Guinea Bissau

Greetings!
I just arrived in Brikama not too long ago after being in Guinea Bissau since Saturday. It was quite a wonderful experience. It's quite hard to believe how an area only about 150 miles away can be so different. From the housing structures, to the way people act, things are significantly different when compared to Gambia.
The adventure started on Saturday morning from Kartong. Peter and I drove into Brikama where we met Buba who was waiting for us after obtaining necessary documents for travel outside of the country. He would be our driver, as Peter does not have an international drivers liscense for his vehicle (apparently, if you're a UK national, you don't need one to drive in Gambia). After meeting Buba, we picked up Moriba from the compound. After stopping at one of the street vendors to get some bread, we were on our way, through the bumpy, dusty, pot hole ridden roads all the way to the border. One of the "paved" roads just before reaching the Senegal border had more potholes than actual pavement! No sleeping in the car. The roads in Senegal and Guinea Bissau were much better maintained. In Senegal, there were even painted lines! Throughout the entire trip, there must've been a police checkpoint every 10-15 miles. Moriba and Buba both claim that these "checkpoints" are a means for police to obtain money from travelers. "Hey, you have a crack in your windshield! Pay 200!(about 10 US). Guinea Bissau was actually the worst going down. Every point would have us pay 1000CFA (50D, 2.75 US). One point, upon checking the registration made Buba fork out 5000CFA because "people like to come from Gambia and sell their vehicles here in Bissau." Even if he wanted to sell Peter's vehicle in Guinea Bissau, how is a 5000CFA fee going to stop him!? Most of the officers at the checkpoints in Senegal would just walk up to our vehicle, greet us (in French) and wave us by. But some would make us get out of the vehicle and have Buba and Moriba explain where we are going, what was in our bags at the back of the vehicle, and try to hassle us for some green tea that would be used to make attire, a very traditional form of tea here in the region. Some of the Senegalese officers would have an automatic rifle with them as they walked up to us. A little eerie, but most of them were friendly with us. The ferry crossing across a river in GB was also quite interesting. Once at the dock, we probably didn't leave the shore for another three hours. There were street vendors lining the road just before the dock, there was a huge drop off just before your tires made contact with the craft, and most people could probably walk faster than the speed of the boat. And, you had to go in reverse as you left the ferry. Quite the different experience from riding a Washington State ferry! Probably only 400 meters of water separate the two shorlines. There is a bridge under construction that is expected to be finished early next year. Which unfortunately, will probably wipe out the vendors along the street just the other side of either dock.
The change in landscape is quite nice to witness as you are heading south. Casamance (southern Senegal) is much more green than Gambia, and Guinea Bissau, even more so, to a much larger extent. GB feels like a forest, really, and the landscape rolls a little bit more, where as the Gambia, and even most of Casamance, is very flat. I'm not sure of all the trees that exist. Mango, lemon, nimh, baobab, and cashew just to name a few. Cashew trees harvest a very sweet fruit that is used to make a very heavily produced cashew wine in GB. I tried a little bit of this yesterday eve. It tastes more like a very sweet fruit juice, and I barely noticed any presence of alcohol. Buba claims that cashew wine is to GB the same that attire is to Gambia.
So we arrived in the Sao Paulo district of Bissau, the capital of GB, at the home of Domingo Gomes. A very close friend of Buba. He is the only one who speaks much English, and Buba did most of the communicating with the others. Portugese is the official language in GB, but most communicating is done in Creole of all languages, which is said to have some slight differences from Portugese, but I'm not quite sure to what extent. There are also some local languages being spoken, including Mandinka, but not as much as in Gambia. It was quite humorous, along the way down, and even in GB, to watch Buba and Moriba greet people in multiple languages, trying to find one in common where both parties were fluent. Most people in the region can speak multiple languages. After visiting with Domingo and having dinner with his family, we were taken to an SOS village inside of Bissau. A very nice complex that was donated by some Portugese, I believe. The SOS village is home to many young people whom are orphans as a result of wars that have occurred within the country. GB has been a green zone for a while now, but not for too long. I had the chance to talk with Domingo about this fairly significantly, and I'm curious to do a bit more research on the history myself. And also on the traditional Mandinka music in the area. According to Eric Charry's book Mande Music, GB is the ancestoral home of the Kora, and Domingo mentioned the names of a couple of Kora players living in the capital, Bissau. Overall, I like the feel of GB very much. Really, it was quite a blessing in disguise to have the opportunity to come down here. The people are very friendly, and not "overly" friendly like some here in Gambia. Throughout the whole time in Bissau, not one person asked me for money or tried to sell me anything. And the children were surprisingly tame and well behaved when compared the kids in Gambia. No children shouting "Toubab! Mintie!" at the top of their lungs as you walked by. Peter claims that children probably do this because in the past, tourists have been overly generous in giving candy to kids. Hopefully, if this is the case, it will not effect GB the same way that it has Gambia. People in GB just seem to go about their business, and are yet, still very friendly. "Branko" is the term that is used for white people in GB, and I only ever heard it used once.
The SOS village is where we stayed for Saturday and Sunday night. During the days, we travelled around the capital-Bissau, and visited some of Buba's friends in the area. Buba lived here for a few years, if I remember right, and in the village of Binar, where we stayed at the compound of a friend. Bissau is the largest city I have visited yet. Some interesting things about Bissau- it has no electricity, for the most part, as does the entire country of GB. Most electric power are run from generators, which usually, are acquired communally by civilians, for their neighborhoods, or by multiple business owners for their shops. Regardless, I could see GB as a place to come back to. I'm really curious about the kora's influence to the area.
There was another three hour wait to cross the river by ferry this morning. It was hot, and there was almost an accident just before the ferry pulled out, as one of the bush taxis came flying onto the vessel after it's engine died and almost rear ended a vehicle. The weather in GB makes Brikama seem cool! Even in Bissau, which is fairly close to the water, there was no escaping the heat in GB.
There is a good chance that I will be going overland to Dakar and flying back straight from there, skipping my charter flight from Banjul to Dakar. This is to try and prevent any mishandling of my two koras that will be coming back with me. On the way here, the bag that I checked in didn't arrive in Banjul until about 10 days after I did! We will probably leave either Thursday or Friday, stay with friends of Moriba in Dakar, and I will fly out early in the am on Sunday (2am!) I need to have my koras with me when I arrive in NY, because I am catching a train later in the day, across the country, which will arrive in Seattle a few days later. No koras in NY could be a huge mess to sort out. So I will try and get to Dakar overland, and hopefully prevent such a mishap from occuring. Given all of what I have just mentioned, this will likely be my last entry until I get back in the states, as things will be somewhat busy as I prepare to depart. Thank you all so very much for your feedback, emails, your wonderful comments, support, wisdom, love, and I look forward to seeing many of you in the very near future.

Ciao!

Sean

(I will post more when I get back!)