Driving Miss Dawn -or- Why Everyone Should Have A Chauffer

I confess – our team has a chauffeur. His name is Mr. Bah. Sounds like something out of the Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, huh? Well, before you rethink supporting people who spend their money frivolously, let me explain……. Actually, if you have every lived in Guinea, I probably don’t really need to explain. But in the off chance you have not had the blessing of visiting our fair country, let me tell you why having him is a REALLY good idea!
While we employ Mr. Bah full time and he does make trips up to the village for us, we mainly use him when we are in the capital. Driving in Conakry is unlike driving in any other place. Everyone seems to make up their own rules. Two lanes can easily become 4 four if you wish. Someone not going fast enough? Just speed around him on the shoulder on the right side. Need to turn around – just do a u-turn in the middle of the road. It is crazy out there. Mr. Bah has driven in several other African capitals – and claims Conakry to be the craziest. The longer we are here, the more we see order trying to be instituted. There are some functioning traffic lights. There are police trying to keep things in order – and doing a great job at some intersections.

Downtown, things get even more interesting. Certain streets are one way at certain times of the day. I have NO idea which ones they are. Other streets will suddenly become one way – with no warning. Parking is always tight. People are everywhere. When you stop at a light, beggars come up and try to get money. Motorcycles whip in and out of traffic.

Besides being safer, it is much more interesting being a passenger. You get to see all of the shops and what they are selling. One store we passed last week was selling bottled water and mattresses. I was intrigued by the combination. In the afternoons especially there are kids (mostly) who walk in and out of the lines of traffic selling all sorts of things – CD’s, rechargeable phone cards, plastic flowers, insect spray, off-brand Kleenex, handkerchiefs, apples, sesame seed candy (my personal favorite), jelly. That whole scene fascinates me as well. Why jelly? Why insect spray? Who makes those decisions? I suppose it is kind of like those racks you stand by in the checkout lanes in the US with all kinds of random items.

But Mr. Bah’s helpfulness extends way beyond his driving abilities. He seems to know everyone. We will say – I need to find___________________ (we fill in the blank with various sorts of things.) or I need to have _______________ done. Well, Mr. Bah will reply, I have a cousin who can get that for you. Or, I have a friend who does that. He is amazing. He is incredibly resourceful, and very patient. He will wait for several hours for us to finish a task, if necessary. He loves our kids. He never complains when we ask him to do stuff for us. He worries about us and is incredibly protective.

He calls me Mom or Mommy – a term of respect – he calls all of the team women that. Jim is Mr. Jim or Boss. I love to call him on the phone and hear him answer – Yes, Mom. (He is around 60 years old, by the way.)

We try our best to take good care of him and give him a lot of respect. We ask his advice on a myriad of things. We buy treats for his kids and diapers and medicine for his son who is handicapped. We try to pay him well. We help out when we can.
Here are 2 of my favorite Mr. Bah stories………………

1. This one I shared in a supporter update in March. Mr. Bah traveled home with us that trip, driving one of the vehicles. We stopped for lunch in a shady spot and were having sandwiches. We had received a bag of Doritos from the States and had been saving them. As anyone who lives overseas knows, things like Doritos are very special and so we tend to hoard them a little. I didn’t offer any to Mr. Bah, because I have never seem him eating chips before and figured he would not like them – as they are not rice – his normal meal. As we were getting back into the truck, he found the bag and asked what they were. I told him that they were chips from America and that he should try them. So he took a few, and then a few more. Pretty soon, he was munching away. He said, “Mom, these are really good. Someone will have to take the bag away from me.” I am sure my face matched the kids’ faces, as we watched him downing our precious Doritos.

2. The second story is from our last trip to CKY a week ago. I was out doing some shopping and stopped at a fairly nice air-conditioned grocery store. Mr. Bah waited outside for me, chatting with the security people as he waited. I got back into the truck when I was finished and said, Mr. Bah, are you ready to go? He said, Mommy, look at me. I am covered with dirt. I could see some small smudges on the front of his suit so I asked him what happened. He said, I had to urinate, and so I asked where I could go and they told me to go out behind the store. But when I got there, a big dog was there and it was not tied up and it jumped up on me and grabbed me and I thought I was going to have to call you. (As he recounted the story, his voice got louder and he got more distraught – sadly, I got more and more amused. If you could have seem his face as he told me about it!!) Anyway, he continued, I came back out and I told them, if you tell someone you can urinate somewhere, you need to tell them there is a BIG dog that is not tied up.

The poor man was so upset, and I was so amused. Thankfully, I had bought him a Coke so he could have something to drink and settle down.

He is a wonderful asset to our team and I am not sure what we would ever do without him. So, the next time you visit Conakry and we tell you we need to call our chauffer, you will understand why!