Week 5

Saturday- Spent a relaxing day at a party in Condi with Helcio and some of his other friends.

Sunday- In the morning went with Elsa to visit a plot of land she recently purchased. She has asked me to design her residence. In the afternoon I was invited for lunch with a handful of Santomean guys I met at the party last night. Ate at the house of Djamillo, a Sergeant in the military, then spent a relaxing afternoon living the leve-leve pace of life, watching some Santomean music videos, conversing, drinking wine at a shop nearby. They were great hosts and thrilled make friends with an American.

Monday- Spent most of the day working on the doctor’s house. Was invited to lunch at the home of Thalia, a Peruvian-American woman who spent her career working in development for the United Nations, in various countries around the world. She also taught African History for a time at Columbia University. Also at lunch were Maria Joao, owner of the café, and Anne, a Rwandan woman who will be stationed in Sao Tome for six months as a representative of International Alert. The food was delicious and conversation fascinating. It was a relief to spend an afternoon simply speaking English.

Tuesday- Spent the morning redecorating a wall of the café with Fred and MJ, plastering it with Portuguese music and movie posters. In the afternoon Jorge, Elsa and I presented the airport project to Kenneth Tripp, the director of Voice of America in Sao Tome. He enjoyed the project and had many useful suggestions about how the airport can generate income for itself. Ken will pass the design on to the U.S. Embassy in Gabon for their consideration. We conversed for some time about the need for the United States to put more development effort into Sao Tome. Taiwanese projects abound, and Portuguese, Spanish, and French efforts are visible. The United States, however, has done very little to help Sao Tome since the construction of VOA. A project of the status and visibility of the airport could solidify good relations between Sao Tome and the United States.

Wednesday- In the morning visited the summer school program initiated by the English Students Association of Sao Tome & Principe. About 300 students of ages between 10-18 voluntarily attend classes, which focus primarily on English. I was very impressed with the operation. The program is organized and taught by a handful of 20- to 23-year-olds, who maintain order despite class sizes over 40 students. The concrete building of the national high school reverberates noise such that teachers have to shout at all times. They have three old books from which they make all of their lesson plans. The students have no materials. What is most impressive, though, is that these young teachers are working for free. They say they are doing it for the development of Sao Tome. Their behavior was very professional, and their request for financial or other material support was calm and sincere. When I said it would be difficult to help for this summer session, they were disappointed but readily shifted focus to establishing a future relationship with the University of Illinois. I sincerely hope we can aid their initiative. In the afternoon I met with Yves Reme, per my initial request, to present my design for the airport. Yves, by coincidence, received a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of Illinois-Chicago. The project grabbed his attention and he called in the Coronel of the Coast Guard, Armando Corrie, to see the project as well. Yves, like Ken from VOA, would like to see more American efforts here in Sao Tome. He does not think tourism and enterprise will ever improve without first improving of the airport. The first phase of the project could be done relatively cheaply and still greatly improve the efficiency, image and even income of the airport. Yves vowed to “sell the project hard” to both Santomean and American decision-makers.

Thursday- Holding true to his promise, Yves called me in the morning and asked me to come to his office and present the project to Jose Viegas, Mayor of the city of Sao Tome. We stressed the need to coordinate transportation planning at the airport with city transportation planning, which may involve a bus system in the future. Yves also stressed the two benefits of this student project in particular: 1) It is free for Sao Tome. 2) It is apolitical. In my short time here, I have come to appreciate that this second point is the most important. Surveyed the work of the U.S. Navy Seabees on a new dock for the Coast Guard, then headed off to happy hour at the café. Later ate dinner with Yves and a crew of foreign aid workers at the Pirata Club.

Friday- Yves and I presented to Natasha d’Alva, manager of TAP (Air Portugal) in Sao Tome. A new airport terminal and an extended runway would be of great advantage to TAP, and would allow them to bring larger planes with greater frequency. TAP has sold all of its Airbus-310 planes, and will replace them with the Airbus-330, a larger model. Sao Tome’s airport will not be able to handle the A-330, however, so it will revert to A-320, a smaller plane than the A-310. With less seats, prices will likely rise, while the number of potential tourists and business people coming into Sao Tome will drop. On a positive note, Natasha had already heard of my project previous to today, and even knew that it had received the approval of Jose Carvalho, esteemed international airport consultant and former director of Lisbon’s airport. Natasha will pass my project to decision-makers at TAP, noting that it has the approval of Carvalho. In the evening had dinner at the Miramar Hotel with Yves and a handful of Portuguese and Spanish foreign aid workers and volunteer teachers, then to a party, again at the Pirata.