Sunday July 25 2010---Day 4

 

      Today was even slower than yesterday. My head is heavy with a head cold, probably the result of the constant air conditioning  in the apartment and the shock of the heat as soon as you step outside. I’m sure  the stress of the trip also plays into this  right now. Where’s the Cold FX when I need it? Luckily Tylenol and Advil come in handy and I float through the day aimlessly, reading, sorting out my school materials, sewing buttons on a skirt and making soup. Homemade soup when you have a cold is still the best remedy wherever you are in the world! Our day is a very lazy one. It is a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky. I wonder if Sundays are different here in Conakry, with my Guinean neighbours. I step out on the balcony to observe. Women seem to be dressed up a little more today and everyone seems to be more relaxed. A group of teenage boys are playing a game, similar to backgammon; they use a chair to hold the game. In a garden on the left a group of women are sitting close to each other and chatting up a storm. They seem to be enjoying each others company and stay  together for a few hours sitting on hard  wooden benches. A young child is playing by himself sitting on the ground, not too far from the women. A young boy waves at me, gesturing for me to come and eat. I wave back, and stay safely on my balcony. If only we had a sponsor, someone that would walk with us and introduce us to people or tell us more about what to do and what not to do. We are really alone. This posting is so different from all the other postings we’ve had before. In the past overseas assignments, someone was assigned to “walk us through” our first week. That sponsor was priceless as he/she would help us open a bank account, show us where to buy our groceries, get us to the offices to install the telephone and TV and just answer all the questions we had. Here in Guinée, we have to figure everything out by ourselves and it makes our life much more challenging. Luckily for us, we speak  French the official  language of the country. This is a life saver.

       At 6pm I tell Raymond we need to go for a walk; we step out of hibernation. We walk unto the street and head for the ocean…I would love to go sit by the ocean. The problem is that we are very unsure of our surroundings, where to go, how we are perceived by the Guineans, if we are breaking any cultural rules, etc. etc. and basically and truthfully we  are scared! If only my skin colour was black right now! It makes me reflect on the visible minorities in Canada and how we treat them. Now I am a visible minority.  It doesn’t feel very good, not very comfortable at all.  As I process this, I meet the first white woman since my arrival. She says bonjour as we walk by. I hold myself back, wanting to strike up a conversation. No sooner has she passed us, that a caravan of big shiny cars come by….and I see for the first time what I was dreading to see……a truck load of military men wearing red berets. Yikes! We assume this is the presidential motorcade.  Once they drive by, I sigh a deep breath and turn to Raymond. “So that was it huh?”  “yup” he said and we continue our walk, turning unto a side street. I admit being apprehensive of this event, especially with everything we know about the political unrest right now.  Up ahead we see a small fruit and vegetable stand  where a beautiful young woman was beckoning us to come and see. Another breath…it can’t be that bad to barter for fruit. We know that she will ask us more than she would from her fellow Guineans, but that’s what you get for being white. We bargain for bananas, mangoes and she adds an avocado, telling me that she wants me to come again.  She doesn’t want to lower her price. So we end up paying about $2.40. This would have cost close to $12 in Canada. And you can’t get fresher than this….the bananas are very sweet, still clumped together from their original stem and the huge mangoes are so delicious they melt in my mouth. As for the avocado, this will be tomorrow’s treat. Well we did it!! We bargained and it did not hurt too much.  We feel proud of ourselves, having taken another step out of our comfort zone, even if I did not sit by the ocean. It will be for another day, hopefully!