Gueckedou is a small town in Guinee, located on the borders with Liberia and Sierra Leone.

I was posted there, from September 1993 till March 1994. The area was scattered with Liberian and Sierra Leonese refugees, and I was giving medical assistance at a referral hospital and a handful of health centers.
Cedric was posted in N’Zérékoré, 210 km further down the road – but at least a full day driving in the dry season. So the first contacts between us were established through an old trusted HF radio.

Luckily, at the end of 1993, there were presidential elections, and the organisation for which we were working decided that the whole team had to relocate in N’Zérékoré. Cedric, in charge of logistics, filled up his fridge and arranged that Ann had to stay at his place. The rest, as we say, is history : 8 years later, Marie was born, and together we’re in Senegal.

Encounters to be remembered, that’s what “Gueckedou” means to us.