Looking forward to Monday morning???

Funny how when you have a lot of time on your hands, which I must admit doesn’t happen that often, you start thinking about things that you would not normally think about? Like... when someone fires a gun straight up in the air, I wonder where the bullet or bullets eventually end up? and does the bullet or bullets come back to earth? and if it or they do, at what velocity? I guess I would need to either ask someone adept in quantum physics to enlighten me, or some gunslinging sage.

I’m in no real hurry for an answer though; the sound of random rapid gunfire has greatly subsided since the imposed state of emergency decree and subsequent curfew of last Tuesday. Things have really quieted down.

I have to admit though, the first time we heard that gunfire, it was, umm, how can I say, unsettling, to say the least. Madeleine heard it first...or rather, we both heard it, but then, blue-sky-kind-of-guy that I am, I just shrugged it off as ‘fireworks’. What?... people are happy, and when people are happy, they blow off fireworks, right? Wrong.

Anyways, Madeleine insisted that, whatever it was, it sure as heck wasn’t fireworks. We both stepped onto our balcony and gazed at the semi-lit, sleeping Conakry skyline (it was around 10PM). Very quiet and deserted...unusually quiet in that the street in front of our building is always quite animated with people, goats and chickens (can’t seem to get away from those goats, no matter what time of day or night!). No people, no goats, no chickens tonight. I guess even the goats are taking this curfew seriously.

Ta-ta-ta-ta-ta. Hmmm...short and very sequentially timed firecrackers, those were. Ta-ta-ta-ta-ta. OK, I said, maybe those were not sounds of fireworks, or firecrackers. Perhaps I was wrong, and once again, she was right...and we should go inside.

We went inside, quickly shut off the lights (it just seemed like the right thing to do...you know, just like Jack Bauer would have done, so that you don’t attract any attention to yourself, smart move if I do say so myself). Sitting in the dark on our couch, I turned to Madeleine and said, ok, how about you sleep in the closet, and I’ll sleep under the bed...

Anyways, to make a long story (and a rather long night) short, the fireworks were indeed gunshots. It turns out that the gallant young men in uniform of the Guinean army use their AK47’s to clear the streets at night. When they come across some people who are out on the streets and consequently in defiance of the state of emergency curfew, these fine soldiers randomly fire in the sky to scare these defiant potential culprits back into their domiciles. Apparently it works, because, after the gunfire died down, Tuesday night was one of the quietest nights that Conakry had not seen for quite some time.

Needless to say, I would never even think of questioning the crowd management tactics of this country’s army, with its lily white reputation, void of any past human rights abuses. Furthermore, I am more than a little confident that these fine gallant young men, no make that fine gallant extremely young men in uniform, are all expert quantum physicists who undoubtedly all know where their stray bullets end up after they’ve swept the night time Conakry streets with their AK47 machine guns.

So, we’ve been hunkered down in our apartment for the past 3 days, under siege I call it, forced-quality-time-together Madeleine calls it. Ventured out for some bread and a few groceries, but the store shelves are getting bare again. Said on the radio this morning that there is presently a shortage of rice and sugar in all of Conakry. I guess its time to get into that ton of pasta we bought a few weeks ago. Anyways, things continue to quiet down; we even went for a hamburger at our corner hole in the wall lebanese restaurant at lunchtime today.

Promises to be a peaceful weekend and hopefully looking forward to opening up the school on Monday. Yes, you’ve read right, I, moi, hopefully looking forward to Monday morning...can you believe it?