This month is was also time for 2 new destinations Conarky in Guinea and Dakar in Senegal! First stop was Conakry in Guinea. The flight itself wasn't too busy but I was the 'duty free operator', on every flight you can buy duty free and it all depends on the position you have. This time it was my turn, but it was my lucky day, because I sold 7500 dirham worth duty free products, and guess what, 10% is for me!!! Woehoeee! Which means that I got myself another ticket to Amsterdam!
Once we arrived at the airport of Conakry you could tell it's a very underdeveloped country and we even had to take the bus at the back of the airport, escorted by armed police officers. The drive to the hotel was a bit shocking, everywhere was trash and people selling the smallest of things in order to survive in houses that you cannot even call a house. This season is rain season in Guinea, unfortunately. Therefore we had some dinner with the crew next to the pool while it was pouring rain. The next day 8 of the crew and I were going on a tour to a waterfall, the drive was 1.5 hour through the poor streets of Conakry. What I said before, going from a festival like Tomorrowland where money doesn't pay a role to Guinea where people live with less then a dollar a day, being one of the poorest countries in Africa. On our way we stopped to get some cookies because before the waterfall we were going to a small village where there were some children, and men they knew we were coming and giving them cookies! They loved it, and they didn't know where to look since we were with a diverse set of people, a chinese, japanese, indian, romanian, french, australian, uk and me. A little bit further we finally got to the waterfall, as we arrived the rain stopped and the sun came out, perfect timing if you ask me. We took some photos, had some typical Guinea fish lunch and then back to the hotel.
I was so tired after the drive and the waterfall, and all the impressions during the day. People and especially children I saw on the streets are happy with the smallest things, where if I look back at the world we live in as europeans, if you don't have an iPad or iPhone in school you are not part of the cool people and the lifestyle people want you to live. These children in Africa literally have nothing but the things they find on the street, no special toys for them to play with, just an empty bottle some children were playing with. It's a fact that they don't know what there is out there, and maybe the not knowing makes them happier then some children who do have the luxurious lifestyle. It's a double feeling seeing all these people and then getting back to the beautiful Sheraton hotel. I'am sure there are some wealthy people but they probably live in a complete different area and high rise fences.
The next day we flew to Dakar in Senegal.
Dakar is a complete different world then Conakry, it sounds bad but you can just tell that Senegal is 'wealthier'. One of the crew told me that back in the day when the French came to Guinea that literally they took everything what they had from gold to other valuables. Instantly I felt more safe in Dakar then Conakry. A few of the crew been before so they knew a nice place for us to have dinner, instead of the hotel. We ended up at this restaurant next to the water and it was just the cutest place I have seen in a long time, it was fully covered by sea shelves. Even the food was extremely good and delicious.
After the restaurant we found on the internet that there is a bar at the Dakar lighthouse, so we went to have a look. And again, such a surprise, trees covered in lights to give this an extra magical feeling.
However, it wasn't the party place as we expected so we went to the club street in Dakar and went actual clubbing with the people of Senegal. I can tell you that it was a very interesting evening with a lot of big asses and big boobs and just very tall females, and there was me 1.64m shaking my white ass around, haha!
Got back to the hotel about 6am and the girls were doing a tour at 9am, as you can imagine I did not go. I just did not have the energy to sleep a few hours and then do a full day tour, not happening. Glad I didn't because there were some heavy thunderstorms as well, so I just did the typical gym and roomservice for a day, and I loved it. The last day it was finally sunny so I had a lovely breakfast by the pool next to the ocean and then chilled for a few hours by the pool getting my tan back.
After 48 hours in Conakry and 48 hours in Dakar it was time to get back to the sandpit. Re-thinking about what I have actually seen in the past few days and knowing my own childhood I must say it made me feel very fortunate to be from my small village in the Netherlands and having the childhood I had. Knowing I have a bright future ahead of me, able to go to school and travel the world as I do now, things some people don't even know it exists, when you think about it all it's a bit shocking. I have this trip again in about a week and I will take some of my old clothes with me to give to the poor and hopefully I will make it to the tour as well in Dakar.
So as I always like to end my blogs; be grateful for what you have because there are people in this world that have way less then you.
Yesterday's the past, Tomorrow's the future, today is a gift that's why it's called the present !
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