Oh....Guinea

So in case you don't keep up on international political disasters, President Lansana Conté - who had been in power for 24 years in Guinea - died a few days ago and his death was announced this morning over the radio. Since then the military has declared a coup d'état. I am hesitant to talk about Guinean politics in this blog, as I am not here to pass judgements or express my opinions about how the country should be run - so I leave you these links to find out the details.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5il-w1kVcVAD9cU9Ac9_IXzMzF3zAD9587HIO0

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i-uQEQhRUpG9E2ib-0EZPvcxwYRg

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/24/world/africa/24guinea.html?em

...anyway, here I am, once again stuck in the Peace Corps compound in Conakry waiting to see how this new development (a big one, I might add) plays out. I wanted new and exciting things in my life when I joined Peace Corps, and what's more exciting than traveling on the day a 24 year "presidency"ends and a military coup is declared (apparently tanks are out on the streets? I didn't know Guinea even had tanks). So I'll explain my day in as much detail as I feel comfortable making completely public:

I left my house early this morning (around the time the radio was announcing the President's death), dropped my kitten off with my Principal's kids and started the 11km walk to the main road (there's not really any transportation in and out of Bintimodia unless it's Thursday (market day)). After about an hour of walking I got picked up by a passing bush-taxi and got to go the rest of the way that way. I got to the main road around 9am and this is where I heard that Lansana Conté had died from Titi, the guy in charge of the cars at this gare-voiture. I thought about going back to my village, but since I had virtualy no battery left on my cell phone and I didn't want to spend Christmas alone in my village I decided to press on and continue to Conakry. I figured (correctly, it turned out) that any major turmoil would take at least several hours to get itself organized and that getting in to Conakry quickly was probably my best bet.

I flagged down the first few cars that went by (accidentally flagging down a "VA" license plate - government vehicle), and eventually one stopped and had a seat open for me. I gave Titi a 300 GNF tip ($0.06?) since he didn't really do anything except chat with me about Lansana Conté while I found my own vehicle, and got in.

Now, I've had uncomfortable rides before, but this one so far takes the cake. I was in the back-backseat of a retrofitted Renault Nevada from the 70s or 80s. This is a small station wagon/hatchback car that would normally hold 5 people and have a spacious space for storage. Here, this space contains another row of seats where 3 people can (sort of) fit. The result: the car ends up holding 10 people total (for those doing the math, add a passanger to the middle row and front passanger seat...there you go). I'd sat in the front passanger seat of one of these taxis before, sharing it with a man who very patiently allowed my kitten to claw at him. I usually ride in the middle row of seats (what would normally be the back row) which is uncomfortable, but at least you sort of were designed to fit in this space anyway. The 3rd row, however, is a little higher up than the middle row, so I had to bend my neck the entire trip (I just curled into a ball and slept part of the way - man I'm getting good at that). I also had my legs getting crushed by the seat in front of me since there was absolutely no leg room. Had I been one inch taller I don't think I would have fit in this seat. Fortunately my driver drove like a maniac and we made the Bintimodia-carrefour to Conakry trip in record time (only having to swerve dangerously out of oncoming traffic once!), and we stopped twice for people to pee where I managed to get up and beat feeling back into my limbs.

Once in Conakry I told the driver where to drop me off so I could catch a car headed to the Peace Corps compound. I walked a ways and foudn a guy who would take me for 10,000 if I bought out all the seats in the car. This was a bit steep, but nobody else was going my direction, and I did my "put it in perspective" trick (converting 10,000 GNF to the USD equivalent of $2) and agreed on the condition that he'd drive me to the door of the compound and not just to the market where I would normally get dropped off. He and I chatted briefly about what was happening to Guinea now that Conté was out of the picture. He compared the current situation of Guinea to Guinea-Bissau (our neighbor to the north, for those who don't have the African map memorized) with regards to drugs and prostitution, etc. It's always interesting to get the point of view of Conakry people vs. village people (Bintimodia village....not the music group), it's like being in a completely different country.

Anyway, now I'm here in Conakry, once more on lockdown with about 20 other people (mostly from my training group) who will be here until things get resolved or completely go to shit. Obviously I'm hoping for the former.

The timing of this is terrible for us in general, many people are traveling (our volunteers are currently in 8 different countries), many more wanted to travel but are stuck in their villages until things change (I dodged that bullet by not having a working phone when the "stay at your site"announcement was made). I'll try to keep people abreast of the situation via this blog as much as I can.