At age 26, on a mission related to my profession as a hydraulic-construction engineer – I spent a year working on raising the level of an existing dam in the heart of the primeval forest of the Crystal Mounts, in Gabon.
Having arrived in Libreville bursting with enthusiasm, Caroline Riegel soon realized both how inexperienced she really was – and to what extent her status as a white woman with all-male colleagues and African subordinates – would complicate things. A combination of seriousness, cheerfulness and stubbornness soon overcame their reticence, but her relations with her employer, the SEEG (Society for the Production and Distribution of Water and Electricity in Gabon), were more difficult. The young expatriate’s anti-conformism and critical eye ran headlong into a system based on inertia, male chauvinism and corruption. Refusing to stay within expected bounds, Caroline Riegel would run into both surprises and difficulties. In love with a diver, month after month she also found herself falling in love with the mysteries of Gabon, its mischievous inhabitants and old bushmen. She decided to make a book out of this formative experience.