Week 2

Saturday- Up early and went to the airport where, miraculously, my lost luggage from the previous week had arrived. Then headed out to meet Helcio in Guadeloupe. He walked me around town, introducing me to family and friends, including his friend Stephane, who is a junior deputy in the Parliament, ranked #54 out of 55. Also met his uncles pet monkey, which he had rescued when it fell from its mother as a baby. Then Helcio, Stephane and I headed out to Neves, a fishing village 20km away, where we ate giant crabs and drank local beer. Then headed up to a plantation, where we ran into some friends, so decided to stop and have a drink, which became a three hour stop. One of the friends was Nelson de Assuncao, who works for the American embassy, and he invited me to visit Voice of America next week. In the evening, Stephane invited Helcio and me to a birthday party for one of his students (he teaches at the high school). We were served course after course of local food while we watched the girl’s family and friends dance on an outdoor patio. At one point a drunken uncle decided it would be funny to make the white kid dance, so I coerced onto the dance floor and engulfed by a hefty, drunken aunt and made to dance. Despite the terror, I managed to hold my own and by the end of the night received applause for my valiant effort to dance like a Santomean.

Sunday- Headed out with Helcio to a lively street festival in the town of Madelena, maybe 8km up the mountain. Witnessed street performers doing a Congolese dance, saw the President of the Republic, tried a locally brewed sweet liquor, ate fish and drank Sagres. Met Helcio’s friend Dede, who invited us to a party after the festival. The party was at a historic house nearby and was attended by a number of important historic figures in Sao Tome, including several current and past government officials, plus an old woman who survived a bloody slave revolt in the 1950’s and later wrote the Santomean national anthem. One woman, the former secretary to the president, invited us all to a meeting between government officials and Santomean youth this coming Wednesday. Also ran into Henrique Pinta de Costa and was able to converse with his for a time, in Portuguese.

Monday- Spent the morning working on a website with Cesaltino from the Marlin Beach and then went to lunch with him at a restaurant nearby. In the afternoon headed to the Café Companhia to work on my project and use the internet. The electricity went out while I was there, so instead I spent a long time talking with a man named Fred, from the Azores, who is in Sao Tome doing research on goat farming. In the evening went for a run on the beach and worked at the apartmnet.

Tuesday- Worked at the apartment on a phasing plan for the airport terminal the whole morning, then headed into the Café in the afternoon to continue working. While there I met a young man named Benicio, who is president of the English Students Association of Sao Tome and Principe, an organization of high school aged students who are organizing English classes during summer vacation.

Wednesday- Continued work on the phasing plan for a large part of the day. In late afternoon Helcio and I went to the townhall-format meeting we had been invited to on Sunday. The purpose of the conference was to discuss the future of Sao Tome post-debt-forgiveness, and to hear the needs and desires of the younger generation. One speaker spoke on the definition of a citizen in a democratic society, another on the role of the family, and another on the process of modernizing Sao Tome, including its relation with the “developed” world. In the evening had dinner with Fred and went out for a time with a group of Portuguese teachers. Went to bed exhausted from a full day of speaking Portuguese.

Thursday- Spent most of the day working on the phasing plan at the apartment, stopping for a time to practice Portuguese with the maids. In the afternoon sent some of this work to Jorge’s consultant in Kenya. Spent the evening at a party at the Café, where I was introduced to a Santomean sub-culture of European expats and foreign aid workers. Bounced between English, Portuguese, Spanish and French, and by the end of the night I was so mixed up I could hardly form sentences in English. Met a number of interesting people though, including an Argentinian architect named Nora, who now lives in Sao Tome doing historic preservation and small private projects.

Friday- Went out to the airport in early afternoon to meet with Jorge. He scheduled a meeting for tomorrow morning with the Minister of Infrastructure to present my project. Stayed with Jorge much of the afternoon and discussed final details about my presentation. Spent the evening putting finishing touches on the presentation, in preparation for an important day tomorrow. Tomorrow will decide if/how the airport terminal project is to move forward.