I saw mary off very early Friday morning, and was relieved to hear from her that night that she made it safely back to the states. I wasn’t allowed into the terminal to help her check luggage and all that, so I was worried about people asking her for bribes, but apparently everything went well.
It was hard to see her go, and I am having trouble actually going back to my site. I was supposed to leave Saturday, and now it is Sunday and I am still here. I will be heading back tomorrow with a Peace Corps car though.
We had quite an adventure getting everything together. Thursday we walked around in the morning to look for art and other souvenirs. We found a couple of shops and some good pieces I think, and though we spent a lot of money, I was happy when I walked into a shop downtown on Saturday and found the same kind of statues for three or four times the price. The downtown shops cater to the rich (relatively) tourists, so of course prices are higher, but I was still surprised at how much higher they were.
Later that day we deplaced a taxi to the Royal Air Maroc office, where we attempted to pre-check her luggage, but of course air maroc is the only airline in Conakry that does not offer this handy bribe-avoiding service, and so we had to deplace a taxi back. It was a lot of money and wasted time, and we were not happy afterwards (and were more than a little nervous that we would have trouble at the airport).
But like I said, it all worked out fine. Saturday I printed up some photos to bring back to my family, and I’ve put them here as well. And don’t worry, Guinean’s don’t smile during photos. They are happy, though they don’t look like it.
From left to right: Bintu, Lamom, Mary, Papa, Mamadi.
The four adults are (left to right): Tenen, Bintu, Mamadi, and (I don’t know the guy in purple’s name, he isn’t closely related).
With my cat to boot. That’s my house behind us, and Mamadi and Cece.
Cece seems to have more fun with photos. Maybe he is the right age, or maybe in Cote d’Ivoire they smile for pictures.
That’s the hut that some of the kids sleep in. Most of these were taken hastily the morning we were leaving.
Cece’s class right after their annual exams, which determine if they will go on to the next class.
