Gabon appears to be quite an odd ball of an African country, it certainly has allot of wealth. The country has some good natural resources which have been exploited rapidly and on a big scale. This money has in turn brought a massive influx of other Africans (and allot of French) to Gabon, from the people I have spoken to less than half are actually Gabonese. The immigrants generally work in the bars, restaurants, shops etc, so I presume the Gabonese have the well paid top jobs.
All of this means that the traditional Gabon and its culture are pretty hard to find. The country is run by President Bongo, and will be until the day that he dies, It is a democratic state but no other party stands a chance. Mr Bongos face is everywhere, I would say every third person is wearing an election day t-shirt, and near election time he gives out wind up torches and a load of other fancy gifts. His birth place in the south has been renamed ‘Bongoville’.
…Back to the story, public transport is pretty hard to find and I had to wait a good three hours for a one hour taxi ride to Lamberene. I stayed at the mission of Immaculate Conception a friendly place with warm showers, and by Gabonese standards not too expensive. I was greeted by a nice Belgique (is that how you say it?) couple (Tom and Tessy), who are on a three or four year honeymoon in Africa, they have a website too www.route-tnt.be its all in Flemish so good luck. They had been given some fancy french food by some expats who had left earlier in the day, so we sat down to some patè and such like.
Lambarènè is home to the old hospital of Albert Schweitzer, he was a humanitarian doctor. From what I understand it was his lifes work to help people and he decided to open a hospital here in Gabon back when it was considered to be the darkest of africa. The hospital stayed to this day and is now a modern (by african standards) fully functioning hospital, with a big emphasis on patient comfort. There are living quarters for the patients familys and the medicine practiced is that of the modern sort. The original buildings still stand and are currently being rennovated, there is also a small museum and art gallery which I wandered around. The location is pretty nice on the banks of the river and surrounded by the lush malarial grenery.
Back at the mission Tom and Tessy kindly donated dinner, and a few shots of whisky. At bed time myself and Tom were a bit peckish so decided to head out for kebabs, while eating we thought we should probably have a beer, this turned into a few, and before long we were demanding the bar man to find us the special 6.9% beer. The bar man took a liking to us and gave us the beers free of charge, we danced and chatted and I got attacked by the dog on our drunken arrival back to the mission. I hope you didnt get in too much trouble over that Tom! I left early so missed any reprisal.
