We got up early and went into town to find breakfast - rice and peanut porridge from a woman on the street. Then we went to the tourist office, where we met a very friendly old man who wanted to escort us all over town. We had a hard time getting rid of him, but after about an hour we finally succeeded. We visited the women's cooperative, which was recommended by our guidebook, but instead of women we found one man weaving cloth. We watched him for a while and bought some cloth as a souvenir.
Walking around town, I passed the first woman I've ever seen wearing a full burqa - everything was covered up except for her hands and her eyes. She even had socks on with her sandals. I wondered where she's from, why she wears a burqa when no one else does. I suppose it would probably not have been rude at all, but just very African of us, to go up to her and start asking her personal questions, but the burqa was kind of intimidating so we didn't talk to her.
On the other end of the spectrum, we also saw the first drunk person I've seen in Africa. In Senegal, Christians or Muslims who aren't particularly observant may drink at home or in bars, but no one dares to go out in public intoxicated. So score one point for Senegal over Guinea.
In the afternoon we went for a hike with a local guy we hired as our guide to see the "Dame de Mali" (Lady of Mali), a cliff with the profile of a woman's face that is supposedly entirely natural, not man-made. The resemblance was so clear, though, that I'm a little skeptical about it being natural.
Some first impressions of Guinea: It's beautiful! The mountains and greenness and cooler weather were a wonderful change from dusty brown Tamba. It seemed a lot cleaner too, probably because trash and dirt get washed down the mountains by the rain. The guidebooks made us think that Guinea was going to be a lot poorer than Senegal, but in Mali everyone lived in nice "batiment" (brick and concrete) houses, and the kids looked much more well-fed, probably because there are so many more mangoes and other fruit growing everywhere. Another nice change was that there were no "talibes", beggar children asking for money. Bad news for me, though, only Pulaar is spoken in the region. Even Jaxankes I met only spoke Pulaar! So I had a hard time talking to people unless they spoke French, but luckily I had my Pulaar-speaking friend Sira with me, and by the end of the trip I was able to learn a few Pulaar phrases.
So the final score at the end of my first day: Guinea 5, Senegal 2.
0 comments:
Post a Comment