Waterfalls

Guinea is beautiful.  The landscape is so green & lush, the flowers are vibrant & the bold colors are overwhelming.  It’s been called the Switzerland of Africa.  The farther inland you go, the more mountainous it becomes.


The road gets a little bumpy

Thank God for Landrovers!

We might be off the beaten path...

Sheep!

A group of us took an adventure about an hour inland to a place called Dubreka.  Our map was a little sketchy- having been drawn by another Mercy Shipper using directions like if you’ve past the small plane you have gone to far or turn right at the tree in the middle of the road, or keep the mountain that looks like a ship on your left.  But it was an adventure & we were keen to go see where we’d end up.

Dubreka Falls

We did see the plane & we did have to turn around & retrace our steps & yes we didn’t turn right at the tree in the middle of the road & ended up driving on a foot path through a tiny village, but we did finally make it to our destination- Dubreka Waterfalls.

Enjoying the water

The water was amazing, cool & refreshing, very clean.  The rainy season was just over & the falls were running full.  We explored & played & just enjoyed ourselves.  The locals watched us from above & liked to show off by jumping from the top of the falls into the pool below.

Our group

We sat on the rocks & let the water wash over us.  Some of us braved the rushing water to sit behind the falls.  The rest of us had floating races down below.

Lunch

After we got our fill of swimming, we headed back to the hotel where we had parked our landrovers.  Before we had gone to the waterfall, we had ordered lunch, knowing that it would probably be an hour or two before it would be ready.  We had asked what was for lunch & they had told us chicken with french fries.  We ordered 7 plates for our group of 15, thinking that they’d cut the chicken we saw just plucked in the kitchen into enough pieces for us.  But when we returned, they had 7 WHOLE chickens waiting for us, all freshly killed, plucked & cooked!  I’ve never had a whole chicken like this before (no where near the same as a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store- this one still had its neck & legs attached!)  Not what we were expecting, but good all the same.  Oh the joys of living in Africa!

A WHOLE chicken!

Blessings!

Give Thanks

Its difficult to believe that it’s the end of November when the weather is a cool 85 degrees with high humidity & thunderstorms almost every night.  If it wasn’t for calendars & facebook reminding me what time of year it is, I might have missed Thanksgiving!

The US Ambassador's house

Super excited about dinner

I got the opportunity to accept an invitation to have a potluck Thanksgiving dinner at the US Ambassador’s house, only 15 Americans from the ship were invited & I was one of the lucky few!  The food was amazing, everything you could imagine- turkey, gravy, 3 different types of stuffing, green bean casserole, mac & cheese, potatoes, cranberry sauce.  I felt like I was home.  We ate outside under a covered patio, the cool tropical breeze made it very enjoyable. 

We ate & ate until we all felt overly stuffed, then we went back for dessert!  It was nice to just sit & talk to other Americans (from the ship, or from the embassy or just living in the country).  We didn’t have to explain what Thanksgiving was, why we eat the foods we eat or try to convince people to try things like pumpkin pie. 



My American family

Yes- I ate everything on my plate

Wishbone!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After dinner, we sat in the ambassador’s living room just talking, too full to move.  The power went out at one point, but we didn’t care, just a reminder that we were still in Africa.  The house staff brought out candles & we were all amazed because we haven’t seen lit candles in a long time (open flames are not allowed on the ship, so no candles).  Even when the lights came back on a half hour later, we couldn’t blow out the candles quite yet, though when we did, we fought over who would blow them out!  I hope we didn’t make the ambassador think we were crazy or something!

Sunset from the Ambassador's house

What a fun, memorable night!  I wasn’t with my family, but I was with my American family, for which I am thankful for.

Blessings