Love these Trees in Gabon....

Thank goodness for a wide angle lens to be able to show you the length, and this is one of the small ones....

Daily storms...... Snapped this pic just as the storm was rolling across the forests and on towards the Nyanga river, in front of our house....

My vase holds a different wildflower every week....

A few words for 2016....

Since taking this pic of an old door at the mission station, I've felt I have to share it....I often chat to God on my daily walk (mostly complaining, a little thanking, and he often patiently and gently comforts!)

So I'm saying, now why the closed door for 2016, it should be an open one? Then I feel His thoughts, that's the closed door behind you, you have already walked through .... No more looking back, no more yearning for he past and for the "old ways"... When you let go of the past, that's when you can have a new beginning. With My strength, guiding and directing, you can do it....

"This is the way walk in it, whenever you turn to the right hand or to the left" Isaiah 30:21

"You're tied down to the mundane; I'm in touch with what is beyond your horizons. You live in terms of what you see and touch, I'm living on other terms" John 8:23

We live in a dark confusing world, but we are not without hope! Light can drive out darkness! 

Hope this encourages you as it did me... May 2016 be life changing for you all. It's really what's "inside" that counts in the end....

Blessings to you and yours with all our love from a steamy Gabon....

The beautiful beaches of Myumba, Gabon

Where the forests meet the Atlantic Ocean with a huge lagoon going all along to the Congo...

This is one of the few places where the leatherback turtles have nesting sites. They try and protect them with signs painted on the walls throughout the village. Here is a link about the turtles...leatherback turtles, Myumba

From June to September it's Oyster season, we will definitely do plenty visits then! 

There is a whale season too.

Where one of the many rivers come into the sea. Mangroves and crabs in abundance! 

We did a 2 hour walk down the beach towards the Congo border which isn't too far away, and our only company was thousands of ghost crabs....

Due to the currents on this specific beach there was quite a lot of litter. The Gabonese say it comes from Congo and the ships... They joked that this was definitely a shoe from the Congo as they are giants there!

Catholic Mission of Sainte Esprit - 1897

We had to renew my Gabon visa in the  coastal village of Myumba.  God was so organised as we had met a couple a few weeks ago, who actually lived  and worked from there!  They live in a very old mission station called the Mission of Sainte Esprit which was built in 1897.  It is perched on  a hill with a spectacular view of the interior side of the Banio Lagoon and the sea in the distance. It remains the best preserved mission of its kind in Gabon. Here are a few pics....

Out of the "self pity rut"....

It always amazes me how when I start to get into a "self pity rut", (we are alone for the Christmas season in the middle of nowhere) how God sends me a person or people to jolt me out of it and gets me counting my blessings once again! We had lunch today with a Cuban couple, both doctors who have had to leave their two children of 15 and 7 in Cuba, whilst they work in a little village in Gabon, they see them for 1 month in every 7! Encourage someone this week! Take the time to find someone who is alone for Christmas and be a blessing....

#specialsunday#newfriends#newplaces

an "elephant snout fish"........

This fish fascinates me as watched a documentary about this fish (which has a trunk just like an elephant) and discovered that we have it in the very river ( Nyanga River) in front of our house, here in Gabon.... They are apparently quite smart, just like an ellie!  This is not a great pic as taken off the net....
Here is a link....
snoutfish... Mormyridae

Golden Christmas baubles.....

I found some gorgeous "natural" Christmas ornaments to add to my collection today.....

we took the boat upstream....

as we heard we could see Chimpanzees, so grabbing my camera and plenty insect repellant off we went...  Sadly we didn't see the Chimps but will try again another time, but here are a few snaps from the huge Nyanga River.... it shows me more than ever how very isolated we are... totally uninhabited for hours.... so different to Southern Africa, where the rivers draw the people...
Nyanga River, Gabon

so much rain the moss grows on the branches...

Jb's office (with a gorgeous view) and one of the houses...

The road less travelled.........

GREENS!!!

These aren't exciting pictures at all, but for me they are pure gold.....  I live a good 12 hour drive away from a decent supermarket, where I can buy "imported from France" veggies and salads... so have begun to do a small veg garden in the flower boxes around the house... There is no soil around the house only small rocks as we are on top of a hill.  The Gabonese are huge meat and carbohydrate eaters, (meaning, cassava, rice and yams) Everything is fried in palm oil....They don't eat veg at all, it seems.  They are not healthy, and we have quite a few (young!) employees with high blood pressure and cholesterol.

Berries, baubles and bling.......

We explored the Gabon wilds today, my main aim was to find "Christmas decorations" and look what I found! Gods own.....

Natural bling.....

I started to feel sorry for myself. We will be alone for Christmas. No family, no precious grandchildren, no friends and no lights, baubles and bling....

So I began to compile a list of "gifts" and "thanks", there are so many, I could write a book. I add to the list daily. 

Look at our "natural" Christmas lights, alive and glowing!

FRENCH..."tout est possible"

mmmmm yes we are getting there, slowly, with plenty of effort.  I can sometimes smell the "rubber burning!"

I have opted for  the French CANAL +TV,  instead of DSTV.  We have found amazing programmes, I miss the gist of most of it, but surely I am absorbing something??

I have begun to listen to French music, find the lyrics and "try" and sing along!  This is one of the fantastic albums I have bought.... Global Project/Francais, Hillsong, Paris

I do the Michel Thomas Method and Duolingo, as often as I feel up to it, can't say when I find the time, as there is plenty of that!!

But finally I think I am learning the most from my maid, Seraphine, who know absolutely NO English....

I think I can, I know I can, everything is possible!

You soul, like the waves, always restless...

If you came back, you wanted to leave again; if you went away, you longed to come back. Wherever you were, you could hear the call of the homeland, like the note of the herdsman' s horn  far away in the hills. You had one home out there and one over here, and yet you were an alien in both places. Your true abiding place was the vision of something very far off, and your soul was like the waves, always restless, forever in motion." Exiles Return #aforeigneringabon #nyangaranch #picoftheday #africanbushveld #gabon

I've done my first painting in Gabon....

It's just a little 60cm x60cm acrylic on canvas, and my first with acrylics.  We had very limited transport to  get our kit here, but I will slowly add to my art tools.  I snapped this pic of the cockerel on one of our many trips to the capital, Libreville.

Stag Horn Ferns for free...

They grow in the wild here.........

All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen...... Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nyanga River, Gabon....  The view from our home...

the Gabonese love cane rat........

and if you ask me, they would definitley be   "flatty ratty's" after trapping them like this.... You see these traps dotted here and there in the bush waiting for their favourite bush meat to be caught....

Here is a link about the cane rats. It seems we have the same type in Zim and Mozambique, from looking at the map....
Cane rats....

another lesson learned today......

 from these 2 “Egyptian hunting dogs”, as JB calls them.

I whistled for them and they gladly followed to join me for my daily walk.

I was apprehensive before even starting my walk.  The thick heavy clouds were down, so I didn’t have “much sight” ahead.  There was no phone signal (so how could I call for help in an emergency?)  Just yesterday an elli uprooted a mango tree close by, to get to the ripe ones at the top, and to top it all the locals had told me that they are around and quite “tipsy” from eating the fermented mangoes, so afraid of nothing! Mmmmm

I was adding another km today to my route so was a good 4 km from any habitation.  All was going well, I was doing all the right things, giving thanks for all the beauty etc etc, when I heard a faint rustle in the bush to the left of me, it slowly got louder and louder, small branches were breaking and the birds became quiet.  My heart started racing, my brain became numb (no sense!), my body paralyzed from fear.  I stood staring, waiting for the inevitable to come crashing through the bush, and out runs the little black dog, tail wagging, happy to find us.  I started laughing, then……. How pathetic I am!

But it’s another lesson I need to learn.  I preach it to the person I need to preach to the most.  I preach to me….

I was already nervous…. What informs us, forms us.

Fear paralyzes, making us unable to think clearly.  It plays with our minds, falsifying information and making them hugely exaggerated.

Fear prevented me from noticing the obvious signs that “all was well”.  The little brown dog was sitting at my feet wagging his tail, anticipating his friend to pop out the bushes.

Most of the time, fear has no grounding and its “nothing really!”

I find it’s a daily renewing of my mind….  It seems to dissipate fast! Like ice in this Gabon heat….

Removing the fear, replacing it with faith….

Removing despair and doubt, replacing it with delight and gratitude…

Removing skepticism and replacing it with trust.

He is able…

The Sahel horses..........

A little history from where these "tough" and "hardy" Ranch horses originate from....
The SAHEL REGION is a belt of up to 1,000km wide that spans the 5,400 km in Africa, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea...

"The wealth of the States came from controlling the trade routes across the desert. Their power came from having large pack animals like camels and horses that were fast enough to keep a large empire under central control and were also useful in battle.  The Sahel states were limited from expanding South in the Forest Zone of the Ashanti and Yoruba as mounted warriors were all useless in the forests and the horses and camels could not survive the heat and diseases of the region." ( yes, ask me about it!)

These lovely friendly Ranch horses came from the North Cameroon area of the Sahel region and have adapted well.

And here is another link written by someone who lived in this area and owned 2 horses
https://chocolatnegro.wordpress.com/2012/03/21/the-horse-of-the-sahel/