An African Still-life (aka What hot season does to candles)
Hot season started with the flip of a switch sometime in the middle of February. One night, it was still cool. The next, it was unbearably hot. As the season progressed, our running water became more and more sporadic and our bathroom remained filled with large tubs of water. One morning, I came back from a bike ride and found a dead rat floating in one of these tubs when I went to take a bucket bath. We started going through 20 liters of drinking water every other day and hardly remained hydrated. Just when we thought it couldn't get worse, the Guineans assured us that "bientot la vraie chaleur va arriver (soon the real heat will be coming)".
In the midst of this all, a new set of Health/Agro-forestry volunteers arrived and then a few weeks later, we had Girls Conference. The day before I left Siguiri to help the new PCV's move in, a riot broke out at the middle school next to our house. I came back from teaching to find our road covered in rocks and smoldering ash. Our friend, Jack, advised me to leave because he didn't know if the riot would continue. Luckily, it didn't but the school remained closed for the rest of the year.
Another Letter Home
April 18, 2001
Dear Mami and Daddy,
I'm back in Siguiri again getting ready to leave tomorrow to Kankan again. While I'm not looking forward to leaving, it will be nice to go somewhere where it is at least somewhat cooler. It still hasn't rained in Siguiri. Saturday morning, it almost did - I was so excited. The sky was covered in dark clouds and I felt three rain drops, but then it moved on. It's been marginally cooler in the mornings, but just as hot during the day. I keep on getting heat rashes. Kankan is cooler beacuse it rained there. We asked Aaron to buy us fans in Conakry, but of course, we have no electricity again. The last two days, we also had no water. In fact, we were forced to go to the pump for the first time. Fortunately, there was water for an hour today and I was able to do laundry.
Yesterday, I also almost burned the house down. I was burning the trash in our metal bucket and an unexpected gust of wind blew the flames onto the flower bed, which went up in a blaze. Fortunately, the fire had nowhere to go from there. I think I will use the flower bed to make compost so I can plant more. My plants aren't doring very well. Half the parsley died and the spinach is almost dead. It can't tolerate the heat.
Oh, before I forget, I received several packages. One full of articles from Washington U. in St. Louis, the other with pasta, dog food, etc. Wulu is being quite nasty and refuses to eat the rice I cook him. Who would think he would turn into a picky dog? He ate it when he realised there was nothing else. He also decided it would be fun to lie on me when I was doing sit-ups....
Our tree no longer has mangoes so people haven't been bothering us. They reopened the college and it appears there are no problems there. I hope it remains that way. Avocadoes are in season now. They are really good, almost buttery. Did you know that one can tell if an avocado is ripe if the pit rattles? It's good there are avocadoes and mangoes because there is little else at the market. Just onions and peanut butter and eggplants. Oh we tried the Indian food - it was decent - good for a change and when one doesn't want to cook.
Lancei and Lancei came over to visit Saturday and we had quite the conversation. First, they informed me that Siguiri is a tourist site. Tourists come here to see the culture since Siguiri is the heart of the Malinke region. Those tourists must all be hiding. Then we discussed climate, wherein they told me that the Earth is hotter along 0 longitude because it is a fixed point and the sun extends along it. I also learned that Chile is an island and the USA has 52 states. I already knew the latter - everyone in Guinea insists there are 52 states. It's what they learn in school. Rumour has it that the 52 was a misprint in a textbook. Needless to say, I set things right. I even turned an orange into a globe and demonstrated seasonal variation. Incidentally, I have calculated that the sun should be directly overhead us in about 2 weeks. That should be interesting. In any case, I am not impressed with what they learn in geography.
Tomorrow morning we leave to Girl's Conference. I will be taking a girl from my 11SS class, Kristin from 12 SM. We will be deplacing a car and picking up Christine in Niandankoro along the way. So that is all. I hope you get through to Kankan. Wulu sends his greeting.
Girls Conference
And for contrast, the same view of the Niger taken at the end of rainy season.
Goofing around during Girls Conference
More Travel
In an effort to escape from the heat, Megan (another Face of the Sun resident) and I decided to visit Athena, who lived on the coast. It ended up taking us four days to get there. Megan biked over from Dialakoro on a Saturday morning and along with Kristin, we decided to take a bush taxi into Kankan that afternoon. Of course, the problem with taking bush taxis in the afternoon is that they might not fill up. After waiting at the gare seemingly forever, we bought three extra seats and took off, even though there were still two seats free in the car. The driver assured us that we would get our money back if he picked up more than two passengers along the way, but this of course did not happen. Throughout the trip, Megan kept on being hit on the head by pieces of dried manioc that were falling off the roof of the car. Megan, Kristin, and I entertained ourselves along the way by singing a spirited rendition of the Peace Corps Guinea blues. By the time we reached Kankan, Megan was sick and we were all dehydrated, despite having each had a 1.5 l bottle of Coyah with us. The Kankan house seemed peaceful and delightfully cool, much to Amy's (Kerouane PCV) dismay, because she was clearly uncomfortably hot.
The next day, we left for Conakry. The trip had an inauspicious start because the car, which was a luxurious Peugeout 505, didn't leave until 11. Various passengers kept on disappearing into the market just as we were about to leave. The car started breaking down early and we didn't reach Dabola until four. At the beginning of the Fouta, we dropped Kristin off, who was going to visit Kye in Dogomet. The car started breaking down more frequently at this point and somewhere east of Mamou, came to a complete halt. The driver left to Mamou to find a mechanic and the rest of us sat on the side of the road and waited. And waited. And waited. And finally Megan and I decided that we didn't want to spend the night on brousse and waved down a kindly patron, who drove us into Mamou, which was wonderfully cool. The next morning, we actually got a car the worked and left the gare almost immediately. Sadly, the trip was marred by my digestive problems, but we actually arrived in Conakry mid-day and left the next morning to Koba.
Pictures from the Koba trip
Cows need gas too...
Megan and Kristin at the gas station in Dabola waiting for the car to be fixed (again)
Stranded on the National Highway somewhere close to Mamou, shortly before we abandoned the car
Megan and Athena in Koba
More beach pictures but at Bel-Air.