Bye Cheryl!

Cam and I took Cheryl to the airport last night. I lied and said I had an e-ticket so I could accompany her to check-in. Here in Guinea only people who are actually flying are even allowed inside the airport. That's because it's such a big deal to fly that literally an entire family (aunts, uncles, cousins, kids who have nothing else to do) will go with the person flying and wait with them! Since lines don't really exist here, the airport would be absolute chaos if they allowed everyone inside...

I had one friend explain to me that his girlfriend was really wealthy and had a visa and offered to arrange for one for him so that they could go to New York together, but he couldn't do it because his wife would want to go to the airport and say good-bye. I asked if she would really make the 10 hours minimum trip from the Fouta just to do that and he said that yes, she would, and she wouldn't be happy to see he was traveling with his girlfriend! My suggestion to him was that he break up with his girlfriend and just be happy with his wife, but I"m not sure he took my advice.

Anyway, I got lucky because inside the airport everyone knew I wasn't traveling but the men wanted to marry me so they didn't mind that I was in there. Even telling them that Camilo was waiting for me outside didn't deter them! Being in Guinea can be such an ego boost...even if their love was more about my passport than my charms...

Camilo and I are planning to head back to Timbi tomorrow. The teachers are striking, so there's a chance the kids will have some small demonstrations. Here's the situation - the teachers are mad because they didn't get paid last month. As far as I know they've been paid now, but they were even more ticked off about it because the gendarmes got all their demands met after they went on strike and were shooting and all that. And since it's totally normal to skip work, the teachers only really have power during this time of the year, when they are needed to protor the final exams. So the kids might get mad when they can't do their high school exit exams...can't really blame them. We heard that most of the teacher's demands have been met, but there's a question on the timing. If they agree to go back to work on the assumption that they'll get a raise soon and then they don't, they've given up the position of power they have right now. So, as always, we'll see...