Christmas holidays

It's been a while since my last post as our internet has been very unpredictable, causing me to loose a few draft posts and frustrating my blogging motivation. At the moment I have network, although its very on and off this morning. I know because I have a jazz radio station playing through my tablet and it has taken a few rests while I've been busy.

This week, we're counting down until our Christmas holiday break. We've only got three full days until we leave on our flight to Sao Tome, the larger island, where we'll spend a night. From there, if our visas are waiting, we'll catch our connecting flight to Luanda. In Luanda's airport we will wait for around 5 hours for our flight to Johannesburg, South Africa, and again we will spend a night there and then on to Durban the next day. We break the last SA leg up to avoid toddler insanity. It's a lot of travelling for an adult to handle, let alone a little person and last time Zachary came out in childhood Excema after our flights.

Once in back home in Durban, we've several wonderful weeks of holiday to enjoy with our family and friends. We're so looking forward to the lights, action and restaurants. Its been a long 5 month haul on our tiny, quiet island.

Merry Christmas and I pray that you will be celebrating this special time of the birth of Christ with us and Christians all over the world.

Until next year...

The Sao Tome Spinetail

Living near the airport now, we've developed the habit of going for late afternoon walks along the dirt roads near the airstrip. The sun sets consistently early on Principe it seems, around 5.30pm, so 5pm is a great time to watch the birds which feed in flight, swooping through the air and speeding along just above ground. Keeping to themselves the Grey Parrots fly up high, on their way home to Bom Bom Island.

An unusual thing about Principe is that the Little Swift and the Sao Tome Spinetail, sometimes called the Sao Tome Spine-tailed Swift, fly together in mixed groups while feeding. Both birds are black-brown with a white rump and for a novice birder the mixed groups had me stumped for while. Though with this information I'm starting to see the subtle differences between them, the smaller size of the Little Swift for one. The Sao Tome Spinetail itself only measures around 10cm, small for the boomerang winged species. As an aside, the name  Spinetail originates from the spine tipped ends of their wings.To confuse my identification skills a bit more, the Little Swift looks superficially similar to the Barn Swallow, which also occur here and their flying style is fluttery and similar.So the Sao Tome Spinetail has my interest at the moment, as I learn to distinguish it from other similar species in the air but one thing is for sure though, they are too swift for my camera.

Our new home

We've been in our 'park home' around one month now and having the extra space is wonderful. Zachary is back in his own room again and we have a lounge and diningroom to watch tv in and a table to eat at, which all feels much more civilised. It took nearly six months for our accomodation to get sorted out, which is a long, long time for a family to squash into one hotel room. Anyway, we are much happier now and are in the process of ironing out the difficulties in settling into our new home. With the heavy rains of late, water seems to be oozing out of our flooring and running in through unsealed little spaces around the aircon units, making us quite concerned. Thankfully, today and yesterday have been sunny.

I have just spoken to one of the guys in charge of sorting out the housing and have shown him the leaks and drips in the house, so hopefully we will see some solutions soon. Also Brian and Jeanette, Mark's colleagues, are waiting for various items and fittings for their house and I discussed those with him too. Their house is taking so long to get finished and they are as frustrated as we were before we moved in. Some fast solutions would be such a relief for both them and us

Tomatoes?

Now that it is raining again after the dry gravana season, the market is full of beautiful ripe tomatoes, which I have missed. Back home, any time of the year, I'd pop down to my local 'Spar' shop and pick up a tub of lovely ripe Rosa tomatoes or hand select some large tomatoes from the baskets. Here, tomatoes or anything for that matter, aren't always available when you want them. For a Durban city girl, this has inspired a subtle sense of some sort of panic around supplies and food. So, yesterday while in town waiting in the car for Mark, I saw a young girl, about age ten, walking with a big plastic container of ripe tomatoes on her head. In a mad moment I had gestured to her to come over to my side of the car and so the negation began, immediately I started having second thoughts. How was I going to communicate with her, my Portuguese is coming on, but it is very patchy and the other thing is the crazy money they have here (and the long total described in Portuguese is quite something). In the shops I get the cashier to show me the total of my shop on the computer or calculator screen (the two main shops have those!) or get the stalls to write on paper, but pen-less in my car, all we had to work with was language. The other complicating factor was that I only had a 100, 000 dobra note with me, which is about R50 and no other change or money for the negotiations. Since vegetables are extremely expensive here, I figured that wouldn't actually get me many tomatoes, maybe a kilogram or so, but I was wrong. With tomatoes now in season, the price has dropped. Anyway, so I tried to communicate with my large dobra note, asking how many tomatoes could I get for the note. The girl did not understand me, so she tried to explain how the tomatoes are sold - only in kilograms it turned out - but I didn't get it. Eventually, helpless and chuckling, we looked around and found a builder walking towards us on the pavement and gestured him over. He worked out what was going on and wrote in the mud on the side of the bakkie what he thought we could do. Anyway, in the end it was a case of either I buy three kilos of tomatoes or no tomatoes because the girl only had 40, 000 change. I went with the three kilos and today I have been making and bottling tomatoe chutney and tomatoe passata to preserve them for when there are none. I feel quite proud of my efforts.

The mancut

My husband must be the world's most squirmy haircut victim and that means I'm comparing him to Zachary... We have been married for seven years and until this sunny afternoon, he has never let me near his hair with scissors or a shaver, but with no alternative and his hair like an untrimmed hedge, he relented and let me at it. Sitting on a small stool in the bathroom, he squirmed and complained as I attempted to negotiate the shaver, its length settings and his thick hair. Starting off with a number 1 at the neckline turned out to be a mistake, but as the haircut progressed it seemed to improve and he conceeded that it was actually a pretty good job in the end, which I agree with. It also beats the last one, which was in Sáo Tome at a local barber shop. That was an experience which included a shaver set on number 2, a very shabby, dirty shop, a crowd bantering in Portuguese and a barber who looked as nervous as I felt this afternoon, in his case at the prospect of cutting non-ethnic hair! Dispite Mark exclaiming, "I'm getting that same feeling that I do when I'm a passenger and you're driving", at some point during my trim, I reckon he'll opt for me next time and not the local barber's dirty shears!

Whale season

Gravana season or the dry season, is also Whale watching time. The water temperature drops attracting Marlin - and their wealthy fishermen - as well as Whales, which play and splash just off the coast lines of Bom Bom. Everyday when Zachary and I walk along the beaches I keep an eye on the horizon hoping to spot another Whale. Zachary has cottoned on to the fuss around spotting Whales and often shouts ,"Whales", when he looks up from drawing in the sand toward the sea.

This is our 5th month at Bom Bom and as lovely as it is, I'm now more than ready to make a home and move from our 4 star hotel room. I'm so looking forward to more space and settling into my own routine. Cooking is going to be a challenge due to the lack of a variety of ingredients, but, I have missed choosing our meals and cooking up something to look forward to. I think we might end up going a bit vegetarian, much to Marks dismay!

A novice's birding part two: Birding with a point and shoot digital camera

So far in my research about birding, I've picked up the distinction between bird watching in a garden environment and wild bird watching. Here at the resort I probably fall more into the second category and am finding it particularly tricky to successfully photograph the birds I'm seeing. Though a rambunctious 23 month old toddling behind me probably also adds to the wildness of the wild birds! Another interesting point about bird watching is that photographing the birds you spot is optional, but to me - the beginning birder, birding includes getting a picture. Funnily enough when reading a few birding blogs on the internet it seems this debate is just it. For the new generation of birders, photography is often the starting point and draw card to birding and then goes on to form an integral part of the hobby. Perhaps its the internet revolution and having something to share on facebook or your blog, which a tick on a list doesn't satisfy. A good link for more thoughts on that is: http://birdingblogs.com/2011/Gunnar/the-future-of-birding Further reading enlightened me to the notion that beginning birders are meant to start with binoculars, but with no particular guidance shaping my interest, I am just walking around and seeing what I see. Investing in binoculars doesn't appeal to me at this point as generally binoculars don't capture your bird sightings

At the moment I'm using a Cannon Powershot A610 to take a few snap shots and its high time for an upgrade. I'm hoping to get a bit more into my new hobby and so have been looking into cameras recommended for birding, as my husband and I are about to upgrade cameras anyway. I can suggest the following link http://birding.com.co/birding-with-a-point-shoot-camera/ for information on birding with a point and shoot (P&S) digital camera. This link shows some impressive photos with a P&S camera and gives me hope!

One of the main differences between a DSLR (Digital Single Lense Reflex, a camera body with interchangeable lenses) and a P&S, for the novice birder, is price. DSLR's offer better image quality making this one of the drawbacks of P&S cameras but, it seems that P&S's have come a long way in this area. Useful points I've come across to think about when buying a P&S to bird with, are: considering the length of zoom (this does not seem a problem for most good quality P&S's), fast-focus ability - as birds don't stick around for long and being able to take good photos in low light conditions. The convenience of a small sized P&S camera is a bonus. At this point in my research, Cannons often come out on top in various blogs and website discussions I've found, which sits well with my husband who is a Cannon fan! But that's as far as I've got with this, I will have to blog further when we have some Cannon candidates and prices.

Mark Shuttleworth's arrival

We've been here on Principe for more than 3 months now and are still living at the usually 'chilled' Bom Bom Island Resort. This weekend, however, there is quite a buzz around the resort. Mark Shuttleworth and his team are here for a few days to have a look at the various projects and developments he has initiated on the island. My husband is showing him around the airport construction site right now as I blog. Everything has been spruced up for his arrival and thankfully my husband's office has been finished this week and is usable. The main office structure has been there since we arrived, but installing air-conditioning, lighting, wifi, and painting and tiling has taken all of three months. Leve-leve (step by step/slowly, slowly) as the locals say.  Things happen at island pace here...

When there is no hair salon...

It's two and a half months since we arrived on Principe and I have been needing a haircut for a while now. A month ago, out of desperation, I attempted to cut my own hair but found the experience very tricky - anyone who has attempted the same will empathize! I managed my fringe and one underneath layer at the very back of my hair, but cutting the back was near impossible and I was scared off. Since then I have worn my hat a lot - thank goodness for the sunny weather - and my head band, but with renewed motivation- or desperation- yesterday I decided to google 'cutting your own hair' and surprisingly found quite a bit of information on the subject. I found one very helpful link about cutting curly hair into a bob style, which is sort of how my hair was when I arrived, http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2009/09/easy-way-to-cut-your-own-hair-in-a-curly-bob/ The description of 'self-cutting your hair' inspired me to try my scissors out again. Not much works quickly and easily on this island but I can say that this experiment certainly did! I managed to complete the task before my 22 month old fully woke up from his nap and he'd already started to mumble as I was beginning. It was very easy to cut my own hair and I am still so surprised it worked out! The long and the short of it is - pun intended - that you wet your hair, brush it carefully into a low pony tail, pull the elastic band down almost to the end of the pony and then blunt cut the hair off. Then you brush all your hair up into a pony at the top of your head - the article describes the position of the pony as if you were being hung from your pony in the circus - pull the elastic nearly to the end and then blunt cut the hair off again. This second pony cut gives you your layers so you can decide how much you want to cut off. This is a very brief explanation and if you are thinking about doing this yourself, have a look at the blog I mentioned earlier. It really was that easy and I am very satisfied that it will get me through to when I can access the next hair salon. All the articles I read said be very sure to use proper hair cutting scissors, but on this island there is zero hope of getting those. I had a sharp pair of fabric scissors which I had brought with me and they seemed to work fine. My mom is a hair stylist so I'm interested to hear what she says about it all...anyway this is the victory I needed this week as the order of groceries I am waiting for has been delayed by the boat blowing up!

A novice's birding on Principe

A map of the location of the island of Principe - Wikipedia.

Since moving to Principe I've taken up an interest in birding. The bird life is abundant and while staying at the Bom Bom Island Resort the beach is a stone's throw away from my door, as is the jungle. This provides so many opportunities for bird spotting. Yesterday my husband printed a copy of a checklist of the birds of Principe and I've just started to fill it out, including dates and the location of my observations. In the eight weeks we've been here, my most special observation has been a Principe Kingfisher catching a Ghost Crab late one afternoon, which he then beat against a beach recliner arm to kill it.The Principe Kingfisher is only around 10 cm in size and much smaller than the other resident Kingfisher, the Blue-breasted Kingfisher, which I haven't yet managed to spot. 

Principe Kingfisher

Ghost crab on Bom Bom Island Resort beach

Flocks of Grey Parrots flying home for the night are a common sight during the late afternoons at the resort. The resort also has its own hand reared African Grey named Chaplain, who was raised at the resort and flies around freely. Two months ago it was discovered that Chaplain is in fact a female having laid three eggs, though unfortunately none of them have since hatched. She seems quite melancholic as a result. 

Chaplain

Other ticks on my checklist include two Bronze Mannikins who have been nesting in a tree near my unit's deck for the past two weeks, the Principe Sunbird, Principe Golden Weaver, White Cattle Egret and Grey Western Reef Heron. I have a few other penciled in ticks on my list which still need someone a little more experience to confirm for me.

Portuguese progress...

Its nearly six weeks now since moving to Principe and with the help of Ale (said with soft emphasis on the 'e') and Google Translate, my Portuguese is coming along. Zachary and a little girl called Chael have a daily, morning play-date and Ale (Chael’s nanny) gives me a few Portuguese pointers in between the playing. My vocabulary is definitely improving, but making sentences is more difficult as the word order is quite different to English. Never the less, Ale and I are more able to understand each other now, as her English and my Portuguese vocabulary grow. Though many times we just laugh because neither of us can grasp the other’s meaning! Zachary has picked up a few Portuguese words and each morning when the cleaning ladies come to the room he tries to copy them and say, “Bom dia” (Good morning). This really charms them and he is very popular. Chael speaks a bit of both languages but is generally pretty shy and quiet, although squeals, “Bebe, Bebe, Bebe!”(baby) when she spots Zachary running around the resort.

Zachary’s favorite activity is pushing Chael in her stroller along the resort’s hedge-lined paths, while Ale guides the stroller to steer and prevent accidents. This can carry on for an hour, much to the amusement of onlookers and guests. He gets quite rosy-cheeked and his baby-fine hair sticks to his hot head. After this, he is exhausted from the heat and humidity and he’ll just lie on the floor in our room, with his head on a cushion, watching Ceebeebies for a while to recover. Zachary also has fun playing on the beach with Chael, where he loves drawing number “ones” in the sand with a stick or pushing his hand down crab holes. We have stopped the later as the crab holes are large, likely reflecting their inhabitants’ size.

Today Zachary is teething and has not yet had a day nap. It’s now 2.47pm and I am feeling the lack of my usual two hours of silence and relative freedom. He’s had a combination of Neurofen and Ponstan but to no obvious effect, poor little man and poor me...

Belo Monte

The weather was lovely today so we decided to head off to an early breakfast at the Bom Bom Island restaurant and then, along with Brian (Mark’s work colleague) and his wife Jeanette, we 'four by foured' our way to the Roca or plantation estate of Belo Monte. Principe is a surprising little island. Just as my boredom reaches a new level, I discovery a jewel like Belo Monte. The sky was so blue today and the clouds in such spectacular formation that it was the ideal day for photographing this Portuguese estate in renovation. The road leading up to the complex hosts the usual little wooden huts on stilts, potholes, chickens, the odd goat, some Bread Fruit trees, jungle, children in thread bare clothes, more potholes, more jungle and then when you think there is nothing else to this place, suddenly the grand, newly painted entrance archway which announces Belo Monte.

It's not one of the largest Roca’s on the island but its location and the potential which its restoration inspires make it well worth the trip. The manor house seems so out of context, with its classic proportion and ornate details.  It's uniqueness is enhanced by the decomposing Laterite blocks with which its constructed, which rust due to their high ferrous metal content. The estate also includes a large hospital building, slave quarters and the Cacao roasting houses, all in the typical quadrangle set-up with a large green lawn in between. It feels like time has slipped backwards at Belo Monte and an atmosphere of quiet rests over the place, although I know it was not always a place of peace and tranquility. Stories ruminate of how disobedient slaves were thrown over the elaborately walled, breath taking view point. Today the azure sky and the cottony clouds suggested only the potential for an exquisite, fine dining experience complete with a view to die for - hmm, perhaps not such a tasteful description. Plans are under way for one of the larger building’s transformation into a top notch restaurant, while several of the other buildings are ear-marked for boutique style accommodation. With its green lawns, white walls and opulent proportions, something of a Cape wine estate lingers about the place and it definitely lends itself to a tourist hot spot. Looking off the view point towards the beach way below, Praia Banana’s water is turquoise against the black, volcanic reef rock and it’s probably the most exquisite view I’ve seen. White-tailed tropicbirds circled in the endless sky as I snapped away at the view with my camera. Words don’t adequately capture the image of the vast, blue sky and unless you’ve seen something like it, it’s unimaginable. I think the place is going to be a unique tourist draw card when its completed and I’m disappointed that it probably won’t be done in the time we’re here.

Manor house

White tailed Tropicbird - Wikipedia

View from Belo Monte of Praia Banana

Postcard perfect

When Mark was offered a great job on the small island of Principe, we jumped at the opportunity...

Lying off the west coast of Africa, Principe is the northern and smaller of the two major islands of the country of Sao Tome and Principe. It has an area of 136 square kms and a population of approximately 5,000. Wikipedia. The closest countries are Gabon and Angola.

Four weeks ago, Mark, Zachary and I touched down in Sao Tome. That day we had; woken up at 3 am, flown on three different flights and by arrival, were one suitcase, one Portuguese phrase book and a pram short. Zachary was understandably extremely tired and very hard to handle. After the experience of the incredibly slow, non-English processing at the sweltering Sao Tome airport (which was under MAJOR renovation) and a VERY angry, pram-less Zachary, all we wanted was to go to our O'Mali lodge room. After a short trip in the hotel minibus (without a car seat) we were welcomed with flowery drinks and cold clothes, though with Zachary being exhausted, and totally overstimulated, the glamour escaped me and I asked for the room keys instead. Making our exit to the room, Zachary darted for the pool edge and I tramped on a Dum Dum (said, Dun Dun) trying to save him. Eina is an understatement and this was like the cherry on top! A Dum Dum is some sort of biting, Driver ant and they are everywhere. It was more like the sting of a bee and I'm now very cautious to put our shoes on. We spent one night at Sao Tome and after a breakfast of delicious, unheard of, tropical fruits and little, sweet Portuguese rolls and Parma ham, we boarded the Africa's Connection Dornier 228 (18 seater) plane for the 45 minute flight to Principe. Zachary perspired, wriggled and cried most of the flight, but the bird's eye view of the islands and the humming little plane were a unique experience. Thankfully, Principe airport was wonderfully small, quick and friendly. I clumsily accepted a few Portuguese double, cheek kisses from some of Mark's work colleagues, our bags were hoisted into the waiting Prado, by the Bom Bom Island Resort driver, and we were off to the resort. The 15 minute drive along the bumpy, dirt road initiated me into the thick jungle covering most of the island and the pace of island travelling.

I haven't even mentioned the stress of packing up our house, the flight we nearly missed due to Zachary's last minute 'number two' or the hostility at the Luanda airport, but enough said, I'm sure you get the idea! I think it has taken us most of these nearly four weeks to recover from travelling through hot, African airports with an energetic toddler and adjust to our new, quite rustic environment. Perhaps that's why I'm only starting my blog now. Although all the photos look like an endless holiday, there have been incredible challenges which have often felt insurmountable. A toddler does not adjust to change easily. The simple loss of the pram and lack of a suitable cot were a real problem, as replacements are not easy to come by. Zachary did not react well to the stress and change and began having unbelievably prolonged, puking, yelling, running, kicking, fighting tantrums, nearly biting me a few times. Imagine all this in a formal restaurant for three meals a day. I am so grateful that these tantrum episodes have subsided as we've all settled in here. Mark and I did not realize at the time, the difficulty Zachary was having with all the upheaval and discomfort.

Bom Bom Island Resort will probably be our home for another two months, while our pre-fab home is being constructed near the airport. A guy came out last week, from South Africa, to assess the pre-fab units as they have been standing in their packaging for around two years near the military base on the island. The report came back that the units have water damage. The next step is for the parts for repairs to come from South Africa, along with a team to carry out the maintenance and erection. Two pre-fab homes will be constructed, one for Brian Brynard, Mark's colleague and one for us. The sites are being prepared so long, with French drains and other services. The planning and preparation for the units construction is quite a thing as if any parts are forgotten out when the team comes, they will have to be ordered and shipped from South Africa, further slowing down the process. They have a saying in Principe, 'leve leve' (of which I need to track down the spelling) which means, easy easy...an attitude which we are cultivating.