Road trip

I am on an about 1-month long trip to neighboring countries in west africa. Look for the thin purpleish/lavender line on the map that link the cities underlined. I am overlanding for the most parts of the trip
(Conakry - Bamako - Bobo Dioulasso - Ouagadoudou - Tamale - Accra - Abidjan),
except for the last leg from Abidjan to Conakry. Thanks to World Food Program, us Peace Corps volunteer gets to fly free with them in some countries.

So I started from Conakry on the 14th of June, a Saturday, for a direct taxi to Bamako, Mali. Got to the taxi park located in the back of Medina market around 8am. Me and a lady with her 4 6-7 years old kids and 1 1-year baby got the first few seats, woohoo, then it is sitting and waiting patiently for the car to fill up that took the rest of the day. By around 4pm that afternoon, we finally found all the passengers that we need in the stationwagon taxi: 2 for the seats next to the driver in the front, 4 adults plus a baby in the middle row (I am sitting at the far right in this row), the woman with her 5 kids in the back row that sits uncomfortably 3 adults. 90% of the baggages piling up on this poor car belong to the woman traveling with 5 kids, on top of the car and in the trunk. Have trouble close the trunk everytime because she's got so much shit. She is going to Lagos with all her kids and all these luggages. I estimate that will take her a week on the road. I think I will go insane if I was her.

Of course when the car is all filled up, we had to go over to do some minor repair on the car. I think replacing a spark plug or something. They will never spend the money to fix the car or fill up the gas, unless they collect all the money upfront and are guranteed with all the passengers on board. So I not only had to wait a whole day for the car to fill up (the car just sat there the whole day like me), then had to wait for it to get repaired and filled up with gas. Of course, by the time we finally was able to get on the road, it was close to 6pm, and the rain start to fall. It started with a heavy downpour then it teased us a bit by making us think that it was thinning out, but really it just kept on raining steadily for a very long time. I kept had to play the open the window a bit because it was getting suffocatingly hot in the car (AC taxi doesn't exist!), then close the window when I got wet enough by the rainwater coming into the car. Needless to say, I was miserable being wet and squashed with too many people in the taxi. We had to already replace a tire even before getting out of Conakry, then after we barely got out, the car stalled going up a hill and wouldn't start again. Whatelse is wonderful? Where we broke down, there was no longer cell phone reception. Well, it is not like there is AAA to call upon even if there is reception, so what does it matter. The driver got out and tried something himself, but to no avail, he cursed a bit then disappeared to somewhere. I got out of the car because it was hot staying in or getting too wet if I left the window open for too long, plus I had to find somewhere to pee. I really thought at one moment that we are stuck there, and I was never going to make out to Bamako that weekend.

The driver showed back up (maybe almost an hour later). I didn't look at my watch because I know that will frustrate me more. I am frustrated with enough trouble that I am having getting started on this trip, plus the depressing look of Conakry when the rain unmerciely pouring down flooding most streets and sewage canals.

I think it is miracle that we got on the road again. I was then drifting in and out of sleep for the rest of the night. The car kept pushing on all throughout the night. I was glad to find out that the driver wasn't a speed demon and he teamed up with 2 other cars traveling together at night, so when one car breaks down, we all stop and help the broken car out. No AAA out here, we have to count on one and other.

Thank god that the next day was a sunny day, which helped a lot with my mood. Although my butt was still wet from the wet seat, solution: find a plastic bag and sat on that.

We passed Dabola, Kankan, Siguri then onto the border, passed it with no major problem, then finally got to Bamako on Sunday evening around 7pm. Took me 2 days to go ### km. Why I don't do long distance trip in bush taxi in Guinea often.

I spent the next 4 days in Bamako hanging out with the people that run the education NGO where I worked at last year, discussed the possibility of me returning to the NGO sometime next year to develop a better science curriculum for middle school. It was too long to stay there, but I had a free private car ride to take advantage of on Friday, so it was worth it to stay an extra day.