Crossing My Fingers

Alright, so I've been in Conakry for a day and a bit now. Most of the first day was spent hanging out in the volunteer house and getting lunch and dinner at the beach bar. Today I talked to basically the entire staff of Peace Corps Guinea for one reason or another, some relating to getting Tim cleared for his visit, some relating to medical issues, some relating to what's going on in my village, some about this upcoming training schedule, etc. Afterwards I tagged along with Jarrad to a medical appointment, and we had lunch with Sue - our assistant PCMO - at Conakry's indian restaurant (Restaurant Taj Majal). It was a pretty good meal, and then we had a brief moment to browse stuff downtown before going back to the office.

I've since been hanging out in the compound, and getting stuff ready for Tim's arrival. His flight is scheduled to arrive in like 45 minutes, and I called my taxi driver (who I called this afternoon to set up a "deplacement" for 2:30am). I think I woke him up, but I told him I would be waiting for him at 2:30 at the gate to the Peace Corps compound. I really hope he's not running on Guinean time, and he will get me to the airport in time to help Tim through whatever bit of Customs, etc I can. I'm a bit nervous between dealing with the taxi (I'm going to pay him to take me there, wait for an hour or so, and then take us back - because it's not really safe to just grab any old taxi at 3am in Conakry - especially if you're clearly not Guinean and have baggage) and about dealing with potential problems with airport staff, but I'm just going to cross my fingers and hope for the best all around. Ideally, within 2 hours I will be back in the compound with Tim. I just hope the taxi driver doesn't screw me on the price more than is appropriate for this sort of 3am wake-up and drive me, wait, and drive me business.

Alright, I'll probably update about this adventure in the next day or two...for now wish me luck.