Strike and Riots

Here in Guinea the rainy season is underway. My village went from brown to green seemingly overnight; once dusty paths are now tall rows of corn.

The change in seasons has escalated along with changing attitudes amongst the Guinean people. Gas prices have risen to the point where a government worker's entire monthly salary can not purchase a sack of rice to feed his family. The price of gas increased from 4300 Guinean Francs/liter to 5500 GF/L overnight without warning from the government.

Guineans reacted with a national general strike: no taxis, markets, boutiques, schools, or commerce. The teachers in major cities boycotted the national Bac exam on Monday, June 12th, resulting in student riots that led to at least 5 student deaths in Labe and 10 in Conakry.

The Peace Corps took the appropriate safety precautions, and at no point did I feel unsafe. We watched the Labe skyline from the 2nd floor terrace of the hotel outside of town where Peace Corps volunteers stay. What started as cap gun fire progressed to live ammunition. Plumes of smoke rose above downtown as students burned tires in the streets. The military proceeded to walk through the quartiers of the city, firing live rounds into the air of intersections to enforce a street ban. A Peace Corps guard's wife was sleeping in her bed when a bullet went through her roof and into her bed frame. Luckily, she was uninjured.

While we were sitting on the terrace, three military men walked by and shot a round in the air at the intersection in front of the hotel. A man walked by from their direction carrying two large mangoes. He looked up at our terrace and said in English with a smile "Don't be afraid" and continued on his way home. As the riots downtown turned violent, we watched women in neighboring concessions continue their laundry. It was all very surreal.

The government and union leaders have finished negotiations and life is back to normal for the moment here in Guinea. In my village the only way you would know unrest was going on in the big cities was our lack of bread (usually trucked in from two nearby towns). I had three visitors from America with me for the last few weeks, and they definitely got an interesting view of life here.

Tomorrow morning I head back up-country to my village, where I'm out-planting moringa trees. Moringa trees' leaves have a very high nutritional content, so I am encouraging local women to use the leaves in the leaf sauce they serve with rice. We are also working on planting coffee and cashew.