Chimp Land

As the calls for prayer from the mosque next door are sung, I am sitting here in the hot, humid air trying to not let my sweat drip onto the keyboard! I am in in Conakry, Guinea in the Jane Goodall Institute office. This is the second time that I've come to Guinea. However, this time around I passed through Dakar, Senegal to see Sarah Leddy! One of my best friends from childhood, Sarah works in Dakar quite a lot and I was able to coordinate my schedule with hers to do a stop over there for about five days.

It was a nice way to reintroduce myself to Africa. Dakar is fairly metropolitan (its all relative) and has quite a few good restaurants, bars etc. Courtesy of the US government, I stayed with Sarah at her very nice hotel in downtown Dakar. The pool was definitely the best part!! While in Dakar I was able to go diving, which was very cool. That is the water was a very chilly 65 degrees which compared to the warm 84 degree waters of the Caribbean that I am used to the experience was chilling! But it was also exciting to see a fairly different underwater ecosystem. There are no corals here because the change in water temperature is too great but the sea floor was covered in sea fans and sponges. I saw fluorescent green moray eels and big schools of fish! The greater size of the fish is immediately evident compared to Caribbean fish. We also saw some sting rays and gigantic orange starfish.

Unfortunately, my stay in Dakar was short...there was work to do in neighboring Guinea!

So early Saturday morning I arrived at the airport to catch my flight. For some strange reason, the flight to Conakry is at the ungodly hour of 3:45 am. Since efficiency is not expected, its best to get to the airport with lots of time so I got to the airport around 2 am. The flight didn't leave until 4:30 and thus began my completely messed up sleeping schedule. Lack of sleep is something I can deal with a few nights a week on weekends or what have you. But I've been in Guinea three weeks now and last night was the first time I slept straight thru the night and also the first time I got 8 hours of sleep. The primary reason for lack of sleep is heat.

Its the beginning of the rainy season and so it is excessively hot day and night. The only respite is when its raining...or when there is a fan directly in front of my face/body. You would think that wouldn't be difficult to arrange but it is! For the past three to four years the supply of electricity and water to the capital has deteriorated to the point where some neighborhoods have neither. Where I live, we have electricity one night every two to three days. I haven't figured out the water schedule but that is about one night a week. I don't expect electricity and plumbing when I go to the interior of the country and am in villages but in the capital??, I MEAN, come on! Is there any other capital in the world (not in a war torn country) that doesn't have electricity at some point during the 24 hours of day or night. What is even harder to believe is that many West African rivers originate in Guinea and with the mountainous terrain, are well suited for dams. The dams that were built have broken down and money to fix them has been "eaten" as they say here in French. The country is extremely poor with per capita income is under $2500.

If you can measure development or wealth by the models of cars in a country then Guinea is about in the 1980's. This scene of a man pushing a car on the highway is pretty common. I continue to be amazed at the varying states of vehicles that are driven on the streets and roads of Guinea. What looks like a completely stripped car ready for the junkyard is likely a taxi with six to seven people in it riding down the street. Recycling is not a concept that needs to be introduced here. It is part of every day life.

Guinea is one of the most corrupt countries in Africa. The president is old and sickly and for the past three years the country has been run by his "advisors" whose only work seems to have been to enrich themselves and the President's family. The Prime Minister was sacked almost two years ago and another one was never named until about a month and a half ago. This was after the entire country went on strike, led by the unions in Conakry. The strike led to martial law and over one hundred people were killed, women were raped and the population in general was agravated by the military roaming the streets enforcing the "rule of law". The major strike was last February and culminated in the naming of a new Prime Minister. However the first candidate named was a long time friend of the President and this caused for rioting in the streets. To quell the anger and destruction occurring all over the country, the President finally named a Prime Minister that the people were able to accept. He has begun to make some changes and is seen as the only person who can and does go against the President. The situation has calmed down quite a lot but the people have finished accepting the status quo. Just last week, a military officer denounced the corrupt practices of the officers who for ten years had been stealing soldier's wages and other funds. The soldiers started rioting just outside of the city and the situation was tense but the prime minister called in rangers and red berets trained by various international countries and order was restored.

Its an interesting time to be here. At the lowest level people are demanding change. In one of the larger cities in the interior of the country, the motorcylce taxis association gathered together to demand to know where their contributions were going to since they were not seeing any results from the association's supposed activities. When I came here last August, the students and teachers of the university were striking. That led to the full fledged strikes in February and goes to show you that smaller scale activism does work to promote and initiate change!!!