Obama Bar

And today was yet another pretty amazing day. We started out by trying to go to the “American Embassy” which I didn’t think existed; but our driver had mentioned something about it a couple days before. So we tried, a few times with no avail, and my knowledge was correct. In the general area where the driver thought there was the embassy, we found the United Nations so we decided to stop there (because we needed a quality housing source). We were sent from this person to that person and were eventually told that they couldn’t help us because they were not allowed to unless we had a document that had been approved, but finally; the last person we called agreed to see us. He is the head of the security department for the UN, a really nice man from Portugal. We took about a half hour of his time and it was amazing to listen to his knowledge and view of Bissau. Yes, economically speaking it is a very poor country, but the people are not desperate, you don’t see them dying of hunger in the streets. This was a great experience for me; having studied international relations I have always been extremely interested in the work the UN does; it was a pleasure to meet someone so high-up in the organization.
We finished at the UN and headed to the only well-known “sports” club in Bissau; a small gym with a run-down track. This was probably the most popular sports “club” for foreigners, so reluctantly we needed to get the prices.

The weather, I swear must be stranger than New England. It rained off and on today about 3 times, one of which was a VERY heavy thunderstorm which cause the worst flash-flooding I have ever experienced in my life. We had just eaten lunch at one of the nicer hotels in the city when a severe storm with pounding rain came through for about 20 minutes. By the time it was over, there was a river running down the street ; literally – a river up to your knees. This caused some serious traffic as people needed to drive up all the way to the concrete of the hotel to exit the car, and there was only room for one spot to do this. Our driver did the same for us because there was no other way to actually get in without being soaked in red mud water, or actually carried away in the street river!

In the name of the huge election there will be on Sunday, people all over the place are striving to support who they want to win. There are stations all over the city to hang out and play music, dance, and support the president elects. They put numerous posters up everywhere to show who they are supporting. Joe just HAD to get some posters, so I obliged and we got 4 perfectly cheesy maps to take home with us!
It really hit me today how nice everyone really, truly is. Everyone we have met so far has just been incredibly kind, you are always welcomed with a warm handshake, but not a smile – because I swear they just don’t do that here, even though they are happy to meet you but you wouldn’t even know it. They will, however; go way out of the way to help out. Some of the nicest people I have ever met.

The last really memorable thing that happened today was Obama bar. Driving by, and MAJOR props to Joe, we found a bar with a painted picture of Obama outside (and not a bad one too!) so we took some pictures, went inside to take more, and then we were summoned to the owner’s village. He took us into his small 1 bedroom room and when he opened the door, I was amazed to see the shrines to US actors, actresses, and famous American icons (including Obama and Victoria/David Beckam) in general. Proudly, I said, “you like America?” He sure does.