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Journal of African trips

Africa, spring 1999 part III

Agelasto
2004-05-21 18:12:22

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even guess what
his regular occupation is, if indeed he has one) who will find me the taxi to Guinea. I wait.
I finish Conrad And I wait. I have lunch. I start Faulkner. I wait. I think about Liu Xu.
I think about why I prefer living in China to living in the US. I am getting worried as it
approaches 5 p.m. Finally, the man leads me to a bus which he says is the one I want. I
get on, no receipt given, and tip the man for his trouble.

The bus, which is definitely local transport, heads out of town, stopping every few
kilometers to unload people or lumber or livestock, and about an hour later, after I have
covered earlier-trodden roads, we reach Medina Gounas, which by road is only 60
kilometers (30 as the crow flies) from Velingara, where I was this morning. And all today
I remain in Senegal, with the Guinea border still less than 100 kilometers away. For a day
that started out so well with such an easy border crossing, today is ending up rather
poorly, looking as possible candidate for the worst twenty list. All of a sudden, in the
middle of nowhere, the bus stops. Only a few of the passengers remain, and the conductor
sells us to a mini-van. We change vehicles; I don?t get a new receipt. The sale of humans
in Africa, of course, has much historical precedent; it is not unusual for bush taxis to
transfer passengers among vehicles so they can always carry complete loads. I am
adamant in explaining to yet another driver that I want to go to Guinea-Conakry. The
driver nods. All day everyone seems to have understood my destination, but and I am still
not getting there very fast. It is now nightfall, and I am expecting this new vehicle any minute to pull up to the border on its way to Guinea. Instead, we stop at some sort of
junction. There must be several hundred trucks and taxis at this gare routiere. Although I
cannot even find mention of this place ...