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.
1am: Arrive at airport in Dakar. Our plane continued on to Washington, so only 10 people got off for Senegal. At immigration, they asked Diego for his international immunization card, which he had... in Buenos Aires! The officer told him to go get back on the plane because he couldn't come in to Senegal. What actually happened is he paid $15 and got another yellow fever vaccine and card. We went to go get our baggage. Of the six bags we checked, three arrived! Only Diego's personal things came, mine and Sylla's were not to be found. So I sat with the things and attempted to converse with the security guard in French while the boys filed a missing bag report.
2am: We got a taxi to go to a hotel near the airport, but the area had changed so much that Sylla asked if we just wanted to go to Sady (a neighborhood) and stay there (we were going to go there the next day). It was 45 minutes away. So we got a night tour of the Dakar - Sady route. There was a lot of grass involved. We got to the hotel around 3 I guess, where Sylla proceeded to get into a discussion with the cab driver because he wanted more money than what they had agreed on. We checked into our hotel which costs around $20 a night. Our room has a fully equiped kitchen, living area, dining table, and separate room with a bathroom. NICE!
7am: Sylla is telling us hurry up and get up, we have to go to the embassy, to the airport, let's go. I could hardly open my eyes. I hadn't slept on either of the flights (that's approx 2 days without sleep). I grumbled but got out of bed and we ate some fruit and left the hotel. We got about half a block down the dirt street and we hear "Papis!!" Some of Sylla's friends were out and couldn't believe that he was there. This scenario repeated itself throughout the day. So we got to meet some of his friends, all of whom are artists, all of whom are incredibly nice people. Some of which speak English! But mostly they speak French. I'm working on it.
The neighborhood the hotel is in is really great, it's very peaceful. It has dirt roads, goats, cars, houses, stores, and is very close (20 mins) to some major tourist hotels. You can walk around at any time, day or night, with complete peace of mind. Our hotel doesn't even keep the gate locked. So far no one has had their door locked on their house either. Whenever you meet someone, they say Ca va to you about a thousand times, then welcome you to their country, say something to you in English, shake your hand, or give you a hug. Diego had on a Maradona (Diego Maradona, famous Argentine soccer player) jersey, and everyone kept yelling "Diego!" to him, which is funny because they don't know that's his name. And when he introduces himself as Diego, everyone automatically says "Diego Maradona." It's hilarious.
8am: We went to the traffic circle to get a cab to the embassy. The city center is near the airport, so around 30 to 40 minutes in a cab. Sylla asked the prices, of course they were double or triple what they should be since he had 2 white people with him. He got really angry " " and we walked over to where the buses pass by. Eventually the taxi driver came over and said his price was ok, let's go. This situation also repeated itself throughout the day. The traffic was unbelieveable, and we stopped to get gas, where we took advantage of the opportunity and bought some bread, cheese, and water for the trip and I used the bathroom. We also stopped on the side of the road for fresh coconut water out of the coconut (remember that mom?). From what I can gather, when you hire a taxi, you have an agreed price and then they're basically your driver, meaning you can get them to stop wherever you want if you have something to do there.
9:30: I'm completely making these times up, by the way. We got to the embassy, where Sylla knew the consulate. She gave us some forms, we went to get ID pics and passport copies done, came back, paid, Sylla slipped her 5000 CFA for fast processing, and we were on our way. We got to the airport, our bags still weren't there. Supposedly they were coming Tuesday morning. We asked about airfare for Guinea, $600 round trip! We were planning on spending around $200.
..to be continued, we have to go pick up our passports, visas, and hopefully baggage.
Things got off to an early start on Saturday morning; everyone’s alarms were set within about 10 minutes of each other so the apartment went from sleepy to action in no time. We ate breakfast together to give our trip a good start, loaded up the van, and headed to the airport. Diego’s mom had left Pergamino that morning to come to the airport and say goodbye but because of the soccer game she didn’t make it in time, and had to say a tearful goodbye over the phone as we waited in line at immigration. Everything went smoothly, until the Duty Free shop where the boys couldn’t control themselves with the cheap perfume and electronics. Despite my repeated warnings that we were low on time, they perused everything until finally Sylla got the hint and we decided to head out. Diego was paying for his perfume and suddenly there’s a flight attendant: “TAM Sao Paulo? TAM Sao Paulo? Last call. You have to run!” So the boys paid for their things and we started running through the airport – of course the gate was in some obscure, far-off corner. We’re running and running, we finally come up on the gate and, holy crap, there’s still people in line to board. That was a good laugh and we got on the plane just fine, where we proceeded to wait at least an hour before taking off.
TAM was great; they gave us little candies before the flight started (to get our blood sugar up after the marathon through the airport, haha). The flight was around two hours and we got full meal service (take a hint AA!), a nice pasta. We all had personal screens with games and movies, I watched Pirates of the Caribbean 3, which I still don’t recommend to anyone. We arrived in Sao Paulo, went through security, and lo and behold, another Duty Free shop! Luckily I’m not wooed by those things, I took the opportunity to look for our flight info on the screen – not there. I checked the time, it was 17:55 and our flight departed at 18:30! That was enough to get the boys moving. So we’re running through the Sao Paulo airport now. We went to the TAM counter and they told us terminal 2, which involved: going up some stairs, running down and through various corridors, going down some stairs, running through more corridors, running through a Duty Free shop – they’re everywhere – and of course our gate was the LAST one in terminal 2. Once again, we arrived to a long line of people waiting to board. We stood in line for a minute until I remembered we had to check-in with the airline. So I took the boys up to the counter where we got everything sorted out and boarded the plane. What would they have done without me??
Definitely the least comfortable 9 hour plane ride I’ve ever had. The seats barely reclined at all. The service was great, until the stewardess threw away Diego’s mate thermos he bought at the Buenos Aires airport (language barrier). Anyway, now I’m in Johannesburg at the airport. Diego went out to explore the city; I stayed here at the airport, in part out of solidarity with Sylla (he couldn’t get his visa in time) and in part because I was worried about not being able to make it back to the airport for whatever reason. Which is guess is a moot point because if Diego doesn’t show we won’t be getting on the plane. Anyway, I kind of wish I had gone with him to see the city, even if I’m not a tourist, because just being in the airport is completely intriguing with all the different kinds of people and cultures milling about. Already, I’ve had to come to terms with a lot of misconceptions I had about Africa. I’m excited to be here and would like to come back to South Africa with more time.
The next flight leaves in about 10 hours – hopefully we won’t have to run to catch it!
