We've Made It!

There’s no doubt most of you have not lost any sleep over an absence of news about our recent travels (excluding of course, our parents... maybe!), but incase you have and need to sleep badly.... the good news is we made it!

After an hour or so from O’hare to Washington DC, eight hours from DC to Dakar, Senegal and two hours from there we made it.... to Bamako, Mali! After all that traveling we still had not made it to our final destination of Kankan, Guinea. 

We arrived in Bamako late morning on Thursday October 31st, which despite it being Halloween we did not see a single costume! :) We spent most of Thursday recovering from traveling and finding out when the Guinea Consulate was open so we could try to get our visas, hopefully before the weekend came. And (as an amazing answer to prayer... a huge thanks to everyone who prayed for this!), we were able to obtain the visa we needed to leave Mali and go to Guinea, without having to extend our stay in Mali! 

We loaded up on some supplies that are expensive in Guinea, or even non-existent, things like: toilet paper, canned goods, a stove lighter (this means I no longer have to worry I will singe my fingertips off when I light my stove by match!), cheese ($11 a pound!), ground beef (surprisingly, only $2.50... I expected it to cost much more!). We opted out of purchasing special K ($11 a box!)...besides we had two bags of lucky charms in our suitcases. You have to pack the essentials. 

We ate a lot of fruit that was in season; watermelons, guavas and I got to try a new one that the lady in the market called a sousous. It was delicious! We were able to eat in a restaurant near the grocery store and enjoy a Lebanese speciality called, a fatayer, which is a meat and onion filled pastry (actually, very yummy!) and some passionfruit ice cream. We opted out of the Obama ice cream flavor they had to offer. The Obama flavor was vanilla and coffee/chocolate mixed. Just one of the many quirky things that bring a smile to our face when we live overseas. :)

Sunday before lunch we drove to Guinea, with Brandon expertly entering each border office and procuring the proper paperwork and signatures from the officials, all while managing to keep the officials laughing with his sense of humor. It’s still up for debate whether he’s funnier in French or in English! 

Stay tuned to find out how our first week in Guinea has gone....

-Hannah