Monday, March 4, 2013

Feb 12 - Tues - N'Zerekore and Ray's Birthday

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The hotel we stayed in was special. It was described in Lonely Planet as "having the makings of a good hotel". The story we heard was that until November 2012 a bauxite company had contracted out the hotel, but in November they had problems and had withdrawn from the mine and cancelled the contract. The hotel was quite beautifully designed with many separate pods set in lush gardens. We camped in the Conference Centre! We pitched our tents in a selection of rooms that hadn't been cleaned in an age. One of the remarkable points of West Africa is the red soil....and hence during Harmattan and maybe at other times, the red dust. The centre was so covered with the red dust that when you walked over the floor you could see the white footprints.Nonetheless, the swimming pool was divine, and what few staff there were were amazing.

N'Zerekore defies description.I think that one day in the past, or maybe it is one day in the future, it was/will be a beautiful town. There are some lovely new parts which are modern, quiet, and sane. Then it has the market and the centre of town that is chaotic with no structure but streets filled with vendors and a chaotic market area, half built buildings such as a large football statium, and pods of tiny lanes leading through homes, shops, restaurants, much like the lanes in Veronasi in India. Some areas were studded with trees and other vegetation and some coloured with bougainvillia and brightly designed tiles. And always, the friendly, welcoming people. Guinea is largely Muslim, but it is as unnoticably Muslim as Toronto would be Christian (maybe a bad examnple) but we have always been received warmly with no rotten tomatoes, bad eggs, or bricks and stones being cast our way. It is a good lesson that there is a haronious side of Islamism that we sometimes lose sight of due to Western media.

After a slow start, 4 of us headed off to find the Musee Anthropologique. Outside the hotel, the streets were deserted and there were no cabs or bike cabs to be found. Eventually we came to a "diversion" and had to cross a little river and walk along some sketchy paths which put us almost in the centre of town. Alexis, decided to risk a bike taxi and left us at the diversion. When we reached the centre of town we came across the banks. The first one didn't have a good enoughrate to change money at. The second one, EcoBank, as soon as walked in , the Bank Manager came up to us and ushered us into his office. He was lovely. Very efficient. Dressed in a dark grey stiped suit, a blue shirt, and a red striped tie. It always amazes me when among the chaos of Africa you are constantly confronted with impeccably dressed men and women. So, we told him we wanted to change money, in French, and then we waited, and waited, and waited. The whole transaction took close to 2 hours. We sat in his office decorated with lots of spiders and a pot plant, tiled floors and colourful walls, and listened to him dealing with his staff, we watched the security video of the bank, and we listed to him answering his 2 cell phones and one main line phone. It wasn't his fault, he was waiting to hear the rate. Once we got it, we then had to wait for the huge mound of money to arrive. We changed EU 100 which converted to 900,000 Guiinea Francs delivered in notes of 10,000. The money exchanges here are a riot. You pull out a wad of notes, then count them out in mounds.

We had a rough idea where the Musee was; I had looked at the map and knew that it was on the same side of the road as the market, and left of the Grand Mosquee. Although we asked along the way, no one had heard of it. We went into a book store, asked various vendors, and still were not able to locate it. The bank manager had told us that the town had no stadiurm. Well, finally we found the stadium,....but, of course, it was not finsihed, so thus he was right. But we couldn't find the musee. Eventually we turned around, and walking back I noticed the sign "Musee" opposite the derelict stadium building. It was closed! So, we turned around and walked back to the market. We were hungry by then, and started asking directions to the Mouminatou Binta Restaurant. We had no clue. We followed directions various people gave us and ended up beside a Mosque set way in the tiny lanes leading off the market. Whether or not we found the restaurant of that name or not, we found a very local restaurant and joined the clientele in Rice and Meat, Rice Gras, and Founa with Sauce. Don't ask what the meat was, but it was delicious!! Also served with a 4 inch square plastic bag of water. Total price 33,500, approxinately $4.65/$4.70. A great experience.

After lunch we walked back to the hotel, arriving back there around 4:00 p.m. We chilled around the pool till about 6, got ready, and then walked half way back into town for dinner - and to celebrate Ray's birthday. Annie, had managed to find candles for 3 and 7 and she presented these, lit, set in a Mars Bar. It was brilliant, and with all the free beers, happy birthdays, it was quite special. Then we walked back to the hotel and were in bed by 11.

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