

Nyonie is a part of the Pongara forest reserve.

We caught a boat from Libreville to go to Nyonie.

After about 50 minutes in the ocean, we traveled in a creek for some time where the water was fairly still. 

While disembarking, we observed little white things moving in the mud. On inspecting them, we found that those were crabs waving their scissor-like hands at us. 

I would have liked to take a closer look but did not fancy getting a mud-pack with acupuncture thrown in as a bonus.

So, I stopped studying the endearing habits of crustaceans and got into the Land Cruiser that was awaiting us. It took us to the resort in 45 minutes.

It was a nice, cosy beach resort. The food that was served was delicious; though I don't know what it was :)
But very soon, I stopped wondering about the ingredients and concentrated on enjoying the meal. 

We started our safari at 4 p.m. sharp. We were going for a drive through the jungle! 

Deep, dense, tropical forests....... huge, tall trees with many birds of different types. I was almost intoxicated with the amount of oxygen that I was inhaling.

And then suddenly, there were these large open spaces ..... the savanna grasslands. 

We saw wild buffaloes grazing. 
But where were the elephants?...... Not a sign of them!
Our guide kept on looking for them all over the savannas. Finally, our patience and his perseverance paid off. We saw plenty of elephants after sunset :)
But they kept disappearing into thickets as soon as they sensed our vehicle approaching. Who would have imagined that such enormous creatures could be so shy?

Then I observed something strange. There were a lot of tiny huts, not more than 30 cm in height,  all over the plains. I thought they were giant mushrooms and pointed them out to the children. 
But surprise! They were not!
Someone in the car informed us that those were ant colonies. 

Its almost as if they had an entire civilization of their own, oblivious to other larger creatures around them. 

(I wonder if there are creatures superior to us, who are observing us with the same amused curiosity.) 

The next day was even more exciting. We went for a nature walk in the forest! My heart was pounding when we entered the jungle. It took me a long time to feel at ease.
  

We heard a lot of bird calls and monkey sounds but could see neither. We also saw elephant and buffalo droppings but the elephants and buffaloes were equally elusive. In a way, it was good for me. I would have been scared out of my wits, had any animal suddenly made an appearance.

We were told that there are no predators in this forest. I chose to believe it. And if I was being stalked by a big cat, I didn't know it.

We later came across an elephant's bones in one clearing. It had been killed a few years ago by some poachers for ivory. I picked up one bone to see how heavy it was. It was heavier than a cricket bat. The guide told us that it was the leg bone. He even showed us the skull. But I did not feel like lifting it...... not even for scientific purposes.

Finally, after walking for 3 hours in the jungle, our guide took us to the sea shore.... I was so relieved to be out of the jungle, that I felt like throwing myself into the ocean! 
We walked for almost 30 minutes along the beach and reached the resort. A small welcome committee comprising of the people who had opted out of the trek was standing there to greet us. I think they must have been relieved too.

What an adventure! Unforgettable.

Pangolin

11th July 2013

Another evening at the beach.
Not surprising at all!
It is the most natural thing to do. Libreville, the capital of Gabon has a long coastline. It is located right on the sea shore. 

With the sea practically entering your backyard, and with limited sources of recreation, the most convenient place to entertain yourself in this city is........ the beach!We were walking....... feet splashing in the water......... soaking in the cool breeze...... when suddenly!.... we noticed something lying some distance away.

It looked like a pineapple from where we were....... But what was that?.... a tail?

Strange!!

A pineapple with a tail!!!???Certainly worth investigating.
We went closer and to my horror it was a mysterious creature. But unfortunately, it was dead.The poor creature must have died because of drowning and must have been washed ashore during high tide. 

Luckily, my zoologist friend was also present. She was able to identify the animal.

It was a pangolin.

It is considered to be a delicacy in some parts of the world.Somehow, I cannot digest the thought of eating an animal like this.

Vegetarianism........ here I come!!

Santa Clara

7th July 2013

We went fishing once again!
Actually, there was only one person who was really fishing. Rest of us were either playing, helping him or just watching.

It was Amavasya (new moon). The waves were high and the sea ......... very rough. 
No fish was getting caught. But some people are so passionate about this sport that they refuse to give up. Our fishing enthusiast was hopeful that he would catch really big ones this time..... but not even a small fish got hooked.  He finally gave up when he ran out of bait.

Santa Clara beach is beautiful!

The hour long drive from Sabliere to Santa Clara was rough.... there were no solid roads leading to that place. And the ditches were good enough to rattle our bones. I was trying to imagine what the condition would be like when it rains.

We came across a man standing in the middle of the road with a spade. He said he was filling up the bad patches on the road and asked for money for his work. I suspected that he was actually digging them up.

But what a surprise! He was doing neither. I realized that when I saw him standing at the same spot while returning home. He was begging!

There were exits from the road at regular intervals to reach the sea shore, with paid parking spaces at each point. But that's it. Thankfully, there were no restaurants or resorts spoiling the beauty of the beach (at least at our chosen spot)

Picnic benches were placed under the trees all along at our picnic spot, along with a few hammocks here and there and nice rope swings hanging from trees.

But at the same time, there were massive logs of wood.... huge tree trunks lying on the shore. They were rolling in and out of water with the waves. Well, it was quite dangerous. 
One of us fell when a log rolled in. The same log hit another person on his ankle and later even my leg also got trapped under it...... all within a span of 10 minutes!

But we were back on our feet in no time and continued fishing against all odds.
Yes, the odds were really against us.......

Two hooks and one sinker got lost in the sea. 
We lost all the bait. 
Even the line was getting shredded. Have you ever seen that?......... a new, strong nylon line, shredding because of waves! 
In the end, one of the fishing rods also broke..... the current was so strong.
One little fish.........., and we would have got even..... but no luck.

The little children had to be held very tight. They were getting thrown out and dragged into the sea every time with the waves.

Even I got nicely thrashed. In fact, one huge wave actually knocked me down.

It was when I fell; that I realized that the sand on this particular sea shore was so coarse and rough. Not at all like the fine, soft sand that is found in most places.

After a terrific day on the beach, we headed back home. 
We were soaked to the skin and thoroughly tired because of the battering that we had. 

The return journey was incredibly short. Thank God, that it was, because all we wanted to do now was go home and crash on our beds.

Fishing

26th June 2013

We had gone fishing in the sea on Saturday.
Contrary to my belief, its not an easy sport! I had even taken a book along, thinking that we just had to sit in one place holding the rod. 
That is what pictures in books suggest, right?

But ...... No!

Its not like that at all.
It is real hard work.

 It involves putting the bait on the hook, throwing the line really far out into the sea, waiting for the fish to bite and finally reeling in the line very fast when you feel the tug.

We used crevet i.e. prawns as bait. The fish in the Atlantic were gobbling up all our bait without getting caught themselves. Hmm .....smart!

But it was great fun. We caught 2 little cat-fish but set them free again. We had even put one in a bucket full of water and wanted to bring it home alive.... thought of keeping it in a pond or something...... But the bucket overturned because of a huge wave and we lost that one too. 
Anyway, keeping a sea fish in a pond would have been a bad idea. Sea fish don't survive in ponds.

The beach at Sabliere is a quiet, peaceful one with just a few people wandering around. Not at all crowded like so many other beaches on this planet. The best thing is that it is just across the road from where we live :)
The waves appear sandy close to the shore but the sea looks green if you look far out towards the horizon.

A peculiar feature about the beach is that, though it is generally flat in many places, there are spots where there are sudden steep dips. Its not really advisable to venture too far inside the waters unless one knows the undulations which lie beneath the waves.

And can you imagine that the beaches are cold and windy in Libreville? Believe me.... they are. I was actually shivering on the equator! I wish I had carried a jacket along. I'll be wiser next time.

We ended the great day with steaming hot tea at a friend's house.

We did not bring home any fish but we sure did bring the sounds of the sea with us........

A bumpy ride called life

We could not believe that we had done this!
We had agreed to live in Gabon, a small country in Africa.

In fact, before saying "yes", we went through a very difficult phase and many challenges.

The first challenge was whether we really wanted to leave the comforts of home and go and live in a country so unknown to us that we had not even heard of the name a few weeks ago.

The other challenges included : finding out whether it was safe,
                                                : was the education system in place.... etc.

All done, we finally decided that yes!... we were ready for adventure.

But this isn't about Gabon/Africa.
It is about 'my experiences' in Gabon and the impressions I have derived from those experiences.
Its Africa through my eyes.

This is a collection of events which have touched me or impressed me in some way ............. an amalgamation of memories of this wonderful place.  

There is no particular order of writing.... no systematic sequence.
It is an unadulterated description of the bumpy ride I am enjoying :)