Since the director General told us he will come and pick us up at 9:00am and take as to the minister, we made ourselves ready (dressed up not as a scientist but as a business man or as a typical politician). BTW, I was also asked to prepare some slides to brief the minister, which I had to translate it to French (thanks to online translation, I did translate all the texts that I had on my slides. Don't ask me whether it is correct translation or not). Then unexpected thing happened at about 9:30am. Instead of the director general our normal driver came and told me that the minister is waiting for me at the institute, because, the driver said, the minister wants to see my instrument setup in person. Holly ShishKabob! It is unusual in Africa that the politician gave such a big attention and pause their political activities and came all the way to see a small space science instrument. I was so impressed with that. He seems a very nice person and easy to talk to. He also speak very good English. I did all my best to brief him the practical application of the instrument. O! When I showed him comparison of map of instrumentation in Africa five years ago and now, he interrupted my briefing and shakes my hand 'with emotion' and said 'thank you for this'. It is obvious, but I've to mention it here; my role in populating Africa with instruments is way way very limited. Thanks to many other PIs who sent their instrument into Africa and they should get most of the credit. As soon as I finished my briefing, the first question he asked me was this "is that possible to broadcast it on TV for general public?". That sudden and unexpected question for me, but I know I have no other choice other than saying yes, if I want my instrument be healthy! I also had a feeling this won't happen, because I thought he will forget it when he engaged with his routine work. After the briefing I took him a tour to the electronics and then to the sensor location. He seems very happy and very helpful. Before he left the institute, he asked me a very familiar question; he asked if AMBER can help him to get a telescope. I got this question from many other political affiliated Africans, but have no idea why African politicians are fascinated with stars and planets!
Here is me (far right), briefing the minister. From right to left, me, H.E. minster of higher education of Guinea, director general of the institute, and Dr Kitha.
Here is me again, explaining about the sensor to the minister outside, with rain showering onto us. Thanks to his bodyguard, he brought us umbrella.
Right after, the minister left, the director general drove
us to the internet service provider (IST) company called Mouna, which does the institute networking and
IT configurations..The traffic was really bad and it took us an hour and 45 minute
to get there. We met one engineer (Alfa), who can understand us what we were
talking about. He speaks fluent English. Alfa has been in US quiet a few times.
He promised me to get into our problem on the same day. We were then driven back
to our hotel and stay there on standby mod just in case Alfa calls or email us.
Nothing happened on Wednesday after that. Wish us good luck for tomorrow!!
Humm! did Obama campaign here in Guinea for one of his elections? This is one of the office door at Mouna ISP company!
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