Arriving at the Airport in January 2006

It was hot but not as hot as I expected. A friendly, wealthy, young Guinean took me and a small group of americans under his wing, promising that with him we would not be hassled at the airport. True to his word, he gathered up our passports, in the somewhat stately airport reception room that seemed to send us back in time to when the french last ruled the colony in the 1960's, and flew us through the immigration checkpoint.
Meanwhile, I noticed this tall scragle-toothed military man approaching every white female in the room and coming to me fast. He looked at the girl next to me and with a concentrated look asked, "Kadiatou?" The poor confused and fairly frightened woman said "What?"
"Je m'appele Kadiatou." I said, could this man be looking for me?
The man's face broke with a grin of relief, as he quickly told me in french that he was Tamadu the director of Ballet Saamato and that Manimou was waiting for me outside the airport.
I started bouncing like a kid on a pogo stick and after ten minutes of waiting in a line and a short haggle with the security, me, the american, the rich Guinean, and Tamadu the militare dancing director found our selves in the baggage claim.
I immediately looked toward the exit where already the Guinean airplane passengers were lined up to be searched before they could exit the airport. Behind all that was Manimou, and once he saw me he started waving and bouncing against the security guards that were holding him back.
I ran and bounced my way to him and jumped on him, giving the security people a shock. And because the world is not fair, the color of my skin allowed him to move past the security and into the airport.
It was good, it was worthwhile.

Photos

A woman weaving a rug to sell in the market. Konia Village, N'zerekore, Guinea

Rosaline Nowai Camara looking silly with a plastic bag of cold water, Dabompa, Conakry, Guinea

Manimou Camara with me, Jessica Towns, at the airport, moments before I got on the plane. Conakry, Guinea
Manimou and I at Voile de la Mariee, Kindia Village, Kindia, Guinea

Lilia Camara, a friend from Ballet Saamato, G'bessia City 1, Conakry, Guinea

Courage, Madame Camara, Courage

It sort of amused me and struck me when the old ex-pat french man who owned the hotel where we lived with the Liberian poets and the monkey said, "Courage, Madame Camara, courage." He said this to me as I walked past him offering the usual Bonjour, his hand extended toward me and the gate that led out of his hotel-schoolyard compound. Courage.
"Je trouve mon courage toujour."
But what about? This is a common saying in Guinee. You need to summon up courage to just wake up, or to walk through the monsoon and heat or to survive malaria. People like to talk about limanya, courage.
And now I need my courage to think about my love on the other side the planet, and getting some kind of job.
Sometimes I let myself have daydreams of seeing Manimou, and they are always great as most daydreams are. But I can't let myself go there to often because I don't know when I will see him again. Within the year for sure.
I remember my neighbor in Guinea asking how long it would be and telling her less than a year. Her husband immigrated to Paris and only see's her every 4 or 5 years. Her own daughter, who is 5, lives with her mother in Coyah, an hour and a half from G'bessia city where she lives and she only see's her once a month.
Rosaline, Manimou's five-year-old daughter, keeps asking where I am and when am I coming back. Manimou told her that I went to N'zerekore with his sister and that maybe, if I could, I'll be back in a few months, maybe July. She'll remember and she'll start asking again and she'll wonder why I haven't come. In her sphere of understanding maybe she'll reason that I got sick and had to spend all my money on medicine. None the less, kid's don't like broken promises and she has had enough of those.
Undoubtedly someone will say the word courage to her, she just needs courage.
I suppose that life is fairly simple.

The Sudan, Invisible Children and Oprah

I hope by now you all have heard of these two tragedies that are going on in Eastern Africa. (If you watch Oprah then you have, she can do alot of good that woman!) In Sudan there is a full on genocide happening and as we all know this is not right but our leaders need political support from us in order to do anything about it. You have an opportunity to send an email to President Bush to let him know that you support him in sending aid to Sudan. click here! www.savedarfur.org
As for the Lord's Army which is made up of children that have been kidnapped from their homes and forced to kill, please visit www.invisiblechildren.org

There are so many injustices on the great continent of Africa that being there makes you realize that for all the problem we have in the west (US, Canada, Europe), our problems are minimal and insignificant. We have an obligation to help our family in Africa.

Thanks for reading, Jess