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