Backtracking Entry - Arrival in Guinea

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February 10th

We are now sitting in the airport at Paris and have been here for about 3.5 hours. The flight overnight went very well. Our next flight should board within the next hour, as long as there are no delays, and then on to Conakry. Even though we were still international and didn’t leave the terminal, we had to go through security again. It was the first time I activated the detectors and received the pat down and wand. I have a metal loop on my shirt and it probably triggered it, although it didn’t in S. Africa - odd.

We should arrive in Conakry around 9:30 local time. It has been a quiet and almost boring day. Listening to people speaking French around me, I can understand one or two words, Chris is understanding most. Thank goodness most who work here speak English too, which is great for me. I imagine Conakry will be a lot different, with few who speak English. I will be fortunate to have Chris and Aguibou, our country manager, with me most of the time.

That’s it for the moment. When I get a chance, I will copy the text to the blog site.

February 10th, much later.

Arrived in Conakry about a half hour late due to our later departure. Upon entering the airport, we were escorted by a man who took our passports and then lead us to an office, where we saw a wonderful site, Aguibou! We then went to the baggage carousel to wait for our luggage, with many other people and mosquitoes buzzing around. It was quite warm, and fanned myself while standing there and waiting, more for the bugs than the heat. The bags were slow in arriving at the carousel, and the first load seemed to circle around and around. Finally, our bags started to arrive, well, at least most of them. 3 out of 4 bags arrived, usually it is Chris who has bags go missing, but this time, it was one of mine - by big blue bag with my field gear (hiking boots, hammer, etc) as well as my runners, some clothes, promotional material, and my protein bars. Another wait at the report missing bags counters and we were on our way to the hotel. We are staying at the Riviera Royal Hotel, apparently the Rocher, where we thought we were staying, was fully booked. We dropped off our bag and then went for a drink at the pool patio. Ended up in bed around midnight. Woke up a few minutes later to hear the train going by, the train track is no more than 30m away from the room (on the other side of a wall). Chris laughed at the irony of being awaken from the bauxite trains (one of our projects is a bauxite project, so it made the situation very humorous).

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