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Me, a Peugeot 505 and a bunch of coal waiting for a ferry
that will sail us (all) to the other embankment of the river
"Rio de Canjambari". Actually the river was not
very wide and the ferry could easily be substituted by a
bridge. Our driver told us that Portugal had promised to
finance a bridge.
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Finally we reached our destination: the Bandim
district of Bissau. Here we met up with Thomas
(right), a lab technician working for the Danish
company ViroGates.
The beer they were carrying was for a party some of
the locals arranged in the evening... and partying was
something the locals were good at! We
danced a lot to loud local music.
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As earlier indicated Guinea-Bissau is a country which is as
far as you can get from being rich in economic terms. The
above photo is of my bathroom facilities in a good house in
the capital of the country! There was only (cold) water half
of time - the remaining other half we had to take showers
using buckets. When I was there we had mains power almost all
the time, but before I came some parts of the capital have
been without power for months. All serious business' and
people who can afford it therefore have a backup generator.
And even a generator does not guarantee that one has power,
since it sometimes also can be difficult to get fuel for it.
Morten and Thomas walking on a city street to
"Lenox" a former gas station which has been
converted into being a combined bar, club and Internet
café. Many of you out there will probably want to know
whether cars actually drive on such roads and the answer is
yes they do - I even saw a light truck driving on this
particular road.
Morten sitting in his office at the Bandim Health
Project's
"headquarters". As can be seen the money is being used on
science and not on nice offices. I do not think there was a
single electrical installation which would comply with any
European standard on their premises - or maybe even the
country:-)
A view from a quay towards the city centre at the port in
Bissau. Many of the ships in the harbor would most likely
never leave port. Not all the ships were completely
destroyed because out of the picture's view a modern
container terminal could be seen.
The tourist version of myself in front of the ruins of the
former Presidential Palace in Bissau - okay I doubt it
really could pass a litmus test for using the word "palace"
in its golden age. The palace was destroyed during the civil
war back in 1999 and the rumors tell that the president
doesn't want to rebuild it and move in because it is thought
be home for bad spirits.
This is the picture I think 90 % of the people in the
Western World first
think of when Africa is mentioned. These kids were playing
nearby where Morten was living and just constantly get asked
take their picture so they can see themselves on the screen
of the digicam.
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