Corruption, you say?

Guinea, 2019

I had over the years heard many stories about Guinea, especially about the wide-spread corruption in the country. These stories being told by people, who are quite used to corruption in their own country, had made me wary. Despite living in Mali, and loving to travel and explore, I had stayed away from neighboring Guinea.
One of our tour operator clients for Mali was about to give up on offering tours to Guinea and Sierra Leone due to not having a reliable local partner. Weren’t we willing to add these two destinations? I surrendered to the recurring requests. Accompanied by several team members, I set out on a month-long trip. I wanted to get a feel of the countries and explore their tourism potential, before giving the final answer to the tour operator.

“Monique, please pay. Haven’t we been here long enough?”, the driver begs me.
He is quite annoyed and has clearly expressed that he is not at all okay with my attitude. I am feeling calm, and to be honest I have started enjoying the game. Who cares how long we’ll be here?