zot in Niger bush camels

The current volunteers that are here to train us are pretty inspiring.  They speak really well with people and they get along with them.  In Guinea you should greet basically everyone you pass.  And in general you should be friendly with most people, and it is considered rude if you do not ask them how they are doing.

The volunteers have taken this on very well and I enjoy just watching them to see them interact with people, hoping to pick up on some of what they know.

Last night we went to bar on the beach next to the PC compound.  Most people had been there before and I figured I better see it before we left, though part of me just wanted to sleep.  It was not dissimilar from other bars on the beach.  We tossed around a frisbee and a football and by the end had a ton of kids running around playing with us.

I have just wanted to sleep for hours and hours.  Yesterday people went to the market to buy food, but I stayed in and slept.  Then I took another nap in the afternoon.  This whole trip to meet my host family has me more nervous than I expected, but it is the beginning of living with a Guinean family instead of thirty Americans with staff to feed us.  I’m concerned about not being able to talk to them and about feeling isolated and about them not really liking me because I won’t seem as friendly.  I can be super friendly when I have to, but with the sleepiness and the desire to be alone it is even more difficult.  Ce la vie I guess.  It actually might be better because I will have my own room with a door, so I will have more time to myself if I want it.  Its weird wanting time alone and being afraid of isolation at the same time.

How is this only the morning of the 5th day?  It seems so much longer than that.  Except when I try to remember stuff, then it seems incredibly fast.  Human perception is so malleable its ridiculous.

The next time I’ll have a chance to write is probably Christmas.  Bon fete, fait, something like that (happy holidays).  I wish I could speak French already.  In Africa they don’t drop their sounds as much as in France, so words like léntement (slowly), are said like “lonmon” in France, and “lontemon” in Guinea.  I hope that’s roughly right phonetics.

Au revior.

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.

On my way to the computers this morning (its 6:45 am), I was nearly ran over by a giant rat on its way up the stairs and over the Peace Corps compound wall.  Fortunately I dived to the side of the staircase in a manly fashion and avoided its dump truck-sized tires.  Err, feet.

In other news, G17 (that’s my group of volunteers) had a good night last night, and I was pretty social.  We talked a lot about relationships we had back in the states and it was good to share some of that and to know that I’m not the only one dealing with those kinds of issues.

Yesterday we were oriented to the language and culture training, and we have seen presentations from the U.S. State Deparment (very interesting), the Regional Security Officer from the U.S. Embassy, and from USAID.  Very interesting stuff.  We also talked a lot about female genital mutilation, which was heartbreakingly sad. 

I’ve been using the concept of a thin layer of happiness covering geysers of sadness to describe my emotional state.  Not that the happiness is superficial, because it isn’t and I love it here so far.  But I also feel close to the edge of tears and small thing can push me over the edge, so the underneath stuff is like an oft-erupting geyser.  Female genital mutilation put me right on that edge for a while after we were done.

We also went to an African restuarant last night, but it was kind of a joke, because they closed down the whole restaurant for us and we all went in official Peace Corps vehicles, driving by crowds of people whose situations seem very difficult.  Then they locked the doors while we were there.  But I understand the need to keep us separated because we still haven’t had all our shots.

I’m starting to get an idea of what I might be doing and what side projects I can take on, and it seems like there are a ton of opportunities.  Today we have our survival language training and some other things (hopefully shots), and then tomorrow is a holiday.

Bonjour! cé va? Bien.  Thats about all the French I’ve managed to speak, except that I also asked where the water was, and got confused when the guy responded with “Du l’eau et fni.”  The water is finished?  But the water had gone out and we only had a little more, is what he was trying to say.  The staff here is awesome.  I also really like the Country Director (Dan …, can’t remember his last name).

Okay, on to more work.  I’m glad we have a day off tomorrow.

I wanted to get an update to people yesterday but I have been jet lagged and also quite busy. Plus the internet here at the main Peace Corps compound is pretty slow, especially when other people are trying to use it also.  So to begin:

As we lined up to board the plane to Dakar I was very sad and it was substantially more difficult than I expected, but once I got on the plane I was super excited. During the plane ride I was back down and back up again, and then we landed in Dakar and all hell broke lose. PC Washington told us they would check the baggage all the way to Conarky, but instead we had to go through customs, pick up our baggage, and then go back through customs to get on our connecting flight to Conakry, all without any help or direction whatsoever. A few of the volunteers speak French and they probably saved our group from being stuck in Senegal.

What can I say about Guinea? We were met at the airport by current volunteers and staff, which was great and they were very friendly. The ride to the PC compound was a huge eye-opener. The shear poverty of the people in Conakry is astounding. Nearly all buildings are concrete with tin roofs and no windows. There are few to no traffic rules and only a few paved roads. And the population density is much higher than I was prepared for, even knowing the density before I left.

The PC staff in Guinea seem excellent, though I won’t really know until later. Beyond being friendly they seem genuinely interested in volunteers and committed to getting us up and running. I’m excited to work with them.

There are also some current volunteers that are here to help us train, mostly I think by telling us stories of what their lives are like.  One volunteer works in a major city with a microfinancing NGO, doing business trainings with small groups of women looking to start a business.  Examples of businesses include keeping bees, processing rice, and selling the powder of a medicinal plant.

And on to my fellow volunteers.  The entire group of 29 seems awesome.  Basically every volunteer I’m with is really interesting, motivated and intelligent.  Its a little intimidating to be honest.  There are of course the different personalities and styles and there will be friction, but not one of them is boring.

But we are probably all worried that we are the ‘most’ boring of the group, or that we are unliked, or that we aren’t as smart, etc, etc…  The typical worries of people in a new group and a new life.  Not to trivialize them, and it seems like we are each dealing with our own inner demons.  But its nice because more than likely 1 or 5 or 10 other people are dealing with similar demons.

Anyway, today has been great and really positive.  Yesterday was difficult.  With basically no sleep and feeling the full weight of being in Guinea for two years, I was having a lot of serious doubts and feeling pretty isolated.  But this evening I’m left with a feeling that the group will continue to congeal, that I will have some great friends, and that the experience will be very challenging but probably everything I was looking for and more… Reading that, I need to get my expectations back down to reality.  The greatest struggle so far has just been managing the ups and downs.

Here are some pictures:

I am at the hotel in Philadelphia after a crazy series of travel mishaps that included equipment failures, cancelled flights, delayed flights, and in the end lost luggage.  But I arrived in one piece, albeit a very tired one, complete with luggage.

Saying goodbye was terribly sad and difficult, and it makes me want to sleep all the time.  I don’t really know what else to say about it except that I appreciate everyone’s support and words of encouragement.

I went to breakfast this morning with some fellow volunteers, ate a little food, and promptly came back to the hotel and took a nap, wishing a little that I hadn’t eaten.  Apparently leaving also makes me not want to eat.

But then again I haven’t gotten a lot of sleep for the past few nights, so partly its just all catching up with me.

Today we have a training that starts at 2 and goes to 7, and seems to revolve around filling out forms and listening to some people talk.  Maybe some icebreakers will be sprinkled in with it.

I have lots of thoughts and feelings, but they are too jumbled up to talk about coherently, so for now I will leave it alone.  Despite the tone of this post I am still very excited about being in Guinea Thursday morning, and can’t wait to get it started.  It’s the in-between part that is less fun.

I’m rooming with Ben, a fellow volunteer who brought a huge bottle of hot sauce, and is therefore awesome.  Other volunteers also seem interesting, and I’m looking forward to getting to know them all.