Questions of Guinea-Bissau

Another month has passed and it is wild for me to think that there are only 10 days left in my time here. As I reminisce on the different things I have done and learned here, different things and questions come to mind like:

-at about month 5 of my stay here, Titus’ truck changed from a key start to a key + push start (an awesome red button was placed in the dash to get the thing started). What was even more fun was the fact that the car still had to be pushed to get it started, making it the ultimate ‘push start’ vehicle.

-I learned if you have pens and stickers (thank you mom, dad and Fiona) motivating the class is super easy. (Today I made them act out a short play with props and everything. It was rad.)

-if it is under 30 degrees it is ‘cold.’

-dancing solely to the beat of a drum is legit.

-to get fruit from a tree there are four methods methods. A. throw a stick at it. B. wait for the fruit to drop. C. find a long stick and hit it off. D. get a kid to climb really high and shake frantically until the fruit drops.

-another thing is here, if you want to use public transportation, be prepared to stop about a million times. This stopping turns short trips in to long ones and makes long trips into epic journeys.

-fun fact: while it may be nearly impossible for a fellow resident of the lower mainland to picture, rain actually does not fall here for a solid 7 or 8 months. A thing I have enjoyed very much even though this has contributed to the heat here.

-how are cell phones so crazy popular if there is vertually no electricity (goverment officials and some other important people in the capital city are the only ones who actually get power).

-What are the odds of me planning my trip to miss the mango season perfectly? (I love mangoes.)

-If Canada has a better economy and trading system, why is it so much harder to buy a monkey in there? (Mardu, one of the guys living with Titus, bought a monkey for I think the equivalent of 8 bucks.)

-why did I think going to the beach with no sunscreen in Africa was a good idea?

Questions asked/thought of while in transportation:

-how does a car lose its speedometer?

-what percentage of this car is held together by tape and cardboard?

-how long does it take for a car to lose all of its interior and become a metal shell?

-are working windows a luxury?

-why is there 10 people in this car?

-how did we fit over 40 people in this van?

-is the hole in the floor to tell how fast we are going? (this one goes well with the first one)

-where does the key go if there is no ignition?

-how do you open a door with no handle?

-so, this door comes right off eh? Neat. No seatbelts either? No problem.

-if the government put lines in the road, would it make a difference?

-how is the stuff piled on top of the car bigger than the car itself?

Ok, so most of it was questions. But they hint at some fun experiences here that I have neglected to put so far or just wanted to repeat. I figured this is the shortest way to get it all in.

In further fun news, I have officially booked all my flights and have my travel plans back home set. Friends in Toronoto, I will be there from the 16^th-18^th. Edmonton friends and family, 22^nd till the 28^th. Everybody at home, I will be back home on the 28^th. Haza! It is still a month away, but that is pretty close... right?