Last night with Joanna Thelander:
Yesterday morning, the Thelanders came over at 7am to say goodbye. Even the kids dragged themselves out of bed to say goodbye to me! I hate goodbyes and it was so hard to say goodbye to the Thelander fam mostly because I don’t know when I’ll see them again.
Philippe, the hospital driver, picked me up and drove me to the airport in Mouila (appx. 2 hour drive). As we bumped along the roads to Mouila, Philippe drove and I slept. If you know me well at all, you know that I can sleep just about anywhere. When I wasn’t sleeping, Philippe was in a very chatty mood, so my broken French kicked into gear and I tried to pay close attention to make sure I was responding correctly.
We arrived at the airport and unloaded my stuff… “Check-in” consists of giving your handwritten La National ticket to the unofficial looking person behind a white block. Other passengers stood in line with all the random odds and ends that they wanted to check as “luggage.” The most popular item was coolers full of fish. Or, in some cases, the fish was paced in a cardboard box with blood seeping out the corners. My suitcase was overweight, so Philippe told me it would cost extra. I asked how much. He said 7,000 FCFA (about $14 USD). So, I handed him the 10,000 FCFA and expected 3,000 FCFA in change (logical, right? haha). He gave me a receipt and 4,000 FCFA back. According to the receipt, I was charged only 5,000 FCFA, so I should have received 5,000 FCFA back in change...but Philippe gave me 4,000 FCFA....SO, I have no idea who ate the extra 1,000 FCFA, but whatever. I wasn't sure that it would be worth the hassle to figure out.
As I was sitting with the other passengers a tall Gabonese man in a striped polo shirt came and said “Passport!” in a loud voice and then motioned for me to follow him into a closed room. In an effort not to make much of the sketchy “customs” situation, I followed the man into his office. He then requested that I shut the door completely. Hesitant to obey under the bizarre circumstances, I left the door ajar. I handed him my passport and he was just getting the mini interrogation underway when in barged Philippe saying that Sangoye (pastor in LBV) was on the phone for me. After speaking with Sangoye, the interrogation continued…Who are you? What are you doing in Gabon? Are in the Peace Corps? What is your occupation? Are you a student? What are you doing in LBV? When do you leave for the U.S.? Etc.
Finally, that was over and I waited for the plane to arrive. Planes don’t have a precise schedule in Gabon. They arrive and leave whenever they’d like and the schedule is subject to change without notice. The plane arrived and I boarded along with the other passengers. The little plane is quite old and I imagine that Indiana Jones probably boarded a similar one in the older Indiana Jones movies. The FAA would not approve of the state of the aircraft on so many levels, but it does the job in Gabon. The plane stopped first in Tchibanga and then in LBV.
Papa Pierre was supposed to pick me up in LBV, but as things sometimes go in Gabon…he wasn’t there. Thank God for cell phones and big cities (like LBV) where cell phones actually work. After some phone calling, Papa Pierre was on his way and I eventually met up with him after warding off some creeper dude.
I arrived at the guest house around 1pm and had lunch with Hannah, Jess and Kayla. Hannah is one of the EnVision (short-term missions) directors in Libreville. Jess and Kayla are summer interns. We cooked quite the gourmet meal together and passed out pretty early because we were all tired. So, today I am chilling out at the guest house and will probably do the same thing for most of tomorrow. Late tomorrow evening (around 10pm), I fly out of Libreville.
Saying goodbye to Gabon is hard because I don’t know when I’ll be back :-(
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