My Guinea West African Trip and More!

On April 18th I flew to Libreville then on April 22 I flew to Conakry, Guinea via ASKY Airlines. I was met by Arnie Solvig who drove me to their home. Cheryl had dinner waiting. Saturday I spent with Arnie, Cheryl, Stephanie and Katie. Nicole was away at boarding school in Senegal. The Solvigs had spent `3=`4 years in Gabon and Katie and I have a special bond. I was the "Midwife" when she was born.

 Sunday was Easter and we attended an 8 am Easter service on the tennis court on their mission compound. There must have been 40+ people present. After the service we had a potluck breakfast together before some of us headed off  on a 4-5 hour van ride to the town of Mamou.

April 25-30 Cheryl and I attended a SYIS Workshop in Mamou, Guinea. SYIS stands for "Sharpening your Interpersonal Skills". It was excellent!

This past Monday I flew back to the equator. Went from Conakry to Abidjan to Accra to Lome and changed planes. Then flew from Lome to Lagos and then my final flight to Libreville. I had no problems with flights and was glad to get to Libreville even earlier than my e-ticket said I would.

Tuesday I worked on budget items for the hospital. Also rested up from my 12 hours of flights on Monday.

Wednesday I had a 12 hour bus/car ride down to where I work at a hospital. I carefully reserved place on an air conditioned bus BUT.... the air conditioning was never turned on and everyone had their windows down. It was a bus with a high top and high windows and I was sitting where I got the morning East sun. I got a blue top out of my carry on so I could protect myself from sun burn as we rode along. Here is me riding along on the bus, listing to a podcast.



Thursday afternoon my neighbor and I hopped in my car to go grocery shopping in town, a couple of miles from here. We had not even gotten to the stores yet when my car made aloud noise and then the CLUTCH went out!. I called a colleague who came over with his car and towed us back home. A National car repairman followed us and worked on my car that afternoon for a couple of hours. He returned yesterday and worked on the car for about four hours. I was glad that he was able to fix the clutch so the car is back up and running, I hope permanently. At least I know which piece to buy if it breaks down again.

Yesterday morning I also had Dan Lewan and Olivier install my new stove. Unfortunately the top works but electric system will not spark the oven to start.  Our American maintenance man, Paul Davis, is on vacation and will not be back for about ten days so it looks like I either not be using my oven or I'll need to use the neighbor's oven. Then I hope that it can be repaired.



Today's Positives:
1. I had such a nice trip to Guinea, with no complications in my travels.
2. It so nice seeing and being with the Solvig family again.
3. The SYIS Workshop was very good and taught many Interpersonal Skills.
4. My car got fixed without buying any parts.
5. My stove got installed and works at least partially.

Thanks for visiting my blog!