Last week I went to Conakry for some meetings and a workshop
held by Save the Children (SC). It’s a long and bumpy ride, but I was in one of
the SC/Ministry of Health cars, so it was a much faster and more comfortable ride
than it would have been on public transport – I got my own seat and everything.
The drive out wasn’t so bad. Once we’d cleared the flats of
Upper Guinea there were low mountains and rocky cliffs to admire. Everything is
excessively verdant this time of year, rivers are full, waterfalls spill over
rock-faces, and there’s flooding in some lower-lying areas. (Looking at all the
water made me think of the view from the airplane when I landed in Guinea in
June – the approach to the Conakry airport starts over the Atlantic and then
comes in low over a delta covered in serpentine loops of water and what looked like
mangroves and deep mud, and it just goes on and on until you start to wonder if
there really is a city and an airport and a runway.)
Aside from the scenery, the most striking thing about the
drive was the number of broken-down trucks and wrecked cars, frequent reminders
that my borderline phobia about in-country travel is not really so unreasonable. Thanks to the nice car and good luck we made
it to Conakry in about 14 hours, and I was very glad to get dropped off at the
Peace Corps office/transit house to stretch, take a hot shower, and get some
sleep. The rest of the week was mostly filled with meetings at the NGO Jhpiego’s
Conakry office and at the Ministry of Health. The main event was SC’s presentation
of the results of the Community-Level Contraception Access pilot project that they’re
hoping to expand over the next few years, and it went really well.
