It has been a month since I last wrote and I am not sure why
I haven’t written. I have been very busy with evaluating students’ work and
writing report cards for the last 2 weeks. Sometimes blog writing feels like
school work for me and at other times I just have writer's block, nothing seems
to come to mind about what I could write about. However, there are many things
to write about as living in Conakry never ceases to amaze me just by its
uniqueness. The inspiration and the will to write were absent but now I am
back.
I have found the last month difficult to endure as my
thoughts were often gone to Banjul where I dream of a better African life. At
least that is what I think. At the moment, I get very frustrated with what
doesn’t work. At home in our apartment there seems to always be something in
need of repair: the sink leaks, the door creaks and the light bulbs are burned
out. Petty things really. At school, my patience with the basic needs has run out.
We arrived at school one day this week and the generator was not working.
Apparently we had run out of petrol, so there was no electricity and no air
conditioning. No electricity also means no Internet, no photocopying machine
and no running water in the washroom because the generator makes the water pump
work. Then we find out that there was no drinking water left, AT ALL on our
small campus. The 3 huge water bottles that are provided by the local Coyah
distributors were all out of water. How can anyone be out of water? It boggles
my mind. Some of our early bird students, who arrive at 7am before we arrive,
came running to me as I was stepping out of the car. “Mme Mulaire, there is no
more water. Can you get us some water?” …to which I queried had they asked our
school secretary. No more water from the usual company that the school buys
from.
So let’s get organized and get some water. What frustrates
me about the African way of doing things is that they wait when they have run
out completely before more stock is bought. How can we operate an International
School when we don’t have the basics of electricity and water? How can we
provide a good international education when the basic needs are not met? Me
with my “jump to the pump” attitude gets frustrated with these unmet basic
needs. I really gave the director a piece of my mind, to which he got impatient
with my impatience (see blog: http//raymondlemoine-afrika@blogspot.com).
Luckily we love each other and support each other through the messy days of our
everyday living here.
Also the mosquitoes have come back with a vengeance this
past week. When I open the door to the library, the staffroom and then my
classroom, I have to spray with insecticide as the mosquitoes seem to be
sleeping behind bookcases and under chairs. Mosquitoes are the meanies here and
in all of Africa as one never knows if they carry malaria. All the expats are
more paranoid about mosquitoes then the local people. So insecticide spraying
has become the norm in order to battle the beastly mosquitoes.
One very positive event this week was the arrival of a new
school car….wow! A brand new white Nissan car that is so smooth, we don’t hear
the sound of the motor…and the radio works very well so we can listen to the
news coming from France and there is excellent air conditioning! It was a
beautiful ride home on Thursday afternoon and the world seemed better gazing
through the closed windows. It felt like luxury…heck it is luxury! And then
this is when I realized that this brand new car brought me to feel
uncomfortable, weird and a little ashamed. My African brothers do not have this
luxury while I do. I got all choked up speaking to Issa at school about this
luxury. He, in his African wisdom, said that the school needs to have such
comforts if we are to attract people like Raymond and I to come and work here
in Conakry. His words comforted me and then I felt grateful for this gift of a
new car. It will make the last 8 weeks much more tolerable as the temperatures
rise to the mid 40’s. Yeah new car!