Text only October update

We tried to laminate some passport photocopies and some replacement UNGE (the national university) ID cards but the laminator broke. It is useful to have an official university ID here. When we get stopped at road blocks the UNGE IDs work magic. No hassels. We took the laminator apart to fix it and found that the laminating sleeve had melted to the laminator.

On Saturday 11 October, we (Drexel and UNGE students) met in Aula 5 for the students to give and receive help on each other’s posters and reports. The field methods course met for a lecture on wildlife monitoring techniques and an activity using software to analyze pre-recorded animal calls. The software is available for free at http://www.soundruler.sourceforge.net.

That evening we went to a BBQ at Slumberger hosted by Dominick Choo. Some of the men who helped with the work day at Moka were there. After the BBQ we went to a bar near the Slumberger compound that some locals run out of their house. There was lots of loud local music. On Sunday we relaxed at Mary and Pete Johnson’s house in the Exxon-Mobile
compound all afternoon. We ate dinner and watched Last of the Mohicans.

Since independence day was at the beginning of the week, we did not start classes until mid-week. We got invited to the ladies card game at the Marathon compound mid-day on Wednesday, with the promise of fresh vegetables. When we got their the hostess told us we could all just go play in the pool instead if we chose to – and that she would do that if she wasn’t hosting.

Classes went smoothly except for Spanish, which was a disaster. The first class
started late because I forgot the keys to the classroom. Luckily Santi was still at the
university and was able to let us in. We were all at Aula 5 (our classroom for the quarter) about half an hour early so Bina could have her extra Spanish class and we could all get a quick grammar review. Since Bina’s Spanish language skills are minimal, she had arranged with Cesar (our Spanish professor) to have a half hour mini-class before the regular class one day
a week. This left us with ten minutes for Bina’s class. In addition, the electricity was intermittent. For most of the class we sat in the dark or with flashing fluorescent lights that looked like they were about to come on for good.

Twice the lights came on for five or ten minutes. Several times I left the classroom to try
to get the lights on. Once I ran into Miguel Angel (our Society and the Environment professor) who tried to track down Santi to fix the problem. Santi told Miguel Angel the generator was out of gas, however lights were on in other parts of the university. The lights came back on by themselves for a few minutes. In addition, we had a miscommunication about Spanish levels so the professor, Cesar, and the students were frustrated. Cesar thought the students were not interested in learning Spanish. The students got the feeling that he disliked them and thought they were stupid. Luckily both Cesar and the students have revised their opinions of each other. The students even thought the class that was held during the conference call on the 29th was
fun.

Oliver, who works at the American Embassy with Cesar, is sitting in on our
Spanish class and offered to host class at the embassy. We accepted and have had an
opportunity to meet Anton, the man in charge of the embassy while there is no
ambassador.

Currently the Natural Resource Economics class requires the most time outside of
class and meets for the full two hours. Although many of the students are intimidated by
economics, they are enjoying the class and learning. Although the lecture is in English
the UNGE students seem comfortable asking questions in Spanish when they don’t
understand.

On Friday evening we went to a BBQ at FMC and went dancing at Bahia club afterwards. Saturday we went to a BBQ at Certex because their chef had made it in from South Africa. After the BBQ, we went dancing. On Sunday, in addition to hanging out with Mary all afternoon, we went to our first hash. The route went around the stadium through some interesting villages and across a stream.


Saturday we went to Moeri. We did not have a GPS unit and I was unclear on our purpose – which I now know was to census. We had our Field Methods class, minus the practical session with the GPS unit, which we will make up before we go to Bata. We walked around the village and found some kids making cane juice to ferment. We did not find Bosco’s uncle, who was in Luba, but we did talk to the mother of a friend of Bosco’s. We ate lunch and came back to Malabo.

For the most part, we have remained healthy. Last week one of the students and I took the first
trip to the clinic. Her eye was red and swollen and weeping clear liquid. We looked up
her symptoms on the internet and decided she probably had pink eye caused by a virus.
We went to Clinica Esperanza so someone could look at her eye. The clinic was clean and the doctor said she had conjunctivitis caused either by dust, allergies or bacteria and told us to buy antibiotic eye drops and an antihistamine. We had some antibiotic eye drops at home and used those instead. She got better. Everyone had stomach problems this week so we took an evening off from class. Luckily Raúl was sick that evening too and was not upset when we called to cancel.

Saturday night we went to a BBQ at Hess and later watched the third world series game at FMC. On Sunday, Wayne, the man in charge of the Exxon-Mobile compound, and his wife hosted us for lunch at the Exxon-Mobile pool. We hung out at Mary’s all afternoon and went to dinner at Wayne and his wife’s house. Classes the third week continued uneventfully with the exception of the class we missed mid-week for sickness. This Friday is Demetrio’s birthday and Halloween, we will celebrate both events.