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| Team Fast and Furious: Emily F, Melina, Michelle, and Me |
Fifteen teams set out to complete 10 different challenges scattered around the city of Conakry! We completed our first challenge quickly by starting a fire with matches and sticks we found along the street, but it went downhill from there. We followed the directions of a local and started running through the streets to our next destination. Turns out we were really lost for at least twenty to thirty minutes with none of the locals knowing the location when we would ask for directions!
After running around in circles, we finally found the location where we had to drink two large cupfuls of a nasty drink mixture filled with sardines, tuna, garlic, hot sauce, and many other terrible things!! By the time we got to our 4th challenge we had to wait in line behind several other teams. During this challenge we had to shine three people's shoes and have them pay us 500 GNF! (7000 GNF = $1 US dollar.)
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| Melina shinning a military officer's boots. |
We headed to the water for our next challenge of rowing out to a particular point in a very old fishing boat where any slight movement nearly tipped over the boat. Our team did well until we had to turn around and row back. With the wind and current working against us, we lost our balance and the boat dumped us out into the water! With the boat now filled with water, we started swimming back while pulling the boat! Thankfully we had on lifevests; so the swimming wouldn’t have been that bad, except this particular area of the beach is extremely dirty with medical waste dumped into the water from the local hospital. Also it is a public toilet for many people, YUCK!! By the time we could stand in the water, our legs started sinking in muck which went up past our knees!
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| We fell out of a fishing boat similiar to these. This is a beach closeby where we dumped out of the boat! |
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| Our starting point at this local restuarant. I've been told the toilets dump straight into the water! |
Our taxi driver didn't want us getting
back into the car, but as we started to walk away he decided to drive us to the
market for our next mission of finding the man in a yellow hat! People pointed
us in all different directions making it frustrating because you had no idea
who to listen to! Turns out they were probably all right at one point because
the man in the yellow hat continually walked around the market making it more
difficult to find him. We were close to giving up at this point because we felt
a bit uncomfortable running through the market soaking wet.
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| These socks used to be bright white. Just an idea how dirty we were! |
Thankfully we didn't give up because
things started to go a lot quicker after this point. At our next destination we
had to catch two chickens and put them in a box. We were one of the fastest
teams with finishing in less than 2 minutes!! Our success during this challenge
was a much needed team morale booster!!
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| One of the challenges required us to walk out to the lighthouse, and draw a team self portrait for eight minutes! |
The eighth challenge was to make a
paste with plantains, potatoes and cassava in an authentic African cooking
dish, and then eat it with our hands. After finishing we raced to the local supermarket
where inside the store we created a two minute song/rap about our experiences
during the race! We finished the last challenge by scoring three goals against
some African children in a game of soccer.
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| Michelle making paste! |
At the final destination we finished
13th out of 15 teams! Our team is now known as the boat sinkers, because
no other team was able to complete the rowing challenge after us!! Although the
race didn’t go quite as we had hoped, it was a unique way to see the city and
to discover some new places! All in all it was a fun experience and time spent
with friends! Now I have a new appreciation for the contestants on the real
show!
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| We may not be clean or looking our best, but WE FINISHED!! |
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