I'm in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea!!

Hi guys! So this is my first blog post, ever, and I have a lot to catch you up on in the last 4 days. It is a little difficult for me to connect to internet here, but I will post as often as I can. I left the US on Dec. 29 and arrived in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea at 1am on Dec. 31, adjust for a 6 hour time difference. I've never been on flights that long, and it was also the first time I had ever had a meal, rather than snacks, served to me on a plane. The food from JFK to Madrid wasn't too bad, but the food from Madrid to JFK was kinda gross, basically an indistinguishable seafood salad thing and some dry linguini with a type of meatball, hmmm.... Anyway, I sat next to a guy on the plane to Malabo who is an oil worker of the coast of Equatorial Guinea, he works 4 weeks then has 4 weeks off, it's a continuous cycle, so he flies back to England every 4 weeks to be with his family. We had an interesting conversation about how when he was young he got caught up in the business chasing money, now that he' sin it he feels stuck, basically hates his job, and secretly wishes he could open up a comedy club. I felt sorry for him.

Oh, and I forgot to give you a little background on Equatorial Guinea. It is a small African country on the west coast of Africa at the Equator. It is often mistaken for New Guinea but is a different country. Oil has brought an influx of money into the country in the past few years, most of it going to the top, as in most African countries, where the country's leaders are corrupt and embezzle their money into wealthy foreign nations such as the US and European countries. The house I'm staying in until Jan. 6 is located on Bioko Island, where Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, is located. The house it right across from the New Palace, a palace President Obiang had built for him, which he doesn't live in. The wealth disparity here is huge, I have passed many nice houses flanked with crumbling concrete "houses", as well as seen many nice cars, such as Mercedes, Lexus, Infinity, and Audi, driven around by government workers usually. There is also a huge ex-patriot population here, basically anyone who is not form Equatorial Guinea, which mostly includes all of the oil workers. Each oil company here has a compound where it's workers stay and managers live, and the compounds look like resorts, it's crazy! I went swimming in one of the pools the other day, which felt really nice; my computer tells me it is 17 degrees at home in Kingston, NH right now, brrr! It's probably around 85 degrees here now and very humid.

Well, I've met quite a few new people, and I really like my group members: Avalon and James are 5th year seniors at Drexel University and they are really nice, I am also with Dana, a junior at Cornell as well whom I knew coming into the trip. We are a small group compared to last year, which is nice. In three days, on the 6th, we will head for the jungle to hike and count primates for about 3 weeks, so that should be really cool. Then we will all be doing our own research for about 10 days, mine is on bushbabies so I'll be doing night research. I'll catch you all up again soon! Hope all is well! Adios!

: ) Isys