New year, still here (and that’s quite alright)

Let me keep it as short as I can for You, as it has been a while:

Wednesday, 11 December: Look at the cutest office visitor. And our motivation before the meeting. Don’t ask for the mood after this minimum 2-hour meeting.

Thursday, 12 December: I had lunch date with Térence who is about to spend some time in Germany again soon. Will hopefully see You there friendo.

Friday, 13 December: For a new study treating pregnant women, our investigators and nurses had a training on how to take samples from placenta, which was very interesting for me even though I don’t work on the study. In the evening I managed to squeeze in two programs as I said goodbye to Hutch before he was leaving for his wedding and I for Christmas, and we celebrated Stéphane’s birthday.

Saturday, 14 December: I would still appreciate more leisure activities in this place but learning to just chill on Saturdays is also a good thing. New resolution: work on the pile of unread books.

Sunday, 15 December: Laura initiated a Sinter Klaas party that we celebrated at Ayo’s with a very fun secret Santa game. Jana, Anton and I head already warmed up before, very spontaneously.

Tuesday, 17 December: Another, luckily only temporary, goodbye was said Stéphane and his children over lunch today. Also, all of my gifts got ready. I hope everybody is still enjoying their bags from African fabric.

Wednesday, 18 December: To close out the year, we had a small Christmas dinner at the office with the whole team today. First time I saw Christmas decoration this year, so I guess my advent’s time will be a week this year.

Thursday, 19 December: As weather had been horrible and the road worse than any stereotype about jungle dirt roads, Jana and I left today already to take the flight tomorrow. Luckily it all went better than expected and we still had plenty of time to do some shopping and enjoy the beach.

Friday, 20 December: After still enjoying Libreville for a bit, we embarked the plane this night to go home for Christmas.

Saturday, 21 December: The price You pay for travelling is missing out – I wished I could have attended Your wedding Hutch, nothing but the best! During the layover in Istanbul, I even got the chance to meet Brice and Moustapha who were travelling back to Lambaréné after a research stay in the Netherlands. After a long, but not too uncomfortable air travel, I arrived at home port late this afternoon to be picked up by Valeriya (who is probably still laughing about how I was freezing), who after very quickly catching up dropped me at my aunt and uncle’s place were my cousin Saskia joined us for dinner and for bringing me my winter clothes.

Sunday, 22 December: Full program, as this was my only full day in Hamburg: Delicious breakfast with Stefan and Monika, walking and eating sushi with Lucas, lunch and Christmas market with Sina and Lisa, evening service at Elim church with Lisa. Thanks for making the way to Hamburg just to see me, I feel loved!

Monday, 23 December: After dropping some baggage at the Institute for Tropical Medicine, because nobody travels to or from Lambaréné with only own luggage, my uncle dropped me at the train station and I made my way down south to the Black Forest were my parents and grandpa received me. I was still so tired from all the moving, but the Christmas tree still had to be decorated. Because this can only be done on 23rd, and this can only be done by me.

Tuesday, 24 December: It felt strangely familiar to jump into our normal Christmas routine, even though I had just arrived. We went to church, exchanged some gifts, had our kale and sausage meal that is only this tasty on 24th December of every year… Can this tradition never stop?

Wednesday, 25 December: Admire the Christmas decoration a bit and the table wear I brought for my mother.

Thursday, 26 December: Today we made the trip to meet another aunt and this gave me the opportunity to finally meet her granddaughter that was born in July in person.

Friday, 27 December: I got a long-needed haircut, and in the afternoon Fina arrived to spend some time with me at my parents’! Really, I cannot stress enough how soothing it is to be pampered like this. Still, I stayed true to 2019’s motto: Miss as many weddings as You can! Congratulations Chantal.

Saturday, 28 December: There’s an artificial salt cave that Fina and I visited today for some wellness, and then in the evening we had oven cheese – I guess this was more cheese this evening than I had the whole rest of the year and it was more delicious than it ought to be.

Sunday, 29 December: Today my parents took us to a “Baumpwipfelpfad”, that’s a wooden walkway that makes You explore the forest not from the ground but up to several meters high, with the corresponding view.

Monday, 30 December: Before dropping Fina again at the train station, we went shopping in Karlsruhe which I hadn’t done in ages (to the cost of my purse). Our aim had been to shop second hand, which didn’t work out too well but at least I saw myself in a wedding dress for the first time.

Tuesday, 31 December: An activity I had missed was baking, so I spend the day making the best New Year’s cake any of You will ever taste in Your life. Plus, the raclette, this day alone made up half of my weight gain over these Christmas holidays.

Wednesday, 01 January: Who’s still missing in this program? Right, Sarah! Is it coincidence that 5 years ago my parents moved to a place where now I begin to have connections? We visited a castle ruin, updated each other on everything, went to the cinema to watch Frozen 2 – I love You.

Thursday, 02 January: Another compulsory trip: Tübingen! I got to see the Institute for Tropical Medicine, that Cermel is affiliated to, for the first time and met Lilith and Cédric again.

Friday, 03 January: And too soon my trip came to an end again. We dropped my grandfather at the train station and picked up Jana again who was to fly back with me, and then at home we went on the quest to fit both our personal belongings, work materials, orders and gifts for friends and colleagues in Lambaréné into five suitcases that we then “froze” in the car outside over night as we also had food stuff.

Saturday, 04 January: Early in the morning we made our way to Stuttgart and by night, we were back in beautiful, hot, humid Libreville. All our luggage arrived without a problem; we even saw it being loaded into the aircraft in Istanbul!

Sunday, 05 January: Today was end of the Christmas holidays in Gabon and luckily Nathanael, who was also travelling with us, had arranged transport so in the afternoon we were back home. And it felt like this. It was already about time to be with You again – Frédérique, Franck, especially Laura because she welcomed us with pizza,...

Monday, 06 January: As anticipated today was filled with hellos and giving out orders and gifts.

Tuesday, 07 January: And still, I had to tidy up the work that had been done in my absence before actually starting into the year.

Wednesday, 08 January: He had been away for a while before Christmas, but today I had a lengthy counselling session with my thesis supervisor Dr Ghyslain which really helped me to attack this new year with lots of energy. After work, in preparation for my birthday, I had my nails done with Stesie as her gift, and I prepared the obligatory apple pie.

Thursday, 09 January: What a day! Birthday breakfast and gift unwrapping with Jana and Laura, lots of WhatsApp statuses (as this is the preferred social medium here), sharing the cake with colleagues and getting birthday songs in so many languages. All this despite a Good Clinical Practice training we received. And in the evening, with Franck’s and Jana’s helped I prepared a dinner at campus for some friends where I was gifted a cream cake with my name and even a chocolate cake by Nathanael – just thank You.

Friday, 10 January: Today we concluded the GCP training and at this occasion the whole team was invited to eat at Mangrove tonight.

Saturday, 11 January: Today was the day for the big party! Stesie had promised to help me cook Gabonese, and her friends Channelie and Genalda were all in even though we hardly know each other. The whole day we were working hard and going full out, even cooking on wooden fire, and please admire the most special and generous meal I ever had for a birthday party. In the evening the campus was full of friends, colleagues and housemates (though the typical late coming can be really bothering when You made such an effort) and some of us concluded the evening dancing at Summit.

Sunday, 12 January: Thanks to my housemates, tidying up didn’t take so long and as a contrast to yesterday’s activity, Laura and I treated ourselves to a very relaxed afternoon at the Refuge pool.

Monday, 13 January: Today we started the Immunology in the Tropics course that was open to Cermel staff and took 6 days. A great, free opportunity with lecturers from the UK, Netherlands and more.

Tuesday, 14 January: As a birthday gift, tonight Jacob and Lisa invited me over for dinner. They understood my love can be bought with food…

Friday, 17 January: As the year is still just getting started, also my main doctoral supervisor and I had a call today. This year is going to be great, even though nothing is sure yet. This afternoon, we also had the Cermel Scientific Meeting for the first time in a while which gave me the opportunity to present the progress on Ivercure study.

Saturday, 18 January: The immunology course, which was quite challenging to say the least, was concluded by an End of Course Functions with certificates and a dinner at Ogooué Palace tonight.

Tuesday, 21 January: In an attempt to accelerate recruitment for my and another study, we conducted a mass screening for malaria and filariae in the village of Oyenano today. On the way, there’s a fresh water source right by the road. Just Gabon’s nature…

Thursday, 23 January: Today we had another such screening, during which we could even see the bike race “la Tropicale” pass – even though they were too quick for us to take good pictures.

Sunday, 26 January: In the meanwhile, Johanna from Tübingen arrived to spend a month, and some colleagues started to set up a sports field on the pavement next to campus.

Monday, 27 January: Late birthday gifts: Dearie painted for me, I love it! And we had oven cheese that Tatiana just brought from Germany, and we made Roméo taste it as he had been curious after having seen my pictures of this over Christmas.

Wednesday, 29 January: Tatiana invited us to dinner – How awesome is it to have Germans, Austrians, French, Dutch people gather together in a Nigerian’s home in Gabon to have a Colombian prepare food?

Saturday, 01 February: Johanna and I went to watch the soccer training and then I spontaneously joined Franck to go to Libreville, were I got to discover the place differently than before. Other areas, new people, another match at the medical faculty…

Sunday, 02 February: Sightseeing went on, but soon enough I had to head back already to be home in time for work tomorrow.

Tuesday, 04 February: Our colleague Emmanuel is leaving us to go back to Benin, so we had a drink at the bar after work to send him off.

Wednesday, 05 February: Laura, Jana and I got the opportunity to discover a new part of Gabon, we went all the way south to Mayumba via Tchibanga today.

Thursday, 06 February: Our hotel was right by the beach so we could start the day with a swim in the ocean, which is really lovely here. We met two Dutch people who were the only two other guests, and one of them joined us on a trip to see elephants in the afternoon. Unfortunately, unsuccessful, as it was unbearably hot today.

Friday, 07 February: This day we headed out to explore the surroundings, with a long morning beach walk, a trip to the village and lagoon and a nightly guided beach walk to find turtles.

Saturday, 08 February: Last full day, and lots of relaxation by the sea!

Sunday, 09 February: Coming home on Sundays, it’s a thing here…

Thursday, 13 February: Still starting the new year: A new Ivercure technical meeting was set up. In the afternoon, we celebrated the first Neglected Tropical Diseases Day with presentations by researchers and politicians and I used the opportunity to talk about Universities Allied for Essential Medicine’s activities.

Friday, 14 February: It had started with a minor skin infection on the leg on Tuesday, and today I found myself with a proper tonsillitis that made my colleagues send me home. But it was still Valentine’s Day somehow!

Saturday, 15 February: Today I was forced to take a sick day, and finally asked a colleague to prescribe me some medication. The works on the sports field advanced a lot as some colleagues started painting the tennis court.

Sunday, 16 February: Medicine can work wonders, today I found the strength to go to church with Franck as well as go for pedicure and manicure in town with Johanna.

Monday, 17 February: Cannot get enough of my mini hubby (officially I came to go out with Stesie).

Tuesday, 18 February: Lilith arrived today, so I saw her for the fourth time since I first arrived in Lambaréné, and we went out to Isaac to eat in the evening with campus people, Wilfrid and Franck.

Wednesday, 19 February: Bye bye Johanna, I hope You’ll come back!

Thursday, 20 February: For the second time since I lived here, I found chicken breast in the supermarket and, very unusual for me, I found the energy and creativity to cook. We ate chicken vegetable curry with sweet potato oven fries.

Saturday, 22 February: This working day concluded a very successful week for my study – I’m getting cautiously optimistic to finish recruitment before I leave, which is also my bosses’ goal.

Sunday, 23 February: This evening after the worst heat of the day, Lilith, Ayo, Franck and I played tennis. Well, I had to learn it, but I guess I will – As sunny as my report might seem this time, sports are not really getting the attention and time it should lately.

Wednesday, 26 February: With our nurse Bertille I sat on the Quality Management meeting today which was an unexpected new experience.

Thursday, 27 February: Tonight, we celebrated Jacob’s birthday and Jana’s last evening at the same time with lovely snacks and lovelier people.

By the way, at the moment we even have wi-fi at campus, let’s see how long it lasts this time.

At the birthday party on Thursday, Lisa remarked that if there’s one of the current European students coming back to Lambaréné in the future, it would be me. And probably she’s right.

See You, take care,

Doro

388 days in Gabon 71 days until Hamburg