Out of Africa

Rhian's nanny from Guinea arrived in Barbados on February 24. This may never feature in any formal history of Guinea, but it was the end of an amazing journey. At the time, Guinea was locked in a civil struggle as unions had called a series of national strikes in January and February, which had been well supported, and had obtained many concessions from President Conte and his government. Over 100 people had been killed during the strikes as the security forces responded brutally to the public unrest. Georgette's journey had not been simple. She had managed to book a ticket to Dakar with Air Senegal and board a plane for the designated day, even though the airline had cancelled several flights and the airport was a mass of confusion as those who had not yet been able to travel sought to get on a flight. Good friends of ours in Dakar, met Georgette in Dakar and ensured that she had a good day's rest before she headed on to the next flight to New York.

New York was just getting another blast of cold weather as Georgette travelled, but thanks to Bronwyn, Georgette managed to stay warm and not suffer another climate shock. Events also worked well when the Barbados Embassy in New York sent a letter permitting Georgette's travel without needing to make a visit to the embassy. So, with all the pieces falling nicely into place the Air Jamaica flight from New York to Barbados was a relative piece of cake.

It should be no surprise that Rhian was very pleased to see Georgette again, even though it was just in the last week of January that Georgette had left the US to go back to Guinea, where she needed to sort out her family arrangements before she tried to rejoin us.

Georgette has settled into Bajan life as we live it, and is making a good effort with improving her English. Rhian gets more practice with her French now. We have also found as we broaden our social activities that there are French-speakers in some unexpected places. The rector's wife at St. Barnabas church (which we have attended the past 3 weeks) is a French teacher and she gladly interpreted for the congregation when we were presented as "visitors" at a Sunday service. The owner of an ice cream parlour/grill bar, who was born in England of Bajan parents, but also lived in Canada and the US, gladly engaged Georgette and Rhian with his French one evening.

Now, we have to wait for bureaucracy to move at a good pace so that Georgette can get her work permit. We'll keep you posted on how that goes.