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Guinea 020
Thursday, December 28 8:10 a.m.
Waiting for Ali to show up or not last night I listened to the BBC and there were two reports on Guinea. One story reported that ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) had decided to send 1500 peacekeeping troops and monitors to patrol the borders between Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. The language was ominous saying that it was an …
Guinea 019
Wednesday, December 27 8:00 a.m.
I haven’t been able to find out as yet if the boy was seriously hurt or not. No one seems to know about that accident but me. Either the boy was not hurt at all (from my vantage point that seemed very unlikely) or such accidents are so commonplace they don’t register anymore.
I cycled through Coyah (the origin of the famous …
Guinea 018
Tuesday, December 26 2:00 p.m.
Perhaps it was the Christmas spirit, perhaps it was the bicycle, perhaps everything I’ve read and everyone I’ve spoken to is wrong but I had no problems whatever cycling the remaining twenty-three kilometres to Coyah. Even the dreaded kilometre 36 roadblock at the Dubreka/Coyah junction was as pleasant an official encounter as I’ve ever had.
The day began when I opened my …
Guinea 017
Monday, December 25 8:30 a.m.
Christmas Day in Guinea begins with the usual long, involved discussion about breakfast of which I understood nothing. Part of the problem is my poor understanding of spoken French but most has to do with something I still don’t understand. The way I’m perceived as a foreigner perhaps. Or a Guinean habit of mentioning things that don’t need to be mentioned, …
Guinea 016
Sunday, December 24 9:00 a.m.
To my horror Conde wormed his way back into my life and into my thoughts yesterday. It was spectacularly bad timing because I had plans to leave Conakry this morning. I’d had my laundry done. I was saying my goodbyes to Sundar, Bob, and the family at La Vina, and I was looking forward to a pleasant afternoon of tinkering with …
Guinea 015
Saturday, December 23
The build up and the walk to the cinema was certainly more entertaining than the movie itself which was a standard conspiracy flick with corruption going to the highest levels of government. Ivory Keenan Wayans was the fall guy and fought back and won only because of his commando training. Oh yeah, and he got the girl.
The atmosphere was much more subdued and …
Guinea 014
Friday, December 22 9:00 a.m.
I seem to have been unusually lucky in terms of the police. I’ve ridden my bike all over Conakry and haven’t been stopped once by anyone for an ID check or bribe scam. Angie was very surprised to hear this. She won’t even go to the Madina market because she is harassed every time and counts herself lucky to get away …
Guinea 013
Thursday, December 21 9:21 a.m.
I did eventually find the mysterious SPG that sold newspapers. I walked down the main road quite a distance looking for the letters SPG and popping into all the stores that in the West could be expected to sell papers. Most places treated me with disinterested brusqueness. I was about to give up when I saw a large sign for the …