Labé Summary and Conakry Situation

Alright, well since my last post I have: attended an awesome halloween party in Labé with other volunteers, attended the VAC meeting, ended up staying in Labé a couple of extra days due to travel complications (more on that soon), and then came to Conakry on a Peace Corps car via the scenic route (5 hours longer on a much rougher road than the way I came). I am now in the Peace Corps office in Conakry until the situation here gets resolved. But first...

So, there was a large gathering of Volunteers in Labé to celebrate Halloween, we made mexican food (tortillas, beans, salsa, guacamole and tortilla chips - all from scratch since there's no canned beans or pre-made tortillas ehre) and had punch. Everyone made costumes from stuff found in the market, I found a track suit from the 80's in the market along with some sunglasses, and was a mobster from the 80's, pictures will be on Facebook in the next day or two. Some highlights include a Sarah Palin costume that was very well done, I think it was the hair and glasses that really did it, a cracked out and pregnant Britney Spears (I've heard rumors she's getting famous again for legitimate reasons...good for her?), and Guinean-Spice Girls (Maggi, Fish, Palm Oil, Piment, and MSG...I think the Maggi costume was probably the best one of the whole party) among others. It was really great to see everyone again (all of the Fouta people from my training group, 10 of them I think, were there, along with lots of people from the previous training group who I hadn't met yet).

The VAC meeting was also a great experience. I mostly listened at it, though I did have a couple of suggestions to throw in here and there.

Now, the beginning of the drama. On Saturday I decided I didn't have enough time to get to Conakry if I left after the VAC meeting, so I waited until Sunday. However, on Sunday I discovered that no taxis were moving because there was no gasoline being sold anywhere. It turns out that when the price of oil dropped 50%, the price of gasoline here only dropped like 20 or 30%, so gas stations refused to buy the gas, and so nobody could gas up their cars. The only gasoline available is via the black market (aka, anyone who had some before the gas stations closed, who are now selling it by the liter for the equivalent of about $20 per gallon). Because of this, I decided to wait one more day and get a Peace Corps car ride down to Conakry, since a car was going to be going down the following day.

The next day we left, and I was in the car that was taking a back road that cuts sort of diagonally from Labé to Kindia, and then rejoins the main road. This means I was travelling a shorter distance than I did when I drove up in the first place, but it took over 5 hours longer (about 12-13 hours). This was partly because we stopped at the village of a Volunteer who had switched villages to get her stuff (the reason for the detour), but mostly because the road was very very rough and so we could only go so fast (and believe me, we were going FAST for the quality of the road, my back is still sore from the ride). We heard over the SW radio that there were issues in Conakry and we may have a hard time getting in, but we weren't entirely sure what all was happening.

We got to Conakry last night and unloaded, soon after our arrival we got a phone call from our security officer who had been told we had arrived safely. We were told not to leave the compound without his permission and we were informed that there had been demonstrations and at least one death that day in Conakry. This morning we were told we could wander a bit if we needed to go to the market for food, etc - but we couldn't go anywhere in a car. So I will be in Conakry until this blows over. I don't want to personally explain the situation via this blog to avoid any miscommunication or misinterpretation, so I will instead direct you to these news stories that explain what has been happening recently.

http://www.afrol.com/articles/31551

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gqtIf8t8waZ_euDFPqjH7q8IV8Yw

...more on Google News (search Guinea and/or Conakry)

Rest assured, I am absolutely safe here since I am in a guarded and fenced in compound that is relatively distant from the main trouble spots. All other Volunteers that are out up-country in their villages are also safe, since the violence has been centered around Conakry.