Libreville, Gabon. Yes, we're moving to west central Africa in summer 2012!!

I learned today that there is a Survivor Gabon?? Guess I should check that out!!

Here's the Lonely Planet website if you have no clue where Gabon is. Don't worry, I had to Google it when I saw it on our bid list!

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/gabon/libreville


My "real" research of Gabon has just started. We did some initial research as we picked our preferences from the bid list. While Gabon was in the top portion of our list (5 of the 9 were not places I'd remotely want to go!), my number one Africa pick was Kigali, Rwanda, and honestly, I'm saddened that that's not where we are going. I was sure that's where God was sending us and I had such a peace about it. But, I suppose my peace was actually that we'd go wherever we were suppose to go. However, I wasn't expecting Gabon!

I'm assuming we got Gabon instead of Rwanda because French is required and Chris has the necessary level of French required for his position, and we found out the guy who got Kigali is coming from a harder post than Bangkok. What's up with the government all of the sudden showing some efficiencies! :) It wouldn't have cost "that" much to send someone to DC for a year to learn French!! :) As for the French, I will be learning French before we go. Not much English is spoken at all (a definite con for me)!!! But, I have lots of French speaking friends in Bangkok, so that works out nicely and the Alliance Francaise where French is offered is about a 5 minute walk from our apartment!

I doubt we'll have one visitor...other than my mom who would go anywhere to see Max and Siena! :) But, one friend, Jean, here in Bangkok has an annual conference in Africa and when she thought we might be going to Rwanda she proposed us meeting for a family safari. Maybe we'll be able to still meet somewhere in Africa to do that? It would be lots of fun, especially since her son Gavin is one of Max's best friends!!

So, here's my initial reaction to the news about Gabon and the pros and cons as I see them. I'm sure more will be added to this list as I research more!

Here's how I see it:

Pros: We'll have a big and nice (hopefully) house with a yard, live on the embassy compound (which most houses have ocean views), nice beaches (although the one outside our house isn't nice but it's about a 20 minute drive to a nice, clean beach), pool and playground on the housing compound (so no car necessary to get the bikes to the park like in Bangkok!), close-nit embassy community (and we already have friends who moved from Bangkok there earlier this year and they like it), and the kids (and maybe me too) will be fluent in French by the time we leave Gabon in 2014. I also like the fact that it's a stable and safe country (and not war-torn). Plus, it's not "that" far from home....15 hours is much better than 24 hours! :)

Cons: VERY little English spoken, VERY expensive city (#13 in all the world), not much to do, malaria, restaurants don't start serving dinner until 8pm (and Chris is sad that there is no Beatles tribute band there).

I'm completely at peace with where we're going! My biggest concern is the language....My "culture shock" days here in Bangkok always stem from some type of issue of communicating with someone here that doesn't speak English and I don't speak enough Thai!! What the heck am I going to do with that being a daily occurrence. At least I can "retreat" the to embassy compound..where English is spoken!! :)

If you want to read some "post reports" from people who work and live(d) in Gabon, here's a great website. It has all the countries and it's a cool resource. There are even some pictures.

http://www.talesmag.com/rprweb/the_rprs/africa/gabon.shtml

We'll be Stateside in 7 days...YIPPIE!!!! :) :) :) I can't wait to see my friends and family! :) I miss them so much!