Guinea: Day #1 – Arrival

Wow.  So, today was a marathon of flights, 10 hours in the air, and if you can believe it, not even the worst of it.  However, I have arrived in Conakry.  It is hot!  Like, super hot.  More humid than hot, it’s as hot as Jamaica but about 100 times more humid.  Worse, there’s no air conditioning on site.  Now, usually that would be a big enough deal for me to complain, but honestly, it’s pretty much like those hot summer Ottawa days before we got AC back in the day.  So it’s really not that bad.

Anyway, travel itself is pretty boring, just a connection here and a lot of sitting there, where it gets interesting is when you get into the Conakry Airport.  Now, I use the term airport loosely because, honestly, it was rough.  You get off the plane and there’s a huge crowd of people that meet you, army, security, police, and loads of airport workers.  You offload onto the tarmac so the heat hits you right away, and then, you just hop on a bus and it takes you over to the main building.  Now, this is africa so don’t expect the building to look pretty.  It doesn’t.  It’s like a run down building, made completely of concrete with paint peeling off the walls.  You walk into the building and there are more people to greet you, army, airport workers.  I am not exactly sure what these airport workers do but they were there.  Some were looking for the people they were sent to pick up, others it seemed were just there to hang out?  I don’t exactly know.  They separate you into two lines, locals and foreigners.  You wait in line and even though there are army personnel present there are only sections of scaffolding separating one section from another and there are people everywhere, just waiting around!  The building is basically 2 rooms, the customs room which is about the size of the chapel at Cedarview (maybe a bit smaller) and the baggage claim room.

So, to clear customs you first have to be looked over by the army, they look at your papers, check you out and then send you to the customs booth.  There they look at your papers again, give you an entry stamp and you head to the yellow fever checkpoint.  There they check for your yellow fever vaccine, if you don’t have it, they give it to you right there!  Glad I had mine, I’ll just say that.  Afterward you walk into the baggage claim area and you meet a bunch of friendly people who want to help you take your bags (so they can make a little money) you politely say no but honestly, it’s like a crazy place.  People are talking loudly and there’s just commotion everywhere.

We met up with a few people who are from the C&MA who helped us get our baggage.  Once we had that we needed the baggage tag from our luggage and our ticket to get through the baggage screening section.  So, once you have your bags, you need to prove they are yours and sometimes, they’ll even go through your baggage.  For me, lucky me, the girl that was on the baggage check wanted money before she would check my luggage.  At first I kind of laughed because I didn’t believe her, I started to fiddle around for my key to unlock my bag but no, she just wanted money.  A little money before she would check my bag.  I said no, then I grabbed chad who is with the team here in Conakry and he helped me out and she quickly let me get through without even checking my bags.  Sweet!

So, now I have my baggage and I can leave the airport, a few people start to head toward our vehicles and I tag along, we end up going up a ramp and through the grill of the ramp people are holding out wads of Guinean Francs trying to get us to exchange money with them.  Wild.  We get into the parking lot and make it to our vehicles and then drive through the streets of Conakry on our way to the compound.

The first thing you immediately notice once you’re off the main airport road is that all the lights go out.  There is no electricity except for the few generators that some people have.  Everything else is done by firelight, usually from kerosine burning in a glass bottle.  It reminded me of Jamaica in the sense that people are out in their 6′x6′ concrete shops along every street, people, when it’s dark are eating their dinner.  Everyone lives outside the house here, just like in Jamaica.  The major difference is that Jamaica has more infrastructure and development.

As we continued to drive we came close to the compound and saw this massive stadium that the Chinese are building for Guinea.  A soccer stadium obviously but it looks honestly big enough to hold 100,000 people.  It is massive.  One of the biggest suppliers of aid to Africa is China but it always comes with strings attached.  China has agreed to build this stadium for Guinea, loaning them the funds to do it but on the condition that all the workers are chinese.  So, instead of all that employment money going to Guinea, it goes to China.  Guinea doesn’t have the workforce to be able to support a structure like that, with engineers, etc.  And it wouldn’t be built to an international standard so in a way it’s good that way but the only benefit to Guinea will be after it’s completed.  And then, the Chinese still need to get paid, so the debt goes up.

Anyway, that’s day one from Conakry.  We arrived on the compound, ate some dinner, complete with pineapples, mangos and watermelon and now I am tired and ready for bed.  8am breakfast tomorrow morning!