Conakry - Post Report Question and Answers
What are the particular advantages of living in this city?
It’s been a lot of family time. We’ve mostly escaped American consumerism. And, we have saved quite a bit of money. - Sep 2022
I would say that Conakry is a good place to go about whatever your normal life is, but transposed onto exotic, interesting surroundings. If you're willing, you'll see and hear from all sorts of people surviving, suffering, and sometimes thriving in a modern African metropolis. Sometimes on my drive to work, which is ostensibly just as boring and tedious as it would be if I were driving down I-66 in northern Virginia, I take a second to look at myself from outside, and be amazed to be weaving through sheep crossing the street, listening on the radio to classic Guinean salsa music from the 1960s Communist regime that subsidized such music, climbing through rugged terrain like you’d see in a Dodge Ram commercial. You’re doing everything you’d do in a middle-class professional life anywhere else in the world, but surrounded by color and bustle. You have to make your own fun. There aren't a lot of consumer diversions, things where you just pay money and “receive” a good or experience, as you would at a gym or a theme park or a movie theater. But on the other hand, if you want to do something, you can probably find someone who's willing to do it for you, or teach you, or whatever. If you want to learn Spanish in Conakry, you can find an old timer who studied in Cuba during Guinea's Communist regime. If you want to improve your painting, you can surely find an overqualified, underpaid artist willing to give you lessons. If Japanese flower-arranging or Guinean circus contortionism is your thing, I’ll bet you can find someone to mentor you a few hours every week. Idem for pretty much anything else you can think of. Chances are that someone or somewhere in Conakry has it, and they are short on cash, so they'd be happy to share their talents with you. - Jun 2021
If you don't travel frequently, you can save money. - Nov 2019
Saving money (the caveat is that you do not travel if you want to save). - May 2016
Guineans are friendly and the country is beautiful once you get out of Conakry. - Dec 2014
