Kind of a quiet week. Nothing too unusual happened this week, but then, it may be that, after living in a failed nation state for the past three months, unusual begins to feel usual. A bit like living in Vancouver. After a while, you just don’t see those mountains any more. The awesome beauty of everything around you is always in your face, and with time, you don’t notice it, and all too often, you don’t take the time to appreciate it. Pity.
Last weekend was the Guinean national holiday...62 years of independence. What was suppose to be their Canada Day turned out to be more of a national day of collective severe depression. Even John, the TV technician from DSTV (the African Shaw Cable), who had to come in to repair our TV (again...those power outages are really making their mark on my TV), and who usually happens to be an up and up kind of guy, was depressed. The repeated postponement of the presidential elections and the subsequent political uneasiness are really taking its toll on the people.
Anyways, as I said, its been a rather quiet week, but, looking back, it did somewhat have its moments...three in particular.
“Did that phone call just happen?” moment.
I was helping Hussein with his algebra on Monday. Hussein is in Grade 10. I think Hussein likes my company, especially when we talk about anything and everything that doesn’t have to do with algebra, or school for that matter. We were into quadratic equations and projectiles, all the fun stuff that you get to learn in algebra. At one point, I got the impression that Hussein was not getting as excited about polynomials as I was. Maybe he just wasn’t getting it...what is there not to get with polynomials? I asked him if he had any questions. He said yes. He asked me where I lived. I replied in an apartment, but asked him what that had to do with multiplying a polynomial by a monomial. He asked me if we liked where we lived. I told him that it was adequate, but that we were perhaps looking for something a bit bigger, and somewhere that had a pool and gym, and that we should really get back to work because we were almost ready to begin multiplying bionomials, and if he though monomials were fun, wait till he got to mess around with bionomials, now those were really fun. He replied that he would talk to his father. About multiplying bionomials? I asked. No, he said, about finding us another place to live. Enough algebra for the day, I decided that it was time for Hussein to do something else.
That evening, I get a phone call from the Ambassador of Saudi Arabia, who happens to be Hussein’s father. He tells me that he had phoned his friend, the Ambassador of Lebanon, who happened to be friends with the owner of an apartment complex known as Residence 2000, which is one of the most sought after expat compounds in Conakry. His Excellency gave me the owner’s number, instructing me to give him a call because the man was expecting my phone call any minute because he may have something for us.
“I can't believe I ate the whole thing” moment
It would be safe to say that I did not marry Madeleine for her money, but one could say that I could have married her for her cooking finesse and abilities. She really outdid herself this week. Tuesday night, Madeleine asked me what I felt like eating. I replied, anything, as long as it was quick and easy (meaning, I’m very hungry and I don’t want to work at eating my food, aka no bones). Barely 20 minutes later, supper was ready. Vegetarian chili on couscous, with a side of curried vegetables and arabic bread. Weirdest thing I've eaten in Africa so far, quick, no bones, and above all, absolutely delicious. Madeleine has my vote for this years Golden Spoon Award. Turns out, we are cleaning out the fridge because we are leaving for Kenya next week.
“Another caca-happens” moment:
We had a spectacular electrical storm on Tuesday night. I even got up and sat out on our balcony to watch the fireworks. Really impressive.
Got to school the following morning to find out a lightning bolt had struck our Internet WiMax antenna on top of the school. All the entrails of our internet network system (primitive as it may be) was completely fried. All computers plugged directly to the network...toast, burnt toast. Not a good way to start off the day. I asked about insurance. Insurance?...don’t be silly, we’re in Africa. Well, let’s try and look at the bright side... how about, now we really don’t need to spend money on insurance because lightning never strikes twice at the same place, right? Ruth, our secretary, looking at her deceased computer, nonchalantly muttered that this had happened two year ago. So much for that theory.
Anyways, to make a long story short, two days with no internet access, compounded by the constant whining of 12 16 year olds going through acute Facebook withdrawal, made it a rather long drawn out (and expensive) moment. $1200 later, we are now back on-line and on-track, for now, until the next electrical storm.
And that's the kind of week its been.
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