Today is Eid Al-Adha, which commemorates the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son.  For us that means there are no staff and we have to get food in the Conakry market, and that we don’t have any training today.

Yesterday was good.  I had survival French in the morning and then we went over the small enterprise development work, which got me excited about what I will be doing.  Training is going to be uncomfortable in parts, because I’m supposed to work with some local groups but I can’t really talk to them yet.

Apparently that is also true of my host family, who I will meet tomorrow.  They will only know French and they will do a lot of staring.  Communication will be difficult for the next while as my ability to speak French improves.

Many people (including me) were wondering exactly what I would be doing.  Basically I’m a facilitator.  In my community I will work with a nongovernmental organization (NGO), but also just generally in the community.  I will be helping in whatever ways I can, but it might include helping a group of women start a business selling dried mangos, or a small savings group, which can then lend out money to its members for large purchases.  It might involve helping groups write grants.  It will probably involve helping people learn to use computers.  But beyond that it can take a lot of forms, which is why its so hard to describe I think.  For instance, I might pair up with a health or agroforestry volunteer and a group of young people to teach nutrition and sell Meringa (a plant high in protein and vitamins) powder, which they can make.  The forms seem endless and very interesting.  None of the SED volunteers that I’ve met here have a boring job.

The sun rising over Conakry.  The two towers in the picture are a mosque.  Sometimes you can hear their call to prayer.

Here’s a brighter picture.

The smoke makes everything hazy.

Posts will probably be much less frequent after tomorrow when we leave Conarky.