Third Day in Conakry (6 August 2013)

We had to wait a little bit for our driver at the reception. Our driver picked us up around 9:00am. The data has a lot interference and we decided to move the sensor to another location, which I did it with the help of the local people. Of course, the massive rain was continue pouring on my body, making me to look like a mouse just getting out of its flooded winter home. However, the new site is by far the worst, and we decided to move it back to the previous location with one big promise from the director general. He agreed to close the pedestrian way and protect that area for various instrument installation purpose. Then we started permanent installation process and aligned the sensor, we put the GPS antenna in place. We accomplished most of the tasks today.

 Ok! this will be the home for the sensor, start digging!

 Layout the cable and put the sensor in a right position, vertical!!

Due to the language barrier, the sensor alignment was a bit hard. Kathryn and I communicated with cell phone and I was not allowed to have cell phone while I'm aligning the censor! you can imagine what kind of back and forth shuttling we had to get perfect alignment! any way, finally we made it; smiley face with the sensor!  

 The GPS antenna got in place!

Bingo! the sensor got aligned, GPS antenna connected. One more thing remain, the IP address for data exchange! (picture shows me and Dr Bamba, our contact point in Conakry)!

Tomorrow will be a big day for us, because we were told that we gonna meet H. E. the minister of higher education and his stuff. Let's wait and see what will happen, goodnight for today!!

Second Day in Conakry (5 August 2013)

It was raining the whole night, and when I wake up on Monday morning, I found flood in my room. Since I was checking on the Internet for better hotel in Conakry, the first thing we have to do was change our hotel. When the two professor (Drs Bamba and Kitha), with a translator called Rene, came to pick us up, I boldly asked them to take us Riviera Hotel. After we checked out from the hostel, which is owned by Lebanese, we were driven to Riviera Hotel, again owned by another Lebanese. The rooms at Riviera is neat and the entire compound looks much safer than the previous. 

The institute's view just outside the main gate 
 

The institute's main building. My mag is hiding in the first floor (second window from left)

We went to the institute for the first time, and we were escorted to the director general office, which is big and fancy. The institute has different departments and for each department there is a director, the director of the entire institute is called director general (DG). The DG then escorted us to the room where our instrument has been stored. He gave us the room we want to put the instrument.

The most tiresome effort we had was to select a home for our sensor. It was raining hard but I had to take the sensor out and put it outside and leave it there for a test. We setup the computer, connect the the sensor, no GPS connected. That was the accomplishment for today.

          Surveying the surrounding to find a suitable cave for the sensor

First Day in Conakry (4 August 2013)

to Conakry

Conakry from top view; does it really look like an African country located at the equator?

It is very amazing to see a country located at the equator have such swampy area around the airport. When we looked at it from about one kilometer altitude from the ground, during our plane descends to the ground, we thought we were landing in one of swampy European countries. We landed around 5:00PM local time, which is 1:0PM Boston local time. The airport is very small, but it was highly secured. We saw significant number of military force with machine gun on their hand, scanning the area in all directions.

 Scientist who greeted us in Conakry (from L to R, me, director general of the institute, Kathryn, Drs Bamba, and Kitha)

People who are waiting relatives or guests like us, are not allowed to enter the airport and they have to wait outside the airport. We were a bit panic when we did not find anyone until we totally left the airport, then we saw a man standing with banner that says "AMBER". Conakry trip was a kind of 'blind date' style. We did not have hotel information or detail itinerary, we were just told that everything is arranged. The two professors (far right in the above picture), who greeted us at the airport, drove us to the place where they arranged for our accommodation. We stopped at one place and were asked to fill accommodation form, which was in French of course; then we were taken to our room which is located totally at different location. The room looks reasonably fine, but we were so scare for the security as it is located in the middle of dark suburb, and has no restaurant for dinner. The problem is that restaurants do not open till sunset, but we don't feel comfortable being un-escorted after sunset.  For that night, thankfully, the director general of the institute drove us to the nearby Chinese restaurant which was open even during Ramadan.  It was surprisingly good too. Ninety percent of the population in Guinea is Muslim, and they are fasting for Ramadan during the day. Hope our real scientific mission will start tomorrow!!

First Day in Abidjan (3 August 2013)

to Cote  D'ivoire

 

 Look! we are so exhausted, Prof Obrou, almost useless me, and Kathryn 

After a long delay at Brussels airport, we finally made it to Abidjan. It was late in the evening and we were unable to see Abidjan from the top. Of course, we had one stopover in Contonou, Benin. Surprisingly, I had a GPS receiwver in my luggage and no one asked me anything about it at the Abidjan international airport custom, though they scanned everything I had. We were greeted by Prof Obrou, and he drove us to our hotel where we spend one night before we head off to Conakry tomorrow. As you can see on the figure, we are totally exhausted and would like to crush to bed like a baby.  We’ll see what we’ll get in Conakry, which is totally a kind of ‘blind date’ for me.