Belated Moka

While we were at the Wildlife Refuge (http://www.bioko.org/ecotourism/center.asp) in Moka last month, a group of oil and service company workers from Hess, Slumberger, FMC and some other companies fixed a bunch of things on the property. Some of them live in Luba and some in Malabo. They donated many different items like paint, cement, water tanks and the wood that is used to pack some of the shipments they receive.

They also donated their labor and brought chicken, burgers, sausages, buns, veggies and refreshments for lunch. Everyone helped out with painting.

(Students Painting)

Some brave souls, TS and MW, helped out mixing cement for the men inside fixing door frames

There were also some men who put a drop ceiling in the education building



There were even some volunteers to fix the satellite internet connection.
We had a good time, worked hard and ate an immense amount of food.

We had so much leftover food that we had a party with the cooks, cleaning lady and trail cutters the next evening.

Watching the World Series

Since 5 of the 6 of us are from Philadelphia we really wanted to watch a game (at least) of the world series. So the evening of game 3 (early morning for us) found us in JT's living room trying to watch the Phillies game on ESPN. With the rain delay the game didn't start for us until 3am. Not only was there rain in Philadelphia, there was rain in Malabo. The satellite kept loosing it's signal. Here is a picture of the luxurious living room
And a picture of the TV, not showing the game.
We were able to watch most of the game and the Phillies won.

Making Ginger Ale

(Ginger ale, fermenting)

Lisa, one of the women from Exxon, gave us a ginger ale recipe last time we were at MJ's house.

Today I went on an adventure to the Mercado Central with CM, TS, AM and SM. We successfully bought fresh ginger (called something like "cocobianco" here), yeast (levadura, which may also be the word for baking powder), and sugar (azucar). We successfully did not sell SM who was followed (and hung onto) by a ridiculously dressed man. He finally went away after several of us spoke sharply to him.

When we got home we made ginger ale. We also tried to make some orange ale. Now it is sitting on our kitchen table untill the bottles get hard enough that they don't dent when I squeeze them.



(Julia with cleaned ginger from the market.)
(AM and CM with our home-made paper funnel and best-estimate measuring devices.)

(Yeast, in a plastic bag so the humidity doesn't ruin it.)
(Grated ginger)



(AM juicing our unknown citrus fruit for the citrus drink.)
(CM shaking the almost finished product.)

We used 1.5L bottles because that is what we buy our bottled water in. Click here for the recipe we used.

Water!

I've been avoiding the water run because it involves getting a vehicle to bring the water back to the house. However, the group from Moka was in the city earlier this week and DBM brought me, TS and CM and MO (one of the turtle counters) to the bulk store to buy water. We bought 50 6-packs. Here's a picture.

Out of order pictures

Here are some pictures from Moka that I have not yet uploaded. This is going to be slightly disorganized, but here's what I have.

Here's a team for causing trouble. HR in the picture with me is the manager of the wildlife center in Moka. I'm leaning on the truck I put in the ditch earlier in the week. As you can see, we got it out of the ditch. It took a lot of pushing and some help from two guys who were carrying a large bag down the road.



Here is the day we arrived in Moka. Look how clean we all look!



No, seriously I was teaching! We were measuring the height of trees using a stick and the Pythagorean theorem.



We finally got up to the lake it was still raining. We put one tarp on the ground and folded it over our gear, giving us both a dry place to sit and a way to keep our gear dry. We strung up the other tarp and had a nice place to sit and wait for the rain to stop. Later we hiked down to the lake and went swimming.

Picture Fiesta

Chilling out in the kitchen in the Drexel house.


Watching our "take your malaria pills" presentation at MEGI. They gave us bug nets for our beds. I'll get a picture of one posted soon.


One of many walks along the road to learn trees, take pictures of caterpillars, etc.


This is a picture of us playing volleyball in Moka. That's Heidi in the doorway of the house hitting the ball.

Last night we traded pictures all around so I have lots more pictures to upload. Hopefully you'll only get the best. We ventured out on our own for dinner last night to a restaurant right behind our house. I don't have a picture of it but they served the typical plate, red plantains and either fish or meat. Usually there is a chicken option as well but this time there was no chicken. I got the fish which came with head and tail on the plate. I'm not sure what type of fish it was but it was tasty.

Back at the Drexel House

I've been back in the city for a few days but have not had a chance to update the blog. This will be a short update but I promise there are pictures coming. I went up to Moka today with a driver from UNGE, 6 turtle researchers and huge amounts of canned and dried food. We didn't take all of it but it still filled the bus. I returned with 9 students and the driver. We stopped at Arena Blanca, a white sand beach. The other beaches are black sand because they are made from the breakdown of the volcanic rock that makes up the island.
More later
J

Brief stop in the city.

We're in Moka! It is wonderful.
25 September 25, 2008

We have been in Moka for two days and one night. Moka is gorgeous. What a contrast from the city! Last night was clear and we saw the milky way and many unfamiliar constellations. I brought my star book with me, but left it in the city. Next time, I’ll bring it.
The students have started learning how to do their surveys. Last night I went with the group studying chameleons. We found one on our way back to the wildlife center. TS, FF and MW measured, marked and photographed the chameleon under the direction of TB. Similarly, tonight HR and I went with the group studying galagos. We returned early to the wildlife center to finish some work but on the way back we saw a galago for one and a half to two seconds. It was jumping along the ground in some elephant grass under a Trema. I have not gone with any of the daytime survey groups yet.
TS and I went for a run up the hill from the center to the cell tower. It’s about a three km round trip but it’s all hill. I’ll see if I can find the elevation change before I post this. I don’t know how long it took, but it was a nice run, not too fast. We may have internet here in Moka this weekend.
We brought our USB internet key but it doesn’t work up here for some reason. It can’t connect to the remote computer. When people can not use the key with their computer in the city (where it works on some computers) the error message the computer returns is that the device is not connected when clearly, it is. There is no signal strength up here for the USB key. I was under the impression that it operated on the same network as cell phones but, clearly something is different. We get great cell reception up here. Since the generator runs mostly during the night time surveys, I have not yet charged my cell phone. We take our phones everywhere so if there is a problem we can call someone. Luckily since I have not had to use my cell up here much, it hasn’t needed to be charged.
Our group clicked pretty quickly. We’ve had some stress trying to welcome the UNGE students into our group. It is happening, but slowly, as you can tell by my language. I am speaking a lot more Spanish up here, which is good for me. As we ate dinner the night before we left the city, TS suggested we all say a high point and a low point about the day. We have continued this here in Moka, with the addition of saying our highs and lows in English and Spanish. It reminds me of pow-wow at EYA. It is a good way to include everyone and it shows us all that we all have a difficult time speaking in which ever language is not our native tounge. The bonus of seeing each other struggle publicly with unfamiliar language has been that during the day we are all more willing to take the risk of appearing foolish or saying something wrong in the language we are trying to learn. It is becoming easier to switch languages during a conversation and it is very comfortable to ask how to say words.
There is so much greenery here. I am starting to learn the names of some of the plants. Some that I was familiar with like datura, ficus and morning glory are easier to remember. Also elephant grass, because it is the only thing that looks like it. I haven’t seen any monkeys yet but I will go with the monkey survey group soon. They saw one troop today and did seven hours of surveying.
I am much more relaxed here than in the city. Also the people who live here seem more relaxed than those who live in the city. It doesn’t matter here if I smile at strangers in stores or on the street. People stare but so do I. I am as curious about the people I see on the street as they are about me. I was prepared for women carrying huge loads or baskets on their heads but today I saw a woman carrying a single can of condensed milk on her head and her toddler on her hip. Although a can of condensed milk is not hard to carry in one hand, this freed her non-toddler-ed hand for things like opening doors.

1 October, 2008
Wow, time flies! We have no internet access in Moka, but maybe this Sunday we will. I have loads of pictures which I will upload after posting this text.