Expedition

So Ousmane II tells me he wants to take me on a “petite expedition” and after my last journey up a mountain I’m like, whatever, bring it on.

So this time I wear proper shoes: Keens way better than Chacos for hiking, take note!! Even though I am in a sour mood when he comes to pick me up in the morning (he is late, and I hate that, and I am starting to get into my Harry Potter book and resent the interruption), it turns out to be a good day.

We walk for a long time down the road until we get to a fluorescent green patch and then veer off toward the mountain. I’m already knowing we are going to climb the mountain and this time I’m prepared, what with my Keens and my camera. We walk through rice fields, saluer-ing everyone out there working and get to the foot of the mountain, where all the big boulders are. We start to climb. The views are freaking spectacular. I make a mental note to take any visitors from America up here.

We climb for awhile, resting on rock benches every now and again. Ousmane II keeps asking me if I’m tired and while I may be WINDED, I’m not tired, and we push on. During one of our rests, looking out onto the valley below containing rice fields, then trees and mountains beyond, he confesses he did not think I would even make it to here, let alone keep going. I’m thinking…is this because I’m white or because I’ve got a few extra pounds on me?

So we keep going and we get past the bouldery region and enter the forest. And I’m thinking we’ve already seen the spectacular views, where are we going? So we forge on for awhile and after a long time I finally say, “ok, I admit it, I’m tired”. And he’s like, “let’s go back.” So we take 3 or 4 steps to go back and he’s like “yeah I was going to take you to the end of the mountain where you can look off the edge and it’s like waaaaaaah!” And I stop dead in my tracks and I’m like…”well, how much farther IS it?” because I am interested in this. He says, “it’s far. We’ll do it next time.” I relent, but then curse myself all the way down the mountain because I know it would have been really cool to stand at the apex of the mountain and scream out onto the valley. Still kicking myself right now. However, we did go to the cliff face, which runs all along the mountain and inch to the edge and fearfully look down. As Ousmane II said, “it would be really bad if you fell out here.” Cause, you know…there’s not even a hospital, let alone a mountain rescue squad.

After a three and a half hour expedition, we get back to his house and eat rice and manioc leaf sauce, then sit around drinking attaya for awhile with some neighborhood males.

For living in the capital and having been all the way through school, Ousmane II still seems to know shockingly little about the world and still has a wide-eyed innocence about him when I explain things, even though he is 23 years old.

We talk about airplane travel and he asks how long it takes to get to the States via airplane from Africa, thinking it took between 1-3 hours. His first guess is 3 hours. When I look at him like he’s crazy he says, “2 hours? 1 hour?” And I say, “It took 24 hours to get from NYC to Guinea when I came here” and his jaw drops. Granted, not all of that was actual flight time, but c’est ca.

Then I start telling him that there are satellite phones on airplanes and you can call people with them. He is floored. I don’t even bother to explain the TVs in every seat where every person can choose their own movie. For free. That might make his head explode.

He keeps remarking, “eh, les blancs!” or, “oh, white people!” And I tell him, “it’s not just white people, in America we have black people, Asian people, Indian people, latin people…all religions, all nationalities…” I tell him there are plenty of black people who have invented stuff and get caught off-guard when he disbelievingly says, “like what?” I was kind of shocked that my brain came up with nothing. In my defense I can only name like 5 inventors, one of whom is Thomas Edison, all of whom ancient and, incidentally, white. But luckily a sort of educated older dude who was there having attaya with us (who I think may have actually been to America but at least has definitely been on an airplane) came to my rescue and said, “DUH, there are black Americans! They invent stuff, too!” And I say, “there are black Englishmen, black Germans, black everything, not just Americans and not just Africans.” And then we launch into the discussion about how in America, if you are a citizen, you are an American. It doesn’t matter where you originally came from, if you’re an American, you’re an American. Everyone in America comes from somewhere different except the American Indian. Which launches a whole discussion about American Indians and what languages they speak.

I probably have my most productive discussions with Ousmane II, including one where I tried to explain homosexuality, surrogate mothers and in vitro fertilization. His reaction to all this new information can be summed up by one thing he said once, “la vie est grand!” or…life is big.

It sure is.