IST & Conakry

In the huge city of Conakry for a few days after spending 7 days in Mamou for training. Had an amazing time hanging out with everyone especially those that I have not seen since leaving Conakry for my site last April. I will be hanging out in Conakry for a few days and picking up my friend from the airport on Tuesday. In the meantime, I will wait impatiently and eat Chinese food, pizza and ice cream. This is the really tough part of the service :) Sending out some pictures later today for all of those interested.

Stripes but no stars

Prisioner in my own home and victim in my bathroom. Now that I have your attention please settle in for a less dramatic story than you might be expecting. Got back from chutes de sala after visiting the gigantic waterfall (much bigger now during the rainy season that in April) only to find my mango tree was greatly diminished and the already too big brick wall around the compound was being elevated into the heavens. I am not one to fight change but living in a developing nation you get used to things staying the same. I was completely exhaused when I arrived home after a 4 hour bike ride that started after my waterfall adventure and finished with me splashing thorugh puddles (somehow I managed to miss the storm) and pushing my bike up mountains for the last 15k. My only option to get home that day was to ride my bike home the route that even taxis won’t take because it is too mountaineous and the road is washed out due to many rainy seasons with no repair. So you can only imagine my reaction when I arrived home mudstreaked and tired on the busy marketday of Lelouma to this scene.

Now for the attack in the bathroom. Let me just start by saying that they should never allow Guineans to put real western toilettes in a house. Many of you might be saying what is this spoiled girl arguing about. When I arrived to my site in Februrary, the first thing the lady next door told me was not too poop in the toilette. Of course, they did not teach us the word for poop in language training so I had no clue what she was talking about. She went on to explain poop in as many simple words in Frech as she could. Finally, I understood and heeded her advice. Well, after the attacks in the family’s bathroom (outdoor latrine) I had to use my toilette. So about these attacks, the air is so thick with mosquitos the minute I open the door I cringe at the idea of dropping the drawers (sorry if this is too detailed) but usually I wait until the last minute and it is an emergency so either get bitten by the mosquitos or poop my pants. I USUALLY choose the bite. This week I decided to do something about the mosquitos in the toilette. I tried to tell my family that the mosquitos breed in the water at the bottom of the hole in the toilette and that we should cover the hole as recommended by PC. Furthermore, some mosquitos give you malaria when they bite you. Well, I was surprised to learn that corn brings the mosquitos and that you get malaria from eating mangos and avacados (since they are both in season now). To make a long painful story short, my newly purchased toilette cover is sitting in my house and I have to pull up about 4 buckets of water a day to flush things down my toilet which usually results in the water leeking out the side.

On the bright side. I have finished 3 months at site and have training next week with all 37 people from my stage. I have not seen those from outside my regions since April..yeah for reunions. After that, Serenity is coming to visit me for a month!!! Yeah for the end of July and August.

Furniture=Customer Service with a Smile

As some of you might know I have been living like a bachelor, namely like the volunteer before me, without furniture except the one table and four chairs that the community is required to give you and of course the bed. As a side note, I really only have two chairs and two small stools which is usually ideal but not so much when you try and eat dinner with more than two people around the table. The third or fourth person is forced to kneel on a stool or sit on a big water jug as you can also probably imagine is not very comfortable.

I decided to rememdy my furniture situation about a month ago when I was in Labe. I ordered a couch and a shelf. I went with my friend Tor and Melanie, a G9er who had ordered furniture from these people with great success. Tor and I painfully looked through all the pictures and picked out the bamboo couches and shelves we wanted. They quoted us an unreasonably high price so we started to make requests to modify and simplify the furniture to drive the price down. After about an hour and a half of explanations and price negotiations we put down some money and described for the 5th time how we would like to modify our piece based on the picture. We stated that we would be back in a month to pick it up and they assured us it would be done.

A month later Tor went back to check on it and amazingly it was almost done. She went in the morning and they promised that it would be done by the evening as they only needed to put the varnish on it and make the sofa cushions. Tor got busy and was not able to go back that day which was almost 2 weeks ago. This is a long background to the story of the furniture that never gets finished. But yesterday could have been the furniture follie day of the year.

Tor and I got up and went directly to the furniture place (old abandonded building) at about 9. They should have been there so we waiting for a bit until we saw someone who told us they were coming “toute suite” (French translation is immediately, Guinean translation is maybe next week). So we decided to wait after about an hour but as we started to leave and the guy came rolling in. We looked at our furniture and it was in the same state that Tor found it in 2 weeks ago. By the way, the modifications Tor requested ended up on my furniture. After a long and dramatic comedic interchange including the fact that we had to pay more of our downpayment for the couch coushins they determined that they could definitely have it done by 6PM.

Tor and I started to leave the house about 5:45 to get there by 6 so we could find our furniture. Luckily, Mom called and I got to chat for a bit. When I got off the phone I practically ran to the place as not to leave Tor alone with 2 couches and 2 shelves...etc. I had these images of her carrying the 2 couches stacked on her head and a shelf in each hand. NO LUCK!!! When I arrived they were just starting to varnish the shelves!! They told us they needed to do this last and it would take 3 hours to dry. We asked if they planned on transporting them before they were dry and they looked at us like we were stupid and didn’t we want these things now, after all we were the ones pushing them to finish!!!

There was great hope as 7PM approached and all the items were varnished and one sofa even had coushins. However, dark rolled in and the tailor determined that she could not finish the cushions for the second couch this evening. They told us this and we told them in our American pushy way that it was not an option. At this point Tor, 3 workers and I are sitting on her couch with the cushions surrounded by the shelves on the outside of the abondanded building. It was almost comedic as if we set-up our living space outside the building and were just hanging out talking about why the Guinean men wanted to marry 15 year old women. Finally, at about 8:30 we determined that we did not want to wait for the last cushion and that they would carrry a few things now and then come back later in the evening with the last couch. So, we now have a train of 4 people, 1 person with a couch on his head and the other three (Tor and I included) taking all the short-cuts through people’s yards in the dark. After about 20 minutes we arrived at the PC house with 1 couch. They left with the understanding that they would return with the rest of the stuff that evening. I have to admit I was doubtful but Tor had confindence. I can honestly say it does not pay to be “Debbie the Doubter” as they rolled in an hour later with the rest of the furniture in tow on their heads. Now, the next step is to get it to my site.

So if you come to Lelouma please plan to spend a few minutes admirining this furniture. For those of you not able to come I hope to post some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Birthday Bashes and Jellies

Spent a wonderful few days celebrating Catherine’s birthday and America’s birthday. Left Labe on a Sunday on a PC ride which equates to a safe ride with people that I don’t mind being squished like a sardine with in a land cruiser. Left with Tor, Amy, Melanie, Joel, Ashley, Reid and others who were going to Conakry. Our crew got out early to meet up with Catherine and the South of Labe crew. Three days eating excellent food, hiking, playing football and soccer in the rain and of course lining people up wearing red, white and blue T-shirts gently swaying in the wind to simulate the flag and singing the national anthem. Probably just like everyone in the states passed their holiday.

Since the Guinean children had really never seen American football we drew quite a crowd even in the driving rain. There was quite a relieved look on all of their faces when we switched to their national pastime, soccer. However, the questioning look came back when they realized that we were not going to put on any soccer shoes, namely jellies. Yes, I am speaking of the pink, purple, yellow, etc. jellies that litle girls wore in the states during the summers of the 1980’s. However, these are now the real men’s soccer shoe and they only come in one color in Guinea, clear. Now some of you might think that I am joking or that these jellies are only for the casual player. Don’t be fooled, I attended many district and regional soccer tournaments in the huge stadium in Leloum (probably the nicest in the Fouta) and all of the players were wearing jellies (except maybe one or two who had family in Europe that sent them real cleats). This begs the next question, what kind of grip can you get in the grass with those things. Well, since there is no grass on the field due to dry season and all the sheep and goats that wonder into the stadium this really is not a huge concern, they seem to do quite well in the dirt and mud. So now I know all you fashion trendsetters are wondering if you need to wear socks with them. I am not one to give advice on fashion but will let you know that colored socks or random patterned socks seems to be prefered to add some color to the ensamble due to the clear shoe. This does not mean that you and your team must have the same color socks. This is one way to show your personality and differentiate yourself from those around you.

For all of those that read this far you must really be a good friend or have some interest, I have a friend coming to visit me on July 25th and if anyone would like to send a note or a small treat I am sure she would be up for brining it. Just send her a quick email for her address and to confirm she has room in the lugage. Her email address is treefrog41@hotmail.com.

Going to my 6 month training (3 months at site) in 2 weeks and will be able to see all those people in other Regions that I have not seen for the last 3 months. So excited to see everyone. Also, after that off to Conakry to pick up my friend. Communication will be more frequent in the next few weeks “if God wills it” (as they say in Guniea translated from Pular).

Also, a quick note that Guinean postage stamps now cost almost the equivalent of one day’s salary so letters might be coming less frequently from Guinea but with an American stamp from those in Guinea willing to carry them back to the states.

Mad Dash to Lelouma

As I sat in the back of a pick-up truck from Labe back to site, the truck so kindly extended with benches added and covered to protect all 13 passengers in the rear from the rain, I thought how am I going to make it through another month without seeing an American. My nearest nighbor, 56k away and millions of big mountains in between us, was in actuality 3,000 miles away. I grumpily hundered down, sqeezed into the truck and prepared to the long bumpy jouney and the game of adding passengers (on the roof if necessary) and deposing them over the 65K track. I could not have been more wrong if I tried.

I arrived in Lelouma on Saturday, the great market day, to see almost five other white people in my village. I know I was gone for a week but that was a quick “porto” (white person) invasion. Come to find out there was a big concert that night with rappers singing about fighting AIDS and the white people (NGO workers) were the ones that organized it....huge sigh of relief...they are not permanent residents. Lesson learned be careful what you wish for.

Only 2 hours later, Simon and his friend, Prof., roll-up on a moto from Labe. This begins the mad dash to Lelouma. Exhaused from the trip and having gotten a matter of hours of maybe minutes of sleep the night before in Labe, I was lucky enough to spend 5 hours as a VIP in a chair slightly listening to various “artists” scream words in Pular into a mic. The crowd behind me was roped off and a few guards were attempting to control their activities, quite unsuccessfully. I woke up long enough to watch this pressing drama and wipe the my drool off my nearest neighbor’s shoulder, the Minister of Health.

The next day Simon, Prof and I went hiking a bit. They left on Sunday and by Tuesday at noon I had another visitor, Joel, who came to help out with a few agro/forestry projects. By Thursday we had food poisioned ourselves and walked over 40Kand now he was stuck in Lelouma because the strike began. We coined his visit “Culinary School Strike 2006”. After the alleged food poisioning incident, a few ruined pans, a heavily seasoned cajun spag. sauce (heavily as in almost the whole bottle) and a few other unmentionable culinary disasters we decided to refocus our efforts on exploring Lelouma and quickly made a pact to spend the next strike at Amy or Tor’s site as they both are culinary guinesses. Our montaineering school was much more sucessful as we discovered waterfalls, huge rock formations, breath-taking valley overlooks and heard and saw chimps and monkeys. In total, Joel ended up staying 12 days. On the 11th day the strike ended and a French guy that is the director of an NGO that threw the concert came back for a visit to Lelouma. So what do Joel and I do, naturally, we invite him for dinner BUT 1st take him on a hike to make him good and hungry so anything would taste good to him. I would like to report that dinner did not result in any major culinary disasters. However, as far as Joel and I understanding his true French that was not quite as successful. However, Joel was lucky enough to score a ride back to Labe with him the next day.

Two days later on Tuesday, I hear non-Guinean English being spoken (ie no screaming...I speak English small small) as a car rolls to a stop outside of my house. It was Amy P and Tor. They were on their own Guinean version of planes, trains and automobiles. They left Amy’s site at 5AM on bike to reach Labe in time to get the morning taxi to Lelouma. They were only 14 days late...Joel and I needed them during the strike. Not only did they bring yummi treats they also brought the news that the country director was coming on Monday. Amy, Tor and I did some hiking and cooking (well they did a lot of really good cooking). Their visit was short and they left of Thursday with the promise to meet up in 1 ½ weeks.

While the country director’s visit was also short it was people packed. As we walked into the head govt. official’s office in the Lelouma prefecture we found that he was presiding over a meeting of about 14 people which all felt the need to stand up and shake hands with each of us as we entered. The head official proceded to give a very moving speech about PC which concluded with him saying that he summoned people from as far as 65k away for this meeting with the PC country directory. He is a very wonderful guy and seems to appreciate PC. I am lucky to be in this community. After a few more visits to the higher-ups, a quick eval of my house and a lunch of rice and sauce (of course) the PC director was on the road and off. So now I am sure I will not see anyone until I go to Labe on Friday. By chance I was on the radio on Tuesday and got the news that the Education Program Director was some on Friday. So I went back to all the officials offices and let them know another visitor was on his way.

When I heard on Thursday that some white people were waiting at my house I was a bit surprised. I was even more surprised when I saw them and did not know who they were. More shockingly, I left my house key with them as I jetted off to Labe on Friday. It turns out they are friends of my friend Christy from Labe. Christy and her boyfriend were supposed to meet them at my house as they were riding bikes and the others took a moto. The friends slept in my bed on Thursday night and Christy and Matt did not make it until Friday AM. They ended up sleeping at someone’s house down the street, nobody would help them find my house when they arrived at 8:30PM in the rain after much drama. Since the only form of communication I have is PC radio and possibly a taxi cab driver from Labe bringing written notes, unexpected visits are the norm.

This ends the tale of the mad dash to Lelouma and why I have not slept in my bed for more than 3 consecuative nights this month. One last comment for those of you thinking I came here to work. Amazingly, this was probably my most productive work month which is shocking and a bit sad at the same time.