CONAKRY

APRIL 15, 2019 – Every Wednesday I have lunch with my friend Steve, a veritable polymath and successful entrepreneur. After a quick meal, we saunter through the skyways of downtown Minneapolis, often stopping at a donut shop where Steve buys a load of high-fat dough smothered with sugar.

Starting about two months ago our route has led from the donut shop to the ground floor of the StarTribune building. Parked in an alcove is a six-foot diameter, Rand McNally globe mounted on a slow-turning base. According to the plaque on a nearby wall, the globe was manufactured in 1951. A few years ago it was refurbished and put on display in the newspaper’s new headquarters in the central business district.

Steve shares my fascination with geography, so when we discovered the StarTribune’s globe, we braked so hard our shoes laid scuff marks on the shiny floor. As the lunch crowd filed by, Steve and I had the world to ourselves.

On the first couple of trips around this newfound world, we remarked to each other about various features that are more noticeable on a big scale than on a smaller-size globe or map—the size of Africa, for example, and the vastness of the Pacific Ocean.

I think it was on our third visit to this big globe when Steven floated the idea of memorizing every capital in Africa. He suggested we commit to memory four capitals each week. We’d start with Mauritania, work our way down the west coast and venture inland as we progressed. After rounding the Cape we’d continue up the east side of the continent.

On the second week of our self-guided geography class, we reached Guinea, the capital of which is Conakry. Neither one of us had ever heard of Conakry. Each week, in addition to learning four new capitals, we reviewed the previous weeks’ work. It took several of these review sessions for Conakry, in particular, to stick with me, but stick it finally did, thanks to Steve’s persistent drilling.

Fast forward another month. My wife and I were in NYC and headed for LaGuardia. I ordered a Lyft, and the car and driver appeared in short order. As I always do with drivers, I struck up a conversation—simple questions at first, then more probing to learn a thing or two about the person. In less than a minute we learned that the guy was originally from Guinea. “Conakry?” I asked.

As he whipped his head around, the driver nearly drove off the street and onto a crowded sidewalk.

“You’ve heard of Conakry?!” he said. “Wow! I’ve been here for 18 years, and you’re the first person I’ve met who’s heard of my hometown! Wow man, but you are a blessing to me! How do you know about Conakry?!”

“I just do,” I said with a smile. (Unaware of the “Capitals of Africa” project, my wife simply confirmed that I’m a geography nerd.)

I couldn’t wait to tell Steve.

© 2019 Eric Nilsson