Work Comes First


All our plans to go on a small tour of Anjouan fell through today unfortunately. We had a morning of problems. First of all the database’s server had a problem. This was fixed quickly once we realised that it was the database playing up and not the Internet connection. I made a quick call to South Africa and within 5 minutes the Blue Box (the service providers) had sorted out the problem. I was so grateful that this didn't happen yesterday when South Africans were all enjoying a public holiday!

We had just gotten started again when the electricity went out. The Fisheries School has a small generator but it doesn’t provide electricity to the room we were in but we were able to move to another room where the generator’s power was available. Eventually we got down to working again but there was no way we would finish early so the tour was cancelled. The going was slow because the discussions were long and sometimes quite heated. They have acknowledged that next year we will most definitely have to use the full five days instead of nipping off a day early.

Maybe it was a blessing in disguise as it has rained solidly all afternoon. I’m not sure the roads would have been fun in this weather but I am disappointed that we could not see more of the island. The work does, however, always come first!

One bonus of the afternoon of rain was that the air temperature dropped a little making things far more bearable.

Tonight is my last night in Anjouan. It will be an early start again in the morning as I will be picked up at 6:30 to go to the airport. We will apparently all be flying to Moroni and from there the people from Mohéli will fly home. I have to spend one night in Moroni and then I will fly back to South Africa on Saturday via Nairobi. Unfortunately I will not be able to get home on Saturday night as the flight from Nairobi to Johannesburg will only arrive at midnight, long after the last flight to Durban leaves. So I have a night in a Johannesburg hotel before  my flight home on Sunday morning. To end just a few photos from yesterday.
 Most fishing in the Comoros takes place around fish aggregating devices since the islands do not have much of a coastal shelf. Here are a whole lot of fishermen aggregating around the aggregating device J
 In the west, a beautiful sunset ....
... and in the east a lovely rainbow!

Take care everyone!
Location: Mutsamudu, Comoros

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