It’s been more than a week since I last wrote something to post. Probably because not a lot has happened. Or more like, a lot has happened, but since we are all just attending for stage to be over, much of it seems unimportant. The biggest thing is we did our income generating activities on Monday. Basically this means we pair up and run a small (very small) business for a day. Some volunteers sold peanut butter and banana sandwiches, or chocolate peanut squares, or pineapples. We created a music cd, and managed to sell 3 of them, which just covered our costs, and gave us a 5,000 FG profit ($1). It was pretty fun, we had our ipod and speakers set up to play music, which drew a great crowd. The highlight was when I taped a sign on my back, attached the speakers to my hips, and rode my bike through the throng of students as they made their way to the lycee in the morning. We won the most creative marketing award for that (there was an award for everyone). One Snickers bar, to split. It was delicious.

Tomorrow we will do a presentation to our business partners to discuss some possible improvements, or impart some skills. We have been working with a telecentre, which sells phones, recharge cards for phones (all phones are prepaid here), accessories, and will also charge your phone for a fee. The guy who owns the place already does accounting, and his biggest problems seem centered around the costs involved in his going to Conakry every now and then to purchase supplies. So we will probably talk to him about some ways to pool with other telecentre venders so that they can reduce transportation costs, and maybe a few other things. We don’t have a lot of information to give him, but the exercise is supposed to give us an introduction to working with small businesses and giving them ‘sensibilizations.’ A sensibilization is like a seminar on a simple topic, such as the usefulness of washing your hands, or how to do some very basic accounting.

Then Saturday we will give a presentation to a groupement, which is a group of people who get together for a variety of reasons. Sometimes, perhaps pluspart de temps, it is just to get money from aid organizations, but they have to register with the government, pay a small fee, and submit a plan of action and an organizational structure. Often a groupement is centered around producing a crop, making soap or cloth, carpentry, or some other business. By banding together, they pool resources and split profits, and also distribute risk. There are also groupements for non-business things like providing kids with a daycare. So we met with a groupement and we’ll be doing a sensibilization for them, and that will conclude our activities of real substance for stage. Then Wednesday we’ll head back to Conakry, buy supplies, and ship out shortly after that.

I also finally bought some candles, eight for 4,000 FG ($0.80). Its great to be able to right and read by candle light. It has a certain romance to it. Speaking of which, I also spent all my money on clothes, so now I have to live carefully for the next week until we get our next chunk of money. I have about 8,000 FG ($1.60) left for each day. It sounds small, but that is enough for lunch and tea, oranges, or even a coke to boot. Since my family gives me breakfast and dinner, it shouldn’t be a problem. So what did I get for the approximately 250,000 FG ($50)I spent on clothes? I will have 2 pairs of tailored pants, a tailored suit, and a gooba, which is this awesome robe-like thing with accompanying pants, with huge sleeves that are basically slits in the side of the fabric, and that you can fold up onto your shoulders. The sleeves are wide enough that you have to wear clothes underneath, to give you an idea. I should have a picture to somewhere. Oh yeah, and a little hat. With those clothes, the two shirts I’ve already had made, and my awesome shoes (also in the picture), I am pretty psyched about my outfits. I still have a couple of other purchases to make, but I will have to wait until I’ve saved up some more money. By the way, this isn’t my money that I brought tthat I’m spending, but money I’ve saved from my per diem while in stage. I am kind of frugal, but the big saver is that I don’t buy much beer (at $1+ a piece, they are expensive!).

I’m pretty sure I’m paying way to much for the clothes, but I failed to correctly discute the price when I first went to this tailor, and so now its hard to get him down to a non-fote price. I’ll have to be more vigilant when I get to site.

What else…I’m pretty emotionally crazy right now. I think we all are a bit. With stage being almost over and site coming up quickly, I’m stuck between feeling like I am learning and doing nothing, and being overwhelmed by what seems like a quickly arriving isolation. Once I get to site it will be different. I’ll be talking and making friends with people there, and setting up my house (for which I have grand designs), but right now it feels more like fellow volunteers will be dispersed and I’ll be in a big city with nothing changing for two years. Its a scary proposition, but it won’t really be like that.

So yeah, the last few days are the first time that I’ve also thought in any real way about coming home. Not that I will, but I hadn’t really entertained the idea until recently. I just don’t want to waste my time here, and right now it feels like I am wasting my time. If that is the case I’d rather be in the states making the next stage of my life happen. Of course it won’t be the case, since how much I do and learn at site will depend largely on me, and I like to do and learn some pretty cool stuff. But with the unknown it seems like it could turn out that way. Many of us feel that way je pense.

D’accord, I should go eat my rice and leaf sauce (I can’t wait till I can cook my own food). I have to study my Francais. Monday is my final language test and I defintely have some improvements to make.