All Quiet on the West African Front

Oh, Guinea. So typical. One day it's all dramatic, and the next people are all "Oh, I know. Yesterday was crazy. But everything is going well now! It's all good." Everything is not back to normal, but things in Mamou have calmed down and apparently the markets were open today and everything. I still heard gunfire this morning, but Brad and I found out that the military is using the shots to communicate. I knew they were just shooting into the air, but didn't realize it actually had a purpose. They also went around to all the neighborhoods firing rounds into the sky to "calm the people." i.e. let the people know that they were better off staying in their homes than taking to the streets and burning tires and acting like criminals. The gardeners and guardian were laughing at Brad and me about how the gunfire bothered us, cause they agreed that it needed to be done to keep the bandits from going out into the city! So apparently gunfire does calm the people. Just not the Americans! But Brad talked to his military friend who is stationed by us yesterday and he was all apologetic about the noise from the night before. He said they were thinking about us and felt bad cause they knew it would bug us! Gotta love Guinea - even the military worries about our mental well-being.

I talked to my mom and dad today and they were obviously a little concerned after my last blog entry. They were also worried that I was going to cause a ruckus on Friends of Guinea because now parents are reading this. I certainly don't mean to cause a ruckus!! Thursday was the craziest day here and I heard that a kid from my school died. I haven't heard if he was one of my students - there are 3,600 kids at my school, so probably not. Apparently during all the protesting a bunch of people went to the prison and released the prisoners and the kid was killed by a guard while doing that. The purpose of releasing the prisoners was to say to the President, "Hey, if you can release your buddies, we can release our friends too." Yesterday we could hear some gunfire and some people, but nothing like Thursday. And today it was quiet all day. We heard some shouting last night and both ran to the porch to see what was going on - it was a bunch of kids playing soccer. We laughed about that.

The word is that tonight everyone is having a meeting - union leaders, ministers, even the President. And hopefully there will be a resolution soon...we'll just have to see. Doesn't look like the President is planning on stepping down, so it will be up to the union leaders to decide what their priorities are - get gas prices down, make rice more easily available, force the President to step down, etc. He did get rid of Fode Bangoura, a minister with no military or public support, so that was a start on the demands. I guess we'll have to wait and see what they report tomorrow about tonight's meeting.

To reassure everyone that Peace Corps takes this all extremely seriously, they offered to move Brad and me yesterday. It didn't matter that we weren't actually unsafe, they were more concerned about how we felt. If we even felt unsafe they were willing to come and get us. But we felt fine, so we told them we'd rather stay here. Yesterday was pretty business as usual in our compound, although we reached a new low in our movie-watching - Hilary Duff's Raise Your Voice. Not my finest hour. I did give Brad a haircut that was decent. Took me 90 minutes, but I don't have anything better to do, so it was no big deal. I used scissors and one of those razors that lets you choose the length it cuts to. Pretty exciting.

Here's some news links...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6280021.stm

http://za.today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=businessNews&storyID=2007-01-20T085837Z_01_BAN032287_RTRIDST_0_OZABS-GUINEA-MINERALS-PRICE-20070120.XML (This article focuses on how Guinea's strike-limited bauxite supply is affecting the whole market. Wow, Guinea. Making waves on the international market!!)

http://friendsofguinea.blogspot.com/

FYI - In looking for information I came across the NYTimes obit for Saddam Hussein. I didn't know he was executed. I am so out of the loop sometimes. In my own defense, I was in Sierra Leone on vacation when it happened.

So now the bauxite mines are shut down. Which is a huge source of revenue (for the government and for the rich people who largely control the country) and about the only place where Guinea is a player in a major market.

Sounds like Kissidougou yesterday was like Mamou the day before. I have talked to a bunch of G12 people and everyone is saying the same thing - they are bored as hell and are running out of things to do. I feel so lucky to have internet and my cell phone and DVDs and a buddy. And a cat. Even though Brad and I have now reached a new conversational low - last night we were arguing about how I think he spoils the cat and how he disagrees. Fascinating, no? :)

I still haven't left the missionary compound except to come up here. Not because I think I wouldn't be safe, but because I would feel like a jerk if something happened to me and it made the PC look bad, since they've asked me not to leave. I don't blame them for being so over-protective.

We still haven't heard about what the plans will be - for now we are just sitting tight and seeing what happens. I know it must be frustrating to have so little access to information and to your children, but the PC has been in contact with everyone (and virtually constant contact with me!) and we are all doing fine. And if I had to place my bets, I'd guess that G13 will be joining us sooner rather than later...hopefully that doesn't jinx them!

This entry is not in the most coherent order possible, but I have limited internet time and some dinner to cook. I'll try and update again tomorrow after I hear how the meeting went today. Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and good wishes during the strike!

And does anyone how to add permanent links to a site? When I tried to do it it didn't work. I know it's supposed to be idiot-proof. But I want to link to Cam's Flickr account (http://www.flickr.com/photos/51956952@N00/sets/72157594292674638/) and to a couple other Guinea blogs.