Quaint and quirky

We’ve been back one week from our  holiday break and what a week it has been! Report cards and parent-teacher conferences all in the same week….and I survived it all! Whew what a week it was:  stressful, too busy and extremely tiring!

Coming back to Guinee last week was quaint and quirky at the same time. It was feeling like home after visiting Kenya and Mali. Home I asked myself? Conakry is home?  How odd to even think this. Everything around me was familiar! The ride from the airport where I could recognize the statues at each roundabout, the skinny goats grazing along the railway track, the bicycle chickens scurrying across the road and the people selling their goods along the highway all seemed to be exactly as I remembered them. The streets did not seem as dirty as I remembered them and the chaos as we drove by the market seemed non-existant. Was it me that had changed or did Conakry clean up its act while I was away?

I did have a new perspective on life in Guinee. I was back on my street and then back in our little apartment and it was cozy.  Though my life is confined here and there are few choices, it was comforting to be in the “known”. It was good to buy the baguettes from Ashram again. The security guards in our building welcomed us so warmly, holding their hands in prayer  as we walked in, that we were both  very touched. “It looks like they missed us,” I said to Raymond.

As we unpacked our luggage and bought a few groceries, I had to implement a new routine. I had just found out that to avoid getting parasites, we need to bleach our vegetables and fruits. Our sensitive Canadian tummies seem to be prone to getting attacked by parasites so bleaching is the remedy. This consists of filling my sink with tap water and a capful of bleach, yes Clorox! Next, I dump all the fruits and vegetables that will fit in the sink and let them sit for 10 minutes. Then everything comes out and is rinsed in purified bottled water. The last step consists of letting all the produce dry on a big towel. When everything is completely dry, it gets placed in the fridge.  This is a quirky thing to do, but it has been recommended from other expats. So far, no parasites and no bleach taste in our fruits and veggies. Look at all this wonderful produce…and papaya season has just started! Yummmm!