Letters from Hannah

Dear Everyone,

I didn't manage to write last week and send this with Jean-Luc, so hopefully you'll get 4 and 5 together. This last week (4th week) was great -- at the beginning I just was restless -- I hadn't gone out exploring, and was itching to find things. Sunday was hot and I cut my walk short at Laura's house and just chatted with her for a couple hours. At lunch one day I found coupé-coupé (smoked beef sliced up hot with Maggi sauce and mustard, on bread). Guys from Niger do it. I thought it was Gabonese, but most commerce is done by Malians and other immigrants. Had lunch on the water twice, and Wednesday went out to the sandbar with Kendra. I'd been to that neighborhood with Alex (the Environmental Education-EE trainer) and Susan (3rd year PCV here in Lambaréné), but that was at night. In the day we walked across the bridge and went down the dirt road through the village/neighborhood. At the end of the houses the road went into the forest, still along the river, and found a little opening to the bank. There was a dugout canoe there, half-finished, the basic shape cut out but still rough. We had chocolate and peanut butter sandwiches and yogurt. Then we walked further down through the forest to get to the sandbar, and got out on the sand. It's like a beach -- breeze, sun, and squeaky sand. The bar goes 1/3 way across the river, and lots of kids go on the weekends to play. That day women were doing laundry and singing. We walked along and ran into a young malaria researcher from Suisse, who asked if we weren't nervous about spending 2 years in a weird place with people we don't know. No, we said. That's why we're here. She was really nice and invited us back to the lab to look at parasites but we had to go back for class. I went back Saturday with Kara and Katie for the whole afternoon, and it was awesome -- just chilling and listening to music and watching kids play in the water, diving off pirogues - splashing and laughing. A bunch of Malians were digging sand near us for cement, so I said hi. Now when the big yellow truck drives by in town, they all yell Ana! Ana! Just like all the kids in my quartier too. But those guys call the other kids Ana too.

Saturday we also had African Olympics -- peanut pounding and water bucket relays. The best peanut butter won and we all got PB and J afterwards. Then teams had to do a course with a sandbag tied to their backs and carrying a bucket full of water on their heads. I was just taking pictures for people, but it was fun as hell. I haven't taken any pics yet really -- it makes me nervous to carry my camera around but I need to take pics. The problem is I get too serious about photos and that takes away from the experience.

Mama Adele's been in Libreville for about a week and Frank's been cooking, which is great--good salad and chicken and fried fish. Plus I can go out to lunch all the time and stay out with friends after school. This weekend was quiet. Saturday a lot of people went to a traditional dance in the village chez Pete, but I went with my cousin and her husband to a birthday party. It was pretty lame, no dancing, just lots of grilled food. Sunday I chilled and did laundry and yoga, then got invited out by my 2 other mamas for a big guiness. They were already tanked when we got to the bar across the river, and one started screaming at a guy and it was a big production. The owner asked me to take her home in the end, which was pretty weird. Basically all my family here are alcoholics. Which sucks. I was embarrassed to be with my mamas Sunday, and nervous Saturday when Leon and Virginie split a bottle of whiskey and then drove us home. So today I made plans with my Malians to learn how to make ginger and hibiscus juice next weekend and have lunch there. I walked in to check on my skirts (2 weeks and not done yet) and it smelled like Mali. Ah...they're so nice to me. I betcha if I really work here I could learn Bambara pretty well, but we'll see. I'd rather learn my local language, so we'll see if I can do both. There's lots to do. Stage is tiring -- so full of stuff to do and things to learn and people to hang out with and learn from. Letter writing is exhausting if I try to do it all at once. Gabon used to be different: for the first 20 years of independence things were strict -- you got fines for not keeping your grass short, being out after curfew, not sweeping your yard, everything. But then the oil crisis started and Bongo relaxed and started building his railroad and police started taking bribes and everything went to hell. But now Gabonese can travel where before they couldn't. And young people don't think it's normal to hit your wife anymore because of the Western movies they see.

I've been hanging out with the facilitators more because they have lots to say about Gabon and they're mostly at the age where they participated in the riots/protests in 1990. Our language groups are doing a stage newspaper, and one of my articles is going to be "The Events of 1990" through their eyes and our families' eyes. We switch facilitators every 2 weeks and right now we have Roger, who sucks. You guys know my French is fine, and my group is advanced, but for some reason he needed to teach us words to describe people. Tall, short, fat, honest, brave, boring. Class sucks. But we're dealing. We've been pretty spoiled so far (Roger is the only one this bad) so we're definitely due.

The PCVs last week were great -- two EE vols who work in the Lope reserve came and talked about habituating gorillas for ecotourism. Sarah's been charged by a gorilla and an elephant. We just keep hearing about great posts and it gets us pumped up for everything, which is good because we have no control over where Pauline will place us. In fact, if you ask for somewhere, she'll put you in the opposite place -- the village with no school instead of the town with lots of high school groups. This week we're doing small presentations for practice -- in 2 weeks we'll find out our sites and go visit during the 8th week, then the last 3 weeks we organize and prepare our big animations. That way we've got a few things under our belts when we go to post. I'm getting pretty psyched to find out where I'll be, sort of the same way I felt before I got my invitation to Gabon. This is a pretty great place, really screwed up, but beautiful and interesting. A PCV told me tonight to start learning my local language as soon as I get my posting, so I can get some structure and grammar down while I'm still in stage mode and facilitators are available. It sounds like a great idea.

Pat -- I got your Spain package, but I can't eat any of the stuff you sent! What gives? Kevin and Sarah, your letter made my day. Keep an eye out for an aerogram :). I hope all of you are well and enjoying yourselves. Please send granola bars and candy (M&Ms, nothing too melty), and AA batteries! I'll keep writing.

Love,

Hannah