Packing for Africa

Packing for any trip is hard but packing to move abroad into an unknown situation is even harder.  I have been in this position several times but never like this. Everything I need needs to fit into two pages that weight less that 50 pounds.  I decided that I would be taking one large duffle and my hard sided trunk. 

I had to shrink 22 years’ worth of stuff down to 100 pounds or less. It was amazing to see how much stuff I had acquired just over the 4.5 years of college.  I had to sort through it and decide if I was going to keep, trash or donate it.  I spent several days sorting that and condensing two rooms’ worth of stuff down to one room that is semi-organized. 

For those who know me, I mostly where T-shirts and never really thought about how many T-shirts I actually had.  I had stopped buying T-shirts at places but that did nothing to slow down my collection.  During the laundry short, I discovered that I had over 75 t-shirts.  I went though and if they were from high school they immediately went to the goodwill pile, from there the ratty shirts were made into rags.  That got right of about a third of them.

Back to packing, I was hired as an International Mobile Employee with an emphasis on the mobile part.  SLB works in over 90 counties and I could be sent to work in about 80 of them.  The ones I can’t are for the being female issues or the being a US citizen. Currently I am working 4 degrees above the equator but there is nothing stopping me from going on load to North Sea.  This makes packing hard because I had to decide what types of clothing and how much clothing of each type to bring. 

In the end, I decided that I would focus on the warm weather gear.  For the most part it was light weight clothing for work and my time off.  I threw in a jacket for air conditioned buildings but the rest of my beloved jacket collection stayed in my room in the United States.  I packed enough clothing for about a week and half between doing laundry as well as some clothing for hiking and going out.  I also threw in my sleeping bag, hiking boots, and trekking poles.  After that I was left with what other entertainment items did I want to bring.  I bought a kindle paperwhite so that had reading materials covered, other than that I brought my DVD collection, and my personal laptop.  

~And that has made all the difference.~

Off-shore Platform Life

This is the Jade Platform.  I am currently living here.
Photo Credit: Solar Navigator

From talking to people rig life various greatly from rig to rig, from location to location, from on-shore to off-shore.  Here on the Jade Platform, it’s fairly simple and minimalist.  Since I am working night shift, my day starts at about 4:30 pm.  I get up and go pick up my laundry.  Laundry one every shift so a clean set of clothing is waiting for me every shift. This means that you don’t need a lot of stuff out on the rig. 

After getting dressed, I go down to the galley and eat breakfast or dinner for breakfast.  At 5:30, I attend the daily Drilling Safety Meeting.  Everyone who is part of the drilling night shift is required to attend.  We go over some of the recent safety issues and some of the problems day shift had.  After that, everyone heads out to do handover and start work.

What I actually do during my shift depends on what the rig is doing.  If the rig isn’t drilling and all the prep work is done, then its move or goof off time.  But when the rig is drilling, I am watching sensors, tracking and correlation measurements, and downlinking for tools.  Sometime between 11:30 pm and 1:00 am is a 15-30 minute break for lunch.  Then it’s back to work until 6:00 am when day shift shows up.

The food is a step or two above normal cafeteria food. Due to the visa situation in Equatorial Guinea, most of the staff is American.  There are some other nationalities but I would guess the ratio is 70% American 30% other nationalities.  Compared to most rigs (at least in Africa), the male to female ratio is quite high.  Of the 135 people on-board, 5 are female.  Currently, 4 of them are from SLB.  I am paired with the other female MLWD field engineer.  

  

For the time off, we have a TV room, pool table, and weight room.  Most of the night shift goes to bed shortly after we get off shift. Because I am female, my room is at the top floor of the accommodations and I only have one other person in my room and a bathroom shared by four people.  Because my roommate, the female directional driller (DD) works day, I have a room to myself.  This is way better than the male accommodations where its communal bathrooms and 4 people per room.

One of the biggest issues off-shore is safety.  The oil and gas industry has had it fair share of injuries and deaths.  For this reason, safety isn’t taken lightly because there are plenty of things out here that can and will kill.  For this reason, any time we are out of the accommodations personal protective equipment or PPE is mandatory.  This includes hard hat, eye protection, steel toe boots, fire resistant coveralls, impact gloves, hearing protection.  Another thing is that one must always be aware of what’s going on around you both above and below you.  On the Jade platform, there are four cranes and two hoists that can be lifting stuff at any time.  One always has to be careful not to walk under anything being lifted.  The whole rig is a choreographed dance.   Everyone watches out for each other, and if something is unsafe any person from the lowly trainee to the company man has the power to shut down the rig.

~And that has made all the difference.~

Off-Shore for the First Time

From Solar Navigator

After 7 weeks in Malabo, I finally got the chance to go off-shore.  As an International Mobile (IM), most of my career will be spent working off-shore.  Going to a rig is a highly recommended part of SLB’s pre-training, since most of a MLWD field career is spent working split shifts on a rig site. 

Due to the location, logistical, and expense issues in EQG, it is hard to get trainee’s off-shore.  This was one of the main reasons that I hadn’t had a chance to go off-shore before now.  The other was that about three weeks after I arrived in EQG, the rigs had finished drilling their current wells and went into completions mode (preparing the well to start producing oil).

So last Saturday morning, I walked into work and stopped to say good morning to one of the project managers.  He asks me what my plans are for Monday.  My response is my usual working on reading the training material and working in the shop.  He says wrong, I’m getting on a helicopter. This is the conversation I have spent the last two months waiting for. He tells me that after a long negotiation with the company man by one of our Directional Drillers (DD) that he said I could go.  I was to bring with me as part of my 60 lbs of luggage 30 lbs of shrimp, and I would be rooming the female DD.

I spent the next day packing up my hotel room and moving everything that I wasn’t bringing to the rig to the office.  I was unlucky and had a 7:00 am flight so I was unable to bring the shrimp with me but they would be coming later in the day. 

I had to check in to my flight an hour early, which meant I had to leave the hotel at 5:45 am.  Once at the heliport, I got checked in and we had a safety briefing on the helicopter and escape methods.  Due to some lighting we were delayed an hour but it was finally time to get on the helicopter and take the 20 min flight out to the Jade Platform.  It was exciting but scary.  I couldn’t wait to see the Jade for the first time.  The helicopter landed at the Jade, and disembarking with the rotor blades still spinning was an experience.  Once below the helideck, I took a moment to admire the view and the Jade. 

The first thing that stands out is the 100 ft flare off the side. It’s an impressive site.  After a couple mins, I headed down to the arrivals lounge to get our room assignments and to await my rig safety induction.  I am in a double room with a shared bathroom (one of the perks of being female in the oil industry) on the 5^th floor of the accommodations.  After the induction, I meet up with the day shift DD and my MWD mentor for a quick tour of the rig, some introductions, and our unit, and then it’s off to bed.  I am going to work night shift with the other female MWD field engineer.  This means that I have a room to myself since my roommate the female DD works days.

Switching to night shift was a little hard but I rapidly figured out some benefits too it.  That 100 ft flare produces a lot of heat and we are about 4 degrees north of the equator so that means it gets really hot in general and add in that flare its almost unbearable.  I really enjoy getting to see what I will be doing after my training school and to experience actual rig life. I will do a post about rig life in a day or two.

~And that has made all the difference.~

The Power of Football

Football is one of the most popular sports world wide both to watch and play.  I am not talking about the wimpy American version with helmets but the European version.  Every Saturday afternoon, there is a weekly SLB employee game.  The island has several actual football fields.  The two grass fields leave a lot to be desired but small artificial turf field is the perfect size for 5v5 games.  We usually have enough people to field 3 teams and just play a round robin style.  If you score you stay in, and the loser switch.  Once my manager and the other field engineers (FE) came back from off-shore and days off, I had a way to get there. 

Once again, I was the only female and needless to say the locals don’t really expect much skill out of the American Expats.  They pretty much assumed I wouldn’t have a clue and would be useless.  Little did they know that although I hadn’t played in 5 years, I had 14 years of playing experience.  I spent almost all my high school career as a defender so needless to say the first one who tried to show off by dribbling around me found himself without the ball.  I stole it right out from under him and passed it to a teammate who put it in back of the net.  With that I had just proved I wasn’t useless.

A several games later was where I really earned my stripes.  I was playing striker for me team and one of my teammates over shot a pass and I decided that I keep going.  The keeper bobbled the ball and I managed to put it between his feet and scored.  I speak very little Spanish but I do understand enough to know that the keeper took a fair about of crap over getting scored on by the female.  About two games later I managed to score a second time, it was off a pass from a team mate so it wasn’t as embarrassing for the goal keeper.

The real amazing part of the whole experience was the next week at work.  The local staff wasn’t unfriendly but it was clear to me that I was still an outsider.  After soccer, they got a lot friendlier and seemed much more relaxed around me.   Over the next week, I was asked pretty much every day if I was planning on playing the following week, and was told by both the soccer captains that I was going to be on their team.

I wish I had some pictures but was having too much fun playing to bother with my camera.

~And that has made all the difference.~

A Cash Society

I saw an article the other day that said that a recent study showed over 60% of Americans no longer carry cash.  I can’t say that is at all surprising.  Back in the states, I hardly ever paid cash for anything.  I preferred to use my debt or credit card.  On the advice of my father, I always had $20.00 in my wallet just in case.

The move to EQG, it was a little bit of a shock to be in an almost entirely cash based economy. Other than the three large hotels and maybe the airlines, nothing takes credit or debit cards.  It has been interesting that I always have to check how much cash I have before going out to make sure I have enough to cover my expenses.  As well as having to think about the price to see if it is reasonable for what I want.  This means having to convert from XCFA s to dollars. 

What is a XCFA of XAF? XCFA stands for Central African Francs.  XCFA is a common currency between a decent percentage of the central African nations.  The name is common but each countries prints their own XCFA, so some countries using the XCFA doesn’t accept other countries XCFA.  I haven’t run into this yet but I am sure I will someday.  The exchange rate for XCFA is fixed with the Euro such that 1 Euro = 655.957 XCFA.  This makes the exchange rate with the dollar fluctuate but currently its $1.00 = 481.138 XCFA.  Most of us expats just assume its 500 XCFA per dollar so it makes the conversion easy.

Getting XCFA is easy, the hotel, banks and casino will gladly take your dollars and give you XCFA, but the will not give dollars for XCFA.  This means it’s a balancing act between how long I am going to be here and how much XCFA do I think I will need during that time. 

Even with the exchange rate, some things cost more, others cost less than in the States.  Here are some common stuff and the XCFA and dollars.

• Can of Coke Cola (at the hotel bar) - XAF 2,000.00 = $4.16
• Bottle of Water (at the hotel) - XAF 1,800.00 = $3.74
• Breakfast Buffet (at the hotel) - XAF 18,000.00 = $37.41
• Club Sandwich and drink (at the hotel) - XAF 14,000.00 = $29.10
• Jar of Nutella -  XAF 1,500.00 = $3.12
• Bottle of Shampoo - XAF 2,500.00 = $5.20
• 1L Smirnoff Vodka - XAF 5,000.00 =$10.39
• 1L Bacardi Black - XAF 8,500.00 = $17.67
• Bar of 80% Dark Chocolate - XAF 2,000.00 = $4.16

~And that has made all the difference.~

T-BOSIET and HUET

In order to go off shore, every Schlumberger (SLB) employee has to have a BOSIET or T-BOSIET course. BOSIET stands for Basic Offshore Safety Induction and Emergency Training. The T in T-BOSIET stands for Tropical. The courses are basically the same except the BOSIET teaches the use of survival suit whereas the T-BOSIET does not.

Since I will be working only 4 degree north of the Equator, I only had to take the T-BOSIET which is three days rather than five. BOSIET consist of five parts: Safety Induction, HEUT, Sea Survival, first aid, and firefighting. I was kind of looking forward to the course since I was told the closest facility to do the training was the Congo. I was rather disappointed to find out that a training facility had just opened in Malabo so I was going to get to do my training in town. My training class mix wasn’t surprising. I was the only female and the only expat in the class. I am not going to lie it was kind of intimidating for the first day but everyone was nice and friendly other than the monkey meat incident (One of them tried to convince me that the mystery meat for lunch was actually monkey. It wasn’t someone else later confirmed that I was correct and it was goat.) The most surprising part was that over half of them couldn’t swim so they would get to wear the fancy red helmets in the water.

The first day of the training course focused on the Safety Induction and Sea Survival. The Safety Induction was about four hours of oil rig basics which for me was good to know. It covered things like prescribed medication, illness, and personal protective equipment. The Sea Survival training was a about four hours: an hour of classroom and then three hours in the pool. This was to teach us what do should the need to board the lifeboats or are forced into the water arise. The lifeboats used on oil rig are rather. The lifeboats are completely enclosed, fire resistant, come with a sprinkler system and motor. The boat holds about 50 people and once everyone is inside, the hatch is closed and the motor is turned on. The boat is then lower into the water and once released from the hooks the sprinkler system is turned on, to help keep it fire resistant should the ocean be on fire. Then the boat is steered away from the platform. We got to do the get in and lowering part as part of the course. The second part of this exercise involved being dumped into the water and how to conserve body heat, stay together, get into a life raft, and get lifted by the helicopter winch.  In theory, one should never have to jump in into the water unless its a helicopter crash but history has shown that in cases of extreme emergency that may be the only option left.

http://www.offshore.no/international/news/article.aspx?id=12580

The second day was on First Aid and firefight. First aid was a basic first aid knowledge course that mostly focused on being aware of other dangers if you find one passed out. These dangers include electricity, H2S gas, CO, and like 4 or 5 other types of gas that is odorless and can kill. The firefighting part was what I was most looking forward to. We got to play with fire extinguishers. Not just one but four different types for the different types of fires.

• Water Fire Extinguisher to put out a Class A – Paper Fire 
• Foam Fire Extinguishers to put out a Class B – Gasoline Fire 
• Dry Powder Fire Extinguisher to put out a Class B – Gasoline Fire 
• CO2 Fire Extinguisher to put out a Class C – Liquefied Petroleum Gas 

After that we learned how to use the self-rescue smoke hood and how to escape from a smoke filled room as an individual and as a team.

The third day was the scariest day of the course, HUET. I am a certified SCUBA diver with over 50 dives and love wreck and cavern diving and I will freely admit that I almost had a panic attack. HUET is all about what to do if the helicopter crashes. The day starts out simple enough with an hour classroom session then everyone gears up with coveralls, helmets, and life jackets. We started off with a swimming assessment to see if anyone’s helmet color needed to be switched and from there they made sure everyone could hold their breath at least 25 seconds as well as how to breath though a SCUBA regulator. I easily passed those two parts. Then came the hard part: the five pool exercises using the helicopter simulator.

The first simulator is easy. It assumes the helicopter landed on the water and the floats deployed correctly and one leaves the helicopter and enters directly into the life raft.

The second exercise is a practice without having to remove the window. You are strapped into the chopper and it starts to sink. You have to wait until the chopper is fully submerged before leaving to ensure that the rotor blades have stopped.

The third is the same as before but this time you have to remove the window. This is why being patience is the key. One needs to wait until the pressures equalize to help facilitate an easy escape. These exercises were easy for me and for the third one I was tapped on the shoulder to signal it was time to get out.

The fourth on is where it gets hard. You are strapped in, the push out windows have been removed. The helicopter sinks and then flips upside down. You first have wait for the chopper to sink and then flip upside down. This is rather scary. I can hold my breath for 40 seconds but when that adrenaline rush hits you it’s like nothing else and that 40 seconds becomes about 10. I managed to complete this exercise but when I surfaced, I was breathing hard, my heart was pounding and I was shaking. I then had about a min to calm down and get back in and do it again this time with the push out windows installed.

The last exercise was where I almost panicked. I wasn’t in the greatest spot right after the previous one but all I could think about during that last rotation was that I didn’t want to fail so I didn’t have to do it again. That was the only though that kept me in my seat and allowed me to get through it. After that run, I spent the next like 5 mins sitting by the pool and just letting my heart rate return to normal and the shaking to stop. I am so glad that as long as I am working in Tropical water I will not have to do that again until May 2018. We weren't allowed to take photos or video of the training but here is a min long video showing you exactly what the training entailed.

~And that has made all the difference.~

A Little Bit of This and A Little Bit of That

I got really behind in doing this blog.  Between my trip to Europe, packing for my move to Africa, and actually moving to Africa, this kind of fell to the way side.  I will starting going through some of the process later.

But I have officially moved to Africa kind of.  I am about five weeks into a two month visit to Africa.  As part of my job, I get to attend several training schools over my first three years.  My first training school that starts in about 3 weeks is in Abu Dhabi, UAE .  Before this I spent my first week of employment at a training course in Paris, France.  On June 15, I will have been working just over three months and have visited three countries on three different continents. 

“How are you enjoying Africa” is the most common question I am asked here.  I am still not sure but my usual response is “Its interesting.”  I have been told by many people that Malabo isn’t your typical African city, but then again this is the only place in Africa I have been too.  I am living out of the Hilton Hotel on the island since it was cheaper to have us stay there rather than get us a staff house.  So I have a maid who cleans my room, three meals a day plus my laundry done for me.  I am getting spoiled. 

Although I have been here over a month, I still haven’t been to a rig yet.  They were just about done drilling a well when I arrived and I need to get my Helicopter Underwater Escape Training (HUET) training done.  Once I got my HUET, drilling has stopped and the one rig that has started drilling again is at max persons on board.  Still on-shore for now but am hoping to get off-shore at the end of the month. Right now my days are just spend doing my computer training and in the stop learning from the techs.

I am going to end here for now but leave you with a sunset picture.

The view from the front door of the office.

~And that has made all the difference.~

Post Graduation Trip to Europe

Since every plan I made for post graduation was ruined by my international job offer, I had some free time and a apartment set-up fund that I no longer needed. I have spent several summers during college visiting national parks and exploring the USA.  I am a firm believe that one should explore their own country before you should explore the world. I was doing that by visiting all the national parks (I have visited 27 of 59 parks). Needless to say I am not going to finish exploring the national park any time soon.  So I decided that this was a perfect chance to go spend knock a few places off my must visit in Europe list.  I am going to spend 17 days split between 3 great cities: München, Berlin, London.

So far I have completed the first stage of my journey, flying from Knoxville to Atlanta.  In a few minutes, I am leaving Atlanta for the second stage of this trip Atlanta to Paris. Then from Paris to München.

Nine things I want to do in Africa

Everyone has a wish list of place and things they would like to do.  I have always had a couple places in Africa that I wanted to visit.  Parts of Africa have always been on my list of places to visit.  Now I am going to get the chance to do more than just take a two week vacation to Africa.  I am going to be a short flight from some of the most amazing places, animals, and locations.

1. Tour Egypt 

Source: Puzzle Puzzle

Egypt is perhaps the one place in the world I want to visit the most.  I have been fascinated by Egyptian history.  From the engineering marvels of the Great Pyramids to the fascinating treasures found in the Valley of the kings, all of parts of the Egyptian civilization are fascinating to me.   I want to ride a camel out to the pyramids, visit the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, tour the Valley of the Kings, and go SCUBA diving in the Mediterranean and Red Sea.

2. Visit Mosi-oa-Tunya aka Victoria Falls

Source: Wikipedia

Victoria Falls is on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe.  It is believed that the famed explorer Dr. David Livingston was the first European to view the falls.  The falls are said to be "the smoke that thunders" which is what Mosi-oa-Tunya means. Victoria Falls is the world largest water despite not being the tallest or widest, but it has the largest area of falling water.

3. Watch the Great Migration over the Serengeti 

Source: Wikipedia

Every year, a massive migration of over million zebra, wildebeest and other Serengeti species occurs in Kenya and Tanzania.  This is the largest animal migration in the world.  I want to see the wonder of this phenomenon and see this amazing site.

4. Gorilla Trekking 

Source: Sanctuary Retreats

The only way to see gorilla in there natural habitat is to take a trek though the Africa forest to find a family group.  I want to see both the Mountain and Lowland Gorillas.  There are several places where Mountain Gorrilas can be found Democratic Republic of Congo (currently in the middle of a civil war), Rwanda, Ugnada.  Lowland's can be found in Angola, Cameroon, Central Africa Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Nigeria, Republic of Congo. A trip to mainland EG is in my future.

5. Go White Water Rafting on the Zambezi River

Source: Outside

The Zambezi river is one of the best rivers in the world for whitewater rafting.  Its a 15 mile section of river below Victoria Falls with 23 rapids. It is know for the technically difficult rapids, big drops, and massive holes.

6. Watch the Sardine Run in Southern Africa

Source: Dive Photo Guide

Every year from May to July, million of sardines form shoals (that nasty little fish that comes in a can and you wonder who actually eats) that move north along the coast of South Africa.  The sardine run is so large that it can be seen on satellites.  This concentration of sardines attack large quantities of predators including sharks, dolphins, seals, and birds.

7. Climb Mt. Kilimanjaro 

Source: Wikipedia

Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania  is the tallest mountain in Africa and the tallest free-standing mountain in the world. Kilimanjaro is 19,341 feet tall and is part of the Seven Summits and Volcanic Seven Summit climbing challenges.

8. Cage Dive with a Great White Shark

Yes, I want to dive with the most feared predator of the sea, abet inside a cage.  I might be crazy but I have seen Jaws and Shark Week.  I can't wait to see this amazing creature.

9. Cross the Equator in a Ship

Source: Wikipedia

I am not exactly sure why I want to this, but I do know I want to.  Since air travel became common few people cross the equator via ship, so I think it would be fun to get to.

Job hunting and FIELD Camp

I have to say job hunting is one of the hardest and most discouraging things I have ever done. It always seemed like someone else was always getting the positions I had applied for.  Every semester, UF has a huge career fair.  Basically several hundred employers show up and you wait 30 mins in line to talk to a recruiter for 30 seconds, and more than half the time get told to apply online. This is really annoying because at the end of the day talking to the recruiter does nothing.  Thankfully, Schlumberger did both online pre-selects and collected resumes for on-campus interviews. During career fair, a lot of companies do information session and basically they are a hour long show and tell about the company with free food.  No non-class related event happens without free food. Unfortunately, I had class at the same time as Schlumberger's information session but I didn't really need to learn about the company and what they did since I had done my research well before career fair.

The on-campus interview was not nearly as nerve racking as I thought it was going to be.  It was some basic interview questions on myself and my leadership in team situations.  As much as every engineering student hates those group projects, those same group projects are a great way to show leadership and teamwork. The most memorable question was about the most difficult team situation I had ever been in. I

After about a month of waiting, I got a call for a second interview.  The second interview was a week long camp Schlumberger calls Focus in Engineering, Leadership, and Development Camp or FIELD Camp for short. This was a week long interview/info session on Schlumberger and the different divisions of Schlumberger.  

As mentioned previously, FIELD camp is a week long program about Schlumberger combined with a interview.  For this program, I was flown out to Houston, Texas along with 25 other college students from around the United States and Canada. I was flowing from Gainesville, Florida to Houston Texas.  There was a slight mishap at the airport and we had to wait an hour for pick-up.  This was caused by a hour flight delay in Atlanta.  I was lucky that I wasn't they only UF person going to this camp flying out of Gainesville.  There was one other a third UF student attending but he was flying out of south Florida.

Once at the hotel in Sugar Land, Texas, we meet the other participants from many different colleges. The first night of FIELD camp was the traditional get to know people games.  I was lucky to get my own room.  Everyday was a 6:00 am wake-up and at the earliest 12:00 am end. Every day was a tour of one or two different division of Schlumberger.

All the FIELD camp participants and the three recruiters with us on a boat ride though San Antonio.

 It seemed like the entire week was designed to try and scare us away from working for Schlumberger.  They didn't sugar coat the aspects of what a Field Engineer does for Schlumberger.  They stressed the hard work and long hours.  They made it clear the while Schlumberger pays well they make you earn every penny and working for them isn't something one should take lightly.

We got to tour Schlumberger's companies of Smith Bits and M-I SWACO. We also got to meet field engineers who worked in wireline logging, drilling and measuring (D&M) and Pathfinder, cementing, fracking, and several other Schlumberger divisions.  We got to then visit two actual working drill rigs.  One site was doing D&M while the other was fracking and wireline logging. I was really interested in wireline logging and D&M.

Overall, the long hours, working hard, and remote locations didn't scare me. This was my ideal job, not stuck in a office and the chance to live in remote location far from huge cities.    After my week in Houston was over, I knew I wanted to work for Schlumberger in either D&M and wireline logging when I graduated.  My preferred location from highest to lowest was Alaska, International (you don't get to choose, just get to say international), or Southwest United States.

Equatorial Guinea

Where is Equatorial Guinea one might ask? I know my first thought was I was going to the south Pacific.  Alas, I was thinking of Papua New Guinea. In fact there are five (or six if you count Guyana which is derived from Guinea) counties in the world with "Guinea" as part of their name, of which three are found in West Africa.  So my confusion over where I was being sent was understandable.  I am still excited about the job opportunity even if I was a little disappointed it wasn't Papua New Guinea.

Equatorial Guinea is the small country in red.

Truthfully, I had never heard of Equatorial Guinea (EG) before this job offer and realistically it would have never made my must visit list either.  This small Africa nation is off the off beaten path.  So my first visit after finding out that EG is in Africa is Wikipedia.

Flag of Equatorial Guinea

Equatorial Guinea's official name is the Republic of Equatorial Guinea.  It is about 111,000 square miles which is about the size of Massachusetts and has population of 730k which is slightly larger than the city of Boston.  EG gained its independence from Spain in 1968.  So the national language is Spanish (just my luck, spent years avoiding learning Spanish and now being semi-fluent would be useful).  Officially EG is a unitary semi-presidential republic.  Basically this is a fancy way of saying that EG is controlled by a single entity who is "elected" by the people. 

EG is made of a mainland territory, Rio Muni, and five small islands located in the Gulf of Guinea.  Despite its name EG is not located on the equator, it lies almost entirely above the equator.  The exception of this is a small island of Annobon which is located in the southern hemisphere. I will be living and working on the largest of these islands, Bioko. The capital of EG, Malabo,  is located on this island as well as most of the oil industry.   EG has several ecoregions such a Atlantic Equatorial costal forests, Central African mangroves, Cross-Sanaga-Bioko coastal forests,  Mount Cameroon and Bioko montane forests, and Sao Tome, Principe, and Annobon moist lowland forests (I will talk more about these regions in another post).  Given EG’s tropical location it’s no surprise that it has a tropical climate and only has two seasons, wet and dry.  From June to August, Bioko is wet and Rio Muni is dry and from December to February it is reversed.  From September to November and from March to May there is a gradual transition from on season to the next.