Laundry List

Here are my notes from my trip in Guinea. Sorry it's not much, but at least it's something. I couldn't bring myself to blog then because 1) exhausted and 2) French keyboards.

• men taller
• more colorful
• "busted"
• roads not as bad as was expecting
• Customs women at airport: out for blood. If women ruled world, myabe NOT be such a good idea...
• coworkers complaining
• women with babies on backs, loads on head, same as in Ghana
• their version of tro-tros are mini-vans with chain-sawed out triangles in back for (minimal) air
• Plane was tro-tro like, jumping from Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, to Guinea. Abijan, Ivory Coast was full of waterways, as was Conakry, Guinea. Water more incorporated into city layout than in Accra.
• Women with heads covered but also some in slip dresses. Saw a couple of young women washing clothes in bras on side of street
• mosques, not churches
• street signs clearly marked
• I had problems with decimal point in converting/calculating costs
• A papaya costs $.50 (in Ghana it's $.20)
• Had to buy knife and spoon at market so that I could then eat papaya
• ate banana that was big and fat and disgusting---turned out to be an apple-banana. more dense, less mush, left icky film on my teeth
• just speaking English and smiling: hard to be in a place where back-up language is French, which I don't speak
• lots of men sitting around
• need to bring flashlight next time
• power outages at least 4x/day...luckily never in elevator when lights out