My first week in Gabon

Hi everyone! Yes, I am writing a blog again. In English this time, because too many of you don’t know Dutch. 

This adventure started about 2 months ago, when I was told I could go to Gabon for 3 months and assist with clinical trials. As I already expected, the visa application didn’t go smoothly. It was denied, delayed and finally accepted the week before I was going to leave. I had to pick it up from the airport a day before my flight, and that day happened to be a stormy day: flights were cancelled and trains were delayed by more than 60 minutes. That meant I would never reach the airport in time to collect my passport.. BUT thankfully I was saved by Rosanne and Laurens, who were brave enough to drive me to the airport. Dad, Rinske and Marjo were on their way in the train, but had to return home, and mom finally arrived at the the airport 3 hours after she planned. Anyhow, I got my passport, which was the most important thing. The next day I met Ulysse, my supervisor, at the airport, where we spent a little too much time sorting things out with the weight of the suitcases. After checking in it was already time for boarding. Actually I had to run for it; I only had 10 minutes left.

Upon arrival a taxi driver took me to the hotel. I thought there would be wifi, but there wasn’t. I was able to call home and you know.. let them know I’m still alive. I couldn’t stop myself from laughing when I found a condom in the hotel room, right next to the bible. 

Libreville; the hotel room

Libreville; the view from my hotel room

I had dinner at the restaurant. Chicken. For the first time after a year. I was too hungry to eat a salad, but maybe I should have, because my stomach didn’t appreciate the chicken much. The next day I was picked up by other taxi driver, who took me to the institute, Cermel, at Lambaréné. It took over 3 hours, and he didn’t speak much English. Still we managed to have some sort of conversation in French and a bit of English. We talked about where I’m from and he asked if I’m married and have kids. I already knew having kids and getting married are two very separate things here, but this conversation confirmed that. I explained my personal order of importance: school, career, marriage and finally children. He understood. I should marry a Gabonese guy, he said after that… *sigh* I also asked him about the dead animals that were hanging from sticks in front of people’s houses. I’m not sure if I understood everything, but I think he said they cut them open and eat/sell the insides, but only the men! Women shouldn’t eat it, because that is dangerous and/or bad for their marriage (changes).

The road to Lambaréné, a rare part without big holes in the road.

The road to Lambaréné

After arriving at Cermel I got to see my room at the ‘hotel’. I say ‘hotel’ because it’s a very simple, wooden construction build on poles. Apparently it also has a long history. It might be one of the first buildings built when Albert Schweitzer came here and founded the hospital at the start of the 1900s. It’s one long corridor with 5 rooms. Every room has multiple beds; mine has 3, but I sleep there alone. 

The historic buildings. Mine is the second on the right.

My building

My building

Only the room next to me is used, by a woman (Solange) and her young daughter (Jade). She is an artist and works here for a few weeks for creative projects with (sick) children. We share one bathroom. The shower has cold water and it’s not possible to either close or lock the door, but we have a system now. There is another door in the corridor which we can close, so we know that one of us is using the bathroom. I can see the river from my building. I walk up the hill every day, pass the museum, the small shops, the vaccination centre, the hospital buildings, to finally reach the research buildings. There are 3 of them: the old building (all the work with participants is done there), the new building (where the labs are) and the administrative building. 

The lab building

The old building and the new building behind that

The hospital buildings

The daycare center and the football field to the right

The football field and a few houses

The view from the taxi area

I had my first 3 meals at the restaurant, but it’s quite expensive. 2000 CFA (€3) for breakfast, 5000 CFA (€7,60)for lunch and 3500 CFA (€5,30) for dinner. That’s not too much compared to Dutch restaurants, but I cannot do this every day. That is why I was very happy to meet other international students the next day, who took me to a restaurant outside of the hospital grounds, where I can eat vegetarian food for just 2000 CFA. They also live in houses on the hospital grounds with kitchens, so we can cook there. I am welcome to put my stuff in their fridge and use their kitchen. Anita, one of the German girls here, said the door is always open. Literally. The door to their house has no lock. Most of the foreign students/employees here are German or Austrian (Wiebke, Andreas, Solveig, Pia, Mirjam, Angelique, Hannes). There is also a South African girl (Maria), a Dutch girl (Sophia), a Vietnamese guy and a Vietnamese girl (but I forgot their names). I also met 2 French girls, but they are also artists, like my neighbor. Anyway, most internationals stick together, and they are a very welcoming group. Sometimes some Gabonese people also join us. One of the German girls also helped me cancel dinner plans I suddenly had with a Gabonese guy without really knowing what happened. I was explaining, with google translate, that I wanted to get a SIM card and a blanket (because, you won’t believe it, it’s actually cold at night. I’ve been told that’s only this month. Next month is gonna be hot, and after that its gonna rain like crazy). He helped me get both, and was asking about dinner. Then he said he would call the restaurant, or something. Didn’t really understand everything. And he also wanted money (5000 CFA), and I had no clue why. Turned out he wanted to borrow money and give it back 3 days later (he actually did), and my new German friends also explained that I already had dinner plans with them. Hehe :P. Whenever guys ask if I am married now (that happens on a daily basis) I say yes. Is my husband here? Yes he is. Do I have children? Oh yes, many! Still they ask if they can just spend one evening with me. One guy knew a bit of English and the first thing he said to me was ‘I love you’. After they told him I am married he asked why.. 

Rice, potato, banana and manioc

The first two days I spend on administrative tasks. Signing forms and getting the certificates. That’s a big task, because the internet connection is very slow during the day, and I needed to do an online course. The 60 minute course took all afternoon. In the evening I went for the weekly Salsa class organised by Pia. It was a lot of fun. The guys here are good dancers too. They only had 3 classes so far. In the evening we went to one of the nearby towns to eat. I had rice with fried banana and this really yummy thing called manioc (I just found out that is the same as cassava). 

On Thursday Ulysse also arrived at the institute, and we had a group meeting on the project’s progress. In French! I hope I learn fast, because I am gonna need it. He introduced me and I got a few tasks to get started. I’m starting with learning/refresh 2 lab techniques (reading thick and thin blood smears for malaria parasites in humans, and isolation of PBMCs) and crosschecking of participant files. There is one big folder per participant, with all the case reports of the clinic visits. I found out that it is sometimes very difficult to trace back participants, because first of all, they don’t really have addresses here. The different areas have names, but the streets don’t. The ‘addresses’ they give are descriptions of how you can find the house. Apart from that the participants sometimes just leave and can’t be reached when they actually have to be at the institute for a follow-up. That even happens after they have just received a malaria challenge. People here get infected anyway, so they are not so scared to get malaria. Officially the institute has to warn the authorities when participants go ‘missing’, but nobody wants THAT to happen.

I am impressed by the taxi system here. The Schweitzer hospital is very close to the river. There is a an island with a town called Materiou (I don’t know the exact spelling of the towns here) in the middle of the river. On the way to the river are two small towns: Aduma and Atongo Wanga. On the other riverbank is a town called Isaac. Getting a taxi and getting off before crossing the first bridge costs 100 CFA. Crossing 1 bridge costs 200 CFA, and crossing the second bridge costs 300 CFA. After 9pm the prices double. This way taxi drivers earn most when there are 4 passengers in the taxi, so on the way we will always stop to pick up more people. Both taxi drivers as well as people waiting on the side of the road have hand signals to indicate the direction and number of seats available/people wanting a ride. 

Okay, that's all for now. Since the internet is really slow I cannot just post whenever I want. I am also surprised how little time I have to actually write this, because there is either work, or we have dinner/party plans. Skype or facebook are not allowed during working hours, because if everyone would do that we would break the internet :P. So, Skyping is for the evenings (after 7pm) and weekends. One last message; the slogan/motto of the people here: Ça va aller (it will be alright). Here are a few more pics!