Well, the trip is over and I took a bit of a breather from blogging. I arrived home on Monday afternoon, without my bags. I had a quick turnaround in Frankfurt that ended up being really quick, I got off my plane from Paris as my flight from Frankfurt started boarding. Not enough time for my bags to make it to the next plane. So I got home and waited, I kind of knew that my bags wouldn't show up though. Canada has a very different customs system than most countries. Whenever I come into Canada or leave from Canada to go to the States via Toronto I have to collect my bags and re-check...
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Tomorrow is our last full day. We leave tomorrow evening on an overnight flight from Conakry to Paris. When I wake up tomorrow it will be a day full of goodbyes. Today was a day without much business. We didn’t see any alliance projects, it was just a day to relax and reflect on the time we’ve had here.
One of the most important elements of these types of trips is the final wow. As you prepare to leave and say goodbye it’s always helpful to have one last fun outing to help you make the transition from communal life back into the real world. It’s something that camp staff...
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We finally left the interior and headed back toward Conakry but before we got there we had 2 more stops to make. It was hard to leave the 'rustic' cabins, especially with that view but I think I kind of like Conakry too. The first stop was at the Compassion hospital in Mamou (or just outside) and the second was at the Wave Base.
The Compassion hospital is an independent inter-denominational hospital that has been supported by the C & MA here in Guinea. It is not affiliated with Compassion International but shares a first name with it.
We met with their administrator there who is from...
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Today was a fantastic day! I loved every minute of it and wish I could’ve spent a few more days up here. The IW’s are great people and on top of that, they have 4 kids (including twins). Can you believe it? 4 kids! It’s like the perfect number of children. They have 3 boys and 1 girl.
I loved spending time with them. In fact (confession time), I sort of dropped off hanging with the adults and spent time with the kids. Not only were the IW kids there but there were also four local Fulani boys. They were there doing some chores because all of their school fees are paid for by the IW’s.
Anyway,...
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So today we drove to two places, the first was Mamou, in the interior and then we ended up at Tinka a place where the C&MA has what you might call, ummm, rustic cabins.
Our day started off early with about a 5-6 hour drive. Having spent some time driving on Jamaican roads I sort of knew what to expect. Pot holes, everywhere. I’m not talking small pot holes either, at some points these were gaping holes that ran across the entire length of the road. Primarily, it meant slow driving and lots of swerving.
You really had to be strategic about where you sat in the van because depending...
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Today was another full day here in Conakry and yep, it’s still warm. Although it’s warm there is one thing that’s surprised me about the atmosphere here, it’s always cloudy. Maybe it’s some type of cloud cover but there’s a constant haze over the city. We think it might be smog but we’re not sure.
Anyway, the day started off with a very early wake up. 6:30 in the morning we were up because our team was on breakfast duty. The nice thing about Dan’s temperament is that he is really detail oriented so he had the menu set, all our team had to do was cook it. Our team is large...
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So, today was our first real day in Africa. Our agenda is pretty full and Dan, our roadtrip guide is fairly disciplined at making sure we stick to our schedule. This morning we began with a time of prayer and working out some details with regard to cooking and dishes, etc. Then we went and met a lot of the people who work here on the compound, the C&MA shares the space here with a Bible translating organization. Together they’ve translated most of the NT into 3 or 4 of the main languages here in Guinea.
After that, we set out on our journey into the heart of downtown Conakry to do some...
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