Just Another Day in Libreville 🌴🇬🇦

I like spending my afternoons with my son. He watches TV sometimes or he does some exercises in his tablet or drawing on his notepad. Hello Everyone. This is a post again about my little life in Libreville my city🌴. Libreville my hometown. It feels good to be back in town (home, sweet home.) 🇬🇦 Libreville, little ville.

As you know I like listening to Diana Ross. I am feeling great, feeling calm. Thanks God. There are not so many things to do here but we still have some activities beside working. One of my favorite things to do is to visit new shops and restaurants or doing activities outdoors. But I also love spending my time alone at home. Doing my things, cooking. Maybe I should share what I like to do at home.😊 last time, I went to eat with my cousin some good crepes with ice cream.

Spending time alone with my son is my favorite moment of the day. I have learned with time to enjoy the moment and not to worry about everything else.

Sometimes I order food at home. These past few weeks we are in the Dry season. The weather is kind of chilly especially at night . Like really chilly and the sky is grey the entire day. This is the particularity with this season in Gabon. In the rainy season, the weather is humid and hot and it rains a lot. Big tropical rains. That is why people work on farming a lot, planting what they can during the Dry season so that when the rainy season comes it will take care of the rest. Plants will grow and grow. Gabon has a very rich and fertile soil.

Everyday I have my view and I like the thing of life like watching the sunset from my windows. I wish I could see a dolphin or a whale from here but that is not going to happen at all (smile) the area of the water where I am is very sandy. But in some previous years we had few baby whales that accidentally came to fall at the shore here in Libreville and Port Gentil. You know there are gigantic animals but also fragile. We have some whales way up there in the sea.I must say that in July, people can see them in our country. I told you about Pointe Denis in my previous post about Libreville🌴🌞

Happy 4th of July America

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY AMERICA the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. Thank you America for opening the door to many immigrants in the world. Thank you for giving hope to those who lost hope. thank you for making dreams come true. Thank you, you shared with us great talented people. I love you America. I want to thank all the nice people I met in America: My dear friend Jim a Vietnam war veteran, who took me in some trips from State to another. We were taking pictures after pictures. yeah! I had so much fun. We also talked a lot about the American History and the Vietnam war.It is good to listen to those who really lived that experience My first employer Mr. W. who was a veteran of War World II. listening to him was more than reading my History book. He showed me pictures when he was sent to the war. He was so young and brave. My dear friends who helped me so much and gave me advices. Those who welcomed me in their homes. Thank you to Dr.K my American History professor. She had a Phd in American History. she was my professor in History. She invited me for dinner in her home where i first ate the southern banana pudding ( smile) When i went to her home I felt like being in an American History museum. she made me love and study the american history. One of the greatest country in the world with a great History. The country is so beautiful. it is amazing to see and visit most of these different cities and States. well, Happy independence Day America. PS: please I am not talking about politic here, i simply talk about the people. the good people i have met. The people i saw working hard everyday. God bless America. I share here that legendary performance of Whitney Houston ofthe national anthem at the Superbowl. The picture of her singing that day is in the American History museum in Washington DC. i saw it and I was moved. It was next to Michael Jackson's legendary hat that he threw on the dance floor when he performed Billie Jean at Motown 25. (yep! America had incredible talents)

Something of Gabonese Culture

"They say we are not civilized because we do not have the same lifestyle. They say we are savage because we do not do the same thing. They say we have no culture because they do not understand us. It is ok if tyhey don't because because they will never do anyway. They say we are wild because we speak other tongues and we do not think like them. They say we have no taste because we are different. They say that we are poor because we are not into materialism. They say we have never been a part of History of Humanity when in fact we did give a lot to the world. Africa gave a lot." Always remember where you come from. Always love where you come from and your culture.

A song in my native language. Michel Nzamata "Nfulbeng" The story in the song is about a child who is asking to his mom what are they going to eat. When people sing this song they beat two sticks of wood one on the other following the rythm. Hello Everyone! That was just my way to introduce this post today.

Welcome back in another post. It is something of the Gabonese culture. This is another post about my country for those who are curious to know more. I share with you some pieces of Gabonese culture. I recently went to the museum of arts and tradition of my country. it is situated in town center. below are pictures representing a scene of a family meeting in villages. People are often sitting around the fire, the dog ( the Angome Fang meaning friend is a species of dog that has no real breed. I mean we don't know where it really come from but they have been living with villagers for decades. people told me that they first came here with White missionaries when they arrived in Gabon to preach the gospel. When they returned home they left these dogs. since then, they have been living with people in village until today. they go hunting with villagers but they are always afraid of strangers. you saw them on my vlog in Donguila. I played with one of them. The other one did not want to get close to me. When I go to my village I always tried to catch them. But they run away so fast lol! My Mom would always say "Laetitia! Leave them alone!" Do you think that I stop doing that? No way! I always try to catch them. Lol! When I was going with my parents that was my thing. If a villager was stopping by our place to greet my parents, I would go playing with his Angome Fang and my parents did not like it because they didn't want me to catch a disease from those dogs.)

then you see some baskets made by the local population. these baskets are used for specific purposes. They can be used for fishing, keeping food and many other activities. Different tribes and ethnic backgrounds make their baskets. You have tribes like the Fang, the Punu, the Myene, the Kota, Eshira, Mitsogho many others

women usually do

The next picture shows something to put on the head for initiation. Only initiated people in Gabonese spiritualities can wear them. By the way do never try Gabonese spiritualities if you do not understand them.If you do not understand their purposes. I personally do not do it at all but I saw some foreigners who became mentally unstable after trying some stuffs here. I can tell you more about it because there are so many stories and things that I saw. These foreigners were living now in a parallel world. They were lost in a bubble. They could not dissociate the real world from the one of the initated. Maybe few of them got lucky but I doubt it. I saw some walking naked feet in town as if they were lost...Like their soul or mind was lost. I found that video interesting. It is a traditional dance from my country and you can see it is not anybody who can do it. You have to be spiritually initiated and anybody cannot get close to that entity. People used to say that a spirit was dancing inside. So do not get close at all or you will lose your mind. O! We were scared! yes, that are the mysteries of spirituality from Gabon. As you can see it wears a mask. People who are selling our masks in auction in Europe must understand that our masks are not for decoration or home design. They have an important meaning to us. We do not put or wear masks anyhow. The two guys with branches are teasing him (the spirit) to dance on purpose.

the way women do it in a traditional way

the corps de garde also known as the traditional court for the villagers. This is the place where only men come to discuss social issues and family related things. They can even spend good times there like listening to music or extraordinary stories like the Mvett. How can I describe the Mvett? It a series of tales which is more like the Marvel stories that you watched on TV. It is older than the Marvels of course but it is related to my people. You can see in the picture an instrument used to tell stories of Mvett hanging on the top of the wall. When they tell you stories of the Mvett it is about men with super power doing extraordianry things. It is very much cultural.Some people experienced it in the spiritual realm. In the corps de garde, men can also play traditional games like the Tsongo it is a very interesting game. You must be focused and smart.

Ok! Thank you for reading. I leave with a song from Gabon in my native tongue. Precisely from Lambarene. Lambarene is a little town of Gabon in the Moyen Ogooue. There are many rivers and fishes. It is a nice little town. It is well known for being the place where Dr. Albert Schweitzer lived and took care of the population suffering from leprosy in this little town. Maybe you do not know Dr. Schweitzer, you can read about him online or in books. He won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1952. Dr. Schweitzer was a musician, theologist, humanitarian and a physician. You can tell he was really talented and a very smart person. He was originally from Germany. (I mean from the German Alsace) His hospital still exist here in Lambarene and people are still getting their medical care. See you in my next post. Thank you (Bach and Rythms of Gabon)

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