Goodbyes

In just under a week we'll be boarding the Dornier plane at Principe airport, for the last time. Our bags are half packed and the rest of our belongings - which are still to be packed - have been sorted out and organised. Since we can only physically handle four large suitcases, two backpacks and a pram - filled with one three year old, a lot of our things will be left on Principe. We've given away toys, clothes and non-perishable food and sold items like our portable pool and extra medicines and with a week to go I feel quite organised.


I think this is likely to be my last post about Principe and makes me feel quite nostalgic about my blog and the experiences I've recorded. I've definitely enjoyed the process of blogging and strangely enough have encountered a bit of fame (tongue in cheek) as a result. This island is very small and there is not much information about it for prospective travellers, so somehow my blog gets listed by search engines and read by those looking for some information. A couple of times I've had someone say on meeting me that they know all about me. It's taken me by suprise each time!

I will probably blog again, when our next adventure begins, whatever that might be, but for now I'm focused on my holiday in South Africa. As an aside, my travel documents are still pending, but such is the way of the island...

Going home.

Since my last post, it's been confirmed that we are definitely leaving at the end of September and that our time on Principe is done. We are very proud of our little family for having successfully negotiated this adventure on this small island off the West coast of Africa and will take many good lessons and a more robust inner strength and faith with us.

Our tickets are booked and suitcases lying open, as we pack up our house and possesions, collected over the last 19 months. On our minds is the knowledge that Ebola is creeping closer as well as the number of people we will come into contact with over our three days of travel back home. The alcohol hand sanitizers will be in close reach as we bustle our way throught the steamy Luanda airport and board the packed flight destined for South African soil.

As usual, I'm still waiting for a number of documents that will allow me to travel and am trusting God to work out the details so that we can leave on the planned date. The challenges here, have been and are continuous, so "leve leve" I remind myself, just roll with it.

5 months have past since our last visit home.

We are counting down the days until going home to South Africa for our long awaited holiday. It's been five months since our last visit home and we are really looking forward to seeing our family and friends. Our tickets are booked for the end of September, but at this stage, we aren't sure if they will be one-way or return. Either way, we don't have long left on Principe.

After Principe, we aren't sure what our next move is and are in quite a time of uncertainty, but are trusting God to open the right door for us, wherever that may be.

Being grateful.

Yesterday marked both the date of our arrival on Principe 18 months previously and the minimum portion of time we had agreed upon spending here. To celebrate reaching our goal, we went out to a local bar to toast with Sagres beers. We have not quite decided what's next and are still unclear how many more months we will be here, but my challenge to myself is to look back on these last 18 months on Principe and count the blessings we've experienced here.

One of the big things I've appreciated is the safety of this small island community, which is so different from the situation back home. I can sit out on my patio in the evening, unconcerned, and enjoy the night air in safety. I'm also grateful for the simple, quiet way of living, unrushed and far from over commited. I feel that it's a way of life closer to how it is meant to be and only being away from the urban rush, do I really see how foreign that kind of life seems now. Financially, this move for Mark's job, has made sense and has set us right on track for the future and lastly, this friendly, small community, made up of expats and local people, has been a great and unexpected blessing for this former city dweller.

This big adventure our family has taken, has opened our eyes to more of what is on offer in this big world of ours and has strengthened us through multiple challenges. I'm grateful for the blessings we have here and I have to admit, the lessons God has brought our way have been important too.

"But I will give repeated thanks to the Lord, praising Him to everyone." Psalm 109 v 30 NLV.

Beached supply boat.

Over the weekend one of the two supply boats to the island broke free of its ropes and drifted onto the beach near the city. It was carrying the usual supplies such as beer, canned drinks, probably bottled water and most importantly, diesel. Diesel keeps the island's generator going and consequently provides electricity to our home. Without electricity our water pump stops and and our packed freezers defrost, potentially ruining our meat supply so I'm somewhat concerned, although I'm told that the other boat will come with more supplies. The island ran out of diesel some months ago and it wasn't fun.

The story goes that those manning the boat at night went out, perhaps to get a beer or so and when it was noticed that the ropes on the one side of the boat, mooring it to the dock, had snapped, it was too late and water was coming on board. A submercible pump was borrowed the next morning and the water pumped off the boat. Now the boat has beached itself on the harbour's beach, it's rudder deep in the sand and no bigger boat near the island to pull it out.

The crew were hauling crates of beer on their heads, through the waves and up onto the road overlooking the beach. Apparently a tractor may be the solution to getting the diesel containers off of the boat. The shenanigans drew an amused crowd to the harbour facing road yesterday, including us, and these are our pictures...

Raining cats and dogs.

The thunder of rain on our sheet metal roof this grey morning is making Zachary's hour of television viewing, or should I say hearing, challenging. I've turned the volume up seven digits, but with the varying pressure of the rain showers on our roof, the television sound is thoroughly unintelligible as only the high pitches, of the puppet characters' singing, break through. He's ended up standing right next to the set.

Milla, the lady who helps clean our house, has just chickened out of retrieving the bucket for washing the floor, which is sitting on the step right outside the back door. I tried stepping outside too, but the bucket is not worth it.

 

 

The main road today

As a result of the torrential rain, I'm writing this blog entry in WordPad and will upload it later when the internet comes back on. There is also no cell phone signal. This rain on Principe is something else and the volume would probably be more accurate to describe as raining goats and pigs, than cats and dogs...and it can continue through the night and day. Milla has just come to show me that our bedroom and bathroom are under water, with the sealing around the aircon and windows giving way to streams of water which are now running down the walls. We've found that our container home doesn't do so well in this hot, humid and rainy climate and we find ourselves putting towels down and re-sealing, often. Anyway, my potty-training toddler has just created a flood of a different kind down the side of his potty, which I need to attend to...

I'm back. Right, for those of you who like a few statistics, I've been told that on Principe it rains between 2,000 and 7,000 mm per year, the heavier and more constant rain sticking to the unreachable, mountainous, south side of the island. Mark tells me that we've had about 250 mm of rain per month since March this year - and it looks like May is working its way towards 300 mm. Apparently, we had over 360 mm of rain at the airport during October last year...

Portugal...a place to return to.

I thoroughly enjoyed our week on the Lisbon coast and can't wait to get back to explore more of Portugal one day. We will definitely go back to see more of Lisbon, and perhaps the North and South of the country, as well as to sip espresso and eat pasteis de nata, which are like little custard cup pastries. As people said, the public transport system is great, and we travelled around quite a bit on buses and trains, three children included.

Unlike our experience in Italy, some years ago, we were welcomed as tourists in Portugal and didn't have one bad experience getting help from local people. I tried out my rough Portuguese and think I learnt a lot about the language, through the intense exposure and necessity!  All in all we loved Cascais and Sintra, enjoyed our time with the old friends we met up with and took some great pictures.

Cascais beach

Our accommodation in Janes

Sintra Palace in the background

Sintra central

Praia das Macas

Time away in Portugal

Two sleeps - as I say to Zachary - until we leave for our holiday away from our Principe home. I'm fast approaching my 'island sanity limit' and can't wait for the time away and some first world lights and action, including...English movies, restaurants, clothes stores, toy shops, cars - not white bakkies, choice, variety... and so the list goes on. Zachary, however, is most excited about the possibility of finding a playground with a slide!

We're meeting up with friends and their two children in Praia das Macas and all staying together in a villa in Cascais, with lovely grounds for the kiddies to play in. Being from South Africa, a novelty for us will be travelling using the public transport system, which we are told by Portuguese colleagues, is efficient and safe. It's been a long time since I've been on a train.

Beautiful Belo Monte

Zachary, Mark and I attended the opening of the Roca Belo Monte Plantation Hotel today. I've blogged before about beautiful Belo Monte, which will give any new readers a bit of background about this plantation estate, but with the estate's renovation, it has new life. Sipping a glass of chilled white wine on the terrace this afternoon, overlooking the spectacular sea view, everything suddenly felt very civilized on our rural little island.

Our family adventure to Principe has its ups and downs, but with the renovation of Belo Monte, I am excited about having somewhere else to go for leisure! It will certainly add to the 'ups'. Weekends at the beach are great, as is Bom Bom Resort, but a little choice when it comes to weekend plans will be excellent. A chocolate milkshake - strangely, an impossibility for us on this island thus far - will be something for Zachary, and his parents to look forward to, one of these weekends to come...

Durban holiday coming up...

On Sunday we begin our journey home, to arrive on Tuesday evening, travel weary I'm sure.With lots of prayer covering us, we'll negotiate five airports over the three days, crossing from off the West coast of Africa, through two islands, down the body of Africa and on to our coastal home. We've done this journey many times now and the thought of doing it again just makes me tired. Although so looking forward to the break from our island existance and to seeing family and friends, the travelling is a mission. At first with our travels was the initial excitement of the unknown, which turned into the anxiety producing known but has now descended into the wearisome state which seasoned travellers through Africa know well. I'm not sure how many more times we'll negotiate this long route, as we have been here 12 months now. I look forward to forgetting Luanda airport...

A photo journal from March 2013 to Feb 2014

Approaching Principe

Sao Tome



Airport



Bom Bom Resort view



Cacao

Airport wood fire bakery

City market inside

City market outside

Local shop

Buying and weighing fish

 

The local currency, Dobra. STD 100 000 = around R50

Festival of St Lawrence



The Papagio river which runs through the city

Santo Antonio is the second smallest city in the world, qualifying as a city because of the Cathedral present and because of the local government, amongst other things.



Portuguese architecture in the city



Here, the trees are taking over...

Most housing is made from wood and on stilts



Our home and the Aurecon offices nextdoor.



Sundy ex- plantation estate house in ruins

 Roca Sundy or Sundy plantation estate, is the largest of its kind on the island. Although in ruins, a community lives on the grounds and have made homes in the shells of the buildings. There are plans ahead to renovate the estate for tourism.

Tucked away is a disused steam engine







Praia Buoy

Belo Monte terrace with Praia Banana below



Praia Macaco







The stinky whale

We've been back on Principe for nearly two weeks now and are getting into our life here and routine again. Zachary's sleeping patterns have returned to normal, after all the changes of the travelling and holidays, making Mark and I very pleased. For the first week he was still on South African time and was waking up for the day between 3.30am and 5am, which we didnt enjoy!

Answered prayers meant that on the way home from South Africa we encountered no undue hitches, including visa difficulties and Zachary took the flight between the islands on the noisy Dornier, very calmly. So all in all, since my last blog entry, things have been good.


Earlier on this week, we went on an adventure to see a whale which had washed up dead on Praia Grande, one of the beaches on the West of the island. Most of the local people seem unfamiliar with this beach and there is some sort of legend attached to it about a ship's captain going missing near the beach, so the unused 'road' to get there was the bumpiest, most bouldery, yet. However we all congratulated ourselves on enduring the ride and it was worth it to see the massive body of the deceased whale. As long as the wind direction blew away from us, we could go up to it, but when it changed the smell was nauseating. Zachary objected greatly to the smell of the "stinky whale" and after a few photos, we headed back.

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...