More on Guinea...

After a little less than a week, it seems as though Guinea now has an established president, Moussa Dadis Camara, a military captain. In talking with Guineans that work for Peace Corps, they are very disappointed that this is the result. When the late president Lansana Conte became president 24 years ago, it was in the same manner; the old president died, he was a military captain, military coup d'etat leads to his presidency. Now, many Guineans see this coup leading to more of the same. The headlines of one of the BBC articles is "Guineans mark 50 years of poverty," and Guineans seem very pessimistic about Camara and doubtful that things will change. If you are interested, www.bbc.com has a lot of coverage and articles surrounding the coup; this event is a sad way to put Guinea on the map.

I traveled to Conakry on the 26th after spending Christmas with three other volunteers up-country. Even though we were all a little disappointed about not being in Conakry with the others, we enjoyed each others company around an Italian Christmas dinner. The travel on the 26th was long with several military checkpoints; this was not unusual pre-coup. I was a little nervous at the first one; when the man was looking at my ID, he saw the Peace Corps logo and exclaimed, "Corps de la Paix!" and with excitement asked my what village I was in, what I was teaching, etc. A very unexpected reaction from the military. I was relieved. We also had many reroutes due to the president's funeral procession; thousands came out for the procession that was more like a parade. I have yet to meet one person who thought Conte was a good president, yet everyone seemed to come out to pay their respects.

And now I'm in Paris with my family, after a few delays, including one while in the air; the pilot came on before we landed for a stopover in Dakar telling us we needed to circle in the air because the president of Senegal was landing. When we landed we could see a whole procession of military and finely dressed women waiting for his arrival (he was coming from the president of Guinea's funeral the day before.) I'm ready for all of the art and food Paris has to offer. I'll be watching the news of Guinea; hopefully all stays as calm as it was when I left.