Guinea-BissauMapFebruary 18...21, 2014 Passport control.  The country was named Guinea-Bissau to prevent confusion with neighboring Guinea, whose capital is Conakry.  Cow.  A license plate.  There are billboards about AIDS everywhere.  Things are so bad in Guinea-Bissau that people are forced to resort to desperate measures. The police stopped my car as soon as I crossed the border, hoping to get something, anything out of me. They checked the car for everything: a fire extinguisher, a warning triangle, windshield wipers. Finally, they found their pretext—no windshield washer fluid—and fined the driver $100. Completely unheard of for Africa. Somewhere in the middle of the country, the following scene unfolded. Three teenagers were standing on the road: two held a rope stretched across the roadway while the third stood in the middle, trying to stop passing cars. “What do you want?” “Give us some money, Mister!” You have to keep driving. BissauMapThere’s trash everywhere.  And, without fail, some kind of cattle grazing on the trash.  Or scavengers.  Bissau is the trashiest of all the former Portuguese colonies. This military fortress, originally built to keep the aboriginals at bay, is still being used by the military for its intended purpose. The black spot above the tower is an airborne plastic bag.  Taxis are blue on the bottom and white on the top.  Payphones.  At the post office.  An old safe at the post office. The only pretty thing in the entire capital.  Gas stations have incredibly high roofs.  A traffic light.  A footbridge.  A solar panel on brackets with spikes, to prevent theft.  The city isn’t terribly cozy.  The style of some of the buildings is evocative of provincial Australian towns. The same balcony galleries on the upper floors.  Former beauty.  Trees grow right on the roadway.  A mosaic. It’s practically Egypt.  BolamaMapBolama is an astonishing city, located on an island about an hour away from the capital by boat.  There isn’t much here nowadays.  But this was once the capital.  It had a beautiful waterfront.  It had beautiful streets.  Elegant fences surrounded elegant mansions.  But now everything is deserted.  There’s nothing left.  It’s all closed.  Civilization has abandoned this place for good.  |
