[The following is a minute by minute account of the morning, followed by the blog. FYI everything here is JUST FINE :D and we will hopefully be off to class again tomorrow]
Tuesday 17 February 2009
SNOWDAY!!!! Well, actually terrorist attempt day.
4:45-6:00 sounds of bombs going off and gun fire, followed by many planes.
7:12 Elis texts. Not received till after Anton’s call.
7:17 Anton calls from the embassy, we are to stay inside today
7:28 Josue texted. Had been trying to call for half an hour. “There is an armed group in the city. Everybody stays home.”
7:30 Mary Johnson calls. Yes, all the students are here and safe.
It seems like the current rumor that is sifting through the gray air today is that a group from Nigeria has made an ‘attempt’. I don’ t really know what constitutes an attempt, but Julia said it was never an attack, just an attempt. That and the noises is as much as we have right now, maybe we’ll learn more later, maybe we won’t.
8:50 Homemade cinnamon rolls are brought out of oven. Raisins hand picked out of Raisin Brain box cereal included. Even looks like whole wheat.
8:59 No more cinnamon rolls left. Time to take Malaria pill, but still hungry.
9:28 Strange silence outside. Julia says the area is probably closed off. Benefit of living next to the presidential palace I suppose.
9:37 wondering where the president might be. Obiang will come up here tomorrow to check the road to Lake Biao. Obiang is in the US because he is very sick.
An interesting note with all the presidential palaces sprinkled around the country is that no one every really knows where the president is. Therefore, you always need to be on your best behavior, because you never know who is watching you.
It’s amazing how fast they can shut down a city as well.
9:43 we have missed our first class and I’m really hoping we get to go to our guest lecture at 11:00, it seems promising as there are cars driving outside (but we don’t know whose cars they are) and we can hear some talking as well, but once again, we don’t know who it is. And the thing about having a giant cement and spiky wall all around your property is that is keeps everyone out, including possible information.
9:48 Julia laughs and cuts herself off mid-sentence, “I guess we can’t turn on the TV and see what’s going on, its not America.” This, yes, in addition to the fact that we don’t have a TV.
9:50 Trying to analyze the types of cars driving outside for more information. There’s not very many, true. There still aren’t people or kids playing. I believe the neighbors have been slaughtering chickens, so the ‘attempt’ has surely not helped them out.
9:57 and now I’m bored. Nap? Or work? Journal would be good, or making a blog. Yes, I should make a blog, but I’ll get some peanut butter first.
10:13 silence is suspicious. Screeches in the street sounds like life getting back to normal. We thought we heard a screech, but it now sound like the city is on shutdown and we told Bosco not to come over. He said to stay safe. We said we’d try.
10:20 Jose calls to make sure we are not going to class today.
10:21 No class at eleven. Mary J. says that the military has closed down the streets.
10:22 Julia calls Elias Edjo, ‘we will not be making it to your lecture today, and do you have any more information?’ Doesn’t seem like it…I’ll ask.
10:23 ‘everything is under control now and they are just doing surveillance, so don’t go outside.’ And that’s all we will find out for now, all that will make it through our concrete wall.
10:27 Benjamin calls, no class. You guys are staying inside house today? Maybe no class tomorrow. Our total so far: 4 people have called to make sure we are safe. Nice to know.
10:45 ‘that was a metal box going down the road.’ No new info from that.
10:52 another professor from UNGE called to make sure we were all here and inside.
11:10 text from someone else making sure we are all ok (Katy McIntosh). Nice to know.
11:18 official report from Embassy of ‘apparent attack’ in vicinity of Presidential Palace, resulting in heightened security and recommendations to stay inside.
11:45 Heidi calls to check in on us.
15:33 Jose calls me to make sure we are ok. Super sweet.
17:54 Now trying to scavenge dinner from rice and our fruit trees. We are looking at rice and mango/papaya chutney. Hopefully we can leave the house tomorrow…
Blog:
First off, I would like to assure everyone that we are all ok. For those of you who didn’t happen to stumble on a tiny BBC article about EG, we had a little excitement today but nothing serious at all. You are welcome to read the article at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7894651.stm . We all stayed home from school today and are currently on house arrest (thus having time to finally write a blog, funny). We have plenty of rice to eat so we are fine. The ‘attempt’ as it has been labeled is all under control now (the military is carefully patrolling the city) and it has showed us how many people care about us. The amazing-ness of a small island is that we are all like family. We got our first call at 7:17 am directly from the embassy telling us to not leave the house (yes, exactly 7:17 am). This was followed at 7:30 from our friends at MEGI (the Mobil oil company) who called to make sure we were all there and safe. Yes, we were, thank you. By 11:00 we had received more than 10 calls or texts from friends and/or important people in the city to make sure we were all good. This included UNGE (the University), professors from UNGE, our UNGE students, and a whole bunch of other friends who are our important connections in the city. This program is very respected in the city (thus the extremely strict rules for students to behave properly) and also survives off the connections it has made. If something is going to happen, we know about it first. So to sum up, we are not worried and I really want to make sure that you are not worried as well. We are all fine, hopefully we’ll be able to go to class tomorrow, and life is grand. To be honest, a day off was really needed :D So I will take the rest of my suddenly free time to fill everyone in on the rest…
Two weeks is a lot to catch up on, especially here, but I have time to write today (see above) so I figured I would give in and write. We left for Moka on the 11th. Moka is a small town more inland on the island and up on a mountain, therefore it is much cooler and less hectic. I really liked it up there, more than in Malabo. Plus the influence of the Expat’s is almost none, which is a nice change. Its amazing the amount of American oil workers or middle eastern construction workers walking around the city in Malabo. It almost makes us stick out less, almost, but not quite.
We headed up to Moka with all our UNGE students. These are the 5 students from University National Guinea Equatorial (you can figure it out) that are taking classes with us. We all went on the expedition together and have gotten really close. It’s been really fun because we have all become really close friends and the language barrier is becoming less of an issue. My partner is Cayetano and the irony of it is fabulous.
On the expedition we all had to announce our projects and who we were in Spanish. Then the UNGE students talked for like 5 min and chose a project to join. Cayetano chose frogs. That would be me. He announces it and I get to meet him. He is the smallest of the group, both in build and in height. Kinda like a little frog, its really rather cute. And then we were partners to spend all nights together wandering the woods and rivers looking for frogs, that was the best part. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
The five UNGE students that are in our program are all Environmental Conservation majors and very passionate about their studies. It’s been really amazing seeing the amount of enthusiasm these guys have for their country. In order to be able to use their names throughout, I will introduce you to them now:
Benjamin: seems kinda like the leader of the group. Really funny jokester that can really just be described as goofy, yet a very serious student when it comes down to it. Very stubborn. Project: Seed dispersal of fruiting trees. American partner: Kelly D.
Jose: Has an alarm that goes off at 5 am every morning for approximately 10 min. terribly afraid of horses, which we refer to as large Galagos for his sake. Very social and nice guy. Project: Money and Duiker. American partner: Carolyn K.
Antonio: learned English from rap songs so sounds like a rapper when he says yeeaahhh. We told him that and he tried to switch to a British accent, which just sounded funny and he switched back unconsciously. Also the best dancer of the group and very interested in learning West Coast Swing, we had a dance off last weekend and he seems like a good partner. Oh, and he picked up Salsa super fast, so I’m excited. Also really likes the song by Eminem “cleaning out my closet” (yes, old song) and translating this was quite and interesting task. Project: Chameleon habitat and behavior. American Partner: Emilie K.
Monica: the only girl of the group, very passionate about botany and just strong headed in general. Very nice and made us chicken for dinner once on/for Kelly’s 21st birthday (I guess she got tiered of Spam, shocker). Will laugh at everything you say. Project: Orchid habitats and abundance. Partner: Jason L.
Cayetano- my partner! Shy and reserved. I believe to be lowest on the social/class level totem pole, which is hardly ever visible, but does appear every now and again. Cute smile when you get him laughing, the kind of smile that makes you smile. His dad was actually a professional soccer player and wanted him to do that, by Cayetano wanted education instead (really good guy) but is still a really good futbol player. Project: make a wild guess on this. American partner: once again, use that American education of deductive reasoning, if you didn’t get it, stop reading this blog.
The two American students who didn’t get an UNGE partner due to a shortage are Andeliene (Galago habitat studies) and Autumn (after many switching projects, chose Praying Mantis behavior and habitat. Which, if you knew her, could not be any more perfect. And was quite great cause we all got to learn a lot more about these insects and I’m not going to lie, it was pretty cool watching it eat a glow-worm for dinner once.)
Other key players in this game include:
Julia- our crazy resident advisor who has to make sure that our teachers actually teach and call them in the morning to make sure they show up to class. We like her.
Tom Butynski- excellent professor, world-class primatologist (google him). Very quiet guy but can make a good joke and fun to pick on, cause he picks on you back. We really like him too.
Heidi- Manager/director of Moka Wildlife Center. Very fun and friendly, good life stories of past jobs in zoos and a sweet heart. Good to talk to learn more about the Guinean culture and trying to work in the country (which proves to be a challenge with the lack of initiative and entrepreneurial spirit of the town). I guess I can’t stop now, but we like her as well. In fact, there is really no one we didn’t like, so just attach that to everyone so I don’t have to write it anymore.
Demetrio- Very awesome Guinean (Bubi) who works at the Moka Wildlife Center and helps interpret for everyone. Always happy and smiling, very good natured.
Filamon- from Ureca (another small town) and is also Bubi. Extremely hard working and usually seen reading a dictionary in his free time. Best eyes and ears for monkey senses ever, can hear a fruit dropping 100 meters away.
Quinton Luke- British descent, born and raised in Kenya. The epitome of a 18th century botanist, accent and all. You really must see pictures to understand. Can give scientific name of any and all plants on the island. Came for a few weeks to collect more plants and is currently working on a book about the fauna of Bioko. Oh, any always ready for a party in his Kenyan formal wear that looked more like a skirt to the rest of us. Try google-ing him too.
Background that I realized while writing it may be good to fill everyone in on:
1. I believe there are 7 ethnic groups in the country, mainland and island.
2. I’ve been told they are Anoboneses’, Fang, Bubi, Combe, Mdoioe, Bujebos, Bisio.
3. The main ones we meet are Fang and Bubi.
4. The island was originally colonized by Bubi, who then had to deal with all the stupid colonizers such as the English, Portuguese, and most recently Spanish (thus the national langue is Spanish)
5. Currently the president, Obiang, is Fang. Which kinda makes the ruling class Fang.
6. There are still a lot of predominately Bubi villages around the island.
7. All of the UNGE students are Fang. The director of the program in Bubi.
8. They each have their own language that for the most part is verbal and cannot be written down. They can tell instantly which group you are associated with from your accent in Spanish.
9. When just hanging out, their language of choice is of their ethnic group, not Spanish.
10. There does not seem to be any sort of tensions between the groups, but there are definitely some unspoken feelings of superiority, though that may just be class levels.
11. Everyone seems happy with this president and doesn’t want another. I’ve been lucky enough to learn more about the past and its been very interesting.
So I’m thinking that I should get to work on my homework now before I rot sitting in front of my computer. Of course there is more to say, like what we actually did in Moka, but I will save that for the next blog. But I will let you all get a heads up on it. My and Cayetano’s project title was: Frog Habitat and Elevation Distribution at Moka and the Caldera on Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea.
I took too many photos of frogs to count and am currently working with a few expert herpetologists from around the world to identify them. We are really hoping to have found a species new to the island, or even new to science…but we’ll see, there is a lot of work needed to do that.
I have the preliminary photo document without tentative IDs from just the Caldera uploaded at:
http://www.zshare.net/download/54825189fe89cf08/
I also put up some of the more interesting frogs at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/35062908@N08/?saved=1
Unfortunately, this uploaded information is a bit old now and the work has progressed a lot since then, but this is all I’ve got online for now. I’m sorry I didn’t get to go too much into actual things I am doing, but I feel like the people who I am spending so much time with are a very vital part of the experience, and this way you can get to know them too.
I keep thinking of things to write while avoiding actually doing work, plus I figured I would amp up the blog with some interesting story bits. So here are some teasers…
· I tried both sea snail and forest snail grilled on a shish-kabob stick off a street vender at the beach. Very good sea snail, not so much the forest snail. Fyi it didn’t make me sick. Also, the forest snail here is huge! About the size of a fist.
· We played soccer/futbol with some of the little kids of Moka, very cute, but very competitive. We won (mostly by efforts by UNGE students, see Cayetano’s bio above).
· There are ripe mango and banana trees here now in our yard, very good. Same with avocado.
· We went to play rugby with the Expat’s at Marathon (one of many oil companies). I still have some bruises, it was almost 3 weeks ago.
· I got to see some horses at Moka and briefly pet one. I tried to figure out if I could ride it, but the answer was repetitively no. I think I could…maybe I’ll sneak back (its only an 1.5 hour drive from Malabo).
· Why are there no cats in the city? Cause they get eaten.
That might actually be it for now…I hope everyone is happy and healthy at home, happy late Valentines day.
