We were lucky. Four days after we crossed the border at Sao Domingo into Guinea-Bissau (G-B), the border closed. The Senegalese army had chased the Jola separatist guerilla into the city. The guerilla -using mines as warfare- blew up a minibus with people coming from Varela beach, before they were captured/executed by the military. This is a region of tension and sporadic turmoil, one must not forget that. But except for some out-of-order tanks along the roadsides and the former presidential palace in debris, there are few signs of neither the 98-98 civil war, nor the last coup in 2003. Another employee of my aunt accommodated us and took us out cruising Bissau’s potholed avenues, accompanied by loud Cuban music and hot-blooded greetings in Portuguese. There's a perceptible Latin-American presence. The family father; a warm-hearted, pragmatic
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