Gulf of Guinea VIII - Done!

The last two weeks have been hot, rainy, sunny, and full of some of the most memorable moments of our trip!
The remainder of the week following Easter we traveled to schools that are far from the main city of São Tomé first and then went to the main school in town on Friday. The Portuguese TV station, RTP,  came out to film us making our presentations - we were on the six o'clock news!

 Just to give you an idea of the crowded conditions we encountered - there are 72 students in one classroom we visited in a town called Neves that is on the Southwest side of the island.

 To Bob's right stands Quintino Quade who has worked with Bob for the last 14 years. He is an excellent teacher in his own right (English and French) and helps out as translator in the classes.

 We gave the middle school students a ride to their school in the back of our truck.

It is always a good sign to see some of our materials from previous years' visits. Here a student is wearing the patch from GGVI in 2012.

 The girls wanted to feel what my hair was like. They were so charming and lovely!

Roberta, me and Bob taking a break!

 This is a group of 10th and 11th grade students at a private high school that we always visit at the end of our trips.

 The main primary school is still using our materials - the poster from GGV 2011 has been repurposed. It was so worn that they had to cut apart the pictures - but they are still using it!

Here we were served fresh bananas from the school yard tree by the principal, Francisca de Ceita. We will be visiting her 3rd grade students (500) to start the process all over again on our next expedition in January of 2015.

 This is Andrew Stanbridge photographin the critter in the picture below - it is our mascot, the Cobra Bobo or Cecillian. An endemic anphibian that live only on ST.

 São Nicolão Cascade

 Quintino and family

This year our car actually has a spare tire!  No spare wheel, but there is a tire!!!

Now we are ready to pack our bags, say farewell to our dear friends, and head for home. We depart São Tomé Friday morning and will arrive in California/Nevada on Saturday evening. It has been a wonderful experience and I'm sad to have to go.

But - I've got a flight booked for my next adventure out to see on Tuesday May 6 for Kyoto, Japan!

Here is a link to the blog that Bob Drewes posts on about this project
Gulf of Guinea Blog