No WiFi (And Other Things)

Ugh!!!  I braved the rain lugging my computer to the Cap Ouest Hotel at 2pm and when I got here, no WiFi.  They have no electricity at all.  Too bad.  I wanted to upload all my blogs.  I can try again later when they turn their power on, I suppose, or try to find a place that has WiFi.

At least I got a bunch of pictures made for visa applications.  Twelve in fact.  I hope they are OK.  My face is a little bit smaller in these pictures and sometimes some places have strict limits on such matters.  But they should be OK.  I won't have to have pictures made for a while now.  Probably only one more time.

The rain sucks.  The road to the Cap Ouest Hotel is not paved and is very muddy.  You have to make sure you are not near a puddle when vehicles drive by so you don't get splashed.  I saw our bus causing quite a splash this morning.  Very splashy.

When I was here last time, they seemed like they had WiFi even when the electricity was off.  I figured they had a constant supply for certain functions and a bigger localized power supply for the bulk of their business.

There are three cute French girls here as I type.  Even though there is no electricity and I bought a 1200 CFA beer to have the right to use the WiFi, it's not so bad because I can take occasional looks at these three nymphs.  One is reading one of those three books by some Scandanavian or Finnish guy that's all the rage in France right now.  But I can't really see the book, because her legs are crossed and since she has a knee length skirt, the back of her thigh is showing--a vision much too enticing whenever my eyes are anywhere in her vicinity.

It's interesting seeing what type of European are coming to Africa.  There are a few families in my place.  A German family was there last night with three young kids--12ish.  There are a lot of pairs of young pretty girls--perhaps university students?  Some are probably volunteers for whatever organization they happen to join.  I saw 4 boys near the lighthouse and realized that there is a mission there so they are some sort of missionary or religious volunteers.  There are a few lone travelers.  We are probably not as common, though.

There seems to be no way of leading a life where things run sort of smoothly here.  There is always something in the way.  Today it was rain and no WiFi.

Accordig to Jonathan, finding even internet in Gambia was hard.  He paid for an hour but was only able, in that entire hour, read 2 emails.  Nothing else.  Just bad connections.  So when I'm in Gambia, I expect to build up a supply of blog posts to post.

Yuck, there was just now a fly in my beer.  I fished it out.  I guess I'll keep drinking it though.  One thing about Africa, it's not a comfortable place to travel.  The bus bounces like a jack hammer.  The room is hot and humid.  The mosquito net is a bit stifling.  Now it's raining.  I'm never sure about what I'm doing, where I'm going, and what's going to happen next.  My French is good enough to navigate the place broadly, but the details elude me.  The internet is spotty.  The Lonely Planet already has old information.

So far, the thing I miss most is security--the feeling that I can totally let my guard down.  I feel like my guard must always be up.  Always.  When you are traveling with someone, you can share "guard duty" as it were, but when solo, it's all up to me.  There are places where I drop my guard to 50%.  But never to 0%.  It is tiring.  There is always the fear that something will happen--I'll lose something or something will be taken either off me or out of my room.  Or I'll accidentally leave something behind.  Or the ATM won't work or it'll eat my card.  These are all things that, though unpleasant, I can deal with when I'm in Seattle.  They are much harder to deal with here.  On Saturday, I intend to go to Saint Louis.  I have no idea how I'm going to get there.  I sort of know from the Lonely Planet what my options are, but it's all going to be new to me.  While it's fun to learn all these new things, it's also stressful.  I'm just in my first West African country though.  I'm figuring out how it works.  Tomorrow morning, I'll have 2 visas and hopefully my passport into the Guinea (Conakry) embassy for pickup on Friday.  I hope.