Strike continues, but all seems calm...

Here's an article from the BBC yesterday...

Guinea police clash with strikers

President Conte seized power in a 1984 coup

Security forces in Guinea have fired live rounds, rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse protesters on the sixth day of a national strike.
Youths destroyed cars and blocked streets using burning tyres and debris, after public rallies were banned.
Unions called the strike over the high cost of living and to protest after President Lansana Conte allegedly freed two prominent corruption suspects.
Most shops, offices and markets are closed, with no public transport.
"Groups of vandals are burning tyres and smashing car windows. They've even tried to break into a police station to recover arms. We've been obliged to intervene and we're controlling the situation at the moment," a senior Guinean police officer told Reuters news agency.
Many arrests have been made.
This is the third general strike in a year.

Diabetes
There have been growing calls for President Conte to step down.
He is in his 70s and in poor health suffering from diabetes.
He is also accused of personally securing the release from prison of Guinea's richest man Mamadou Sylla, and former minister Fode Soumah, last month.
The unions say the strike must continue until both men are back behind bars.
On the eve of the strike, courts ordered the seizure of Mr Sylla's assets.
Last year, Guinea was ranked by Transparency International as the most corrupt country in Africa.
Mr Conte seized power in a 1984 coup and has since won three elections.

We have no idea how long the strike will last - I heard that the President would be responding to the demands today, but so far haven't heard any more. I'd love to give some opinions about this whole thing, but can't because PC isn't allowed to give political opinions about the host country.

For those coming with G13 (I saw a couple comments but this stupid slow computer wasn't letting me respond...)

Please don't hesitate to join us! It's too bad that Guinea never makes the news unless it's for something bad, cause there's a lot going on here that's fantastic. Guinea is still a fun, safe place to be and I'm sure that my parents feel more secure with me here than they ever did when I was in Manhattan.

Here's a typical day in the life of Standfast Jen:

10am - wake up.
11am - make breakfast. enjoy an hour or so of hammock time, until the sun starts beating down on me.
1pm - go to town and get some stuff from the market or take a nap.
3pm - think about cleaning my house.
3:05pm - back to the hammock.
6pm - make dinner.
8pm - feel a little guilty about wasting entire day and choose a shelf to reorganize.
9:30 - hmmm, bath or no bath? difficult decision.
10pm - talk to Cam and people in Conakry until I fall asleep, with a guaranteed 9 or more hours until I wake up.

On Sunday I rode my bike up to the missionaries - they are ridiculously nice and I'm staying at their house. We weren't sure if the protests yesterday were going to get violent and I figured it was just better to get a couple kilometers out of town. Seems like nothing happened here - there were shots fired in Conakry, but no one was injured or killed. In Mamou there are lots of military guys around and things are quiet, but nothing has broken out. The missionaries are in Conakry (they had to get their kids on a flight back to boarding school in Dakar a couple days ago), so I've been chilling in their house. They have a recliner, DVD player and a cat. It's been a nice couple days. There's another volunteer who is living at the guest house on their property and he and I have been hanging out and watching a lot of movies - Superman Returns, the Bourne Identity and Supremacy, The Wedding Singer, She's the Man (go ahead and judge, our options are limited...) and Season 2 of Lost. My schedule has remained basically the same - replace "hammock" with "recliner" and "book" with "movie" and that's pretty much it. I'm planning to head back home tomorrow - I can't take advantage of their kindness forever!! Plus things didn't get heated in Mamou yesterday, which was the big day of protests, so it should be fine to return home. Don't get me wrong - I'm safe at my house and have plenty of people to keep me company and take care of me. But it would be easier for the PC to get to me at the missionaries because my house is on this ridiculous rock hill that's hard for cars to get to.

So Day 7 and the strike continues. In better news, Madame Diallo finally returned from Bamako! I haven't seen her since before Thanksgiving and it's been hard. Normally I go to her boutique every day - she's fun to talk to and it's a good time for me to meet other people in the community - so I've missed that social interaction and am looking forward to seeing her and checking out the fabric she brought back from Bamako (Aunt Diane - I'll let you know if there's some stuff that would be good for quilting!!) Tomorrow night I'm headed to her house to say hi and inevitably eat something. I don't think she would let me out of the door without consuming rice and meat and potatoes and whatever else she has around.

My goal for the rest of the strike is to try out the recipe for Rosemary Olive Oil bread that's in the cookbook. It's important to set realistic goals. I'm consistently amazed at how busy I can keep myself while still doing nothing. My intentions were to get some more lessons planned so that I don't have to do as much post-strike. But so far I've just had too many books to read and food to cook.

My worst nightmare is that PC would pull out of Guinea. I'd much rather stay and complete these 2 years - I've been so happy here that it would be a major bummer to have to start over in another country with another group of volunteers. But I recognize (after many years...) that life does not revolve around me and my wishes, so I'm just going to continue to hope for the best and improve my cooking and French skills (although not French cooking, that would be too complicated for my Dutch oven).

Hope everyone is doing well!! I'll try and update again soon.