Sunday in Conakry

We just returned from a weekend on the islands off the coast of Conakry. We stayed at a small hotel on Kassa Island. The hotel was right on the water in a small fishing village, with a nice patio, individual rooms, and a disco that blasted until about 4 am, as long as the generator was working. On Saturday we took a boat ride in a small canoe-like wooden boat, run by an outboard motor, to nearby Roume Island. We stopped at a very picturesque beach with a number of nice houses along it. The beach was lined with palms and baobob trees, and local residents were kicking a soccer ball around as we arrived. Roume is mostly for tourists, although given the small amount of tourism it is still relatively rustic. The beaches are beautiful, however. Some of the members of our group went swimming, and Olu, one of our master drummers, remarkably ran into a friend of his from Cleveland, Ohio on the beach. Small world!

After the swim we rounded Kassa Island and went back to the hotel. In the evening, a local band played for us on the patio of the hotel. They featured local instruments -- djembe, a log drum, an unusual drum set that included various African drums, and other local instruments. This is a band that is pretty popular in Guinea, and it was a treat to have them play on the island.

This morning we walked around the island, and saw a red sand beach, as well as some of the fishing operations.

Today there is a big soccer match, a qualifying game for the World Cup, in Conakry, vs. Ivory Coast. People have been looking forward to this match and many soccer fans are driving around downtown wearing the national colors and blowing whistles. The game starts later this afternoon.

Tomorrow we begin our second week of drumming and dance classes. Everyone had a good time on the islands and they were a nice break from our routine. It was good to get out of our house and see some new sights.

There are a number of wrecked ships around the Conakry harbor. Some of the boats that call on the harbor also are quite rusty, and don't look too seaworthy. We could see the harbor from our hotel, and it seems reasonably busy -- apparently most of the imports and exports go through this port. Alongside the larger ships are small fishing boats, some with large black square sails, others powered by motors and we even saw some that a few people were rowing.

We had two large thundershowers while on the islands, both starting around midnight. This is different than what I have seen in the neotropics, where thunderstorms usually hit around 4 pm during the rainy season. Here, the rains seem to come at night, and bring a welcome relief from the constant heat.

An interesting musical connection that I have noticed is that local singers like to weave verses about people who are present in the audience into their songs. We saw this when we first arrived, and a small band played for us at the house. They went around the room and sang a verse about each member of our group. Last night, the band sang a whole song about Olu and also sang about Amara. This strikes me as an interesting link between community, culture and music, three themes we are studying in our sociology classes here. Music is intricately linked to culture here, and the lyrics are designed to bring community together and to highlight the accomplishments of those present, particularly the community members of note. This is part of the oral tradition, through which people share their traditions and pass down culture from generation to generation.

Until the next opportunity to post...

Alan Barton, Sunday June 7, Conakry, Guinea