Arrival in Guinea
The traffic on the roads is chaotic. With so many people, how can you control the epidemic? Of course in every public place, hotel, restaurant, public services, embassies, mobile phone offices, there was temperature control. The limit was up to 37.9. If your temperature was higher than that you were not allowed to enter and perhaps the relevant authorities were alerted. I didn’t happen to see any incident though. Particularly in small towns I found no concern. In the capital there were several posters on the street referring to the trader, but in the small towns people seemed to have got over it. The truth is that after so many months, the epidemic became an experience for people and ceased to worry them. Some claimed that ebola had been eradicated, but international organisations continue to talk about ebola to raise funds. Others wondered why America was only involved in the fight against ebola in Liberia and not in other countries. The bottom line is that ebola is there. Whether it came from the Congo or was created in a laboratory, people are dying. The strange thing about this epidemic is that the virus does not die with humans. It remains alive in the dead body and waits for the first living organism that comes near it to infect it. That’s why most of the victims were infected while attending funerals.
Kids
In the city of Kindia, the first big city after the capital Konakry, in the Greek square (6,500 sq.m.) in the beautiful tropical African landscape, made even more beautiful by the smiles of the children, the Holy Church of St. Parthenius and St. Charalambos and the Orthodox Academy are built. The Church will be ready very soon. We celebrated the service of the Little Consecration and then read the greetings to the Blessed Virgin Mary. We prayed to God that despite the great financial crisis, with the help of a pious couple from the village of Trimiklini in the Limassol district and the Brotherhood of Orthodox Foreign Missionaries, the works proceeded so quickly. We then visited the Academy. More work is needed there. We also made some functional changes to the plans. In this work we are supported by the Pancyprian Foreign Missionary Society “St. Cosmas the Aetolian”, on the initiative of the dear Protopresbyter Michael Christodoulides. Our Academy in the first phase will have 3 classrooms, a library, a teachers’ office and a computer room.
Ebola
With the help of the National Bank of Greece, we visited schools in the area and distributed antiseptics, soaps and mobile water containers for washing children’s hands upon their arrival and departure from school. The Tzinieri family business from Nafplio offered us parcels of clothing, which we distributed to schools and poor families. As long as we have good people supporting us, we gain strength and courage to continue our struggle for the glory of the Lord.
Traditional Wedding
I also had the opportunity to attend a traditional wedding. The preparations started early in the morning. All the women gathered in the courtyard of the groom’s house and prepared the food. Some were peeling potatoes, some were frying them in a big pot, some were peeling the vegetables, some were preparing the rice, some were preparing the meat. All together as a family they helped to get everything ready as it should be. The men helped the groom to decorate himself, some prepared the music for the feast, others welcomed the guests. Some women left the preparation of the food and threw a dance. In general the atmosphere was very beautiful and joyful.
Well opening
But because we have our own obligations, we left the fun of the wedding and went to the place where the workers were struggling with the meager means at their disposal to drill a well so that the local community would have access to drinking water. This well was another gift of love from the Orthodox Foreign Missionary Brotherhood. Drinking water is extremely valuable especially in Africa, where women and children are forced to walk 5 and 10 kilometers, twice a day, to carry relatively clean water home for their family’s needs.
Route through the green
The route from the town of Kindia to Konakry is lush green. The vast and beautiful tropical greenery prevails. Everywhere palm trees and mango trees. This is the mango harvesting season and the view of the trees adorned with the greenish red and delicious mangoes was fantastic. Millions of mangoes. I asked why they don’t export them, why they don’t make them into jam or juice, but to do all of this takes money and organization. Unfortunately both are non-existent.
Divine Liturgy
In the capital city of Konakry, and in a private space provided by Ukrainian Orthodox, I celebrated the Divine Liturgy. Before the Divine Liturgy, several people asked for confession. I was particularly moved when a Ukrainian man, aged 50, came for confession, who told me that he had never confessed in his life and that he had not been to church and received the Divine and Blessed Sacrament for 18 years! “God is great as God”!
Research for the construction of a temple
Together with devout Ukrainians doing business in Guinea, we visited districts of the capital city of Conakry to find a suitable plot of land for the construction of a Holy Temple. Some were quite good, but the prices were unaffordable. However, we are confident that the good Lord will pave the way and a suitable site will be found soon.
Departure
It’s time to go back. A small virus brought my fever up a bit. I was worried, because at the airport on departure I was to undergo a sacred examination before boarding the plane, and if I had ticks I was afraid of being quarantined. I followed the instructions of the doctor from the Athens health inspection that I visited before leaving Greece and took some depon. Fortunately everything went well. I passed all 5 checks successfully. After a 24 hour trip I returned to Athens. I hope that God will also claim West Africa to eliminate the deadly epidemic as soon as possible and that Ebola will be a thing of the past for our fellow human beings there.
George Guineas
