Gabon - a nation in central Africa, included among the Congo Basin states, participant in the Central Africa Franc (CFA) monetary system, and blessed with extraordinary riches and advantages. Located on the Atlantic coast of west-central Africa, smack dab on the equator, festooned with large swaths of rainforest (nonetheless heavily logged by all of us), replete with charismatic megafauna (which you shall not see here, because we didn't see any, since they're all being shot at incessantly), Gabon has abundant sources of oil, gas, gold, platinum and many other minerals, all in an area the size of Colorado, with but 1.2 million people, perhaps a legacy of the depeopling that the European slave trade bequeathed to the land. And they have the French language, crusty French bread and the French colonial legacy (i.e., an ongoing military presence) to spice up the tropical environs.

Never thought that I would return to this reasonably prosperous central African nation a second time, but far stranger things can happen to a poli sci major from NYC than this...