a little blurry

Travel

2009-11-28T15:20:00.000-06:00

It's been over a month since I last posted and I feel a little guilty. In our defense though, we've been a little busy. I'll post more in detail when we have more time and internet at our disposal, but wanted to give you something.

We've been traveling now for a little over a month. We will be back in the states next week. Its a little crazy to think about, so I try not to.

We've been making our transition back to the developed world in stages: from Guinea to Mali, from Mali to Morocco, from Morocco to Spain. Each stop along the way has been progressively more developed, and with that, more expensive unfortunately.

Mali out-does Guinea by having (besides a recognized government and not having a military that rapes and kills its citizens...) advances like paved roads and electricity in most big cities. A good indicator of their development in my mind is that there is a seemingly good-sized middle class that can afford 'luxury' items like prepackaged goods and eating out. Another random advancement: animal rather than child labor. (ie: using donkey or horses to plow fields and pull carts of goods rather than children.)

Morocco was an even larger step up. We were actually quite blown away by the vast differences and the fact that it is still considered a 'developing nation.' They still rely on basics like donkeys (what else can get a load of cement through the narrow market roads? really, sometimes basic is better.) and life in the village, I'm sure, is quite different than the life I saw in the cities. But Morocco has McDonald's and a shopping mall with Versace. Yet there are still Peace Corps Volunteers there... hmmm...

Spain is developed. And extremely cold. And extremely expensive. We spent more than a weeks wage on our dinner last night. (Granted, we were only making about $240 a month...) It's shocking to see the differences and expense in ways of life. But we're having fun.

Here are some picture highlights of our trip so far:

Taking a 3 day boat trip up the Niger to Timbuktu. We slept on the deck with people who were transporting their produce upriver.

We bought some turbans for desert travel.

Riding out into the Sahara on camels.

Sleeping out in the desert

Trying new foods -- this night it was snail soup and sheep head.

A cooking class in Marrakesh. We learned to make a Moroccan salad and a chicken tajine with lemon. mmmmm....

So much delicious food! I think I would come back to Morocco just for the food...

Amazing produce and selection of foods. Here is an olive shop in the Marrakesh market.

We'll post more when we can!

~mary

And we're off!

2009-10-27T11:17:00.002-05:00

Well, if you've been following the news, Peace Corps officially suspended the volunteer program in Guinea due to all the political unrest. Press release is here: Peace Corps Suspends Volunteer Program in Guinea

What does that mean for us? As of Sunday, we are no longer volunteers. We are unemployed, homeless, moneyless... So what are we going to do? Travel.

We're heading out tomorrow for a trip around Mali. We figured that while we're here and so close that we should take advantage of the sites here. We're planning on taking a boat up the Niger river to Timbuktu then head over to an area called Dogon country. Do a google search for pictures if you're interested. Pretty cool. It may take a while before ours will make it on the blog...

We fly out of Bamako on November 9th to Casablanca. We'll spend about 2 weeks touring Morocco, then fly to Spain and the Canary Islands. We won't be having any turkey this thanksgiving. Instead, we'll be scuba diving at the Canary Islands. I think that's a fair exchange. Don't worry. We'll take lots of pictures.

After that, we'll head back down to Casablanca and fly to New York and eventually end up in Utah December 4th.

After 2 years, I am excited and scared all at the same time to come home. I don't know how re-entry into US life will be. What have I missed? Last time I left the country, I came back and there was this crazy new obsession with something called American Idol... What will be new after the last 2 years? Does Cafe Rio really still taste as amazing as I fantasize about? Do such places as Target and Walmart really exist? What will it be like to drive a car after so long and after living in a place that doesn't have recognized traffic regulations? And snow??? I haven't worn shoes in 22 months. That's going to be a problem.

But I know it'll be amazing and wonderful to see everyone again and be among people that understand me and where I'm coming from. Just be gentle with me.

See you on the other side!

Charlie

2009-10-15T16:21:00.000-05:00

First an Update:

Well, we're still here waiting in Bamako, Mali. They haven't made any decisions as far as what to do with us. We're in a holding pattern. At least we're living it up with electricity, running water, internet. At this point, with almost 100 volunteers all together, some are going a bit stir crazy, but we're dealing. Peace Corps Volunteers are professionals in patience. We'll wait because, well, that's our job.

I mentioned that we brought Charlie, our parrot with us when we were evacuated. Fortunately for us, last month we had just found a pet carrier for him, so it wasn't a problem at all with him in the car. We even had one of our neighbors who is a tailor make a little cover for it.

When we got here, we also decided to try something new: taking him outside. We were a little scared that he would try to fly off, but it went very well. He was actually so spooked by all the new things around him that he didn't dare leave us. He's such a little chicken. But luckily he's become pretty bonded with us over this last year too. He loves and trusts us.

Behind me you can see the huts that we're staying in here. Dan and I are sharing one near the back of the compound. They call it a 'simulated village' here. Sure.

Here he is checking out the trees.

We put some branches in our window for him to chill in, since we don't want him to stay in the carrier the whole time. He likes sitting there and watching the world go by.

Here's a view from the outside.

We're currently going through quite a bit of headache trying to figure out if we can still bring him home. It was pretty complicated before when we were just in Guinea, and now it seems nearly impossible. It'll be a miracle if we can actually get him home, but I will be so sad if I have to leave him behind at this point.

We're out

2009-10-10T04:00:00.002-05:00

Well, for those of you who haven't heard, things are not going well in Guinea right now. Bad enough that it even makes the front of the NYTimes? Maybe it was just a slow news day...

In a Guinea Seized by Violence, Women Are Prey - Front page NYTimes article

Guinea’s Capital Fades Into a Ghost Town After Soldiers’ Rampage - Another good summary article from the NYTimes

Eyewitness Report - BBC report

People are calling the events a massacre. It shocked everyone.

Considering all the political trauma and difficulties, they pulled out all of us Peace Corps volunteers. We were brought to Bamako, Mali to consolidate and wait. Even so, after the incidents of last week, things have been calm outside of Conakry. It was life as normal where we were. Not unsafe at all. Everyone was just a little tense about what was going to happen. (Gas stations closed, black market gas price skyrocketed and some shops had little in stock.) But for now it is mainly political, not safety issues that they're worried about. Either way, it was difficult to have to rush off as you watch everyone going about their daily routine. Everyone said they understood why we had to go, but I know they were questioning why. And none of our Guinean friends have the option to leave like we did...

We're not really sure whats going to happen next. They told us we are going to wait here in Bamako for 2 to 4 weeks to see how things play out. Unfortunately for us, we were supposed to be out in two months any way. Even if they give us the all clear to go back soon, we don't think it will be worth it for us. We had already started packing our bags. Literally. Going back at this point for a month would just be painful in more ways than I think we could handle. It was hard getting ripped out the way we did, without real closure and goodbyes, but going back just to rush out again wouldn't make it easier.

Leaving itself was... well.. crazy and exhausting. A Peace Corps car came to pick us up early Tuesday morning and we were off. We had 27 hours of traveling over two days, even though it was only about 750 miles. I had a GPS on, so I'll post the stats later so you can see our voyage. It could have been worse. No real problems, just the typical African headaches of terrible roads, crammed cars (11 people in a Toyota Land Cruiser...), police roadblocks, miscommunication, tedious 3 hours of ordeals at the border, etc, etc, etc. We brought Charlie our parrot through it all too. He was a trooper. If we actually get him back to the US, its going to be a miracle.

We'll wait around here for as long as they let us and then probably travel for a bit. Maybe a couple weeks here in Mali, maybe other neighboring countries, then a bit in Morocco, then home by the beginning of December? We'll see. It's all up in the air. We'll keep you updated as we figure it out.

We're staying in a pretty nice place (ok... nice for our new standards... picture summer camp.) But we've got running water, electricity, ceiling fans in our huts, good food, wifi... all a hard-up PCV could want. We're going to the American club today for swimming and cheeseburgers. Amazing. Museum and a Mali vs Sudan soccer game on Sunday. Should be fun times. It's almost kind of an all expense paid vacation by Peace Corps. Even though its a terribly crappy situation, they're making it the best they can for us. In any case, we'll have daily internet access, so I'd love to hear from all of you. I'll write more later and post some pics, so keep in touch!

*pictures from the BBC and NYT articles

Road Conditions

2009-09-16T15:02:00.001-05:00

Road conditions in Guinea are iffy at best. We're lucky because the road to our town from the capital is paved... mostly. Two of the five hour drive is like what you see in this video. Even though it is technically "paved," it is so potholed and beat up that you spend all of your time swerving between holes, driving on the wrong side of the road, or, as in this video, driving completely off the road on the shoulder since the road isn't worth the trouble. I get motion sick sometimes, especially when I'm in a car that's going too fast or when the windows are up and it gets too stuffy in the over crowded cars. Even so, we're lucky compared to the road situations most of the other volunteers have to put up with.

This was in our nice Peace Corps car coming down to Conakry. Since it's Ramadan, they don't listen to music. What you hear is a tape of someone reading the Koran. Try listening to that for 5 hours straight. (My heart goes out to the volunteers who make 14+ hour trips listening to nothing but this... I guess that's what ipods are for though, right?)

On Banks in Guinea

2009-09-14T07:00:00.000-05:00

Raven and Dan counting Guinean francs for girls' conference--less than $2,000.

Like a lot of things in less-developed countries, certain things we notice aren't necessarily bad, but they do strike us as strange or different. The banking system definitely took some getting used to, but it works in this milieu.

One thing that is nice about the bank is that it is one of the only public places that has electricity and air conditioning whenever it is open. It is really spacious with high ceilings and looks relatively modern and clean.

The first thing you notice is that there are no designated lines--none of those roped off areas to keep the clientele organized. It is absolute madness--everyone rushes the reception desk and gathers around pushing their way to be the next person helped. So, needless to say, there is absolutely no privacy. Everyone around you knows exactly how much you have in your account and how much you want to withdraw. They don't even try to keep it quiet--they practically yell the information to you over the noise.

Also, do you remember those large metal trunks you use at scout camp or in the army? That is what they use as a safe in a separate, but still open room--not even behind the counter. The original bank in our town actually burned down a couple of years ago due to an electrical fire so maybe it had an actual safe, but I doubt it.

So, after you write a check to yourself or have the "teller" write one for you, you sign it in ten different places. Then you go to the money window which is also madness as everyone gathers around waiting for their money. The bank teller there is wearing a bio safety protection mask--I think you can imagine all the crazy germs you'll find on the money here. You sign the check again and they do their obligatory count in front of you.

You get your large wad of cash--and it will always be a brick because their largest bill is worth about $2. So, when you take out a couple hundred dollars it adds up. They put them in neat stacks of 10 bills with the 10th bill folded in half around the other 9 and then they put those stacks into groups of ten rubber banded together for a total of a hundred bills. Then you do your obligatory recount to make sure nothing was snagged or miscounted, which always takes forever with so many bills. They rarely deal in coins since their only coin is only worth about 5 cents.

The bank network we use has one ATM in country in downtown Conakry. I actually got a personal checkbook so I could write checks to myself. Recently, I tried to close a bank account and I ended up going to three different branches to close it, since you have to go the bank where you originally created it. Peace Corps opened the account for me, so I had no idea. But it was a fun walk around Conakry. But overall, messing with the bank hasn't been that bad. Luckily, I only have to go every couple of months, but I'm still on a first-name basis with the tellers. I don't think you get that in the States very often.

West African Flooding

2009-09-14T06:00:00.017-05:00

Guinea isn't the only country in West Africa battling the rains right now. Here are a couple good BBC articles about the current flooding happening all over West Africa:

Senegal battles rising tides
By Will Ross, BBC News, Dakar

Getting to bed is a nightly assault course for Mamadou Mbaye and his family in the Senegalese capital. Their home in Dakar's Guediawaye suburb is under water and piles of precariously balanced rocks form stepping stones between the flooded rooms.

"There is nothing we can do. We just have to live with the water," says Mr Mbaye, adding that they do not sleep alone as they now have plenty of mosquitoes for company.

"This has been happening for the past few years. But we are poor and we can't do anything about it.

"I've lived here for 49 years. We were born here and we brought up our children here so we don't want to leave."

Climate change

The recent heavy rain in Dakar has been too much for the city's drainage systems which are often inadequate, blocked or non-existent.

At times roads have become impassable and people in flash saloon cars look jealously as the more practical horse and cart clip-clops, or more accurately splish-splashes, past.

Residents of Dakar point out that the quantity of rain that has fallen during the past five or six years has been far higher than before.

Analysts suggest climate change is having an impact but it is not the only cause of the flooding.
As people have rushed from the villages to live in Senegal's mushrooming capital, many have built on land which is unsuitable and is susceptible to flooding.

Residents in Guediawaye say that even if they pump the water out of their homes, the rooms quickly fill up again as water comes straight up through the ground - so high is the level of the groundwater.

"This is a very hard place to live. Because of the water everybody is sick - the old and the young," says 28-year-old Elimane Diop.

"We are not helped by our government - all we get is words but they don't do anything.

"They come near here by car and then announce that they have visited the area but we want them to help the people living here. If people want to move they should be helped and if they want to stay they should also get help."

Exaggerated impact?

Many residents in the flood-affected areas have directed their anger at the government which stayed remarkably quiet about the floods until President Abdoulaye Wade returned from his month-long vacation in France.

The government then appealed for help as it announced that more than 250,000 were affected - a figure which the United Nations repeated but had little means of verifying.

Some observers suggest the government figures are a little on the high side and could be part of an effort to attract aid to make some political gains in a city where the opposition swept to victory in local elections earlier this year.
In 2007 Ghanaian officials were accused of a similar tactic when they said entire villages in the north of the country had been wiped off the map by floods.
It turned out to be a gross exaggeration.
When governments are shouting for help and aid agencies are shouting for funding, it can at times be hard for journalists to be sure they are being presented with an accurate assessment.
Whatever the figures, for the people battling with the floods, the sight of more heavy clouds is a great worry.
In mainly Muslim Senegal, this has been a difficult holy month of Ramadan.
People have been pounded by rain and have also been plunged into darkness after the national electricity company, Senelec, failed to pay the bill to import fuel for the power plants.

'Worrisome'
Across the region, the UN says 600,000 people have been affected by the floods since June.

This is a cumulative figure and therefore is not a snapshot of the current situation.
The UN says "affected" refers to people who have been displaced as well as those who are not able to get on with their lives as normal - for example cooking and studying.
The UN says 100 people have died in the floods, most of them in Sierra Leone. Burkina Faso has also been hard hit.
"It is not as bad as two years ago when 800,000 people were affected but it is worrisome as we have a few more weeks to go of the rainy season," said Yvon Edoumou a spokesman for the UN's humanitarian agency, OCHA.
And while West Africa has been hit by floods, the east of the continent is suffering from a drought - twin battles which analysts say will become more common as a result of climate change.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/8250276.stm
Published: 2009/09/13 23:54:58 GMT © BBC MMIX

_________________

UN warns on West Africa floods

Heavy flooding has now affected some 350,000 people across West Africa, killing at least 32 in Ghana and Burkina Faso, UN officials say.

More than 150,000 people in Burkina Faso have fled their homes, mainly in the capital Ouagadougou.

A UN spokeswoman said the amount of rain that fell in Ouagadougou on one day this week was equal to a quarter of the whole country's annual rainfall. Neighbouring countries affected include Benin, Guinea, Niger and Senegal.

The United Nations is warning that numbers killed are likely to rise and has sent an assessment team to Burkina Faso. At least seven people are known to have died in Burkina Faso, where the capital has seen the heaviest rains in 90 years.

The BBC's West Africa correspondent John James says some of the displaced have moved in with friends and families, but most are dependent on the government which is struggling to cope.
The Burkinabe authorities say there is a desperate need for blankets, clothes and food and President Blaise Compaore has appealed to the international community for help.
He said those made homeless were being temporarily rehoused in schools and colleges.
The waters flooded 24,000 homes and the city's infrastructure - roads have been washed away and electricity has been cut off.

Prime Minister Tertius Zongo said on Friday the cost of flood damage had risen to $152m (£92m) and included two destroyed dams and 12 damaged bridges.

Floodgates

Earlier in the week, Ouagadougou's main hospital was badly flooded from water pouring over a nearby dam.

The Belgian Red Cross says 60 children as well as other patients had to be evacuated.

The authorities were forced to open the main gate of a hydroelectric dam in the Volta River basin near the Ghana border to prevent further flooding.

"Cultivated land on the reservoir's shores and further upstream will be flooded. We warn riverside residents to stay away from the shores," Venance Bouda, the official in charge of hydroelectric power, told the Associated Press news agency.

In Ghana at least 25 people have already died in flooding-related incidents, officials say.

The torrential rains have also hit other countries in the region - in Senegal 30,000 homes were flooded while in Guinea 20,000 people are affected.

Our reporter says similar floods in 2007 killed 300 people.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/8239552.stm
Published: 2009/09/05 13:04:55 GMT © BBC MMIX

Swept Away

2009-09-13T05:55:00.000-05:00

Here is a video of someone's water jugs getting swept away in the flash flood. Everyone watching was quite entertained by the spectacle.

Luckily with a little help the woman was able to retrieve all the jugs before they got completely swept away.

Why nothing gets done in the rainy season...

2009-09-13T05:36:00.000-05:00

It's the rainy season in Guinea now. People live at the mercy of the elements here. Yesterday I got caught in a flash flood while trying to go to one of the neighborhood markets in Conakry. When I left the house, there was no rain. By the time I got to the market, it was sprinkling. I stopped by a tailor to drop off some fabric and by the time I was ready to go, it was pouring. I thought I'd wait for it to ease up, but instead, the situation got worse.

Unfortunately, cities are not prepared for large downpours. There are some ditches for runoff, but unfortunately, they usually get filled with trash and eroded dirt, making the water spill over. And in a case such as a major downpour like today, there is just nowhere for that quantity of water to go. It just overflows the ditches and streets like a raging river, flowing down in the quickest path towards the ocean it can. Since there are no real sewer and advanced plumbing systems either, this means everything gets swept up. Raging rivers of sheer filth.

The rain started letting up, but the river still raged. It was strong enough at its peak to push grown men off their feet. Traffic was a gridlock. After waiting for over an hour and a half, you could start to see the road again under the river. Cars and people started to tentatively move. I made a break for it, grabbed a few things from the corner store for lunch, and wadded back to the house. Once back, I immediately took a shower and tried to disinfect the lower half of my body...

Just a funny bush taxi story...

2009-09-12T07:00:00.002-05:00

Mary and I were taking a bush taxi from Kamsar to our home a couple of weeks ago. Taxi drivers usually stop for random personal reasons, but rarely explain anything to the passengers. This time, the taxi driver felt compelled to tell us that he had to take a back road to get some containers full of oil. It didn't seem too out of the ordinary so we just said it was okay.

After driving forever on this backroad he goes to turn back on the main road and there is a military woman telling him to pull over. It seemed that the taxi driver took the back road to avoid the military checkpoint. He explained to the woman that the prefet asked him to get some oil. She asked where the oil was and he said it was coming. The driver told the woman that another guy at the checkpoint was aware of the situation, so they went to find the military guy who came and said it was okay and that they could pass. It all seemed really sketchy to say the least.

We continued and never did get any oil. We can only assume the rest of that story...

some pics of bush taxis

Rainy Season Photos

2009-09-11T10:56:00.009-05:00

The back alley leading to my new office--an enjoyable walk everyday.

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The main road I take to work everyday--sometimes in a taxi, but mainly on foot.

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The new office for my NGO--CEFACAM. It is much nicer and quieter than the one we used downtown. It was furnished with tables, desks, chairs, fans, computer, printer, etc. by a large refinery called Guinea Alumina owned by BHP Billiton. Currently we are giving business classes and consultations. We hope to start a grasscutter (bush rat) raising project soon to benefit small businesses in the surrounding villages.

Top Ten. Go Guinea...

2009-09-07T09:35:00.003-05:00

The 2009 Failed State Index was released in July. It is an annual study done by The Fund for Peace in collaboration with Foreign Policy magazine. Guinea's back in the top ten this year, down from 11 last year. (Unlike your score in golf, smaller is NOT better...) Guinea has been going back and forth between 11th and 9th place for the past several years, so this is not a huge change. Nevertheless, it gives you an insight as to what kind of place we are living in right now.

Joining us in the top ten, in order, are:
1. Somalia
2. Zimbabwe
3. Sudan
4. Chad
5. Democratic Republic of the Congo
6. Iraq
7. Afghanistan
8. Central African Republic
9. GUINEA!
10. Pakistan

Here is a link to the complete index with interactive map and breakdown.
Failed State Index

Here is a very interesting article they wrote explaining the index.
Article about Failed State Index

It's all just a bunch of numbers though that can be looked at in so many different ways, so take it for what you will. You all know what they say about statistics... But seeing it as we do, we know for sure there is still plenty of truth in it somewhere.

Anyone notice that the US isn't a dark green as one would have guessed?

Dan's Girls Conference Video

2009-08-29T14:16:00.000-05:00

political update

2009-08-28T14:22:00.004-05:00

It's been a while since we've mentioned anything about the political situation here, so thought it was time for an update.

Up until now there really wasn't too much to update people on anyway: basically everyone was just waiting. The coup leaders kept saying they wanted to hold elections soon but they needed money. They now say they have enough money to hold elections, but don't have enough time to organize it all before the end of the year. Instead, they have set the presidential election date as January 31st, 2010. Fingers are crossed.

Dadis (the coup leader) has said repeatedly that he won't run for office, but now even that is looking like a possibility. Who knows.

Anyway, just wanted to offer an update for anyone who cares. Here is a BBC artical about it as well.

Guinea coup leader sets poll date

The army officer who seized power in a coup in Guinea has said presidential polls will be held on 31 January 2010 and elections for parliament in March.

Capt Moussa Dadis Camara took over within hours of the death of Guinea's long-term ruler, President Lansana Conte, in December.

He had promised to hold elections this year, saying none of the junta members would stand.
Last week his supporters formed a movement urging him to stand.

Capt Camara, who declared himself "president of the republic" the day after the coup, has maintained he has no intention of clinging to power.

His rule has been characterised by eccentric displays of power - such as forcing members of the elite presidential guard to beg for forgiveness on national TV after they roughed up a veteran soldier.

Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/8206951.stm

Published: 2009/08/18 11:09:16 GMT

© BBC MMIX

A BBC audio commentary on this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/2009/08/090817_guineaelex.shtml

Girls Conference

2009-07-28T12:40:00.003-05:00

Every year, volunteers in Guinea try to organize regional Girls Conferences. This year, ours was a four day event held in our town for girls aged 14 to 18. All of the volunteers in our region invited one or two girls from their villages to come spend 4 days learning about various girl-specific topics. We covered topics like the role of women and women's rights, scholarship and education, public speaking, family planning, AIDS, excision (aka female genital mutilation, read this wikipedia article if you want to learn something about it), environmental protection, etc. A little bit of everything. It was a bit of a headache trying to organize and carry out, but it was a great experience for the girls to get out of their villages, meet other girls, learn, and have an opportunity to have a little fun.

Gender roles here in Guinea are very much ingrained in society. According to custom, it's the women's role to cook, clean, raise the children, and follow orders. Many women are breaking that mold today, but the process is slow and difficult. The one thing we can try to do is educate the younger generations and hope for their future.

We were only able to have 21 girls attend the conference, but one of our messages to them was to go home and share what they learned in their communities. We want them to be confident role models for their friends. Already one of the girls Dan and I invited enthusiastically told me about how she talked to her family and even a random woman at the water pump about the problems with excision. One of her young cousins is supposed to get excised this summer. In talking with her family about it, she convinced one of her uncles to help her talk to the other aunt about not going through with it. I'm not expecting a miracle, but I'm proud of her enthusiasm and her courage in wanting to share what she now knows. Trying to stop such a long ingrained ritual isn't going to happen over night (or anytime in the near future), but the fact that we helped her stop and think and want to share makes me encouraged for the future.

The girl with the green head scarf is the one I was talking about. She is one of our neighbors and the oldest daughter of Dr. Bah, our close friend who recently died in a motorcycle accident.

Dan had the chance to video tape some during the conference. The last day of the conference, while the girls were visiting professional women at work, he put together a short summery film to show them. That evening, we rented out a "video club" (aka Guinean-style movie theater) and watched it. Everyone loved it. We'll try to get it up on youtube or something. We also showed them the HIV/AIDS video that Dan helped produce earlier this year.

I just wanted to post this picture so you could see what a Guinean movie theater is like. Normally it'd be packed (and very smelly). You come to a video club to watch the news, the latest soccer match, or an awesome Chuck Norris/Jackie Chan action film. Personally owned television sets are few and far between, so this is what you get.

Tastes like Popcorn

2009-07-27T12:31:00.002-05:00

Everything seems to come in seasons and waves here in Guinea. One week there will be an infestation of little red bugs. A couple weeks later, tiny baby frogs will be under foot every second. After that might be the caterpillars. Well, a couple weeks ago was the night of the flying termites. (I think it was the night after one of the first big rains. Maybe that was their signal to come out.)

Our electricity situation has been better recently and our porch light was on that night. In the morning our porch was completely covered with wings and giant termites. They had also crawled under the door and gotten everywhere in the house. I got out the broom and swept them into a large pile in the yard. (Sorry... I didn't think to take a picture.) Later on, the guard's niece came up with a bowl to collect them. "Biti!" she excitedly exclaimed. "A nyaroun!" They're delicious!

She was going to eat the disgusting bugs that I had spent all morning sweeping out of our house. And she called them delicious. Dan, not wanting to miss out on a great cultural experience asked if he could try some when she was done frying them.

Here's a little video of what he thought of them. Meanwhile, I'm (not) sorry to report that my gag reflex prevented me from participating in this cultural exchange.

The Chicken Story

2009-07-26T12:11:00.003-05:00

A short clip of the chicken in our kitchen, hiding behind our bikes. (Yes, where else would you put your bikes?)

Free Egg Delivery

2009-07-26T11:58:00.003-05:00

A couple weeks ago we had a chicken dilemma. For several days the same chicken came up on our porch and stared into our kitchen. We'd shoo her away, but she'd always come back. One day while Dan was getting lunch ready, she snuck in. She silently sat in the corner and was only noticed when he heard a faint rustling sound. He tried to shoo her away, but she was stubborn and refused to move. He finally resorted to force and then discovered why she had been so determined to stay: she was laying an egg.

This scenario continued for the next several days. We gave up chasing her and finally just let her stay to do her business. Every day she laid one new egg. We gave the first three to Fascine, the guard in our compound who tends the chickens. She came back the next day, searching everywhere to find her eggs. We thought that might be the end, but no. She finally gave up looking and sat to lay another. Every day she came back at the same time. When the door was closed or she couldn't get in, she would get frantic - flapping and squawking at the door until she was allowed in. She laid 4 more eggs.

(Random side note: most of the eggs we get and eat here are brown. Apparently there are all sorts of different colored eggs you can get from different breeds of chickens. The way to tell what color they will be is by looking at the chicken's ear lobes. Really. Take a look.)

One day while she was busy doing her thing in the corner, Dan and I had to go into town. (As discovered before, trying to disturb her before she was ready to leave wasn't a good idea...) We decided to leave her and just lock the door. Bad idea. Never leave a chicken locked in your kitchen. By the time we got home, she had pooped on our table, walked in it, and walked over everything else. She didn't seem to happy about it and neither were we. After that, we were gone for the next 4 days in a row for girls conference. We haven't seen her since, so we assume that during our absence she either a) gave up trying to get in and found a new place to lay her eggs b) was overly traumatized by being locked in and never wanted to come back c) was eaten by a snake or d) was eaten by a human. In any case, we enjoyed a delicious omelet breakfast from her eggs.

A recent BBC article about Guinea

2009-06-04T18:39:00.000-05:00

Fury at Guinea 'burn thief' idea

A senior member of Guinea's military government has been criticised after he called for robbers to be burnt alive.
Human rights groups said the idea by Capt Moussa Tiegoro Camara, in charge of fighting crime and drug trafficking, was "unacceptable" and "intolerable".
Capt Camara had said the country's prisons were full already and it was better to kill those who killed others.
But the Guinean Organisation of Human Rights said the laws of the country should not be by-passed.
"I am asking you to burn alive armed bandits who are caught red-handed," Capt Camara said at a meeting discussing security measures in the capital, Conakry, on Tuesday, reported Reuters news agency.
"Our jails and our correctional centres can no longer take in people and the situation cannot carry on like this."
Correspondents say lawlessness in the capital, Conakry, has risen in recent months.
Since seizing power after the death of Guinea's long-serving leader Lansana Conte at the end of December, the military has made fighting the drug trade and corruption a priority.

Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/8082532.stm
Published: 2009/06/04 08:06:00 GMT

The AIDS Film Shoot

2009-05-30T11:00:00.003-05:00

February 2009

I had a long month of shooting a documentary on AIDS Associations in Guinea. The theme was "overcoming stigmatisation and discrimination." We traveled throughout Guinea starting in Conakry. I must say that making a film in Guinea was ten times more difficult than making a film back in the States. Here, you have to deal with bribes, protocol, political issues, approvals from way too many people, etc. You have all of that in the States, but to a lesser degree. Anyways, here are a few photos from the trip.

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Here is the film crew in Gueckedou where we found one of the most organized associations in Guinea. The sound guy Billy had a crush on Jacqui, another volunteer helping with the film and she said she would go on a date with him if he was able to solve my rubic's cube--he still hasn't been on a date with her.

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(Conakry) Here is a photo from Nostalgie radio station where we had to pay a bribe because they said they were "taking a risk" by letting us film a controversial story that they were airing on the radio.

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(Conakry) Here is Kim and Jacqui, the production managers on the film shoot standing in front of one of the only tanks in Guinea. We had to be kind of sly since taking pictures of military stuff is "interdit."

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Here is another picture of us doing a "group interview" in Gueckedou.

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(Gueckedou) I like this shot because it looks like some sort of CD cover shot with our posse behind us. The lady between Jacqui and I is the director--Mariama Camara.

Solar power

2009-05-28T10:09:00.002-05:00

April 25, 2009

We haven't given any updates recently about our electricity situation, but it's not good. Remember when we were so excited to get electricity at our house? Well, that really didn't last long. We went from having it most nights of the week, to a few nights a week, to one night a week, and now one night every other week. Not so good. Still, we can't complain since it's something, which most volunteers can't say. What really gets to me though is that they still charge us the same rate. (about $8) That's a lot here, especially when you get nothing in return.

Before we had electricity, we would take our cell phones and other electronics to the DPS (health department) to charge them since they have a solar panal. Now the solar panal isn't working though so we no longer have that option. Since we're in a big town, we do at least have the option of dropping off our cell phones to be charged at a 'tele-center' where you can pay to have it charged off a generator for 30 cents or so. When we don't want to do that though, this is our other option:

The fan looking thing is called a solio. It's a small solar panal that can charge our cell phones. The only problem is that we don't have a direct adapter for it, so this is the complicated contraption we had to come up with to actually use it. And in the process we're probably only getting a small percentage of the energy we should. But again, its better than nothing!

Leaving it out in the sun allllll day gives it about 1/2 a charge which will power my cell phone for about an hour or 2.

This picture also shows off our awesome new fence! We'll have to get some better pictures of it, but we are pretty excited about having a little bit of privacy now. Living in a public government compound was not easy...

You can also see our wonderful solar dryer. We've been drying mangoes like crazy! It's been hard not to eat them all imediately because they're so delicious, but we've managed to save quite a bit. We've also experimented by drying coconut, papaya, carrots, and bananas.

I was so excited to find these carrots in our local market one day. You can occasionally find carrots brought into our market from the capital, but those are expensive. These were local carrots, which meant they were smaller, but much less expensive. I bought 60. Yes, 60. We made half into soup for lunch and dinner and dried the other half. It was quite a bit of work, but it turned out great.

This is what we had by the end of the day. It's always slightly depressing when you put so much work into something just to see it shrivel up to practically nothing, but it was worth it. I know it'll be wonderful to have some carrots in the middle of the rainy season when the markets are looking a little bare.

Trip to the Island

2009-05-25T08:49:00.000-05:00

April 9, 2009

We finally visited one of the islands off the coast of Conakry. It was a pretty amazing day. It was literally stepping out of Guinea for a little bit into an island paradise. Dan had the chance to visit once before without me, so this was quite a treat for me. We had wanted to go there over Christmas - spend the night there in a bungalow on the beach - but then the whole coup thing kind of messed up all our plans. We are definitely planning on going back.

This was in the pirogue (canoe) on our way back to the mainland at the end of a long day.

It was pretty picturesque... We were the only people on the entire beach for a while.

This is the group of volunteers we spent the day with. This restaurant had a the best Obama painting we've seen so far and everyone wanted their picture taken in front of it.

Dan playing frisbee on the beach.

Fish festival video clips

2009-05-22T11:51:00.001-05:00

Here are a couple video clips from the festival in Baro. Dan took a bunch of videos on his camera, but you'll have to wait to see those.

Walking through a typical 'neighborhood' in the village of Baro.

Some of the performers at the celebration.

Fish Festival Pictures

2009-05-21T12:15:00.018-05:00

May 11-17, 2009

Upper Guinea is known for its fish festivals. Throughout the month of May, each village has a festival and celebration which officially opens the fishing season in their village marsh. It's a celebration of drumming and dancing with masks and magicians and partying. And then they fish. The villagers all line up along the edges of the marsh and wait for the signal. At that point, they all rush in with their nets, pitchforks, and traps to catch anything that they can. It's quite an intense event! We went with a few other volunteers to the biggest festival in the region: Baro. We were not disappointed. Here are some pictures to chronicle the trip.

We were able to fly most of the way out to Kankan by catching a World Food Programme flight which took us as far as Kissidougou. (This hour flight cut about 10 hours off of a taxi ride, so it was pretty nice... and free!) On the way back to Conakry, the flight went straight from Kankan. We were pretty lucky.

Before the flight, we asked other volunteers what the airport was like. Response: "It's like those movies where the plane lands in the middle of nowhere to do sketchy drug deals..." Dirt runway and all. You really feel like you're in the bush of Africa.

The evening we first arrived there was quite a spectacular. These were some of the dancers. There were many different groups of dancers, drummers, singers, sorcerers, 'comedians' etc. They all paraded in front of the authorities and around the village soccer field. If you can see in the background, there were thousands of people lining the soccer field watching.

These were some of the 'griots' (traditional story tellers/singers)

Dan trying a kola nut. It's not good. In his words "it tastes like I'm eating radishes mixed with dirt." Yum. It's super caffeinated and the Guineans - especially the old men and women - chew 'em like candy.

This guy had so much energy!

We had front row seats. We were right by the CNDD (the group that's holding power right now in Guinea) delegation who came in from Conakry. I'm a bit sad I didn't get any pictures with them. They were pretty nice and really seemed to support the idea of Peace Corps.

Taking a breather. I never saw this guy stop smiling.

One of the old griots.

More griots.

This is the Sous-Prefet (town leader). We actually stayed at his house. Since we didn't know anyone in the town, we just showed up on his porch and they offered us two of their rooms to stay in. (There's no such thing as hotels in small villages...) His family was so nice to us and fed us amazingly at every meal. This is the kind of generosity you will find in Guinea.

A dancer who liked to do some fun acrobatics.

This is one of the masks with his tamers/guards. Some of the Guineans had real fear of him. There were also sorcerers with him. One of them astounded the crowd by turning a bottle of water red by dropping two tablets in it and shaking it up. He got a lot of money thrown at him for that.

This was the next morning before it was time to fish. One of the specialties of this village is that, before fishing, people go to the sacred forest to make sacrifices and ask for special favors. (When I say sacrifice, it does not necessarily mean killing something. In this sense it means giving up something like money.) Then you get a cool leaf hat like Dan is wearing.

After that, there was another event in the main public area with more drumming and dancing.

Part of the crowd of onlookers in their leaf hats.

I wish I could post a bigger picture of this one so that you could see the sheer number of people gathered around the marsh on either side waiting. This is just a small portion too... It's a huge marsh!

Here we are after fishing. We actually didn't do any fishing ourselves since we didn't have any nets, but we ran in anyway to get muddy and complete the experience.

These are the volunteers we were with.

After the festival in Baro, we spent a few days at Ciara's site. She has a great village and she and her family treated us so well. While we were there, she took us on an adventure to walk across the Niger River to visit another village. Since it's the end of the dry season, the water level is so low, you can walk across without any problem.

We went back to swim and cool off again at the end of the day.

One of Ciara's host brothers plays the xylophone and is teaching her how to play as well. It was great! Now I want to learn.

After we left Ciara's site, we tried to make it to another fish festival being held at another volunteer's site. We got there too late, but we did get the chance to spend a couple hours under a lean-to in the middle of nowhere. (Djelibakoro)

We made it to the other festival just in time to see the end of the fishing. After fishing, they went down into the Niger to bathe and wash their nets. We just went to cool off. It gets ridiculously hot in upper Guinea.

traveling

2009-05-15T05:35:00.003-05:00

It's been a while since we've posted anything, so just wanted to let you all know we are alive and well. We're currently traveling around 'Haute Guinea,' the upper part of Guinea. It's my first time visiting this part of the country. We went to a fish festival in a village called Baro on Tuesday and Wednesday. It was a pretty fun experience. Today we're going to another volunteer's site who is on the Niger River and we'll be heading to another fish festival Sunday and Monday. I have already taken a ton of pictures and videos this week. I'll sort through them and share once we get back to Conakry. Keep an eye out for new postings!

Love and miss you all!

The Dentist

2009-04-12T12:15:00.001-05:00

Mary's had her fair share of dental work since we've come to Africa and others have told me horror stories, but I finally had my first experience which actually wasn't that bad. After looking in my mouth with a mirror for 30 seconds he declared that I didn't have any cavities. Then he proceeded to clean the plaque from my gumline with a high-pressure water pick which wasn't very pleasant on the nerves.

The whole process took under ten-minutes and when he was done he just got up and started browsing the internet. I just sat there not realizing it was over until he said "It is finished. You can go." in his strong accent. So, that was considered a dental cleaning and cost 150,000 GNF ($31). If I'm lucky I'll get another "cleaning" before I head back to the States.

Yard Work

2009-04-11T11:39:00.001-05:00

During the rainy season the Guineans are really particular about pulling up all of the grass that grows around the house since it attracts snakes and mosquitos. So, they tend to "mow the lawn" a few times a month, which consists of using a hoe to loosen the dirt and picking it up with their hands. I personally like the grass, since it looks nice and the yard doesn't get as muddy. Some people actually import small red stones to lay down as a ground cover. I think the small red stones help keep grass and weeds to a minimum. The clay ground has moss growing on it instead of grass.

At the beginning of the dry season, people go crazy and burn everything. They burn all large fields of grass--I guess they figure that it's better to purposefully burn a field than to accidentally burn it and cause a wildfire. I think it's also good for the ground--maybe. But they tend to accidentally burn trees and bushes too.

Taking care of your yard during the dry season is actually pretty easy because the yard is just reddish-brown dirt that is swept with a grass broom everyday (or once a month in our case). They sweep leaves and trash into small piles to burn and the smoke fills the house on windy days.

We tried to have a flower box on the porch but the little kids tore it up and during the dry season it's too hard to keep watered. Overall, it's a lot easier to take care of the yard in Africa--there's not as much pressure to do nice landscaping and all of that stuff.

Bring on the Mangoes

2009-04-07T12:23:00.011-05:00

Mango season hasn't officially begun, but there are a few early ones ripening on the trees and a few expensive ones for sale in the market which bring us a glimmer of hope and much anticipation.

Dan and I had a solar dryer made last month in preparation for this. (basically just a big, very low-tech food dehydrator.) We wanted to do this last year for mango season, but never got on the ball quick enough and before we knew it, the season was over. We were determined not to miss out this year.

While the Guineans continue to remind us that it's still too early for mangoes and that we're crazy to want to spend a whole 15 cents on one mango (in a few weeks you'll be able to buy a whole giant bowl full for that much...), we've gone ahead and splurged on some in order to try the dryer out. Here's some pictures of our first attempt:

This is what the solar drier looks like. We had a carpenter make it for us. The white thing on top is a digital inside/outside thermometer. (Yes, we know we're geeks) We had it inside to know how hot it got throughout the day. Highest on that day I think was about 120*F. This was our first peek inside at the end of a long, hot day. We put it out around 9am and brought it back in around 6pm. We tied it shut all day so that curious kids (or curious adults for that matter) wouldn't mess with it or open it up and let out all the heat. Basically all it is is a wooden frame with a black plastic roof, holes in the side for air flow and ventilation, and removable trays made of plastic screening to put the food on.

Look at all those yummy mangoes. This was about 5 1/2 mangoes if I remember correctly. We soaked them in sugar water with a little lemon over night (Since we used somewhat under ripe mangoes so they'd be more firm, they're not as sweet. The lemon is so they don't turn black on us.) They were delicious. We've tried a couple other treatments since this first batch too: honey water, honey lemon water, lemon water. All pretty dang good.

We've also tried drying bananas which were great. I'm just not as motivated to dry those though since they're in season all year round. We want to try drying other things just to see how they go. Tomato season is just slackening off, so we missed the curve on that one. We're planning on buying some carrots and green peppers while we're here in Conakry to dry when we get home for ourselves, since we can't find those in our town.

We put the dried mangoes in old mayo jars to save. These were gone though by the next day... but at least by then we had a new fresh batch! We have been trying to save a few in plastic bags from each batch, which we keep in another jar to see how they save over time. That is really our main purpose. They should be able to keep for 6 months or more if they're kept right. It's just so hard: when you have a yummy new treat, we just want to eat them all right then :)

Soooo, why are we doing this (besides having a yummy new treat) ? The mango season comes on quickly and ends before you realize it. In that short time, there are far too many mangoes for everyone to consume. We're trying to encourage people to dry some for storage so that they can enjoy them (and their nutrients!) throughout the year rather than for only 2 or 3 months. It is so easy to do too. Sitting out in the middle of our yard, the strange new thing has attracted plenty of attention and given us many opportunities to explain what we're doing and why. We've let all our friends and neighbors try what we've dried so far. Everyone loves it and says they want to try it themselves. This is what we were going for, but we'll see if we can actually get them to do what they say... That was one reason we wanted to start now - even though it is still officially pre-season - to sell the idea while we can.

One problem is that food storage is a foreign concept in this culture. They're used to going to the market and buying what they need for the day. If its not there, too bad. They use whatever is in season. You want an avacado? Sorry pal, you gotta wait for the avacado season. In a few months will come the 'hungry season' while they're waiting for the new crops to come in. They have no pantries, no canned goods, no fridges, etc. They eat what they can get now and finish it while they can. They do dry things like grains and tubers, but they do that by just leaving it out on the side of the road or on a mat in their yard, getting dirty, pecked at by chickens, and walked on by goats and children. This is a much more sanitary method as well as quicker and more efficient than just laying something in the sun. Plus, vitimin A, one of the main vitimins in mangoes, is destroyed by direct sunlight. These are some crazy new concepts for the community here, but that's one reason we're here, right? Promote new ideas and encourage smart and healthy changes. We'll let you know how this one goes.

random pictures

2009-03-16T09:27:00.000-05:00

I mentioned that I like to bake here in Guinea. I bet most of you didn't really stop and think what that meant. This is what it means:

A metal pot on charcoal out on our porch. I forgot to get a picture of the inside. There is a layer of sand to help insulate the bottom then three empty tomato paste cans to hold up whatever is baking. This is what I was baking:

Oatmeal raisin cookies. This batch took all afternoon to bake. Now, we could get a bigger pot so I could bake more than 6 cookies at a time, but where's the fun in that? I gave most of them away to neighbors since Dan was gone and I definitely did not need a whole batch to myself...

This was not planned, so I had to take a picture of it. The coals shifted and the pot tilted. I didn't realize this until time was up and I came to take them out. I opened the pot and this is what I saw. :)

Here's Charlie, our parrot, with Dan. He started getting red feathers on his back and wings over the last few months, which I thought was pretty odd. It turns out that its some rare genetic trait known as 'red factor.' We've got an African Grey with freckles. I think its kinda cute. I did some research to learn more about it and found all sorts of crazy pictures. There is even an all-red African Grey in South Africa that someone bred.

This one is not Charlie, but I wanted to show how extreme the red factor can get. This bird is between 30 and 40 years old. Charlie is only 1. His might go away, stay the same, or it could get more extreme like this.

Corruption and Drugs in Guinea

2009-03-15T10:48:00.005-05:00

Want to learn more about the corruption and drug trade here in Guinea? Great Associated Press article. It's long, but please read it if you have time.

Curtain Lifted on a Narcostate

(sorry... the link stopped working for a while. This is a new one. I'm including full text too just in case they get rid of this one too.)

In TV confessions, curtain lifted on a narcostate
Posted 3/14/2009 4:08 PM ET
By Rukmini Callimachi, Associated Press Writer

CONAKRY, Guinea — When the planes arrived loaded with cocaine, it was Guinea's presidential guard that secured the cargo.
Drug deals were conducted inside the first lady's private residence and in the president's VIP salon at the international airport. To avoid detection, cocaine was sent to Europe in the country's diplomatic pouch.
As the people of Guinea sit transfixed before their TV sets, top government officials one after another are confessing to their role in a lucrative international cocaine trade. Organized by a military junta that seized power three months ago, the confessions offer unprecedented insight into an exploding drug trade in West Africa, one that connects coca leaves grown in South American fields to cocaine in European discos.
The confessions paint a picture of an illicit trade conducted with total impunity, with the help of officials, members of the president's family and security forces. They also show the large role Guinea and other West African countries are playing as drug hubs, and how vulnerable they are to the corrupting influence of drug dollars.
A recent United Nations report found that at least 46 tons of cocaine have been seized en route to Europe via West Africa since 2005, bringing profits that sometimes exceed the entire defense budgets of countries it passes through. Before that time, less than a ton a year was seized from the entire continent.
"The vast majority of cocaine that is destined for Europe is now going through West Africa," said Michael Braun, who was the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency's operations chief when he retired in October.
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For years, the drug trade was an open secret in Guinea. The inner circle of former dictator Lansana Conte, who ruled Guinea for 24 years until his death, was deeply corrupt, with officials driving opulent SUVs in a capital where most people live without electricity.
Conte died in December. A day later, Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara, a junior army officer, grabbed power in a coup and promised to crack down on corruption, including on the flagrant drug trade. So far, more than a dozen people have been arrested, but Dadis has failed to arrest well-known members of his own military junta who are believed to deal in drugs.
The confessions began two weeks ago on state television in what is now known in Guinea as "The Dadis Show," broadcasts that have caused a spike in TV viewership and are the constant topic at lunch and over coffee.
First up was Ousmane Conte, the feared eldest son of the deceased dictator, who was untouchable under the previous regime. He admitted what everyone in Guinea knew but did not dare say.
"I acknowledge that I was in the drug business -- and I regret it," said Conte, whose confession was taped inside his detention cell.
In a jailhouse interview this week with The Associated Press, Conte explained how he did it. He said a friend brought in "medicine" for his humanitarian foundation, using a Red Cross plane that landed at night at the international airport in the capital, Conakry. When the plane arrived, his friend called to wake him. Conte then went to the airport accompanied by the presidential guard to secure the cargo, he said.
Conte claimed he did not know at first that the cargo contained cocaine. But his friend later told him, he said, and Conte accepted a $300,000 bribe.
Other officials confessed to equally bold behavior.
The late president's brother-in-law said he met with Latin American drug dealers inside a villa owned by his sister, the former first lady. The head of the country's intelligence unit said he personally accompanied a convoy of trucks containing drugs to the capital. The former head of the police force was challenged to account for the source of funds for a university he is building.
Even the former head of the country's anti-drug unit was interrogated on state TV for his alleged role. The unit was in charge of seizing drugs when a cache was found. But instead of securing and destroying the drugs, the cocaine was often "recycled," said top police officials and foreign diplomats.
A junior police officer said that on one raid, they discovered a 40-foot container filled with cocaine wrapped in plastic. There was so much that the police could not load it all into the two pickup trucks they had brought, said the officer, who asked not to be named because he was committing a crime.
In the confusion, he said, he hid one of the plastic-wrapped sachets of cocaine inside his uniform. He sold it to a buyer at the port, who gave him $15,000. He bought a used car, a TV set and the latest generation Nokia cellphone. He also paid to send his mother, a Muslim, to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
He's not proud of what he did, he said. But he pointed out that his theft was miniscule compared to that of his superiors, several of whom stole enough to buy themselves newly-imported Toyota SUVs.
"Eighty percent of the men in uniform lived off of this -- it wasn't just me," he said. "It was everyone."
The anti-drug unit eventually gained such a reputation as a place for easy money that it began to receive transfer applications from other police departments, said current director Moussa Sakho Camara, who was brought in late last year after the former director was sacked.
Camara said that when he took over, a large number of officers drove imported SUVs -- $50,000 cars that would have taken over 50 years to buy on an officer's $100-a-month salary. So, in an effort to stop officers from driving their drug trophies to work, Camara ruled that only he could park in the anti-drug unit's parking lot.
___
The drug business in Guinea feeds into a much larger trade that brings cocaine from South America into Spain and Portugal to serve a booming European market.
As the cocaine market in the United States matured, drug traffickers turned to Europe instead, according to a U.N. report released in October. Over the past decade, cocaine use in Spain and the United Kingdom has grown three and four-fold. One kilogram of cocaine in Europe now sells for twice as much as in the United States, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.
To get the cocaine to Europe, traffickers first smuggle it to Africa's west coast, located directly across the ocean from Colombia, Peru and Bolivia, home to the world's entire crop of coca leaves. They bring it in freighter ships and in small, two-engine planes that land at night on deserted air strips. Once ashore, it is parceled out to hundreds of drug dealers, who smuggle it north on boats, in planes and in their own intestines.
In a report earlier this month, the U.S. State Department said cocaine smuggling through Venezuela alone has shot up fivefold since 2002, from 50 metric tons to an estimated 250 metric tons in 2007. It said a rapidly increasing percentage of the flow has begun to be shipped and flown to West Africa, notably to Guinea and Guinea Bissau, and then on toward Europe.
The countries dotting Africa's Atlantic Coast are so mired in poverty that their people -- including the governing elite -- are often tempted into the drug trade. Guinea alone was the embarkation point for 221 couriers detected since 2006, the single largest national total in the region, according to the U.N. report.
"Africa is under attack," says Antonio Maria Costa, who heads the Vienna-based U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.
The biggest entry points in Europe are Spain, Portugal and the United Kingdom, but the trade is widespread. In Switzerland alone, the U.N. report noted, 60 percent of foreign drug traffickers arrested were West African.
It's unclear if the crackdown in Guinea will succeed in dislodging the cartels. Even if it does, experts say, the trade will simply move to neighboring countries.
Next door is Sierra Leone, where last June a Cessna piloted by a three-man crew from Latin America was stopped with 700 kilograms of cocaine. To the north is Guinea-Bissau, from where in 2006, 32 people carrying cocaine boarded the same flight for Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport.
But already, the people of Guinea are realizing how much their economy depends on drugs.
Nigerians who acted as go-betweens in the drug trade used to spend freely in Guinea, but they are now gone. Business is down at the capital's discos, where the Nigerians used to order multiple rounds of drinks. For Guineans, a bottle of champagne is worth three months' salary.
Their apparent departure is also being felt at a downtown intersection, where a 14-year-old boy sells telephone charge cards. "Before, selling cards worked. The Nigerians would buy 10 at a time," said Mamadou Diallo. "Now I'm hardly selling any."
There are fewer SUVs, and those who drive expensive cars feel they have been put on notice.
The police officer who admitted to stealing cocaine said he now takes public transport to work. He answers his calls on a beat-up Nokia, and handed over the new one he bought with the cocaine money to his girlfriend.
"Everyone knows that a Guinean can't afford these things," he explained, his knees twitching under the table. "Everybody is afraid. No one could have imagined that they could arrest these people."
____
Associated Press Writers Veronika Oleksyn and Bill Kole in Vienna, Frank Bajak in Bogota, Paul Haven in Madrid, Barry Hatton in Lisbon and Clarence Roy-Macaulay in Freetown, Sierra Leone, contributed to this report.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.

March update

2009-03-15T10:34:00.001-05:00

Another month has passed since I last posted here. Whoops. Here's what we've been up to:

*I came back to site at the beginning of February after finishing training the new group of volunteers. Dan however did not come with me. He spent the last month traveling all over Guinea with a Guinean film crew for an HIV/AIDS project. They were filming a documentary about people living with HIV/AIDS, stereotyping, and the role local associations play throughout the country. Pretty interesting stuff. I'll let him post something about how that went. I'm just jealous that he's been all over Guinea now and I haven't.

*Meanwhile, I was at site all by myself for a month. Kinda sad. Nothing too exciting to tell about. Just normal stuff. I tried to keep busy and involved... then I got the flu. Ehh. C'est la vie.

*Dan finally made it back to our site the first week in March. The film crew came too to do some filming in our town. The sad part is that we don't have an AIDS group or association. This is really bad since it is the regional capital, with a regional hospital where they treat all the HIV/AIDS patients from all the surrounding villages and cities. I've been working with the head doctor at the hospital to see what we can do about this. He is very eager to start a support group, so we decided to interview him for the film. I'm excited to work more with him. He is super motivated, smart, and hardworking and he truly seems to care about his patients.

*This week Dan and I will be at a workshop focusing on HIV/AIDS support groups. I've invited Dr. Nabe, the head doctor from our hospital, to come with us so that we can work on this together. We leave tomorrow, so we'll let you know how it goes. The video project was supposed to be shown at the conference as well, but the crew just started the editing process... so it may be a while before that's wrapped up.

Peace Corps Cribs: Conakry

2009-02-10T09:21:00.003-06:00

A tour of the Peace Corps volunteer transit house in Conakry, Guinea.

Hosted by PCV Liz Roderick
Filmed and Edited by Dan Fredley
With the support of all the awesome Guinea PCVs

new kids

2009-02-06T10:48:00.004-06:00

I came down country for a couple of weeks to help train the newest set of volunteers. It was interesting to be back in our training site but to be on the opposite side of the equation. There were a handful of other volunteers down to help train, but I was the only one lucky enough to be with the health trainees.

There are 11 of them in the health sector. They all stuck it out and made it through with flying colors! Yay! Here I am with them as well as our APCD (the woman in charge of our sector) and the two Guinean trainers.

Training was fun. Here they are learning about the Guinean dental health situation and trying out brushing their teeth with sticks. Always fun.

Since I was helping with the last two weeks of training, I got to be with them for their 'swearing in' where they become official volunteers instead of just lowly trainees. They head off to their new village life on Sunday. Trainings over. We came up to Conakry the middle of this week and today they swore in. They all put on their best Guinean garb for the big ceremony. There are 29 of them all together... I think we're missing 3 in this picture.Here's me, Raven, and Katy - two of the other PCVs that were helping out with the last two weeks of training. We decided to all get the same fabric and have new complets (guinean outfits) made for the occasion.

The big to-do. Here they are swearing in at the ceremony this morning. It went great.

Part of our job as PCV trainers at the end of training is helping the newbies go to the bank, figure out how to survive in Conakry and go shopping. This is not exactly fun, but what goes around, comes around. We were on the receiving side just a year ago, so now its our turn to pass on our sage advice and services. We collected money for a few of the major purchases most people needed (like gas stoves and trunks) so we could negotiate bulk prices. Big headache for us, but much easier in the long run. This is what resulted: (it might look impressive, but think of it as monopoly money...) :)

2009-01-24T11:04:00.002-06:00

It's been a while since I've posted anything. Sorry folks. This month flew by with not too much to tell about. It's the cool season. We're enjoying it. It's also the dry, dusty season. Not so good, but better than what it'll be come March...

This is just a quick post. I leave tomorrow to help with training the newest group of volunteers. When I'm back, I'll write some more and post a few pictures from the past month.

This pic is some new cashews starting to grow. I love cashew season and cashew trees. The cashews hang below a cashew fruit (called an 'apple' here... you can't find regular apples anywhere except in the capital...) and the green nuts have to be roasted or burned before you can eat them safely. The fruits haven't developed yet on these trees. I'll post some pictures of those when they do. But now I understand why cashews are so expensive.

Anyway, love and miss you all. Take care,

mary

Prime Minister surrenders

2008-12-25T10:33:00.002-06:00

The Prime Minister has surrendered to the military coup.

Yahoo article

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T04:34:00.004-06:00

Merry Christmas from Dakar!

Walking down the street the other day here in Dakar I saw a Senegalese man dressed in a Santa costume outside of a store. We greeted each other with the Islamic salutation. (greeting: as-Salâm Alaikum -"God’s Peace be upon you" response: wa-laikum as-Salâm "and God’s Peace be upon you." It's the average 'hey, hows it going' type of thing when you talk to or even pass anyone here.) It seemed a little ironic, but I guess the sentiment is the same for any religion, right? But nothing says Merry Christmas better than a Muslim dressed up like Santa! I just love the eye brows.

Anyway, things are good here, even though Dan is in Conakry experiencing a merry military Christmas coup and I'm stuck in Senegal by myself. I came to Senegal about two weeks ago to have some dental stuff fixed and got stuck here due to the military coup. With luck, hopefully I'll be able to return to Guinea next week. But we're safe and well taken care of. I was adopted by the regional doctor's family for a couple of days and had a good traditional Christmas with a tree, turkey, and even presents! They call me their little orphaned war child. :) Everyone has been so great and thoughtful here that I really have no cause to complain. We're making the best of a non-ideal situation.

Anyway, we miss and love you all and wish you the best for the holidays. Take care and have a Merry Christmas!

Today's news update

2008-12-24T16:42:00.002-06:00

Here's your news summary for the day:

Early yesterday representatives from the military announced that they have seized power and are in control. In the afternoon, the prime minister and president of the assembly said that they are still in control and the government is still functioning as it should (Hmm... as it should? What does that really mean?) Statements were given that indicated that the military was divided in its allegiance: some for the government, some for a coup. The government officials plead for support (both citizen and international) in not recognizing the "coup-mongers." The coup leaders responded by making another statement that said they ARE in control and that they have organized a council who will run the country until elections are held in December 2010. (They originally said elections would be held within 2 months. Right... but I guess 2 years is close enough.)

Coup leaders appointed this relatively nobody, a junior army officer, Captain Moussa Camara, as the interim president until they do have the elections. He was paraded through the streets this afternoon to the presidential palace with reportedly thousands of cheering onlookers. Coup leaders also claimed that the government is trying to use mercenaries to quelch the coup. The Prime Ministers response (given from 'a safe location'): "that's idiotic." They said it just shows how desperate the coup leaders are to make such a claim.

Confused yet? Yeah...

For those wanting more, here is a sampling of news for your reading pleasure, mostly from the BBC:

Q&A: Guinea's power crisis - a break down summary of what's going on.

Full text: Guinea military statement - what the military said after the announcement of Conte's death - very aimed at appealing to the general population

Guinea plea to end attempted coup - the president of the assembly's response to the apparent military overthrow
Guinea coup leader parades through capital - an AP article about the appointment of Moussa Camara

Guinea coup 'was predicted' - for those of you who would prefer to listen rather than read, a BBC radio story

Peace Corps Press Release - they say we're all ok and accounted for. yay!

President Lansana Conté is Dead

2008-12-23T03:56:00.005-06:00

(I think the dove is a great touch, no?)

President Conte died last night. A few hours after the announcement, a military captain declared that they were disolving the government and suspending the constitution and all political actions. According to the constitution, the president of the assembly is supposed to take power after the presidents death and organize an election within the next 60 days. But apparently that is not what the military has in mind. Instead, they say they are organizing a consultation council to work things out. They also declared that the state is in morning for the next 40 days.

For a good article about it all, the BBC has one here: Military 'seizes power' in Guinea

As some of you know, I am back in Senegal for more dental work. (another wonderfully long story) My flight back to Conakry was scheduled for this afternoon, but our Country Director (the guy in charge of Peace Corps Guinea) doesn't want me flying back until things are clear and calm. So don't worry. Peace Corps will always take good care of us.

If you want to read up a bit on this guy's life, wikipedia has a good synopsis. If you scroll to the bottom, they even already updated it with this new info about his death. Wikipedia: Lansana Conté

Other news sites that may be of interest if you want to do more reading:

Guinea's hardline president dies

Guinea: Coup Follows Conté's Death

Fear in Guinea at army takeover

Confusion over Guinea coup after president dies (YouTube video from AlJazeera)

Le gouvernement de la Guinée dissous après la mort du président Lansana Conté (in french)

Le chaos et le déluge de l’après Conté. (in french... but check it out, just for the picture...)

money matters

2008-12-03T10:14:00.000-06:00

To state the obvious: Being white in this country makes you stand out. The stereotyping that goes along with it is sometimes very hard to deal with as a volunteer. Everyone assumes we're rich and we should help them out. Yes, even though we make next to nothing by all American standards, we're very much the upper class here with what we get paid. And everyone knows it and everyone thinks we can and should help them. We pass kids in the street and the first thing they do is ask for money. "Foté, donnes-moi cinq cent." (translation: "Whitey, give me 500.") Adults aren't much better. Luckily, as we've gotten to know people around town, we face this less often, but since we're in a big town and will never know everyone, we'll never escape it completely. But in a country where everyone is poor, everyone is in need, and everyone has a heart-wrenching story to tell, it often becomes paralyzing. What becomes even harder on us is that, as far as ex-pats in this country go, we are a completely different breed. We get paid very little and we get paid in Guinean Francs (instead of dollars or euros). We live only with bare necessities - without running water, air conditioning, or reliable electricity. We walk everywhere on foot or pile into multi-passenger taxis with Guineans instead of being driven around in a nice SUV by a chauffeur. We buy local food for ourselves in the local market from the local women in the local language. We try to be a part of the community and live like they do.

A few weeks ago in town, a nice SUV stopped at the corner. A beggar came up to ask for money from the white man in the car. The man gave him 10000GF, which is about as much as an average health worker would make in a day or two to three times as much as a laborer would make, but was only $2 to the man. What happened though was everyone started coming up to beg. The man as a result just started handing out 10000GF to anyone who came up. This is what makes our job here so hard. That's a standard we could never live up to, nor would want to. That's not why we're here. Yes, obviously we want to help people. That's why we joined the Peace Corps. We just have a different way to do it. The whole "give a man" vs "teach a man to fish" thing... It's just hard and frustrating sometimes trying to explain that difference to the people we work with.

Baptism and marriage all in one day

2008-12-02T09:46:00.000-06:00

Dan's counterpart, Madame Conde, got married this month. It came as a surprise not only to us, but to her as well. She was friends with a French man who works with one of the mining companies. He expressed that he wanted to find a wife. Yama, our regional coordinator and mutual friend to both of them, suggested for him to convert to Islam and marry Dan's counterpart and to go ahead and do it as soon as possible. So the following Friday after the 2:00pm prayer, he was baptized a Muslim and at 5:00 they got married. Random. Very random. But very interesting to take part in.

This is Yama, our regional coordinator. She is pretty awesome.

Me at the mosque. Women have to cover their heads when at the mosque.

Dan in his boubou. Guys aren't obligated to cover their heads.

This is Sylla, one of the Imams at the Mosque. He's a great guy and one of our very few neighbors.

At the marriage ceremony which took place at Mme Conde's house.

Us looking on.

The happy couple after the marriage.

Journalism Workshop

2008-12-01T09:39:00.000-06:00

Dan and I had the chance of participating in a journalism workshop that was sponsored by the big mining company in Kamsar. They flew in a TV news anchor from France to work with the local radio journalists in our region. It was pretty interesting. There are several journalists in our town who are really eager to start a local private radio station. This is a project Dan really wants to help out with. There are no news sources available here that are open for free speech. There is 'radio rural' which is a local radio branch owned and operated by the government, and the mining company radio station which reaches us, but that does not allow any political content or touchy subjects to be aired. The only TV stations that are picked up are from Conakry and even then, very few people own televisions. The people here rely on gossip as a result, which is quite hard on social progress.

The workshop was held over 5 days, but Dan and I only attended the last 3 because we didn't find out about it in time. (Again, most of our information comes from the grape vine.) The mining company ended up putting us up at their hotel in Kamsar (which was an amazing treat for us) because we're not allowed to travel at night and the conference lasted until late in the evenings. I felt a little bad getting treated like someone important and getting a free ride, but we really appreciated the opportunity and I think the mining company was eager to network and increase its PR.

This is a shot of us with some of the people who were at the workshop. None of these people are from our town, so I don't know any of them, but I'm posting it for two reasons: 1) We have very few pictures with both us together, so I thought it should be shared. 2) To point out the absurd amount of pictures we end up in with people we don't know because everyone loves to have their picture taken at any chance and everyone loves to have their picture taken with the white people.

soccer tourney

2008-11-30T13:36:00.000-06:00

The drama club we work with sponsored a soccer tournament over the end of October/beginning of November. Their main theme and objective was to encourage people, especially youth, to register to vote. They focused on this in light of the parliamentary elections that are supposed to take place next month. They wanted people to understand the importance of voting and that if they want change, they need to start by registering. The finale of the tournament was great with a huge turn out. Guineans love their soccer.

This is us with a part of the drama club who were at the final game. The director of the club, Moussa Camara, is standing behind me. The girls are dressed pretty scandelously for Guinean standards, but it was fine since this was an 'event' and they were the 'hostesses.'

This is the pomp before the game of meeting the officials/persons of note in attendance and the ever important picture taking.

On a hike

2008-11-30T09:28:00.000-06:00

After being here in our community for over half a year, we realized that we still knew little about it. We always stuck to the same roads and saw the same things. We decided that it would be good to do more exploring on a regular basis. On this particular day, we were trying to find if there was a closer access to the river from our house. We usually go down to the stream behind our house to swim or do laundry, but this day wanted to go to the big river.

We were going to ask a friend to guide us, but decided to make our own discovery. After about an hour and a half of wandering, we finally got to the river, but realize that it was most definitely not the closest access which was our quest that day. It was a great hike though and pretty fun to get away from the city like that. We were exhausted by the time we got home.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-29T10:38:00.005-06:00

I hope all of you were able to enjoy Thanksgiving. We were able to spend it in Conakry with a big group of other volunteers. It was a great day full of friends and far too much food - turkey, pumpkin pie, and just about every other dish one could want - just the way it was meant to be.

I hope you've liked all our new blog entries too. I wrote a bunch over this past month and scheduled them all to post over the last and next week. So be on the lookout for more to come. Hope they don't bore you too much.

The holiday season is a little different on this side of the ocean.... no rushing to the local market for after thanksgiving sales, no Christmas songs and decorations, no change in season or snow... It just feels a little different when you're dripping with sweat as opposed to bundling up in sweaters and scarves. But we're thinking of all of you, our friends and families back home, and wishing you the best for this holiday season. Don't let the stresses of the season get to you. Just remember to be thankful for what you have and those you love.

Happy thanksgiving! :)

pumpkin carving guinean style

2008-11-28T13:10:00.000-06:00

My favorite part about Halloween is carving pumpkins. I tried to grow some pumpkins for this very reason, but the vines never fruited. Fortunately squash is in abundance this time of year, so I bought one that resembled a pumpkin and went at it. I wanted to carve something more detailed, but the squash was going to be lunch and dinner, so I had to hurry. We turned it into squash soup and pumpkin peanut butter brownies the first day, put it into thai peanut curry and pumpkin pie the next day and still had two big pieces that we gave away to neighbors. It was pretty dang good. The thought of carving it and not eating it would have been a ridiculous waste in this country.

troubled water

2008-11-26T16:45:00.000-06:00

We gave up long ago carrying our own water from the pump. There's only one pump in our neighborhood, but we're lucky enough to live just one compound away. Even so, we pay a student to fetch it for us because we lose enough of our time as is just trying to survive and work here that we don't want to spend more of it waiting in line at the water pump. Besides that, you try pumping water from a foot pump, carrying 20 liters of it about a block and repeat that twice a day, every single day. It was a little easier to buy a 50 gallon barrel and pay someone to come fill it for us every week.

The student we had was gone for summer vacation though, so we had to find an alternate water boy. We ended up asking Fasine, the guard here, to help us until school started again. Unfortunately, some of the water jugs he used to get us water were not really clean. One particular time we ended up with hundreds of tiny little worms in our barrel. The water that comes out of the pump is actually very clean, but when you put clean water into dirty jugs, it kind of defeats the purpose. Anyway, we had the brilliant idea of trying to kill them all by boiling a bunch of kettles of water and pouring it into the barrel. After about 2 we realized how silly it was to try to heat the 50 gallons to any level that would make that kind of difference... So we dumped in a ton of bleach and they were all dead by the next day.

We told Fasine he should try to clean out his water jugs, not just for our sake, but for his family's health. They used the same dirty jugs for all their drinking, cooking, and bathing water. The next time he got our water, it was especially clean. I hope he understands that it's better for him too that way...

finger lickin good

2008-11-25T10:00:00.000-06:00

This was our first attempt at cooking chicken at home. (yeah... we put it off quite a while...) We had Fasine kill it for us while Dan watched and took note so he can do it himself next time. (It's not culturally acceptable for a woman to kill anything... darn.) Then we had one of his wives clean it for us. Here I am with the final product ready for cooking. Oh, how I miss frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts from grocery stores.

We breaded and fried the legs and wings and cut all the meat off the rest of him and made popcorn chicken bites. We had a bottle of KC Masterpiece that we got on sale in Kamsar (such a treat!) and feasted. The process took up a huge part of the day, but it was delicious. Still, I won't mind waiting a while before we attempt it again.

rain rain go away

2008-11-24T16:25:00.000-06:00

Rainy season is pretty much over now. We were surprised with the sudden change from wet to dry, having expected a gradual slacking off rather than a sudden break.

Rainy season was nice because it brought much cooler weather. Unfortunately, it also brought a lot of humidity. All the humidity helped bring these mushrooms into our living room. Along with mold. Lots and lots of mold. We were gone for about three weeks in a row during the month of August (peak rainy season) and came back to find everything in our house was covered in mold -- pillows, sheets, clothes, furniture, shoes... everything. It was quite disgusting.

Now we have the dust of dry season to look forward to. At least our laundry dries in a single day in the sun again rather than hanging on a line on our porch for days. Even then, nothing really ever felt dry.

the accidental garden

2008-11-23T14:17:00.000-06:00

So, the garden I planted has not been very fruitful. We've gotten a couple handfuls of green beans, cherry tomatoes, basil, dill, and a few pathetic green peppers. The zucchini, squash and pumpkins grew like crazy, but never fruited. There are still some squash vines going strong, but no squash. It's a little disheartening. I intentionally only planted a few plants of each kind of veggie since I didn't know what would be able to survive here, but I was most looking forward to the zucchini and pumpkins. So I was a little sad that none of them bore fruit.

Ironically enough though, I have an amazing accidental garden. Dan and I throw all our kitchen scraps into a compost pile in the corner of the yard. It started as just a shallow hole where we throw all our food trash. It really isn't a good compost pile though, since we don't care for it, turn it, or anything. Things just get thrown in the corner and chickens, dogs, kids, sheep, etc. pick through it and the rest decomposes. Well, it has been my most successful garden spot. All of our mango pits sprouted (there were at least 40 of them... probably more) along with a couple avocado pits, ginger root, tons of tomato seedlings, and a hot pepper plant. I didn't realize that things were growing until I stopped one day to look at it. I transplanted all the tomato seedlings into another bed and thinned the mango and avocado trees to two each. I left the ginger and it's doing awesome. It was after our last trip to Conakry that I noticed the hot pepper plant. I was going to pull it up because I didn't realize what it was, but then noticed the 10 or so peppers hanging from it. I am so impressed, but at the same time a little discouraged that my accidental garden did so much better than my intentional garden.

50 years of independence

2008-11-22T14:48:00.002-06:00

I thought I already posted this, but I guess I never did. Guinea just celebrated 50 years of independence. Here's a couple interesting articles about the history and some of the sentiment around the country today.

BBCs article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7647962.stm

(much shorter version with audio)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/news/2008/10/081002_guinea_rosspkg_dm.shtml

a different perspective:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80717

and one about the new corruption ranking: (we're down 5 spots. thats not a good thing, in case you were wondering...)
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80575

griots

2008-11-02T15:54:00.002-06:00

Privacy

2008-11-01T15:00:00.000-05:00

Needless to say, a white person sticks out like a sore thumb in Guinea, so you can kiss your privacy goodbye. It took a little while, but it's finally gotten to me. Lately, we've had the pleasure of being watched by three neighbor kids. They literally stand at our front door and stare at us.

I guess what is even more strange is that we actually allowed them to do this for a couple of weeks. We thought that they would get sick of watching us do our daily routine, but alas. Finally, we chased them away.

Unfortunately, in allowing these kids to take over our front porch we got all of our basil and cilantro ripped out of our planting box. We got our porch light knocked dead by jump ropes. We got our wall paint scratched off and our wall drawn on by charcoal. The neighbor toddler also relieved himself on the porch several times since they don't have diapers here. Sometimes you wouldn't know if you were walking in water puddle or something else. The screen door also suffered by them hanging on it and "accidentally" pushing it open from time to time. Looking back, it's amazing that we were so tolerant through the whole ordeal.

Adults like to look into our house as well while they pass by. This wouldn't be so bad if we lived in a "quiet neighborhood," but it so happens that we live on public property. We live in front of a public health building, so crowds of people pass our house--especially when there are conferences. Occasionally, strangers come up to our door and ask us health-related questions.
Our life is visible to all those who care to look. So, coming from shut-in America, it's hard living in a fishbowl with very little opportunity to escape. I'm hoping that putting up a bamboo privacy fence will help relieve the stress--we'll see.

My Guitar

2008-10-31T15:00:00.000-05:00

For the first time in my life I have my very own acoustic guitar.

In 9th grade, I bought a vintage electric guitar from a garage sale. The guitar and amp cost me $40 and the guitar had pickups that looked like CO-2 cartridges. The guitar didn't work that great, so I took it to a guitar store for repairs and a guy talked me into doing a straight trade for a $240 electric guitar off the rack.

After ten years of playing that Honda guitar, I sold it as I didn't have time to play it during college. Then, a few years later I ended up borrowing an acoustic guitar from a friend who would be gone for a couple of years. Then I came to Africa and lost hope of any chance of getting a guitar.

I looked around Conakry, but guitars are not in huge demand around here. There were plenty of people interested in selling me the traditional African instruments, but everyone kept saying I would have to go to Bamako, Mali to find a decent guitar.

It turned out that my wife had to get a root canal and went to Dakar. My first thought was that she might be able to score me a guitar while she's laid up in pain in Senegal. She went to the safe and took out our American dollar savings just in case, though I had little hope of her finding one and even doubted if she would feel up to it.

Well, it turns out she spent a couple of weeks there as she explained earlier in this blog. She had a heck of a time searching out a place that had decent guitars, but a fellow volunteer from Senegal guided her to the right place. I'll have to let her tell the story, but to make a long story short she got a guitar for about $125.

I was partially excited and partially worried because the guitar might not be what I was expecting--especially since it was "Made in China." She told me that none of the guys at the shop knew how to play the guitar so she couldn't verify that it sounded good.

Mary flew home and I nervously cut the box open. But one glance and I knew it was perfect. The best part--it's lined with winged bats.

african dancing

2008-10-30T18:29:00.001-05:00

Mary recorded these neighbor girls going crazy--it became a competition.

Goodbye, Candles

2008-10-30T14:54:00.000-05:00

Life is just better with electricity--even if it is just from 7pm to 7am. We no longer have to walk 45 minutes to charge our cellphones and computer. We no longer have to lie in our sweat-soaked bed sheets because of our nifty new fan. Our electric burner only has two settings--plugged in or not plugged in. But it gets the job done--hot water for a warm bucket bath or popping popcorn.

I used to feel that Guineans had their priorities mixed up when they desired electricity over running water. But now I see that electricity is much more practical. It's still painful to think of all the man-hours wasted on transporting water, but I really don't mind having to haul my own water around the house. I guess I've just gotten used to it.

It's a lot harder to get used to living in the dark. Having light alone has made life so much easier.

new pics

2008-10-29T06:53:00.013-05:00

Its been a while since I've posted some new pictures, so you're getting a bunch today. Just a random sampling of life over the last few months.

We went to a party at the start of summer vacation with the kids from the Drama club we do work with. There are about 25 students between the ages of about 16-22. They're some fun kids. The father of the house where they had the party was actually someone who I work with at the DPS. They fed everyone some amazing food and we had a great time.

These are 3 of the drama club kids that we took with us to workshops in August. We Want to do more work with the club, so wanted them to be a part of our trainings, etc. We held a 'malaria poetry' contest to decide who we would take... It didn't quite turn out as we had pictured, but it was still fun to work with them on it.

More dancing with the club members

Some boys from our neighborhood. Pretty cute little devious smiles...

The guard at our compound, Fassine, and his two wives - both named MaBinti. The two girls are the skinny Mabinti's sisters. Kadiatou (the small one on the right) lives with them. The other, Mariam, was just visiting for a few weeks over vacation. Skinny Mabinti has a son named Mouctar, but they didn't want to wake him up for the picture.

This was them all dressed up for the end of Ramadan celebration. Everyone gets new clothes and goes to visit all their neighbors to show off for the occasion.

We named the bird Charlie. He likes going exploring in our house. This was him on one of our shelves. He stayed in this position for quite a while actually. The look he was giving me pretty much said "What? Do you have a problem with that?"

Charlie checking out his new cage. We had a guy in town make it for us. For the cage, screening, and table to put it on, we payed about 75,000GF, which is about $15. Yes, thats nothing back home, but I felt pretty guilty spending that much (which is quite a bit to a Guinean) on something seemingly so frivolous in a third world country...

Back before we got electricity. Candles actually made the house look pretty cool, but I appreciate lightbulbs now :)

It's so funny how different our house looks at night now compared to then... It really surprised me and took a long time to get used to.

Fishing boats in a little village on the outskirts of Dakar, Senegal. I was told that this is the farthest West point on the African Continent.

The pelicans they have trained to help them fish in this village.

One day while in Dakar I decided to go walk to the top of this lighthouse. (I was going stir crazy at the Peace Corps office...) It was a beautiful walk.

The view from the trek to the top of the hill to see the lighthouse. It was perfect. Unfortunately it got overcast by the time I got to the top of the lighthouse, so I didn't get many good pics or views from the top...

One view from the lighthouse in Dakar. What you see is the farthest west point on the African continent that I was at the day before. The PC office is near there and I walked pretty much from that point all the way to the top of the lighthouse. It didn't look that far when you drove past it in a car, but it took a hours to get there on foot and back. It was fun and I'm glad I did it, but the heat and humidity kicked my butt so I was pretty dead by the time I got back.

The guy who showed me around the lighthouse. He was pretty funny. He was showing me the lightbulb they used to use (the big one) vs the new little one which sends off even more light a further distance. As he was telling me about them, he said "you can get out your camera and take a picture." So I did.

One day I went to one of the islands off the coast of Dakar. It was gorgeous as well. It was an island they used for slave trading, so there was a lot of interesting history and sites. They keep it really nice and clean because they rely on tourism as their way of life there. This is something Guinea hasn't picked up on...

The art people make here is just fantastic. These were mixed fabric scraps made into awesome wall hangings. I'm kicking myself for not buying one.

The souvenier I brought back for Dan from Senegal. (I also counted this as his birthday present...) He has wanted a guitar ever since we got to Guinea, but they're impossible to find here. I think this *almost* makes up for me getting a trip to Dakar without him... You can't tell in this picture, but he was so excited.

Dan and I made pickles - cucumbers and hot peppers. I don't like pickles, so they're mainly for Dan and any Guinean he can convince to try them. Some he said turned out awesome. Others... need a little improvement...

A five legged green spider that was in our bedroom... weird.

I might have already posted this, but couldn't remember. In case you were wondering what the money looked like, here you go. The currency here is the Guinean Franc and it is devaluing continually. The bill in the upper left corner is 5,000GNF, which is roughly one dollar. This can get you a kilo of dried rice, a good bowl of rice and sauce with meat in town, or it's what you might pay someone to do a weeks worth of laundry. I tried to take a picture on one 'cleaner' bill and one typical bill for each of the denominations. The newer bills they print (the clean ones) are a tad smaller than the older ones. There are coins, but very very very few people use them anymore because they're pretty much worthless now. There is a new 10,000GF bill too, but I didn't get a picture of it.

At the start of the rainy season, there were THOUSANDS of these tiny guys everywhere.

Pigs eating trash in our town. We were surprised to see any since the population is pretty much all Muslims who don't eat pork.

I like taking pictures of Charlie... :)

The Obama-ites

2008-10-28T08:00:00.001-05:00

Guinea is obsessed with Obama. The Guineans constantly tell me to vote for Obama, and when I ask why, they laugh as if that is the dumbest question in the world. If any Guinean were to find out that you weren't for Obama, you would probably be hanged, drawn and quartered as a traitor.

It just amazes me how the mass media alters the mindset of the masses. They all have the exact same opinion because they all listen to the same radio station and watch the same television programs (when there's electricity). I feel there needs to be more private radio stations and news programs that offer different points of view. But I digress.

The point of this blog is to declare that I have done my citizenly duty and marked my vote on a write-in absentee ballot. Unfortunately, my vote doesn't really count unless it's a close call, as absentee ballots are ignored until a crucial tie-breaker is needed. Everyone here in the Peace Corps office thinks it'll be a landslide victory for Obama, but sources at home tell me McCain is slated to win. So, who knows?

Against Malaria Script Competition

2008-10-27T09:30:00.003-05:00

I can't even remember the last time I updated our blog--I guess I could look in the archives. In any case, I figured I couldn't leave my wife to do all of the work--equally yoked or something like that.

Anyways, Celtx.org and AgainstMalaria.org sponsored a competition where people could use the Celtx screenwriting software to write an inspiring promo for Against Malaria. The winner would receive a $1000 honorarium to produce their little spot for Against Malaria and would get to choose the country where 5,000 treated mosquito nets would be distributed.

Well, I submitted a silly little "Against Malaria" promo script to the competition and actually thought I might win since there were so few entries. But, alas, I didn't win but I did get a SWAG pack (1 GB USB Drive and a Celtx Jacket). The script is nothing too exciting, but I felt good that I actually participated and tried to be creative.

If you want to, you can read my script at the following:

http://pc.celtx.com/project/EZAcVB5gdZQT

I had a toothache... now I'm in Senegal.

2008-09-21T13:15:00.002-05:00

I finally got to do a little more exploring of this continent, even though it wasn't planned.

We have great doctors here in the Peace Corps. They take your health and safety very seriously. I was having a toothache and was taken to visit a dentist in Conakry. He recommended a root canal, but Peace Corps did not authorize him to do it. (They have pretty high standards as far as what they allow done, who does it, and at what quality.) The closest dentist who was authorized to do it is here in Dakar, Senegal. So, I had to get on a plane and leave one developing nation to go to another developing nation to get it done.

I opted to have it taken care of ASAP because right now is Ramadan. Why does that matter, you ask? Well, Guinea has a predominant Muslim population and Ramadan entails (among many other things) a month of fasting. Fasting for them means they won't eat from the first call to prayer at about 5:00am until the call to prayer at about 7:00pm. This includes no water. Many people won't even swallow their saliva and spit frequently as result. Since it is pretty hot and living here requires quite a bit of manual labor, people get very tired and not much of anything can get done. So, in answer: I figured since I wouldn't be able to accomplish much work at site this month, I'd go ahead and get my tooth taken care of now.

I've been here in Dakar about 2 weeks and fly back tomorrow morning. The procedure itself went very smoothly. The dentist was amazing and I survived with only some minor discomfort. Getting a trip to Dakar out of the deal may sound cool, but was kind of a pain. I had to come by myself (w/o Dan - I've been away from him for almost 3 full weeks now!) and have had the annoyance of 9 dentist appointments. (Try scheduling in a root canal during your next vacation...) Add on to that limited money, extremely hot afternoons, the fact that they observe Ramadan here as well, and you get alot of down time to kill. But it has been fun trying to play tourist a little bit and interesting to see a new country. It definitely gave me a new perspective on West African life. I'm beyond ready to get 'home' though to Guinea.

I'll try to post some pictures of Dakar when I get back.

Some Guinean news

2008-09-15T12:09:00.004-05:00

We made the BBC news.

The mayor, governer, and police chief of our town were busted for cocaine trafficking last week. You can read the story here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7599714.stm

Guinea drugs bust nets officials

The governor, mayor and top police officials of a town in Guinea have been arrested in a drugs raid.

The officials from the northern town of Boke were taken to the capital, Conakry, for questioning.
An aircraft allegedly carrying a large quantity of cocaine mysteriously landed and took off early on Thursday in Boke.
The UN says Latin American drugs cartels are using West Africa as a transit point to smuggle huge quantities of cocaine to Europe.
The BBC's Alhassan Sillah in Conakry says the plane landed at Boke airport at 0400 local time on Thursday.
It was suspected to have come from neighbouring Guinea-Bissau, which observers warn is in danger of becoming a "narco-state".
In a separate raid on the same day, Conakry police and soldiers swooped on a truck, allegedly loaded with cocaine and cannabis.
Our reporter says the quantities of drugs seized have not been revealed.
The UN estimates that at least 50 tonnes of cocaine are shipped through the West African region every year. Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/7599714.stm

Published: 2008/09/05 09:14:29 GMT

catching up a bit

2008-08-29T10:59:00.001-05:00

I forgot I wrote a couple of blogs last month that I never posted. Whoops. You get them today instead. Things have been crazy this month with conference after conference after conference, followed by a visit to Conakry and the dentist (yikes!), meeting the new volunteers, and now finally back home with always something going on. Somewhere in there August happened.

In other Guinea news:

-We found out yesterday that my counterpart, Dr. Pepe is being transferred and promoted to Regional Director of Health in another area of the country. He found out by watching the news like everyone else Wednesday night. Surprise! It'll be sad to see him go - he is an awesome guy to work with - but we're all happy for him. The director that will be replacing him was actually in the position before. Dr. Pepe was here for 7 years, the new lady was here the 5 years prior to that. I'm hoping that will help to ease the transition.

-The public health workers of Guinea had a strike earlier this month. They put forth a list of grievances and stopped working for a few days. They made a compromise and started working again, but if an agreement is not signed by the 31st (Sunday night), they will strike again starting Monday. That would mean all of the hospitals, health centers, health posts, prefectoral and regional offices, etc. would all shut down for who knows how long. eek. For now, we just wait.

-Ramadan starts next week as well. I don't think I'm up for a hard-core month of fasting. Some volunteers go for it, but I’m proud to be Christian. We have plenty of our own observances. I’ll just have to remember not to eat in front of Guineans…

Let there be light!

2008-08-29T10:59:00.000-05:00

July 18, 2008

After 5 months of living here at our site, it finally happened: we have electricity. This is something that we have been wanting since we discovered the city where were be living. The previous volunteer who lived here had spoken to the electrician and had it priced, but since she was leaving so soon, she didn't want to put the money into it herself. (Unfortunately, we ended up paying almost 4 times the price she was given... but that's a different, very long story, which includes having to pay off the health department’s electrical debt… gotta love it.)

As soon as we moved in, we started looking into having our house hooked up, but we hit some road blocks. Wait, we were told, until it's a little more stable. Apparently at that time the power was so unstable that it only came once every few days and would cut out frequently even when it was on. This really didn't bother us though since it was better than the nothing we had, but it meant that no one was willing to help us go to the trouble.

About a month ago, our neighbors were finally saying that it was pretty much stable now - coming nearly every night at regular intervals. We talked to my counterpart and he agreed to help us get it hooked up. Three weeks (and yet another different, long story) later, we decided to go ahead and at least get the wiring installed in our house on our own while waiting to get hooked up to the line.

Side note: appreciate fixed prices.

I could probably write quite a long essay on the process we went through to finally get that accomplished, but the bottom line is that the stars aligned and we got it done. As of today (this was written July 18th), we have electricity with working light bulbs and outlets. Now I am just like a Guinean kid when the power comes on in our neighborhood: I cheer out loud.

_______

Added notes:

In theory we should have electricity every night between 7:00pm and 7:00am. Reality is that it will come on *most* nights sometime around 8:00pm (a little earlier if we're lucky), go off two of three times throughout the evening for 10 to 20 minute periods, and be pretty stable from 11:00pm to 7:00am. There are of course the occasional nights where we don't get any at all and that one memorable night when it came on almost exactly at 7:00pm and stayed on all night. Whatever the case though, we are thrilled to have power whenever we get it and would go through the same crazy process all over again to get it.

Monthly bill: a flat rate of about $6. (That may not seem like much, but that's about 12% of a Guinean teacher's or an average health worker's monthly salary... ouch.)

In the first week and a half that we had electricity, we blew 3 light bulbs. Some nights it was a little too strong and made the light bulbs explode. On those nights we just turned everything off, unplugged anything we were charging, and hoped it would be better the next night. We called the electric guy to see if there was anything he could do to fix it, but then we left town for three weeks. It looks like he might have fixed it though, because in the week and a half we’ve been back, no exploding light bulbs. Definitely an improvement.

The way things are done

2008-08-29T08:52:00.000-05:00

July 20, 2008

Just to give you an idea of how things are done in this country:
A carpenter will show up at your house to install something and ask to use your pliers and screwdriver. A plumber will show up without any tools or equipment and ask why you don't have a plunger. An electrician will show up and ask if you have the spikes he needs for his shoes to climb the electric pole. The vitamin A campaign at the health center was stalled for a couple of days here in our town because they weren't given scissors to cut open the capsules and of course they didn't have any of their own.

Unless you've actually been somewhere like Guinea before, you really have no idea how vastly different the constant flow of life really is compared to what you are accustomed.

"Wow! Look at how fat you're getting!"

2008-08-29T08:32:00.000-05:00

7/23/08

"Oh.... you're getting so fat! That's wonderful! Look at that butt - so pretty." These are the type of 'compliments' I've been getting lately. They mean well, really, but ouch. I grew up surrounded by the American culture where gaining weight is not seen as becoming prettier and where you would never pat a woman's stomach or butt and smile and nod about how big it is getting -- unless she was pregnant.

Now, I'm OK with putting on a little weight, but it's still slightly unnerving to have it thrust into my face like that. The fact that they love it and see it as absolutely wonderful that I'm putting more meat on my bones is so foreign to our culture, but it just thrills them.

A part of the compliment is that since I'm getting fat, it must mean that I'm adjusting well to their country and culture. Plus, they take it to mean that my husband must be prosperous and that I must be a good cook. (What it really means is that my activity level has gone way down since we've arrived at site and that I bake a lot as an escape for a little sanity and comfort food. Not a good combination.)

Nonetheless, I try to smile and nod back and adapt to hearing it as the compliment they intend. In any case, I'll try to start watching the number of brownies I consume.

picture update

2008-08-19T15:14:00.005-05:00

Fassine, the guard of our compound, and Dan holding Mouctar, the Guard's son. Until recently Mouctar was petrified of us white folks, so this is a big accomplishment.

Me with my first 'harvest'"

Enjoying our bountiful first harvest with our dinner of peanut butter pancakes. A balanced diet :)

Dan with Fidele, one of the guard dogs.

We just got back from girls conference. Volunteers from all over Guinea invited girls from their communities to come for a 3 day conference that focused on empowering women and education. We covered just about every topic from study skills and job oportunities, to reforestation and personal health. This is the awkward moment of explaining the proper way to put on condoms.

The last night of girls conference, we took the girls out to a dance club to celebrate. These are the two girls we brought.

Josephine, one of the counterparts we brought to lifeskills conference. She is in the drama club and is excited to work with us in the community.

At lifeskills, we practiced new ways of teaching people in our community. This is a review session involving inflated condoms with questions about AIDS inside, used in a musical chairs kind of game. Interesting.

Giant caterpillar with big red spikes. yikes.

We spent 2 full weeks in Mamou for 3 consecutive conferences. (girls conference, malaria, and lifeskills.) I was exhausted and not feeling so well by the end of it.

One more picture of our new friend. :)

our new addition

2008-08-15T11:28:00.004-05:00

Dan and I are now the proud parents of an African grey parrot. Timneh species, we think, for the geeks out there like us who want to know. We just got him this afternoon, so we still don't have a name for him. Any suggestions? (We really don't even know if it's a 'him,' but that's what pronoun we decided to use for it.) We also don't have a decent cage for him either. We'll have a big one built once we get back to site. He is allegedly 5 or 6 months old, but that is taking the word of the guy we got him from.

Anyway, I'm really excited about getting him and am currently looking up as much info as I can. I'll post better pictures once we get him to trust us a little more.

gardening

2008-07-06T04:50:00.003-05:00

This is our water boy hoeing up our garden area for us. You never know what treasures you'll find in the dirt around here. Bowls, shoes, bags, bottles, syringes, glass, cans... the list goes on and on.

I was just amazed I survived the experience without cutting myself on some hidden treasure.

(I hope I didn't just jinx myself...)

What I do

2008-07-05T06:02:00.002-05:00

6/26/08

Many people - both Guineans and friends back home - have asked me: "so what do you do?"

My response to Guineans up until now has pretty much been "Well... that's a good question..." followed by some vague generalities about what Peace Corps volunteers are (and are not), as well as questions for them about what they think are their community problems and what they think I could do to help. That was my main job up until last month, trying to figure that out. Unfortunately, I still don't have a good picture of what my role ideally will be. Of course I have ideas of what I want to do or what I think would be a good idea, but it doesn't really matter if I'm not on the same page as the community. I am not here to fulfill my own agenda.

So, seeing as that isn't exactly the answer you're looking for, I'm sure you're still asking "ok... but what do you actually DO?"

(since I kind of rambled and explained much more than the average person will want to read, I went through and bolded the actual 'stuff' I do.)

Well, some days I just sit around the DPS. The DPS is the Direction Prefectoral de la Santé. It's the managing body of all health facilities in our area, an area with a population of about 450,000 people. (But all populations are estimates in this country. It could really be anything between 300,000 and 700,000. Even that could be off.) Some days no one actually shows up here while other days it’s a madhouse with trainings, reports, paperwork, supervisions, etc. Most days it is somewhere in between, with one or two people who show up and work to varying degrees. There are 6 people who work here. They are always in and out of town for various trainings, marriages, burials, sacrifices, baptisms, sicknesses, etc. The secretary just had a baby last week, so we haven't see her much and probably won't for a while.

The work comes in waves, some weeks with nothing to do and others with an onslaught. I've tried to do mini consultations with the DPS staff about how, yes, the report might not be due until the end of the month, but we can still start now to save time, because at the end of the month there is the regional training and supervision reports to do as well. So in other words, one of the roles I've tried to take on is to help the staff organize their stuff and motivate them to think and plan ahead.

Each quarter they do supervisions of the 13 area health centers. I have gone along with them on these supervisions for the past two quarters. It's really interesting to see the common problems throughout the area and how the DPS tries to address them. They do an evaluation of a couple of key points and make a plan for improvement. I've tried to help the DPS see that follow up and accountability are just as important as the initial supervision though... As of now, no one really does anything with their improvement plan. I can give you a page or two full of reasons why this is.

Since the secretary has been out, I also help sometimes with typing. I don't mind if I have nothing better to do, but I did not come 4000 miles and do 3 months of training to be their secretary. I think the government would be a little disappointed in the return on that investment. So I try to explain that to them... but they don't really seem to get it. None of them can type more than 10 WPM. They just want their report typed and say that's how I can pull my weight around here. Great. I think holding a typing class might be a better use of my time.

I also sit in on a lot of meetings, trainings, and workshops here at the DPS and in the community. This helps me get a better idea about what their priorities are and what they're already doing. In April, I sat in on an HIV/AIDS planning meeting held by one of the local mining companies. They have a certain sum of money each year earmarked for development projects. For the next 12 months, their objective is an HIV/AIDS campaign. In order to do it right and avoid repitition, they wanted to collaborate with the DPS, the ministry of health, local organizations and others who also work in that domain in our region. They planned out a great campaign, but failed to realize that PSI, a major international NGO, is doing a campaign exactly like it in this area over the exact same timeline.

Communication was lacking somewhere.

Other meetings/trainings/workshops have been about malaria, area supervisions, maternal mortality interventions, child rights, vitamin and vaccine distribution campaigns, and cholera interventions.

Other than hanging out at the DPS, I also go from time to time and observe at the local Health Center. I've been trying to get a better understanding of how the center functions, their strengths/weaknesses, what the community thinks about it, and ways that I might be able to help. So far it's been a lot of sitting around and watching while everyone around me speaks a language I don't understand...

Which brings us to my next activity: studying Susu, the predominate local language in our village. I'm trying to learn more... but it's hard and discouraging. At the DPS, we only speak French since everyone was appointed here from other regions. Pepe, my counter part, is from the forest for example, and speaks Toma. Camara, Sylla, and Nabe are all from Haute Guinea and speak Malinke. Bah speaks Pular. It's a nice big mix here.

I've also started typing up all my Susu notes that I took during training. Both of the other local languages they teach during training have useful reference books, dictionaries, etc. Susu - nothing. We do have a workbook, but its confusing, refers to things that don't exist, and lacks answer keys to all the exercises. This frustrated me, so I'm trying to make my notes into a brief Susu reference for incoming volunteers. They deserve something.

I've also started my garden as I've mentioned before. The hardest part is over, so now it's just upkeep. I spend time around the yard rigging up ghetto fences to keep the goats out, watering if it doesn't rain, researching info, and figuring out how to make it better. This also includes answering a myriad of questions from people as to what the crazy white girl is doing now. I try to give them little one-on-one sensibilizations about what I'm doing and why. (ie: nutrition and importance of eating a variety of vegetables, why planting trees is important, how to grow things better.) Anyway, hopefully the garden won't die while we're out of town.

Dan and I have also started hanging out with the literary club at the youth center in town. Basically it's a theatre youth group. They just shot a short film (in which Dan and I made a cameo appearance as a French couple), preformed monologues and a skit at a democracy and good governance workshop for regional officials, and are currently working on a few short plays with themes such as HIV/AIDS, education, and tolerance. We look forward to working with them more and collaborating on messages to share with the community.

Other than that, I do a lot of hanging out in general, trying to get to know people and understand the community. This is probably the toughest part of my 'job' for me. It's hard to make friends here, especially when so many people just want to get something out of us. There are some days it's hard to want to be out in the community and take the constant barrage of questions, jeers, cat calls, and stares. Other days it's not so bad and is actually fun and enjoyable. I guess it depends on my mood.

That's my work description as of lately. Hopefully I'll find more concrete projects to keep me busy soon. I'm planning on painting some educational health murals, building a solar dehydrator for community demos, doing some computer skills classes with the DPS team, and holding some organizational trainings for the Health Center Chiefs. We'll see how all that plays out.

Other than work, what do I do? I wash my clothes on rocks down at the river, go shopping in the market, cook and experiment in the Dutch oven, go to sacrificies in the community, improve my slingshot skills, watch movies, read, write, jump rope, and take naps. It might sound like I'm pretty busy, but I'm really not. Everything is so open and aimless most of the time that I find myself bored too much for my liking. (Which is one reason I've typed so many long blogs...)

Any more questions?

A look at IST and other stuff in Guinea

2008-07-04T06:19:00.018-05:00

the start of my garden.
I used little baggies to start my seedlings on my porch.
Hoeing up the back yard.

Here is an after shot with seedlings in the ground and a make-shift fence to keep sheep out. (it doesn't really keep anything out though... )

The side of our yard where I put some extra tomatoes, lentils and green beans. I thought I should take advantage of open dirt.
My herb box. If you look closely you can see the baby basil and cilantro. The oregano is MIA

Fidele with the bandanna we put on him to keep the flies off of his wounds.

This is the son of the guard of our compound. This is the fear we strike in small children, simply for having white skin. The girl holding him is the guard's second wife's sister.

What a typical taxi looks like on the roads here.

We had a stick bug on our window one morning. He stayed there all day.

A truck accident at the bottom of our hill. I just want to know how in the world one giant truck did not see the other giant truck coming...

A coming storm as viewed from our front porch.

The same storm coming over the soccer field as viewed over our back wall.

The produce section of the grocery store.

The thrift store Guinean style. Where to buy clothes in the market. The locals call these 'dead white people clothes.' The only logical explanation of why someone would give away clothes that are still wearable: they must be dead.

Where shoes go to die and be reborn.

Tomatoes ready for market.

This mango was HUGE. It gave me over 5 cups of fruit which I made into a wonderful cobbler. The next time I made a cobbler, it took 5 average size mangoes to give me the same amount of fruit.

Just a pretty picture.

Our field trip during IST to Dalaba.

Another random Dalaba picture

Everyone makes fences however they can here. Gotta protect from the roaming livestock.
City scape Mamou

Heading to IST, our bus broke down for an hour. A bunch of white people draws an inevitable large crowd of children.

Learning how to prepare bouille (enriched poridge) at in service training (IST).
Learning how to dip mosquito nets during IST.

Enjoying our bouille.

My APCD Annaliese is in the blue shirt. She's off now to bigger and better things with PC Romania.

Josh, Dan's APCD, who is also about to leave.

Things I took for granted back home:

2008-07-02T14:15:00.002-05:00

(in no particular order)

running water and indoor plumbing
electricity - any time, every where.
electricity that's strong enough to recharge stuff
garbage trucks
washing and drying machines
grocery stores
target, and yes, even walmart
food that you don't have to sanitize before eating
water that you can drink without getting sick
processed food
restaurants
refrigerators
cars (especially those with all their parts)
known and enforced traffic laws (ie: speed limits, not letting 12 year olds drive a motorcycle taxi, safety standards for drivable cars, traffic lanes, etc)
phone books and business directories
chocolate
cheese
air conditioning
competent doctors who have been to medical school
hospitals with sanitation standards
a well functioning government
doors and windows that shut all the way
the weather channel
debit and credit cards
50 choices of anything you might want
gas stations that don't run out of gas
things that start on time
businesses that have regular hours of operation
(stable) phone coverage
dishwasher
microwave and other appliances
being able to sleep without a mosquito net and not worry
in-home internet (or just internet anywhere within an hour drive)
carpet
privacy
a common language
price tags and set prices
comfortable chairs and couches

Sicko

2008-07-02T13:24:00.001-05:00

6/16/08

Rainy season means more mosquitos. Last Monday I got 24 mosquito bites in about 1 hour... below the ankle... on just my right foot. I stopped counting after that. Don't worry though: I usually wear repellant so its not usually that bad. Plus, I'm taking my malaria prophylaxis and sleeping under my mosquito net at night, so hopefully I will avoid getting the palu.

I attended a 3-day malaria workshop the first week in June at the DPS (Direction Prefectoral de la Sante... aka: the place where I am posted.) It was very interesting. Basically, the Ministry of Health here in Guinea has decided that they needed to reevaluate how they diagnose and treat malaria, especially since there has been such an increased resistance to the main meds they prescribe. You ask anyone in a health center in this country and they will tell you that malaria is the number one health problem here. While I don't doubt the truth in this claim, I do doubt the rate at which it is diagnosed. They will tell you basically, if you have a fever, you have the paludisme (malaria).

The health care situation in this country is probably difficult for most Americans to get their heads around. Let me illustrate a little by explaining the structure:
*The largest cities have a hospital, usually. The size and capabilities of hospitals varies enormously on where you are. Some I would classify as fairly decent by my standards, while some would give an unaccustomed American nightmares for life.
*The average bigger cities here just have a Health Center though. These are staffed with anywhere from 2 to 20 people, depending on the population and number of people who actually use the center. The Health Center Chefs (and assistants if there are any) may have gone to university medical school (7 years total including what we would call undergrad studies), but some have attended only 3 years of medical technical school after they completed high school. The rest of the staff are usually hired locally and may only have had a week or two of training on whatever their 'specialty' is. Everyone still refers to all the staff who work in the center as 'doctor,' regardless of their level of training. The health centers do things like diagnose ailments, treat minor injuries/traumas, give vaccinations, hold pre-natal consultations, assist child births, etc.
*Smaller towns and villages have Health Posts, which may only have one assigned staff person. Their main job is to give consultations, treat simple problems, and give referrals to either the health centers or hospitals. Some can handle more things than others. The director at a health post is most likely someone who went to 3 years of technical school after high school. I know a couple that dropped out of university or tech school after one year and are Post directors, though. It all depends.

Since we live in a big city, we have 2 Health Centers and a hospital. I've done several observations at the central health center to get a better feel of what the health situation here is really like for the average Guinean. It's not something I think I can even really illustrate to you, but it's something that is so commonplace for every Guinean.

The health situation here is really something I think you have to see to understand. There are just so many small instances where I try to imagine what an American would do, say, or expect versus what I see the Guineans doing every day. Guineans are completely oblivious to the standards that Americans have mostly come to expect and rely upon.

I'll try to give you some examples:
-A mother comes in with her baby. After waiting an hour or so without being acknowledged by anyone on the staff, she is seen for a consultation. She tells the lady who is giving the consultation (who may or may not have had any training beyond a 4 day workshop on how to diagnose illnesses) that her baby has felt really hot for the last 2 or 3 days. The lady gives the baby a shot for malaria and prescribes some medicine. They leave after the 3 minute consultation.
-There are a few ambulances in the country, some of which work, but rarely get used. When you get in a car accident, most passing cars will stop to help you. If you're seriously hurt, a passing taxi will try to make room for you and take you to the closest health facility.
-Don't like the hours of your doctor's office? The health center staff here usually packs up and goes home at noon. Their posted hours say they're open until 4:30.
-For all of you who complain about your insurance only covering a day or two of hospital stay, a woman here goes home an hour or 2 after having a cesarean as long as there are no complications.

Overall though, it is apparent that they do try their best with what they have. It's not easy to work in the health system here. Their resources are very limited and the needs run very high. They see death and serious illnesses or injuries that they can do nothing about. It's just the way it is. On top of that, the health system is all government run. All directors at hospitals, centers, and posts are appointed positions. They don't get to chose their post or even really give preferences. They are sent to whatever region the health ministry wants and put into whatever village the regional and prefectoral directors want.

As PCVs, we have great medical care. The PCMOs (PC medical officers) here in Guinea will bend over backwards to make sure we are healthy and happy. If there's a major problem or something that local resources can't deal with, they will even fly us out to Senegal or somewhere that can handle it. It's just hard sometimes to see the night and day difference between our situation and that of the locals.

I think Michael Moore should visit some third world health care systems...

oh summer camp...

2008-06-23T11:35:00.001-05:00

I’ve been thinking alot lately about the job I left back home. By now summer camp is well under way. I loved summer camp. It was my favorite part of the year. We always worked so hard getting it planned right and making the most of our time. I wanted to make sure the kids had a good time during their vacation (and I usually benefited by having a great time too). I always tried to build a solid, fun staff and I think we usually did it with style. I survived 7 summer camps with JCPRD… each one better than the last… smoothing out the details and making it as good as we could get it.

As the end of May rolled around, even though I’m a half a world away, I kept thinking about all the hectic, last minute details that had to get done between the end of the school year and the start of summer camp. There never seemed to be enough time, but we always seemed to pull it off. And as always, it’ll fly by and be the last week of camp before you even realize it.

I hope all of you back at Mill Creek, Sunflower, and JCPRD know that I think of you guys often and hope you’re happy and having fun. While I wouldn’t trade this experience here in Guinea, I am so glad I had the chance to share in so many awesome memories with you as well.

Girl's Conference Postponed

2008-06-23T10:59:00.000-05:00

Well, today is the first day we have been able to get to Kamsar in a long time, so that means access to the internet as well. There have been military strikes, police strikes, and teacher strikes. With all of these strikes and threats of strikes going on, girl's conference has been postponed. So, we haven't been able to go to Mamou with our chosen girls yet.

We invited a neighbor girl named Aminata Sow. She was friends with a former volunteer and she was in a current volunteer's English class. She's 17 years old and super nice. Her older "brother" is trying to get me to start an internet cafe with him here in our town.

We also invited another girl named Bella Diallo. Mary and I actually saw her in a preliminary meeting for the journalism class that I'm starting. 102 people signed up for the class. We didn't get to talk to her that day, but then we went to a meeting for the local theater club. There are about 30 youth that participate in the club and she came up to us to talk. She seemed like a really cool girl so that same week we went over to her house to invite her to the five-day conference in Mamou. So, hopefully we didn't freak out her family by being two total strangers/foreigners wanting to take her away for a few days. It was just hard for us since we haven't met too many girls up to this point that we would have been able to take.

Wounded Dogs

2008-06-23T10:08:00.000-05:00

We have three dogs in our courtyard which have become our mutual friends--they like our leftovers at least. But they hang out on our porch quite a bit. Occasionally, they limp around and carry around war wounds from fights with neighborhood dogs. Recently, it's become a lot worse. Tarzan has a huge gash on his head that almost looks like it goes to the skull. Fidele has a couple of nasty open wounds on his ears. They really sick me out. But they won't heal because flies attack the bloody mess and he keeps scratching and reopening the scabs.

Mary and I were trying to figure out how to make one of those funnel things to put around his neck. But then we were dipping our mosquito nets in insect repellent and so we decided to dip a handkerchief in it and wrapped it around Fidele's neck. It didn't work perfectly, but I think it helped a little bit. But the Guineans thought we were crazy. They would laugh and everyone would ask the owner what the deal with the neckerchief was and he would just respond that it was the white people who did it. I guess you have to understand how people just neglect dogs and dogs here don't wear collars or clothes or jewelry or anything. So, seeing a neckerchief around his neck was a crack-up to us and everyone around.

Throwing Rocks

2008-06-23T10:06:00.000-05:00

I was walking up by the Peace Corps Transit House in our town and one of the neighborhood boys started hassling me for money. After I said no several times in French and Soussou I finally told him to leave me alone. He was with a large group of friends and he turned around shocked that I told him to leave me alone.

The whole group was getting worked up and as I got a little farther away they started throwing rocks at me. I don't think they intended to hit me, but they wanted to scare me. I didn't feel threatened though--just annoyed. Then when I got a little further away someone yelled "F*@# you!" in English. I got that all of the time in France, but I didn't even realize that the kids here knew those kinds of words in English. I reported it to our regional coordinator and she said she'd talk to the neighborhood kids.

Short Film

2008-06-23T10:04:00.000-05:00

I've been hanging out quite a bit with the theatre club. They get together every night for a few hours to practice. They write their own plays, films, poems, songs, etc. The best thing about the club is how motivated they are. They all have a lot of fun and love what they do. They travel around West Africa every year to perform.

I met them a couple of weeks ago and the day after I went with them to Kamsar to do a short film. The film is about some African youth who go to Europe and try to find work without getting a work permit. Kamsar is a mining community that tries to be like Europe, so they thought it would be a good "European" looking location. So, about 25 of us packed into a Toyota truck--7 of us were in the cab and the rest were in the truck bed. They were singing Guinean songs for the hour trip to Kamsar.

We filmed them leaving Africa at the Kamsar port. That went well as they embarked on the boat. Then we tried to film at the Guinea President's Villa in Kamsar. The director and cameraman asked the manager for permission, but apparently he didn't have the authority to give permission.

The military got mad and threw the cameraman in jail. My part was to be the European who was kicking them out of my country for not having the proper paperwork. As soon as I saw the military coming, I got out of there fast and left the others alone. A couple of the actresses and I wandered around and got some lunch. After a couple of hours they finally let the cameraman go, but they made him erase the part we filmed at the villa. We ended up filming the scene in our hometown.

The rest of the day went well. I ended up eating two lunches and got to know a lot of the people in the theater club. I hope to do a lot more filming with the group. Mary and I go to the nightly meetings from time to time and play games and socialize and watch them practice. It's pretty cool to have a solid group of friends to hang out with.

I should have been an AgFo volunteer

2008-06-23T10:03:00.000-05:00

I wish I were an AgFo volunteer (agro-forestry) instead of community health volunteer.

I finally started my garden last Saturday. I started the seeds in small plastic bags with holes cut in the bottom. Everyone laughed and thought I was crazy. They told me "here in Guinea, we put things in the ground, not in bags on our porch..." Uh-huh... Then I had a carpenter make me a big herb box for our porch as well. Same reaction from the Guineans there as well. "You have plenty of dirt over there... why don't you just put it in the dirt over there?"

But as a crazy American, I persisted and started my seedlings in plastic bags and put my herbs in a box on my porch. I knew that this was a good idea in order to give them a fighting chance against the sheep, dogs, children, and torential downpours. Our neighbors started to understand though when my seedlings sprouted and started getting big very quickly. Practially all of the seeds sprouted and were an inch or two tall in well under a week. "Ahh. I see now... it was a good idea!"

On Saturday, our water boy came over and helped us by hoeing up the dirt behind out house. The weather was perfect and I put most of the week-old seedlings in the ground. I hope they continue growing strong and the Guineans see how easy it is to grow something other than rice, manioc, and hot peppers...

I basically stuck to growing veggies that cannot be found in our market: zucchini, squash, pumpkin, mellon, green beans, lentils, cherry tomatoes, and bell peppers. I also did some herbs: basil, oregano, cilantro, and dill. I'm giving some tree seeds a try as well: moringa, cashew, and jamaican cherry. We'll see how they grow.

I have to put in a plug for ECHO Network. They sent me some great seed varieties to try out here for free. Any other PCVs out there who are interested in gardening and/or nutrition, you might want to check them out: echonet.org

I'll put pictures up when we go to Conakry next week.

6 months down...

2008-06-06T05:53:00.006-05:00

Apparently we are dissapointing our loyal readers. It's been over a month since we last posted anything... We're slacking on our job.

Things have begun to get somewhat 'normal' now. Not that life here is anything like I would classify as even closely resembling something an American would be accustomed to, but we're getting used to things, so sometimes it's hard to recognize something that might be interesting to an outsider.

Things of note that have happened in the past month, in no particular order:

-The Guinean President removed the Prime Minister from office and appointed a new one. The one he removed was put into office about a year ago after major strikes/protests forced the president to make a change. So far no big problems have come about with the appointment of this new guy besides a few little bumps, but we still just have to wait and see what will happen next.

-The first part of last month was spent traveling. The end of April we went to a sacrifice in honor of our host father, followed by a week in Conakry. After that, we spent two weeks at an inservice training. It was good to get back together with all the other volunteers since we haven't seen most of them since swearing in. It gave us a chance to vent and realize we're all going through the same things.

-By the time we got back to our site, the rains had started. Not every day (but just about) there is some form of percipitation. We'll see how the next 6 months of it shape up.

-There are about a million mangos everwhere you look. I definitely can't keep up. You can get a whole bucket full of mangoes for less than a dollar. Crazy. Of course, you can just go pick your own for free if you want to save your money. We made a couple jars of mango jam. It is DELICIOUS.

-Other culinary experiments: mango cake, mango cobbler, pinapple cookies, lemon bars, and brownies -- in a dutch oven over charcoals! Beat that! So good... I also made some chili with a can of luncheon beef (think: spam)... it actually turned out quite well. The spaghetti 'meat' sauce with luncheon beef however did not turn out so well... Live and learn. It's always fun to see what I can come up with next with limited ingredients. I think we have come up with about 20 different ways of eating potatoes, eggs, and onions.

-No new parasites or anything to report... just the occasional bout of stomach trauma.

-Work? oh yeah... we've been doing some of that too.

We'll tell you more about that one later. Times up now though.

a little blurry: stage

2008-05-03T07:46:00.005-05:00

(click on images for a bigger preview for easier reading)

Pictures from April

2008-05-03T05:14:00.005-05:00

Dan with Papi during our visit to our host family

Our host brother Joe setting up for the sacrifice. There were probably a good 500 people that showed up. The courtyard was overflowing with people. It was great to see such overwhelming support of the family.

Papi and Aissatou

Dan and I with the DC Peace Corps Director Dr. Tchetter.

Dancing with one of the performers during dinner for the Director's visit.
A sun set.

I got my hair braided by our neighbor and these are the bands I used. Quality hair car roducts all right.

going to the market

2008-04-30T16:37:00.001-05:00

The Sacrifice (Memorial Service)

2008-04-27T09:53:00.001-05:00

Mary and I returned to Forecariah for the funeral of our host father. We were able to spend a few good days with the family. We were welcomed warmly by the family but I was surprised that the mother hardly recognized our presence. She was sitting on the floor of the leisure hut in front of the house surrounded by family and friends who were reciting blessings and words of comfort in Arabic, Soussou and French.

We sat in silence inside the hut for a long time. Occasionally a family friend would drop by and start wailing inside the hut, which would then provoke a similar wailing from the mother. It was all rather startling and heart-wrenching. She would stay that way for the three days that we were there, which is understandable considering the circumstances.

But, we had a very warm welcome from the family. They had meals ready for us three times a day and we got to play games and sing with them for old times sake. Hopefully, it helped take their minds off of the difficult situtation.

When the community found out that Karbahal had taken his own life, they were there for the family. Apparently, hundreds of people showed up at the family's doorstep to support them and mourn with them. Karbahal was well respected in the community since he had been a community leader for years, so everyone found out fast. The story was even broadcast on the national radio.

During the couple of weeks between his death and the memorial service, family and friends pitched in to reroof the hut and finish building the wall around their home. It was amazing how much people were doing for no cost--just out of their love and support for the family, which is also well-loved in the community.

People built a canopy for the day of the sacrifice. There were lines and lines of girls and boys bringing in buckets of water for the service. Several big meals were cooked during the couple of days we were there. There were some speeches made in Soussou and French from authorities, family and friends. Some delegates from the Peace Corps came and spoke a few words of honor towards Karbahal. Even Madame Le Prefect was there from Forecariah and President Lansana Conte's uncle--a well-known authority in Guinea. There were hundreds of people there in the family's courtyard. Many gifts were offered. We left Forecariah with a renewed love for the family.

Peace Corps Director Visit

2008-04-18T06:33:00.001-05:00

Dr. Tchetter, the Peace Corps Director in Washington D.C., came to visit Guinea and other countries in West Africa for that matter. He dropped in to meet my organization's employees who presented him with a wooden plaque that had the shape of Guinea on it with a bird who is covering her eggs with her feathers--just as Peace Corps does for Guinea. Madame Conde says it is necessary for that care and protection as her little ones grow.

The US Ambassador to Guinea wasn't able to make it to the organization, but we got to see him in Kamsar at The Sawmill Restaurant. We got a buffet with pork chops (hard to find in a Muslim country), jumbo shrimp (you can usually only find the "bug" shrimp in the local markets), and many other goodies such as fruit salad and eclairs.

My favorite part of the whole evening were the highly energetic African dancers. They seemed to have a never-ending supply of energy. The best part was they chose some awesome songs, such as "I can't get no satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones, "Thriller" by Michael Jackson, and some other rap songs. All choreographed with their violent African movements. It was pretty sweet.

Water Method Madness

2008-04-18T06:31:00.001-05:00

Who needs toilet paper? Toilet paper is for sissies. So, the story goes--I usually carry around my backpack with toilet paper in it. The ironic thing is that I was only within meters of my own house, but I forgot to bring my backpack or my TP. So, absent-mindedly I went to the restroom in a latrine only to find a bucket of water there.

For some reason, I actually thought the head of the health department in our prefecture would have toilet paper stashed somewhere in the squat latrine. To make things worse, I think the water came from the well that Mary and I found worms in. And not the kind of worms that are invisible to the naked eye. No, they were live, squirming, one centimeter worms. So, I just tried not to think about it and got it over with as quickly as possible. Luckily, they had soap to wash my hands with afterwards.

Death in Guinea

2008-04-18T06:30:00.001-05:00

Mary and I found out this week that our "host father" died. We lived with the Soumah family for 2 months and grew very close to the mother and kids. The father was a community leader in a nearby city, so he only came home every other weekend. He was a really nice guy and always brought goodies home to us and the family.

We heard he had been transferred to a city closer to us, so we were excited that the family was going to be closer. He had called me about a month ago to say "hi" and thanks for the video slideshow of pictures we had taken of their family.

So, it came as a shock when his son Joe called to tell us he passed away. It sounded like strange circumstances and we didn't get any details at that time. Then we found out from his daughter Mignonne that he had committed suicide using a gun. It was bad enough that he had died, but suicide makes it much more painful. And suicide seems to be rare, almost unheard of, in a country like Guinea. At this point, we can only speculate what the reasons were and what actually happened.

His sudden death affects the twelve or thirteen other people under his roof. There were seven kids in the direct family and then four other kids from difficult situations. That's how it is in Guinea--those in "well-paying" positions are usually required by culture to take in other relatives (the word relatives being used loosely).

We are absolutely crushed by this news and fear for the family. They were such a good, strong family--it will be hard to see them split up due to the recent events. Mary and I are tempted to take in some of the more independent kids, but haven't decided yet. We're not sure how they would take it and we're not sure how it would work in our small lodging. But we want to help somehow.

In any case, we'll be going to our training site for the sacrifice on Sunday, April 27, 2008. This is where the family holds a feast to raise money for a little support in the transition period. The family was a wonderful blessing to us the first two months in Guinea. Their generosity and their love emanated on a daily basis.

May God bless and protect their family during this difficult time.

Teaching English

2008-04-18T06:01:00.000-05:00

This week I started teaching English to the employees of CEFACAM. Even though I didn't specifically come to Guinea to teach English, I think it will be helpful to those who learn it. I'm not sure where they'll use it, but if Guinea jumps into the globalization thing, English will be important to know. Teaching English allows me to do something productive--even in the infinitesimal degree. So, I guess it feels good to finally be useful to the Guineans. Up to this point, I've been kind of wandering around, getting to know the people in my neighborhood, which is exactly what Peace Corps wants me to do. But, I'm glad I can start offering something to the community. My students are definitely motivated as we start the classes, but hopefully that won't dwindle down. It also helps that I actually like teaching English. I taught English in France on a weekly basis and helped write an English teaching manual. I find it interesting to find out the little nuances of our language. Sometimes I wonder if I wasn't meant for teaching in some way or another.

Some Quick Updates

2008-04-07T12:08:00.004-05:00

Just to set the record straight--I accidentally sat on my wife's thumb while we were hustling to jump into a taxi. But she'll be fine with a little ibuprofen.

Also, I have a parasite living inside of my digestive system. It's called blastocystis, but I'm taking a drug called Flagyl. So, hopefully it will be dead in a week.

Another thing--anyone who thought the picture of the baby lizard was cute, my wife ended up feeding it to the chickens. She also fed a walking stick to the chickens.

note from mary: I didn't FEED the lizard and walking stick to the chickens. I mearly swept them out of our house and off the porch. The chickens just happened to be there to eat them up. I think this is why we don't see many lizards in our courtyard - too many chickens.

On a different note, I named Dan's parasite Gary.

a selection

2008-04-06T05:51:00.007-05:00

Washing all of our new dishes out on the front porch after we moved into our new house.

Taxi bonding. An average size car that typically would fit 5 people is called a 6 passenger here (really 7 people when you count the driver). Since we were in a station wagon, we had 10 - 3 in back, 4 in the middle, 2 in shotgun, and 1 driver. (plus a random guy who was hitching a ride on the top of the car...)

This makes rides especially fun when you don't know the people you're traveling with.

During this particular taxi ride, our car kept breaking down. I took this picture right before the driver took a large part out from under the hood, closed it back up, and we drove along our way.

(And oh, the windshield was already like that. We didn't get in an accident. It's completely normal for a car to have a shattered windshield like this. I'll have to get some pics of other cars on the road here. I just particularly liked the sticker he chose to secure it with.)

Sorry for the disturbing nature of this one. This is one of the dogs that lives in our compound. He was very happy to show off his find by sitting down right in front of our house to enjoy it.

Surveying the damage left by our carpenter who installed a new screen door for us. After getting tired of shaving down the door to make it fit, without saying anything, he pulled out a chisel and resorted to pounding away at the cement wall. Can you imagine a carpenter doing something like that in the US?

Dan with the people at his NGO. The founder Mme. Conde (Dan's counterpart) is towards the middle in the dark blue.

Roadside stop.

home sweet home (and other random pictures)

2008-04-03T15:10:00.009-05:00

homefront: africa.

our living room. our lovely decorative shelf for african artsy stuff in the corner, fabric batiks on the walls. check out the awesome couch coverings we made too.

Another angle of our living room. The big blue barrel and yellow jugs are for our water. Hows that for indoor plumbing?

Other side of the living room. sorry for bad lighting. The camera batteries died. I'll try to get better pictures up at some point.

our kitchen.

another view of our kitchen.

a baby lizard we found hiding under our dustpan.

some posters I made for Jan's farewell shin-digg. (As an aside, I would just like to say I had no say in what the posters said or where the posters were placed...) The streamers are actually quarantine tape. The DPS team is resorceful!

making african bread for a sacrifice

2008-04-03T14:26:00.003-05:00

At a sacrifice in honor of an old man who died, woman prepared rice flour to make 'african bread' - rice flour, sugar, and water - as part of the offering to everyone who came.

100 Days! Incroyable, mais vrai.

2008-03-14T10:43:00.004-05:00

Today marks our 100th day in Guinea. Incroyable, mais vrai. (aww... I miss Makan...)

If I were back at JCPRD, that would mean we should be celebrating by taking the kindergarteners to Chuck-E-Cheese or something great like that. The 100th day of kindergarten is a big deal, man. 100 days in a third world country I think tops that though. The closest Chuck-E-Cheese is a bit too far away for a field trip here, so we do what we can Guinean style.

Congrats to all my fellow G-15. Awesome accomplishment indeed.

Ghosts of Volunteers Past

2008-03-07T08:31:00.002-06:00

Yesterday Jan, the volunteer who I am replacing, left. Her counterpart, also my counterpart, Dr. Pepe, threw her a little party the other night to honor her time here and wish her well.

There have been many volunteers here in our town over the years, all of which have left their legacy in some way. This is one reason I wanted to be a 'frist generation' volunteer - lingo for being the first volunteer to work in a particular village. Instead, Dan and I are following at least 6 other volunteers, 4 of which have worked in the health sector with my counterpart, Dr. Pepe. This results in what many of us refer to as the "ghosts of volunteers past." If any one who's reading this is a yongest child or even a younger sibling, you may know the feeling already: being compared both positivly or negatively to the others, always being reminded of their accomplishments or prejudging you based on their failures, assuming you're just the same as them. It's like the teacher's reaction when they see they have a younger sibling of a previous student... Expectations one way or another.

As the youngest child from my family (Guineans, by the way, always get a kick out of learning that there are 6 kids in my family... and all from one man and one wife!) I've had pleanty of time dealing with this. I should be a pro at it, but it's still frustrating at times to be judged based on preconceptions rather that on who I am. (Even so, here in Guinea, I will carry the stigma of being a rich white American, with all the preconceptions and prejudices that go along with it... even if I were a first gen volunteer.) With the previous volunteers though, it just gets to the point of laughable. I've been called Jan millions of times by everyone in the community, and even the occasional Steve, another previous volunteer. I mean, we're all white, so it's all the same, right? And I've lost track of how many people have claimed that they were 'best friends' with a previous volunteer, so now they need to be my friend too.

There is this one volunteer in particular who has left quite a detailed legacy. I learned about her even before I got to town, this uber-volunteer. Nearly everyone I have been introduced to at the various government offices, hospitals, health centers, and community centers all asked if I knew her and sang her praise. She was involved with every project, had connections in all parts of the community, and definitly left her mark. She's even the one who got us the connections in Kamsar to use the pool and the US mail route. I definitly give this girl props for everything she did. Shoot... I'd be thrilled if I could accomplish even a quarter of the things she was able to do here. It just makes living up to that legacy a bit difficult sometimes. Dr. Pepe loves telling me stories about her and tells me daily that he thinks that I can be an amazing volunteer like her... possibly greater than her... NO... possibly the greatest volunteer ever to come to Guinea!.. if I work hard and try to be like her. I'm going to try to track her down to send her an email letting her know what a mark she has left and how many people still applaud her name. LITERALLY. The other night at Jan's farewell party, Pepe said a few words and mentioned the past volunteers who had worked in the town, He mentioned a few highlights and then mentioned the super volunteer. He said, "now I know she's not here with us now, but we need to stop and give her a round of applause." So we did. So if anyone out there knows who I'm talking about and knows how to get ahold of her, I know she would appreciate hearing how much of an impact her service really did have here. It makes me laugh and shake my head every time she comes up, but I really am in awe of how much she was able to accomplish. I don't know how she did it, but I'm definitely impressed. At this point I feel like a success if I can get through one day without wanting to scream at someone. (I can find at least one person each day who doesn't drive me crazy, right..?) Maybe sometime over the next two years I'll be able to do something worthwhile like she did. For now, I just have to take it one week at a time.

Sour Milk

2008-02-28T08:46:00.000-06:00

Today I drank raw, fermented milk. The market people have large bowls of this lumpy, sour milk and they serve it into small plastic sacks. To make things worse my friend dropped the sack while he was riding his motorcycle, which ripped a hole in it and some of it spilled out. He then proceeded to pour the remainder into a mug through the ripped hole. I definitely have a phobia of germs in this country. It was terribly bitter and sour. Then they offered me some sugar which made it more palatable.

I also ate raw peanuts for the first time in my life. I guess I always took for granted that the peanuts we buy in America have all been roasted and processed in some way. Raw peanuts have veins and their texture reminds me of garbanzo beans. They taste different, but good.

Custom Furniture

2008-02-12T08:11:00.001-06:00

Mary and I sat down and designed our furniture for our new home. For under 100 US dollars we were able to score 9 pieces of bamboo furniture. Let me see if I can remember everything we ordered.
Bedroom:
1 Nightstand
2 Sets of Shelves for clothing
1 Small Corner Table for the “hand washing station”

Living Room:
1 3-person couch
1 bookshelf
1 coffee table
1 corner decorative shelf for African paraphernalia

Kitchen:
1 set of shelves for cooking supplies

Traffic Accidents in Guinea

2008-02-12T08:10:00.000-06:00

On our way to site we witnessed a car accident while crossing a one-lane bridge. A taxi approaching us was going too fast and hit some speed bumps meant to slow vehicles before crossing the one-lane bridge. The brakes went out and the driver decided to take the car off the road instead of colliding with a couple of other cars on the bridge. The car missed a couple of trees, but grazed one enough to cause a lot of glass to go flying. One of the guys was badly cut up on the head and arms. Blood was streaming down his face. He and another guy jumped in our car and we took them to the hospital up the road.

I’ve seen a few motorcycle accidents with much blood involved and a couple of not so serious accidents. I also saw a bus of people that had lost control. It missed a bridge and got stuck over the stream. Luckily nobody was killed, but I didn’t know how a busload of people was going to get help in the middle of nowhere. Our taxi was too full to take any new passengers.

Our country director said that the three most dangerous things about Guinea are transportation, malaria and staphylococcus infections. I’ve definitely seen enough traffic accidents to be most scared of that aspect of life in Guinea.

Being Sick While in a Bush Taxi

2008-02-12T08:08:00.000-06:00

Being sick in Guinea is ten times worse than being sick in the U.S. Maybe the intensity is the same, but the inconveniences are exponentially burdensome. Squatting becomes a whole lot less fun. Taking a bush taxi ride for hours across rough terrain isn’t fun anyways. The worse part about being sick on a taxi is that convenience stores don’t exist. If you want to use the restroom you ask the “chauffeur” to check the tire. He stops at the side of the road and you wander off in the “bush” to find a nice place to squat. And you better hope you remembered to bring your own toilet paper. And hopefully you don’t have any animals or insects bothering you while you do your business. Then there’s no way to wash hands, which is always quite disgusting, so I try not to think about it. Sometimes hand sanitizer is available.

On top of that, you have 9 passengers and a driver in a car that was made for 6.5 passengers. So, you don’t want to slow the trip down. Then there’s the issue of no A/C in the car, etc.

And, did I forget to mention that you are probably one hundred times more likely to get sick in Guinea? I haven’t seen any official statistics on that, but I’m living it. I’ve been in-country for about 10 weeks now and I believe I’ve been sick a good 4 or 5 weeks total—not including the occasional day here and there.

the moment has arrived.

2008-02-12T07:56:00.000-06:00

The moment has arrived. Tomorrow we will be installed at our site and left to be on our own. We will be seen as "experts" in the community and will attempt to share our "expertise" with those we meet. Am I really ready?

We've spent the last few days running around shopping for things for our new house. We bought everything from a gas stove, dishes, and buckets for setting up a new kitchen to caulk, nails, and metal screen for attemping to bugproof our new abode. We also ordered a bunch of custom made furniture - couches, shelves, tables - 9 peices in all for the equivilant of less than $100. Amazing. We'll be sure to post picutres once we get it all.

I kind of went a little over board with african decorations though, but I justified it by reminding myself that its next to nothing in american money... it just turns about to be a lot when we're getting paid in guinean francs... We bought 3 little wooden masks and a cool little wooden sculpture from this guy today for a total of about $11. He originally asked for about $20 for it all, but you never pay the initial cost someone tells you here. I'm sure we could have talked them down even lower in price, but I start feeling guilty trying to jip a guy out of an extra quarter or two for an awesome hand carved mask that would go for a rediculous price any where in the developed world.

Anyone who knows me well though knows that I am a rediculous cheap skate. Here in Africa though life is much different. I feel guilty knowing that I'm arguing over a differece in price that will turn out to be maybe a dollar on some things. (ie - for tailor made clothing, we talked a guy down from $5 to $3.75...) On the other end of the spectrum though, everything has its price. Why should I pay $5 just because I'm american? I know that you just charged my Guinean friend $3.75, so that's what I'm going to pay too, dang it.

We're definitely not rich here. We are legally, for tax purposes and all other, living below the poverty line for the next two years. Yes, the Peace Corps takes good care of us. They know we, as Americans accustomed to much different standards, need a little bit extra to keep us sane and happy living here. They pay us a little bit extra so that we don't have to eat just rice and sauce every day. They build in a vacation allowance. They make sure we're happy and healthy. So even though we are in poverty by all American standards, by Guinean standards, we're very rich. We're advised to live as simply as possible though, and not flaunt our money. We don't want to distance ourselves from our neighbors. They won't trust us as much if they see us as rich outsiders. We need to really be a part of the community to do our job well.

That, in a nutshell, is our real job for the next three months: integrate into the community. Settle in and make friends. Pretty cool job description, huh? This is what we've been preparing to do. I think we're ready.

swearing in

2008-02-09T03:59:00.000-06:00

Here is a sampling of pics from yesterday's swearing in ceremony. We'll tell you more about it later.

It's crazy to think how long it took us to get to this point -- to be offical Peace Corps Volunteers. There was a man who spoke yesterday who was a part of the first ever Peace Corps program. He was sent to Etheopia. Things were a bit different back then (ie: before they flew out, they had tea in the whitehouse with Jackie and JFK), but it was an awesome speach about his service that I think really touched us all.

Dan and I sporting our Guinean best.
Dan giving his speach in Susu. He did awesome despite being sick as a dog.
trainees awaiting becoming volunteers
The Public Health Team. Country Director Steve is in the back in the suit.
Some of our awesome formateurs. The people who trained us for the past 9 weeks.

long awaited pictures

2008-02-07T14:13:00.000-06:00

For more pictures, visit our flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/65479202@N00/.

canoe on the river

Dan selling pineapples in the market

mary with two host sisters

a day at the waterfalls

Dan and some neighbor kids admiring pictures on his camera

Our host mom making fried banana chips. Thats the 'kitchen' behind her.

Our host brother Alhassane carrying wood

Dan in his new boubou. This is Guinean high fashion.

(This cost a total of about $10 to buy the fabric and have it custom tailor made.)

Try deciphering this for me and let me know what you come up with... This was in our taxi up to our site visit.

My birthday cakes. All 100 of them. Covered in chocolate syrup... mmmm...

(Don't worry... I shared) :)

Dan and I chillin at the PC house for dinner during my birthday.

Dan dancing with our host brother Albert.

Our hole in the ground, aka toilet, sink, shower.

Yeah... bonne chance guys... ("good luck")

New Years Day soccer game in maf-town

2008-02-07T14:09:00.001-06:00

soccer game in maf-town
Originally uploaded by dan&mary

so this is an old post I wrote right after new years and kinda forgot about.

1.1.08

Happy New Year! One month down, 26 to go. It’s pretty crazy to think about it that way. We hope all of you had a great holiday season and wish you the best for the New Year. All the stagiaires were out together to celebrate last night. Dan caught a bit of a cold, so we ditched out a bit early. It was probably all for the best.

Today we were challenged to a soccer match. They asked us about a week ago if we trainees would be willing to play against some people down in the agfo village. Always up for a soccer match, but not thinking too much of it, we agreed. Little did we know what we were in for…

This wasn’t your average “get some friends together and we’ll play a little soccer.” This was an event, THE event of the town for the holiday. Our first inclination that this was a little more than we expected was seeing the seating area set up with a tent, chairs and a couch. This was serious. You don’t have a couch unless someone important was coming. There was a car with giant speakers strapped to the roof, and we were informed that it was so that a guy could commentate to the crowd as we played. Wonderful. As we started warming up, people started flowing in. By the time the game was about to start, the area was crowded. By the end of the game, there were people packed in, at least 3 deep if not more, on every inch of sideline watching us. When the game was ready to start, they lined us all up facing the crowd. In rolls the sous prefect (aka our host dad) on a motorcycle with an entourage of military men. Behind him rolls in a big shinny SUV with the prefect and her military men. They get out, go through a bunch of formalities, greet us all individually. After that, Madame le Prefect does an opening kick, equivalent to someone important throwing out the first pitch at a baseball game.

We were originally supposed to have two games: our girls versus a high school girls’ soccer team, followed by our guys vs. some of the important people from town. Due to last minute issues with people who couldn’t play, we ended up playing two mini games as one coed team. The first game was against the high school girls and the second was versus the men. They almost didn’t let the girls on our team play in the second game, but we were pretty insistent, so they let the crazy Americans have their way.

Game One score:

2-0

Game Two Score:

0-1

We figure they will attribute our loss in the second game to the fact that we allowed females to play against males…

Either way, it was very crazy and quite a bit of fun!