Lunch with the MEGI moms

                Thursday afternoon we made our first trip to the MEGI (Mobil Equatorial Guinea Inc.) compound. It’s where the oil workers stay while they’re here to work. It was a small little suburbia in the  middle of this African island complete with a swimming pool, gym, lovely landscaping at each house, and a cafeteria. It was pretty surreal, but apparently the Marathon compound is even more ridiculous and is just like being in America. It’s also a lot larger because there’s many more people working for them.
                Our professor for our Society and the Environment class, Kathy, is a MEGI mom (her husband works for Mobil). She had us over for lunch along with a bunch of other MEGI wives. Her house felt like being back in Montgomery – with all of the interior decorating and suburban housewives, and she even had a cat. A bunch of the women had dogs as well. Each of the women made a dish so we had a feast of ziti, enchiladas, chicken and rice, meatballs, and more, followed by some good ol' chocolate chip cookies and rice krispie treats. Once again it was great to get some delicious (and free) home cooking. All of the women were really nice. Some were shocked by the fact that we were excited to be heading to Moka for the next 10 days. Showering from a bucket and living in a tent isn’t really their thing. It’s funny that they are living in Africa but some of them don’t really leave the compound too often so they don’t even know what it’s like.
                After our lunch one of the women took us on a short tour and told us about life on the compound. Some people are “rotators” who work in EG and live on the compound for 28 days, then go home to America for 28 days. They’re 12 hour work days, so it’s pretty intense, but once they’re home they’re home and don’t have to worry about work at all. Sounds like a pretty good schedule to me; they’re really only working half the year. Other people are permanent residents and go home every so often. Most of the women we met were permanent residents. The woman also told us that there’s a curfew and that everyone has to be on the compound by midnight for safety reasons. I thought it a little strange that grown adults had a curfew to adhere to, especially since we’re allowed to be out as late as we want.
                We had class to get to at 6 so Kathy drove us back to our house. The ladies invited us to come to MEGI when we’re back from Moka and have some dinner there. I hope we get to take advantage of the pool!