Guinea is not actually this fuzzy

If this blog were your sole source of information about Guinea, I might fear that you could believe that everything here is a bit fuzzy and unfocused.  Luckily, other resources exist, including our new and amazing and informative and artistic and did I mention amazing website:  http://www.aldetguinee.com  Here’s the soft-focus version of my life in Guinea:

 

This is the ALDET office where Tibou and I spend a lot of time planting trees.  That mountain of green is two lovely mango trees—we ate well during mango season—though it was a little dangerous working in the tree nursery, never knowing when a squishy mango might come loose and drop 30 feet onto your head.   Here’s Tibou planting Jatropha, an incredibly hardy plant that makes a good live fence.  We’re hoping that by the time our bamboo fence biodegrades, these plants will be ready to take up the challenge of keeping the cows out.  It’s a good thing Jatropha is sturdy: someone (I suspect the neighborhood kids) keeps pulling up our plants.  This is the third time we’ve planted some of these trees.  Poor Jatropha. When Tibou and I aren’t in the tree nursery, we’re hanging out here, working on the website.  This is Tibou’s family’s latest enterprise: a 4-room bed and breakfast plus restaurant, in the same neighborhood as the grand SIB hotel.  The chef, El Hadj, is my new best friend:  I bring him things like cinnamon from Sebhory and basil from my favorite market ladies; he makes me omelets with vegetables and cheese, and donuts dusted with sugar or filled with chocolate spread.  I might be in love with this man.  On the dinner menu this week:  Chicken Shawarma, Coq au Vin, Vegetable Soup, and Salad of Joy.  Dining in Dalaba is going to a whole new level.  Alas, poor Kenny’s Fast Food just can’t compete anymore: their chef, the incomparable James, has relocated to a sketchy bar near the trash sorting center, and their menu has dwindled to chicken sandwich, chicken and fries, and Riz Gras (literally, fat rice, but trust me, it tastes better than it sounds)    Last week, Tibou made bissap, which is the all-natural West African version of Kool-Aid : sweet, cold hibiscus tea, shockingly purple and great at staining clothes and tablecloths.  Tibou brought out a bottle so cold that the top third was slushy with ice, then decided it needed a bit more sugar.    The bissap glass is in the background; yes, his cup of sugar is indeed a larger volume than the bissap cup.  Oh, Tibou.  

This week was the naming ceremony for my friend Fatimata Binta’s new baby:  the little girl is named Maimouna.  Here’s the massive amount of rice that Mariama cooked to bring to the party (hers was one of several contributions) 

And here are Mariama and Mama Jiwo walking in the rain to the party (Mama Jiwo, in the background, has the giant rice bowl balanced on her head, under the umbrella.) And yes, those are socks that Mariama is wearing with her flipflops… as a northwesterner, no wonder I feel at home in Guinea. 

Here’s little Maimouna:  Trust me, she’s much cuter in real life, and not actually a zombie-like shade of grey.  This cameraphone does have some limitations. 

Back to Dalaba for the last two pictures:  This is me and Azizou, the president of the chamber of commerce. I spend a lot of time at his house, near the mayor’s office.  This day, we sat outside his engine parts store and watched the neighborhood kids playing soccer in the open field by the monument to the martyrs of the revolution.  I counted nine boys playing, ranging from maybe 8 to 12 years old, including two in the purple robes that marked that they’d been circumcised a few weeks ago, and one toddler, who kept wandering into the middle of the fray, then being rescued by one kid or another and returned to the sidelines.