More photos from Conakry

Some more photos from Conakry, the quality isn't great as they were taken from inside a moving vehicle.

Though if you look closely at the first photo (which is actually of a roundabout) you may be able to see that the elephant has a football at it's foot - the Guinean soccer team's nick name is the "National Elephent".


The National Elephant

Fresh fruit is plentiful here.

Taking a back road to avoid the traffic.

So much of life here is lived on the street. With the heat and small stifling buildings it's not supprising.

Conakry!

I'm back in Guinea again and as usual passed through the capital Conakry where I stayed a couple of nights before heading on to Canga East where I am working at the moment.

Although I didn't get to the very centre of the city the photos below (taken with my trusty iphone) give a fair idea of what the city is like.  It's a city of over 1.5 million people and it's pretty poor but it is certainly busy and lively.

Paragliding

Aurelie and I went paragliding for the first time yesterday.  There is a place near to us called Saint Leu that is famous for it.  And my oh my, what an amazing sensation to be soaring on the thermals above the island, literally sitting on the wind!

Au

Not all sweetness and light!

The last week there have been localised rioting in parts of the Island (nothing near us), just goes to show nowhere is perfect!

http://observers.france24.com/content/20120224-three-nights-riots-reunion-island-cauldron-boiling-over-saint-denis-high-cost-of-living-gas-prices-protest

Back Home Again and An Unexpected Party

So I got back home to Réunion on Wednesday after more that five weeks working and a few days back in Cork.  It was great to get back to work and to spend some time in Cork with friends and family but it's good to be home and Réunion feels like home now which is great and a little bit surprising.  I do find myself occasionally thinking "do I really live on a tropical island, sweet!"

I was only just back when we had to move out of the house for a night as the house was getting treated for termites and we wanted to give any resulting fumes the chance to dissapate.  So it was back to our favorite hostel in the world, Residence Creolile, for the night. 

We were the only guests there for the night so we thought we would have a quiet night, little did we know!  A few of Jean-Fabien's (the owner) friends were about and they were planning to go out for dinner, however plans changed (as they so often do here) and Jean-Fabien decided he wanted to cook for everyone.  So after brief discussion some people headed off to the shop for food while others went off to get the drinks.  We headed off to a little restaurant as was our plan because we needed to get the kids fed and we knew from previous experience that the local crew would be eating far too late for our little people.

So after getting back from eating we had a night of music (with both Sam and Ela on drums!), chat, drinks (various for me, pina colada for A) and a second dinner (just for me, hmmm, boucané).  Sam finally admitted tiredness about midnight and went to bed.  Plans were begun on a camping trip for before I head back to Guinea (I've not been about for any for the camping trips so far, it's just been A and the kids so they have gotten to know the group pretty well).  All in all a great evening with great folk.   

Music time at the hostel