we went there on sunday afternoon in a station wagon - 6 seater holds 9 - and stayed at Dabo's family's house until Wednesday. It was a nice break from Conakry and his mom fed us nonstop. We went to 2 different waterfalls and swam a bit on monday and tuesday. There was a great T.I.A. (remember that from blood diamond? people actually say that) on monday when we went to the second waterfall, i'll have to tell you about it in person.
all in all it was a nice time, new friends, good laughs, lots of food (did i mention the food? they made me an awesome salad for almost every meal, including breakfast. i think she was worried i wasn't getting enough to eat since i wasnt eating main rice dish during meals).
Ok.Here is an attempt at an entry about my day to day life.
First of all, it’s REALLY hot here.I just woke up from a nap; it must be about 6 or 7 PM.I’m drenched in sweat even though I slept on the floor (its cooler).But I’m used to being drenched in sweat, it’s my situation for about 20 hours each day,haha.I’m serious when I say I’m used to it.
I’m staying with Sylla’s family in a neighborhood called Conteya.It’s a little removed from the city center which is a good thing, from what I can tell.His house has a huge metal door, the kind that can open out enough for a car to enter.The door gives way to the outside cement patio, which has a part that is an area for storing water and cooking utensils, and a tiled part in front of the entrance to the house.There patio is walled in and there are lines up for hanging clothes.There is a grate that runs the length of the patio which covers a channel that runs out of the house.The house itself is a rectangle.The door to the house opens to the living area which has a hallway coming off of it to the right where there are two bedrooms and a bathroom.There is another entrance at the patio to a separate bedroom and bathroom but this bathroom doesn’t have a drain for a shower.Normally the people who live here are “Ma,” Sylla’s mom; Philip, Sylla’s 4 year old son; LaBel, Sylla’s sister; Nourdin, a 20ish year old girl who came to live with them when she was younger; Moussa, her 2 year old son; and a 16 year old girl, Aisha.
A day in the life of Nourdin (she has the most routine day, but its like an example day in the life of someone living at the house) goes something like this.I don’t know how much it’s changed since we came here, but this is what I’ve gathered.
Wake up whenever you wake up, but usually around 7 or 8.Go out and buy bread and maybe some papaya for breakfast.Come back, set up breakfast for everyone at the house.Boil water for coffee.After everyone eats, eat breakfast. Wash breakfast dishes.If necessary, go out and buy things for lunch.Start preparing lunch. This means, cutting and peeling vegetables, preparing spicy sauce, preparing the vegetables/fish, then preparing the rice.This usually takes up until 12 or 1.Eat lunch.Wash lunch dishes.Possible nap.Wash dirty clothes.Wash dirty 2 and 4 year olds.Start making dinner.Go get water.Eat dinner.Wash dinner dishes.Shower.Sleep.
(thats a pic of Nourdine when we went out dancing one night. that´s my arm next to her)
It’s nonstop.The kitchen is one metal “stove” which is like a tin cylinder with a tin plate on top of it.You put charcoal in the plate and the pan on top of the charcoal.So the kitchen has a capacity of cooking one pan of something at a time.Preparing food takes a long time.All the washing (including the boys but minus the shower) takes place outside on the patio, it’s obviously all by hand.It involves a lot of scrubbing; I’ve never seen a machine get things clean like people get them clean here.Since there is no running water, there is a bucket system.To wash dishes, you have a bucket of soapy water.You wash the dishes, then in a bucket of clean water rinse them once, and then in another bucket of clean water, rinse again.Clothes go the same way.For your feet, you get a scrubbing brush.The streets here are mostly dirt and its red, so you have to scrub off a few layers to see what color your feet actually are at the end of the day.Nourdin scrubbed my blue Old Navy flip flops after my first day here and got down to a color I’d actually never seen before.
For water, we walk up the street the house is on, to the main street that runs by.There is a house there that belongs to some government entity so they have running water and there´s a hose that comes out of the wall to the street where everyone fills up their buckets.During the day, if we start to run out of water, someone will make a few trips with the buckets or those huge plastic gas containers.You can’t bring too much water in the afternoon, it’s just too hot.So at night, the women go and sit by the hose and wait to fill up their buckets, then carry them back (on their heads) and fill up all the water storage spaces they have at their houses.I’ve done it a few times with Nourdin; last time I even carried it on my head!I would say it takes about 15 to 20 trips to fill up the water at the house; I can’t guess the capacity of the buckets but they’re probably 1.5 to 2 times that metal bucket dad uses (or used to use) to wash his car.There are also a few huge round basins that go on your head.I only carried the smaller buckets and it was really heavy; I can’t imagine how much the basin weighs!The girls are experts of course.
The electricity situation is basically that it comes on for a few hours each night.I don’t think we’ve had electricity during the day yet.Usually it comes on between 8 and 10 PM and is off by the time I wake up.Some people have generators (we are one of those people) which make a lot of noise and I can’t figure out how necessary they are since usually there’s nothing left to do once its dark.You use the generator to eat dinner and then watch the tube ,if you have one, haha.But it is helpful for things like going to the bathroom.People who have street stands use candles, which is actually really beautiful at night when you walk down the street.We have a fridge as well which is always cold because when its on its on the freezing setting, which means you have to defrost anything you want to eat or drink when you want it.It’s mostly full of water.
Most of the time we are all outside; it’s cooler and that’s where the action is.I try to help Nourdin and Aisha as much as possible; I spent an entire afternoon helping Nourdin and was exhausted afterwards.These women are amazing.My daily life usually consists of helping out doing all the aforementioned tasks if I’m here, but often I’m out and about with Sylla and sometimes when I’m at the house I’m practicing balafon or writing blog entries or horsing around with the kids.
Ok, I just wanted to get that general info out of the way.I have the comp on my lap and we’re both overheating so I’ll have to write more later.Toodles!
We arrived to Guinea on New Year’s Eve, in the morning. Sylla’s mom was at the airport to pick us up. Apparently she has mad contacts because there was a man with her who filled out our paperwork and ushered us through all the lines. No one even opened our bags since we were with him. So that was quick and easy. A friend of Sylla’s who lives in Italy was also there, as well as a family friend. They both had cars so we loaded up and went to the house. I pretty much spent the rest of the day sleeping. The guys went out to dance to celebrate the New Year but their car broke down and after waiting four hours for someone to repair it, they got into a fender bender with a drunk driver and had to go to the police station. So they just came back home.
The next day we decided to go to Tamara, an island about 45 minutes in motor canoe from Conakry. Lancé, Sylla’s friend who lives in Italy, was in Guinea to give a dance and drum seminar with students from Italy. They were in Tamara so we went to visit Lancé and see a bit more of Guinea. When we got to the port, it was insanely chaotic as everyone wanted to go to the islands to celebrate the New Year. No boats were going to Tamara so we had to rent one for ourselves for the steep price of US$30. Of course all of this involved lots of negotiating and fending off people trying to sell us phone cards. We bought some water and bread and oranges and got into the boat. After a nice ride we arrived in Tamara where Sylla’s sister was waiting for him; she was cooking for the workshop.
Tamara is a beautiful island, with tropical jungle-like flora and fauna. The side we came up to has a tranquil beach and the other side of the island has huge rocks and waves. The best part about it is there are no mosquitos! There were always lots of curious kids around and the people were very friendly. We spent the night there and were supposed to go back the next day but I liked it so much I jokingly told Sylla he could just leave me there, and he said ok. I would stay until Sunday and head back with his sister.
Friday I participated in the dance classes of the seminar taught by a woman named Aisha. She is a great dancer and teacher and will be giving me private lessons starting tomorrow (Jan 12). We danced in the morning, then went to the beach, then danced in the evening, ate dinner, and I went to bed. I was exhausted. The Italians were sleeping in a building near where we danced, I slept outside in front of it with some of them and some people from the island. On Saturday we went to an island called Room which was a bit more touristy. We spent the day there relaxing and at night a major ballet from Conakry came to perform for this other group of fotès (white people) who were also doing a dance/drum seminar. The ballet was amazing. On Sunday we returned to Conakry where I, again, spent a lot of time sleeping.
I was going to try and write a blog entry but I'm out of time. I know everyone has lots of questions and I don't really know where to start because it's different being here and being somewhere else and wondering about what I'm doing. So how about you guys each come up with a few questions and email them to me and then I'll write a blog with the answers. I'm going to try and write something at the house and that way I can just bring it here and upload it really quick.
Yesterday (6 jan) we went to a dundunba which is a wedding party. Then there was another party, where I was dragged in to dance. I'm out of time so more on those later.
This is Sylla from the back with a guy dancing. The soloist plays according to what the dancer does.
ok im going to put up these picutres with a brief description and then as i have time i'll write entries and you can refer back to them. im doing it in parts in case the power goes out
Show in Saly, Dakar Christmas Eve Hotel something or another... the nicest hotel in Saly where the president comes sometimes. interesting dichotomy of rich well-fed tourists and artists performing for them who are scraping by
These pics are from part of the show where they tell a story about a djembefola who is "seduced" by the drum (and pays no attention to the women trying to seduce him). just an fyi, the clothing is just for the performance.
