A bit of excitement on an otherwise boring Wednesday

A bit more excitement this past week in the streets of Conakry (excitement = more people + more traffic + more chaos ).  The son of the President drowned in his swimming pool in Montreal on Tuesday (this guy was studying? at McGill). We're talking about the President who got shot in the head by his chief body guard last February, and who survived the assassination attempt (they flew him to Morocco and decided to keep him there...anyways, that's another story...), and now sits somewhere in Mali with less than half a brain....

To make a very long story short, Wednesday afternoon, on our way back home from school, the roads were packed, traffic was in a more than usual stand still state. It usually takes us at the most 15 minutes to get home...this ride home took us 1 hour 1/2. Red berets were out in force (these are the military nutcases (in charge of national security (gulp) that shot 158 people last year at a political rally (peaceful rally organized to protest the announcement by the junta President (yes the one that eventually got shot in the head by his body guard) that he was going to run in the upcoming presidential elections...anyone getting confused by now...don't worry, it's part of the experience). One does not have to be politically savvy to know that once a junta (aka military) president announces that he will run in an election...its game over...he's in power for as long as he wants. 

Coming back to our red berets,...hmmm, how to say this tactfully.... let's just say that a red beret with a gun in hand...RUN! There is reason to be scared. These guys were all over the place, standing and staring with their typical Clint Eastwood make my day look. We're talking 1000 nutcases here, 18-21 year olds, most of them uneducated, never been out of Guinea, not a dime to their names, and armed to the teeth. Let's just say, not to be an alarmist here, that we're on a bit of shaky ground here...

Madeleine had accepted to meet a lady from the Spanish Embassy that afternoon to help her with her English (I'll let Madeleine write about that on her blog). So we dropped Madeleine off at this lady's place, and Bivan, our driver, drove me home. Madeleine phones me around 7PM, to let me know that she was stranded and not able to make it home until later, because the Spanish Embassy's security people had instructed their people not to go out when the body of the son of the President who got shot in the head was transported from the airport to somewhere where they store decapacitated expresidential son's bodies in Conakry. I guess being stranded at the Spanish Embassy isn't too bad...can easily think of worse places to be stuck in. Madeleine made it home by 9PM...and the remains of the decapacitated ex-presidential son sit somewhere in Conakry. May he RIP. And that's the kind of day it's been.