Well it’s the new year and when I look back on the last year I am amazed at how fast it went by and how interesting and unique an experience I have been able to partake in. This year I hope will be just as educational!
A quick update on the activities leading up and through Christmas vacation. On my way to Conakry I took a small detour to visit a friend, the Principals daughter, NeNe Kuddy. As I was leaving my village the principal said goodbye to me and then later I had 2 to 3 calls from him just checking to see where I was. When I arrived I called NeNe Kuddy and she met me at the round about. She said her father had called numerous times to tell her to make sure to meet me because he was nervous I would get lost. We walked home and on the way there she kept saying to me, “watch your bags, and put everything inside, this is not like life in the village.” I had forgotten how accustomed I was to living in my little bubble where most people know me or vice versa, where I leave my windows open and have my phone or money tucked on the outside of my bag. NeNe Kuddy lives in a larger but smaller city than the capital. She lives by herself with her two kids; the third one is in the village with me and lives with her mom. She has a husband who also has another wife, but it is her that changes and washes her kids, it’s her that cooks for herself and kids as well as her husband on the designated nights he comes and eats with her, it is also her who works as a teacher during the day, as well as does the daily chores, going to the market, washing the clothes and dishes, meeting and taking time to welcome her guest, like me.
When I arrived at her house her sister was there, Oumou, who I get along with very well. She had my favorite meal made, had water in a bucket for me to wash, the bed was made, and a bottle of water waiting, that she bought for me to drink. was on the floor. I will never be able to express the gratitude and respect I have for her because no matter what the day is, she is also the nicest and accommodating person towards me. We spent the night going around to meet all her friends and neighbors. At 10ish we got home and thankfully there was electricity, so we watched a movie in Pular, her translating it for me, until finally she caught my eyes closed and forced me to go to bed. She literally put me into bed, tucked a sheet over me, then tucked in the mosquito net and said that I needed to stay another day. You learn to not object to this treatment because it is a sign or respect and acceptance. So I laid there dozing off until Oumou came into the bed with her baby and us three, me, the baby in the middle, then Oumou went to bed. Minus the baby waking up a few times we slept well.
The next day there was a wedding for Oumou’s best friend. So that morning we woke up and started cooking for the ceremony, ate breakfast, then went over to the reception area to help set up. After, Oumou took me home, NeNe Kuddy was still helping set up, so we washed up, got dressed (they dressed me in NeNe Kuddys clothes, did my make up, brushed my hair, and gave me heels to wear) then Oumou and I went to the salon where the bride was getting her make-up done. From there we went to the ceremony that took place in a city hall where it was a women who married them. She made the future husband explain why he wanted to marry her and what love actually meant. Very modern, but nicely done. After there was the traditional marriage where she was covered in a sheet, and given money while we all danced. I left the ceremony shortly after to go and visit a friends. I went and visited his family and neighbors, he’s originally from Bodie but had lived in this city were he did he’s high schooling. NeNe Kuddy had told him and I to be home by 7:30, but of course in Guinean time its impossible to leave when intended, so of course we were late, and NeNe Kuddy was so worried, she said she thought that I had been taken by bandits, etc. I apologized indefinitely until she admitted she was just so nervous and it was okay. This time her husband came over and we all ate together. That night I prefaced that I needed to be at the taxi round about at 8:00am at the latest. She said not a problem. At 9:00am I still had not left the house because she was trying to make me breakfast, wash her baby, and get ready for school, etc. No matter how many times I said I didn’t need to eat she wouldn’t let me leave. Finally I said that I had to go. She made me wait 15 more minutes while she dressed then we were off. On the way there I had to meet other friends of hers, she bought me porridge, bananas, water, cassava, on top of the egg sandwich she had made me. I arrived and Elhadi Boubacar was waiting for me and asked what took me so long, I looked at NeNe Kuddy who someone managed to explain everything. I laughed and was pushed into a car that Elhadi had reserved a spot for me and we were almost ready to go when for some reason we all had to get out and find another car. Luckily we were just able to get into another one. Then NeNe Kuddy said a friend was coming to meet me. Her friend arrived just in time; she bought me 20 bananas as a going away/welcome gift, which I shared with the whole car later. Finally I arrived in Conakry at 1pm, hangout, showered to be presentable for my mom and caught a cab to the airport where I waited to board. Quite the adventure and I was quite tired.
I cannot express how airplane food tastes after living on rice and sauce. AMAZING! After every bite I cherished the food, pathetic huh? I arrived in Paris at 6am, and waited praying I would be able to find my mom in the airport. At 8am-ish I knew my moms flight should be landing, so I stood looking in three directions searching in the crowds for her, until I saw someone carrying a much too large carry on bag and yelled “MOOOOOMMMMMM”. She immediately turned and I ran towards her where the tears began to stream from the both of us. What a relief and treat to be together.
That day we arrived at a hotel, where I proceeded to lay on the hotel bed in awe, we ate lunch/dinner at the hotel where again I was astonished by the taste. Then we had to head back to the airport to fly to South Africa. We Arrived in Johannesburg, then ran to switch planes and fly to our final destination CAPE TOWN. We arrived after a little bit of turbulence, me having been a little motion sick, and went to look for my moms bag. What we didn’t realize is that we were supposed to get it in Johannesburg. Whoops! We were picked up and driven to the hotel that was this amazing resort! We put our stuff down showered and some of us changed into new clothes, haha. Some of us not quite yet. Then went and explored the waterfront area and had dinner. BEAUTIFUL.
The next morning after
an amazing buffet breakfast (the two of us had eaten about 2 pounds of
fruit…each) we were off for our adventure to explore the coast. Absolutely astounding! We made it to Cape Point the most
southern tip of the African Continent, refused to take the chairlift to the lighthouse
and of course hiked up with trails to get there, the two of us sprinting past
people and wondering why we could barely breath at the top. The views unfortunately are indescribable. Just breath taking and even the
pictures don’t do it justice. On
our way there we had seen elk, ostrich, and baboons that had come right up next
to our car. We had also seen the
shanties and poverty, the mansions, the individual’s parked selling wild marijuana
on the side of the road and arrived just in time to ride up to the top of Table
Mountain. Again we took the wrong
path and were on our way to hiking down the mountain when we realized we should
turn around. The views or the city
were magnificent. Not sure how
many more adjectives I can come up with.
But by the end of the day we were just plain exhausted. We relaxed and showered at the hotel
where finally my moms suitcase had arrived and got ready for dinner at a great
restaurant known for serving ostrich which we shared. (Tastes almost like steak
for the record) That night we
slept amazingly.
The next morning we
had time to ourselves. We slept
in, went down to the buffet breakfast, about 18 cups of coffee, 5 pounds of
fruit and add on some toast and pancakes and we were out to the pool to relax
in the sun. Later on we got ready
for our wine tasting tour. We were
picked up by this nice local South African who drove us to our first wine and
chocolate tasting. It was both my
mom and my first time to do that, interesting but after 5 different chocolates
we were quite full and buzzed from the delicious wine. After he drove us to this other unique
older style vineyard. We each were
able to choose 5 different wines.
I choose reds while my mom choose mainly whites which worked out perfect
because we were also sharing each others, not quite how your suppose to do it,
but who cares. We were in our own
private room, where we got to take our time tasting, talking and catching
up. We were both highly
intoxicated, (for my roommates my eyes were almost shut which you all know what
that means) but after a year of
not because able to drink, 10 different wine tasting is just enough to do
it. On the way home it was
wonderful because I was able to ask the local South Africa questions about the
country and life style in Africa, he was so understanding and
informational. He also let us tour
the Malay quarter which signified the colorful district where the people
painted their houses to show their independence.
The next day, I of
course booked a ferryboat ride out to Robben Island at 7am, the island where
Nelson Mendela was imprisoned for a number of years. It was truly interesting to see the conditions and cells but
the most interesting thing was there were old inmates who were giving the tours
and talking about their life while there.
That afternoon we just relaxed by the pool and un-winded.
The next day was our
flight out to Johannesburg, where we had a two and a half hour car ride to the
safari resort. On our way there I
was again happy because the man driving the car was a local colored man (he
explained it is politically correct to say colored and that it was not impolite
because the races were so intermixed) and get his perspective of the country
and government. We arrived at the
resort and on our drive up we saw wilder beast and zebra. I was in awe along with my mom.
We were shown to our
room, which was incredible. That
night we went out on our first safari and made friends with the women sitting
next to us. We saw elephant, giraffe,
zebra, wilder beast, elk, and other interesting animals. But what was also funny was while
everyone was taking pictures of the animals the safari driver noticed that myself
and the women behind me were taking pictures of the sunset. He was baffled but always stopped to
allow us time to take just one last picture of the sunset!!!
At this resort we were
able to do one safari trip a day, we tried 2 mornings and 2 night trips, both
equally as good. One of my
favorite trips was when we saw a heard of elephants trailing along next to the
waters edge. Also one stopped
right next to our car and let us take pictures of him, he was amazingly huge
and cute with fresh mud rubbed all over himself. When we weren’t safariing we were lounging by the pool,
eating buffet breakfasts and dinners, enjoying Christmas movies, and
drinks. Thank you Brooke, Luke,
Scott, Nicole, Dad, Bob and Nancy, and Nana and Grampa for the Christmas cards
and gifts. I missed you all a
ton! We again were sad to go, but
we packed up and headed to cold Paris.
I forgot to preface that when we arrived in Paris the first time my
winter coat and warm clothes were in my mom suitcase, which was on the plane
heading to South Africa. Lol
We arrive in Paris at
6am, both of us were unsure if it was 6am or pm because it was so dark. Both are bags arrived, and we took the
metro to our cute hotel perfectly situated next to The Notre Dame. We spent time there, sipping strong
French coffee and eating pastries, window-shopping on the Champs d’Elysee, and
more or less power walking in the cold weather. Lol Numerous times we both
looked at each other and said, okay enough I’m tired.
One of my favorite
memories was when we went to the Moulin Rouge. We got dressed up, rode the metro there, and were seated
with great views of the stage. The
dinner was served, some seafood starter, toasted bread with pate or cheese we
still are unsure, some starter wine.
For the dinner there was chicken wrapped around a spinach dip, with pumpkin
puree, gravy and vegetables.
Bread, butter, campaign the whole nine yards. Finally our neighbors spoke to us and we conversed in
French/English. The man could
speak English but his wife could only speak French, and same for my mom and I,
so it was a little bit of a mix.
The show was quite interesting as well, amazing colorful outfits,
beautiful women, but my mom and I kept thinking why do the men get to keep
their clothes on while the women are in almost nothing. We were pleased with the show and
returned home to the hotel and went right to bed seeing the show ended around
10:30 ish.
The next day we waited
in line to go to the Eiffel tower.
When we finally made it to the ticket both, maybe two hours later with
freezing toes and fingers, I went to buy the tickets and realized we had been
waiting at the side where you have to walk up. I didn’t have the heart to tell my mom, so I told her to follow me, she kept
questioning where the lift was and I told her a little higher. Finally she realized that we were
walking to the top and we both just laughed and thought who does this. But we made it, it was beautiful, and
the city view was illuminated with a million lights.
The final day came at
last, we did some exploring, and ate wonderful meals but ultimately I was sad
to be leaving Paris and especially my mom. I thought about just going home with her because it had been
so great to spend time and see her, but she sent me on my way and I cried
walking through customs, looking back at my mom and got ready to be back home
in Guinea.
The flight was fine, I
found out after the fact I was sitting next to a famous Guinean singer. When I got off the plane in Conakry, a
friend of mine was waiting, as well as my friend Stacey called to make sure I
came back. New Years Eve was spent
with my friends dancing, drinking, and looking forward to another year of
teaching and learning. I awoke the
next morning, went to the taxi station where the Principal had reserved me a
seat, and waited for the car to fill up.
10 people later were are stuffed into a station wagon and riding village
bound. One of the kids in the car
was from Sierra Leone so we were able to converse in English while I also met a
really nice man who was a teaching in Conakry heading to the village to get his
father who was sick and take him back to the capital. With him I was able to talk about the difficulties of teaching
and the general education system.
At 9am we left… and 2pm we broke down… at 3 pm we started again… and 4pm
we stopped to eat… at 10 pm I woke up with my head on my neighbors shoulder…
11pm we finally arrived. I got out
of the car in the pitch black (No more lights or Paris landscapes) to see some
of my students in the middle of town yelling… “Madame” I was finally home!