Monday 12 March 2007

Guinea in 2007?

Returning home I have been following the events of late January & early February; the strikes & the ruthless killing by the military under the orders of President Conte; I felt helpless sitting here in Europe. I was in touch with Steve, the guy I met in Bissau who was travelling a few days behind Gianni and I; we were in touch by SMS. Steve was in Conakry, surrounded by sporadic fighting, reckless bullets being fired and trying to help the Guineans who were looking after him.

The amount of wonderful Guineans I met who's fate I'm unaware of, makes me feel incredibly privileged to be sitting at home with a roof over my head, electricity & running water (something that even Conakry the capital has precious little of on a weekly basis) Currently I'm now trying to organise some sort of funding to get a vehicle & medical supplies to a village in Guinea. I would hope to go over towards the end of 2007.

Like with Varela in Guinea Bissau, the aid agencies aren't able to access everyone due to financial & infrastructural constraints. This is the reason that I want to be able to help from afar but make sure that the 'material' that I'm taking won't be used to create cash by some bigwig in the village. Not an easy task, but I have a few ideas in mind.

If anyone would like to assist with this project either financially or in a 'material' donation it would be appreciated. Any ideas, thoughts whatever they may be will be gratefully recieved! I have a wonderful pharmacy nearby who currently gives me 'surplus' medicine and neighbours who leave new & near new shoes & clothing that I am sending onto Fatima in Varela; in the knowledge that it will be distributed as it should be ..

As for updates, Steve is SMS'g from a beach in the Cote d'Ivoire, for rugby results & I have also been known to update him with football scores! Gianni should be home in Italy this week having made his way north overland again!

This blog has been created following my trip to Guinea in late 2006 http://deeper-in2-west-africa.blogspot.com I'm going to start this blog tentatively and if you want to post onto it with ideas, help or support, please e-mail me with GUINEA 2007 in your subject title to be added to the list: worldvoyageur@gmail.com