I am locked in my apartment. When I locked the door and took out the key, 1/2 the locking mechanism came along with it, so now I am locked in. Oh Conakry......
U.S. Embassy - Conakry, Guinea Security Message for U.S. Citizens: Protest Marches Planned
The Embassy alerts U.S. citizens that protest marches are planned for Friday, September 28, to commemorate the 2009 stadium massacre. Funeral processions for two protestors killed the previous week are also planned for the same day. These two events will likely result in traffic congestion along major traffic arteries from Dixinn through Bambeto and have the potential for civil unrest. U.S. citizens are advised to avoid travel to, near, or through these areas and to consult local information sources for a situation update before travelling to these areas. The French school will be closed on September 28 and the American school may also close. U.S. citizens are urged to exercise caution, to be particularly alert to their surroundings, and to avoid crowds, demonstrations, or any other form of public gathering. We remind U.S. citizens that demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and possibly escalate without advance warning into violence quickly. Joy. That's right folks, I've found joy, on sale for only 20,000 GNF (~$2.50). That little jar of Nutella (maybe 8 ounces), some french bread for only 2,000 GNF ($0.30), and the sunset. So tasty.
I saw a rainbow the other day too, a legitimate rainbow. Not the silly US, oh look I vaguely see some speck of color in the sky, kind of rainbow. A legitimate, if I had the time I could totally follow it to its ends to find the pots of gold, rainbow. There is a lot of dirty, disturbing injustice here, but there are also unexpected pleasures. A dose of perspective can make all the difference. The problem with unsanitary conditions. It makes me wonder how the heck you can make a clean room (for R&D for computers or researching ebola or whatever). How do you get something clean so you can clean something else? You never notice how much you touch your face and mouth until you are in a place where doing so without washing your hands with anti-bacterial soap and purified water could make you very ill (cholera has been bad this year - symptoms? your poop becomes rice water). I've been washing all of the plates and things I bought in a diluted bleach solution, but I only have so much drying space, so I have to do it in shifts. Also, I have cabinets, but they don't have any interior organization (like shelves), so you just have to stack everything, which is making me a crazy person.
So the market - imagine you're in China town in New York, but take away the really tall buildings and fake designer bags. Replace the bags with a section to buy chicken in cages, and add the sounds of cocks crowing (do they crow? is that the word? howl?). Add a few random chickens hanging about. Take away all the Chinese vendors, but leave some of the random bright colorful plastic crappy made stuff. Pile that stuff up high, with seemingly no order. Add a whole bunch of Guineans. The men are selling appliances and couches and second hand bed spreads and all of the things that currently reside in my kitchen (plates, cups, glasses, a blender, a bucket, a basin and scrub board to wash my laundry, an oven that gives me small electrical shocks, etc.). The women squat around selling small bags of peanuts and rice and whatnot. Make some vendors impassive and non-responsive, and make the majority as eager as car salesmen, but then keep in mind that selling their wares is what really allows them to eat on a daily basis. There is no social security. There are no soup kitchens. There are no shelters. (More on beggars at the mosque later) In the food section, picture cut pieces of fruit and meat lying on tables or on cardboard on the dirty muddy ground. Now add a MILLION flies covering the open food (fruit is cut open to show quality). Now add more flies, because I know you are going to have a hard time fathoming the sheer fly density. In the meat section, the smell of rotting meat and fish is so strong it turns my pansy stomach. Argue for prices, but know that your lack of pigment is going to get you ripped off, because they know you have money. Even if you don't have a lot, you probably have more than them. So shut up and pay higher prices. The largest market is Medina, and the next largest is Niger. I got all of my household goods at Niger because there was a touch of ethic conflict in Medina the last few days. Just a tiny touch, nothing to worry about.
There are beggars that live under tarps on the street in front of the mosque. Under tarps. When you drive on that road (which will rock you like a hurricane), between the hospital (don't seek treatment there) and the mosque, the beggars come up to your car and try to get money. Sometimes people do give as alms because they are in front of the mosque. I heard that Fridays some of the affluent mosque goers give food to the beggars, so maybe that's why they are there. It's so heart wrenching that it's not. Kind of like a baby that's so ugly it's cute. You just can't process how horrible what you're seeing is, so you place it in the "ok, so this is a thing" category.
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