Mad Dash to Lelouma

As I sat in the back of a pick-up truck from Labe back to site, the truck so kindly extended with benches added and covered to protect all 13 passengers in the rear from the rain, I thought how am I going to make it through another month without seeing an American. My nearest nighbor, 56k away and millions of big mountains in between us, was in actuality 3,000 miles away. I grumpily hundered down, sqeezed into the truck and prepared to the long bumpy jouney and the game of adding passengers (on the roof if necessary) and deposing them over the 65K track. I could not have been more wrong if I tried.

I arrived in Lelouma on Saturday, the great market day, to see almost five other white people in my village. I know I was gone for a week but that was a quick “porto” (white person) invasion. Come to find out there was a big concert that night with rappers singing about fighting AIDS and the white people (NGO workers) were the ones that organized it....huge sigh of relief...they are not permanent residents. Lesson learned be careful what you wish for.

Only 2 hours later, Simon and his friend, Prof., roll-up on a moto from Labe. This begins the mad dash to Lelouma. Exhaused from the trip and having gotten a matter of hours of maybe minutes of sleep the night before in Labe, I was lucky enough to spend 5 hours as a VIP in a chair slightly listening to various “artists” scream words in Pular into a mic. The crowd behind me was roped off and a few guards were attempting to control their activities, quite unsuccessfully. I woke up long enough to watch this pressing drama and wipe the my drool off my nearest neighbor’s shoulder, the Minister of Health.

The next day Simon, Prof and I went hiking a bit. They left on Sunday and by Tuesday at noon I had another visitor, Joel, who came to help out with a few agro/forestry projects. By Thursday we had food poisioned ourselves and walked over 40Kand now he was stuck in Lelouma because the strike began. We coined his visit “Culinary School Strike 2006”. After the alleged food poisioning incident, a few ruined pans, a heavily seasoned cajun spag. sauce (heavily as in almost the whole bottle) and a few other unmentionable culinary disasters we decided to refocus our efforts on exploring Lelouma and quickly made a pact to spend the next strike at Amy or Tor’s site as they both are culinary guinesses. Our montaineering school was much more sucessful as we discovered waterfalls, huge rock formations, breath-taking valley overlooks and heard and saw chimps and monkeys. In total, Joel ended up staying 12 days. On the 11th day the strike ended and a French guy that is the director of an NGO that threw the concert came back for a visit to Lelouma. So what do Joel and I do, naturally, we invite him for dinner BUT 1st take him on a hike to make him good and hungry so anything would taste good to him. I would like to report that dinner did not result in any major culinary disasters. However, as far as Joel and I understanding his true French that was not quite as successful. However, Joel was lucky enough to score a ride back to Labe with him the next day.

Two days later on Tuesday, I hear non-Guinean English being spoken (ie no screaming...I speak English small small) as a car rolls to a stop outside of my house. It was Amy P and Tor. They were on their own Guinean version of planes, trains and automobiles. They left Amy’s site at 5AM on bike to reach Labe in time to get the morning taxi to Lelouma. They were only 14 days late...Joel and I needed them during the strike. Not only did they bring yummi treats they also brought the news that the country director was coming on Monday. Amy, Tor and I did some hiking and cooking (well they did a lot of really good cooking). Their visit was short and they left of Thursday with the promise to meet up in 1 ½ weeks.

While the country director’s visit was also short it was people packed. As we walked into the head govt. official’s office in the Lelouma prefecture we found that he was presiding over a meeting of about 14 people which all felt the need to stand up and shake hands with each of us as we entered. The head official proceded to give a very moving speech about PC which concluded with him saying that he summoned people from as far as 65k away for this meeting with the PC country directory. He is a very wonderful guy and seems to appreciate PC. I am lucky to be in this community. After a few more visits to the higher-ups, a quick eval of my house and a lunch of rice and sauce (of course) the PC director was on the road and off. So now I am sure I will not see anyone until I go to Labe on Friday. By chance I was on the radio on Tuesday and got the news that the Education Program Director was some on Friday. So I went back to all the officials offices and let them know another visitor was on his way.

When I heard on Thursday that some white people were waiting at my house I was a bit surprised. I was even more surprised when I saw them and did not know who they were. More shockingly, I left my house key with them as I jetted off to Labe on Friday. It turns out they are friends of my friend Christy from Labe. Christy and her boyfriend were supposed to meet them at my house as they were riding bikes and the others took a moto. The friends slept in my bed on Thursday night and Christy and Matt did not make it until Friday AM. They ended up sleeping at someone’s house down the street, nobody would help them find my house when they arrived at 8:30PM in the rain after much drama. Since the only form of communication I have is PC radio and possibly a taxi cab driver from Labe bringing written notes, unexpected visits are the norm.

This ends the tale of the mad dash to Lelouma and why I have not slept in my bed for more than 3 consecuative nights this month. One last comment for those of you thinking I came here to work. Amazingly, this was probably my most productive work month which is shocking and a bit sad at the same time.