Arriving in Lambaréné

​​Wednesday, 06 February: It’s before daybreak and I’m leaving res with three suitcases, a card box, a backpack and a purse. I’m dumping my keys in my neighbour’s mailbox and boarding the taxi to the airport. After a hassle of some of my luggage being oversize, half of it being excess and the card machine for my extra payment working very slowly, I finally got to spend a last hour with my cousin, who came to see me off ( <3 ). After a last call from my grandpa, it’s time to go through security check and board my flight to Istanbul. Istanbul is not my destination, and I head on for Kinshasa. Kinshasa is not where I’m going today either, so after my first layover ever and a very short delay, I finally arrive in Libreville, Gabon. After getting my vaccination checked and visa issued (I didn’t understand a word, plus I was hardly spoken to anyway), I got to pick up my luggage. Or rather, half my luggage, as two pieces preferred to stay in Istanbul. A nice gentleman picked me up, helped me change money into my first CFA francs and brought a bone-tired me to Tropicana Hotel.

What is this about? What is she doing again? And why is this in English?

Since the last entry of this blog, Your girl has completed her first 4.5 semesters of medical school. Quite unexpectedly, I now got the chance to join the Centre de Recherches Médicales de Lambaréné in Gabon, Central Africa, for my doctoral thesis. This is right next to the famous Albert Schweitzer Hospital. Here is how it goes.

This blog is still meant to be a public diary to share how I experience living abroad. It’s not meant to show You “how Africa is”, while still trying to be sensible. All Your comments, critique, questions, You name it, are more than welcome.

As I would like everybody, I write about to be able to read this, as well as my people at home (meaning Germany and, sort of, South Africa), I chose English as a compromise.

Thursday, 07 February: Being woken by the sound of waves is quite gorgeous. I was to be fetched for Lambaréné around 9am, so I only took a slim breakfast before exploring the beach. Then I waited. And waited. And finally bought some wi-fi access to tell people I arrived, just for the driver to arrive directly afterwards. I was then helped to get a SIM card and some more cash, before heading for Lambaréné. I probably should have eaten more, as we did not stop during the 5-hour drive (230km), except for security controls and passport checks. A now very exhausted me arrived at CERMEL (Centre de Recherches Médicales de Lambaréné) to get a brief welcome at the administration and organize the pick-up of my missing luggage. I was then brought to the campus where I got a room next to other international students, interns and doctors. I got time to unpack my luggage and wait in the common room for somebody to arrive and was then welcomed by a German biologist, Johannes, who was quite surprised to see a new face. Afterwards I met Lilith, medical technical assistant, Gerrit, also a medical student, and Julian, an Austrian physician, to go out for dinner as there seems to be no gas for the stove at the moment. (Lilith: “Mückenspray drauf und los geht’s!”) It was actually quite nice, because I got to have a first taxi experience and try some feuille de manioc (manioc leaves) with fish.

Friday, 08 February: Officially my first working day! I started it by arriving on time for my meeting with HR. Then scanning and sending in my taxi and luggage receipts instead and answering my messages. Finally, I got a lengthy integration checklist that is probably still going to keep me busy for a while, meeting safety officers, reading Standard Operation Procedures, taking online courses… For lunch I had avocado baguette, which reminded me of how good it feels to enjoy avocado that is actually local. I then spent the afternoon being shown around the building and meeting the staff of the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire which will be my workspace for the months to come. We then had another evening out.

Saturday, 09 February: I totally enjoyed sleeping in. The new impressions and the tropical weather are taking a toll. The others then took me to town for my first shopping. This was desperately needed, as my room was totally empty, so I need to stock up on literally everything food- and household-related. Also, we went to a market and fetched some clothes from the tailor, which was quite enjoyable for me. We then had a joint session of cleaning the kitchen, which got me to spend some time with other housemates, i.a. from the DR Congo. We then went on to walk up to a nearby water tower (which is quite sarcastic, as we did not have any water for most of the weekend) to take some pictures that You definitely want to see. This was followed by another night out, continuing to enable me to try some Gabonese foods. We grabbed some local fish in town from a street booth.

Sunday, 10 February: Coincidentally (?) Johannes is a Christian just like me, and he had arranged with a colleague of his to go to church and I could come with. Our first challenge was to find the junction where we were supposed to meet, as my housemate has also only been here for a month, but we got there with some help. We had a service at l’Alliance chrétienne, and funny enough sat right next to a doctor from my department. I was quite proud to understand most of the sermon. My French is quite rusty, and I often still don’t get what people are saying, but at least they seem to be glad I’m speaking some French. Well the pastor was preaching loud enough so that he wouldn’t actually have needed a mike… We seem to have been quite welcome and every newcomer was invited after the service to get a short presentation, share feedback and leave contact details. After that, which took roughly three hours in total, we did some more shopping. There does not seem to be any specific working days or hours that I would have recognized so far. When we got back, we joined the others having brunch at Suzan’s, a Dutch physician. I got to meet Saskia there, who’s actually sent by the same professor as I am and who I knew from the water was on again, so I didn’t hesitate to get a lengthy shower, fill up my water bottles and soak some laundry. This shortened the next item on my agenda – Still, thanks to Lilith, I got to microscope my first malaria parasites ever! I’m really looking forward to learning this, and many other things concerning my thesis, more. We spend another evening flying the drone, this time at the river close to where Albert Schweitzer lived, and then yet another dinner out. Let me leave out the attempt to go jogging where I felt like dying after only ten minutes. Or let me attribute this to the humidity.

Monday, 11 February: As the working day here only starts around 9am, I got to test some more lengthy morning routine than my usual jump-out-of-bed-into-the-train. Call me crazy, I did some more sports before getting the very welcome call that my other suitcases had arrived from Libreville. I could so start off by packing some of Saskia’s materials into the fridge with her before briefly meeting my supervisor who I’m curious to work with, along with “my” study’s physician and the numerous other team members. Speaking of team members, we then headed for my first weekly Clinical Operations meeting. I would love to tell You what it was about… well, at least I’m not the only international student here who has some work to do on her French!

Today I finished some actual work, like updating my CV for our project coordinator or finishing my Good Clinical Practice certificate. I share an office with some other students and physicians, which means hopefully I’ll get to hear lots of French and also some assistance with whatever work I’ll actually be doing. And then, I finally got some time off to write up my first blog entry in quite a while.

These are my very first impressions in a nutshell (it seems to me). I’m only starting to find my feet and am very excited to see what’s coming my way in the next few days. Please feel free to reach out to me for feedback or just literally anything.

See You, take care,

Doro

005 days in Gabon

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