Paul 2, Corey 2, Ashley 1

We’ve had several accidents while here in Sao Tome. It all started with Paul at the grocery store trying to buy a few beers. Here, they stock their fridges with individual bottles well above the max capacity of the refrigerator. As Paul went to grab one, another started to fall which created a domino effect sending a few bottles to the floor; one of which broke. Paul 1.

We went shopping for a pitcher to make our water purification process easier. The best we could find was a carafe which has a glass core container surrounded by a plastic protective casing. As Ashley went to pick it up it fell to the floor shattering the glass core. Ashley 1.

Danielle is working on a mapping project and received about 20 large maps with together make up the entire island. To lay them out Corey, Danielle, Ashley and Chika cleared out our living room. As Corey went to pickup my XO he dropped it on the floor and broke the screen (these aren’t indestructible). I replaced the screen with one of the spare XOs as this is the administrator computer. Corey 1. Mike -1.

Paul owns a motorcycle on island and the other day he asked me if I wanted to take it for a spin. I went around the neighborhood and before long, Corey wanted to try his luck. I asked him if he knew how to drive and he said yes. I told him which lever was the clutch and he responded, ok that’s what changes the gear… I knew we were in for trouble. I showed him the pedal which actually changes the gear and after a few more minutes of training he wanted to go. We told him to give it a little gas as he slowly releases the clutch. Corey hit the gas and dropped that clutch, popped a small wheelie and rocketed away for about 10 feet before the bike tipped over and he hit the ground. Corey got up OK but the bike’s clutch lever snapped off. Within about 1 minute James had someone coming to repair the bike and it was fixed within the hour for a very small fee. Corey 2.

Corey with the broken parts from the moto. He'll try again this weekend.

Last night we wanted to make spaghetti for dinner. In Sao Tome you can’t buy pasta sauce so we got a small can of tomato paste as a base for our sauce. We forgot that we don’t have a traditional can opener so we had to use the triangular end of a bottle opener. As Paul dug into the can, the tightly packed paste shot out all over Paul’s white shirt, Chika’s white shirt and half the kitchen. Paul 2.

Hopefully the rest of our trip will be incident free although we have a long way to go.

-XO Mike