Tour de Kankan, Part II

These next five photos were taken by Stacy, on the mango-lined street (another landmark) that runs from the Totale gas station over to the market. (The last two are my personal favorites.)

The rest of these pictures were taken by me. A couple weeks ago I bought fabric from the fabric vendors (up close in Stacy's photo above and from a distance in mine, below) and they're nice ladies.

No one seemed to mind that I was taking pictures - I tried to stay in the background and make it obvious that I wanted a view of the general market scene and not anyone in particular, which may have helped. It was a pretty normal day - crowded, noisy, too many motos, lots of trashfire smoke and a wide variety of smells, ranging from frying fish to old meat to fresh soap to moto exhaust. 

Those are the towers of Kankan's big mosque (another landmark) in the background above, but the real reason I took this photo is that the "new" Senegalese restaurant is on the second floor of the building in front of the mosque, right where the palm trees are. The "Peace Bakery" below is right next to where Katie K. used to live - sometimes it's hard to get a photo without someone strolling (or moto-ing) into the frame. 

And that concludes our brief tour of Kankan. I have more photos to upload, of New Years and my neighbors, but those may have to wait for next week and the Peace Corps office's (comparatively) fast internet. 

Tour de Kankan, Part I

Like many people, I've always wanted to take a bunch of photos of the city of Kankan, but have been hesitant - I don't want to get yelled at by cops or people who don't want their photo taken or who demand money for photos. The other day, though, I tagged along with PCV Stacy as she went to get some photos printed at a little place on the second floor of a building right downtown, and I took some pictures from the comfort of the front and rear landings. 

The pictures aren't anything special, but they show what a typical street loos like - dusty, mango trees here and there - and in one you can see part of the main roundpoint by the Totale gas station, which is a major ladmark. 

After the photo place, Stacy and I walked toward the market, along murky drainage canals brimming with trash (very typical of the Kankan experience) and past a giant pile of refrigerators and freezers (less typical but still interesting). 

More to come, just as soon as they finish uploading... 

Rooftop Weekend

Since most of what I have to get done involves the office, (which won't be open for business until Monday) I have the weekend free. This suits me just fine; I've had ample time to do laundry, sleep off whatever fierce microbe turned my stomach inside out the other night, adjust to the sweltering humidity, and take in the scenery.

Still life with shadow and mosque.

I called to greet my Senegalese host family and had a short-but-super-pleasant conversation. (When it comes to international cell phone calls, talk is not cheap!) I've been thinking about Senegal a lot, and pretty much constantly comparing here and there. So far, many things in Guinea are the same as they were in southern Senegal - the Pulaar vendor ladies selling rice and sauce, the constant greeting, the smoldering roadside trash fires, the nightmarish traffic, the free-roaming goats. Here most of the small children (and some of the grown-ups with nothing better to do) call out “fode” instead of “toubab” when they see me, but as in Senegal, most everyone is really nice. (I haven't been on serious public transportation yet, but I hear it's an extreme version of the usual rickety unpleasantness.) 

Inland View

Coastal View

When they can afford it, people seem to favor using brick-red tile or painted metal sheeting to roof their houses, which is different than in Senegal, and there are more trees, here too. More trees, more plants, more humidity. Kankan will be quite different than Conakry - it's far from the sea, out in the savanna on the other side of the mountains - and I'm hoping it will be a little less humid up-country (as they say here).

Rooftops View