Reversing Conakry

A trip anywhere in Guinea, for any amount of time, takes a lot of preparation. You have to prepare your house that you are leaving behind, make arrangements for guarding and animal care (if you have them), prepare food for the trip, make arrangements for where you will stay, prepare and sign a document called an "ordre de mission" that gives you permission to travel in the country, arrange for guards to watch the place, and a myriad of other details that should not be missed.

It is overwhelming at times – sometimes it feels like it would have been better to just stay home.
Returning from a trip is almost more work. Here is a check list of 20 things that needed to be done in order to feel settled from our recent trip to the capital…..

1. Open the house: This involved un-padlocking the side and back doors, and opening the curtains and louver windows.

2. Throw the knife switch which restores solar power to the house. We shut this off to try to prevent damage from lightning storms.

3. Check the fridge and freezer to make sure they are still working and did not shut down in our absence and see if the batteries for the solar system are okay.

4. Turn on the propane for the stove.

5. Plug in the CB-like radio that we use to communicate with our teammates. We unplug that from the batteries and antennae also in case of lightning.

6. Open the outside laundry room where we store dishwashing items, chairs from the back porch, and anything else lying around that we want to secure while we are gone.

7. Unlock the trash pit which we lock to prevent little kids from trying to fish out the things we have thrown away. There is NOTHING of value in there, and it is often mixed with medical waste, but in their little minds, they seem quite sure we are purposefully throwing away numerous treasures that they must have – a dumpster diving of sorts.

8. Unlock the padlocks on the magasin – our “garage” type building where we keep our generator and Jim’s tools.

9. Unlock the padlock on the attic door.

10. Put the stools, mat, trash can, and small plastic tea kettle of water (used by guests for bathroom needs) back out on the porch.

11. Unpack trunks of groceries – we usually shop for 6 – 12 weeks at a time, so there can be a lot of groceries.

12. Unpack the cooler or coolers with the frozen stuff I bought.

13. Bleach, wash, and put away all the fresh fruits and vegetables. Since it is hard to get these in the village, we usually come home loaded up – finding room in the fridge is a problem at times. But the heat requires you to get them in the fridge pretty quickly.

14. Unpack the egg box and put the eggs in a basket on the counter. I usually buy 5 dozen at a time.

15. Sweep, mop, and dust to try to regain a foothold from the insects and spiders that think you have obviously abandoned the place, giving them free reign.

16. Pay the guards for guarding.

17. Greet the people who come to welcome us back. This requires time to sit and answer questions about your trip, and your family and for you to ask about their families and how things are in the village.

18. Give out gifts. Often we gift our closer friends when we come back from a trip – maybe with some fruit or vegetable that is not available in the village yet, or something else. A few of the popular gifts we have given: shoes, flashlights, soap, toothpaste, cooking oil, spaghetti, hair dye, shirts, toys for the kids, potatoes, watches, earrings. We don’t always do it and it is never anything big – just a culturally appropriate “hey, I was thinking about you while I was gone” kind of thing.

19. Record our mileage and expenses from the trip.

20. Clean out the car – throwing out the old ordre de mission, and all the trash that accumulates from traveling and eating as you drive. Also good to check and make sure you have an adequate supply of TP and hand wipes for the next trip.

It usually takes us about 2 – 3 days to accomplish all of these tasks, and one of the many reasons that we think hard and long before taking a trip here in Guinea.