Let’s see now. I feel like a lot has happened since my last post, though after I write it all down it may not be much. Last Friday I met with the Director de la Direction de Promotion de la Jeunesse (Department for the promotion of youth). He is a really friendly guy and he seems really involved in his job. I spoke to him for a while about going out to see his village and learn about issues there, which seem to consist largely of educational problems (there is no high school there, and the students can’t go to high schools in other sous-prefectorals). After that we talked about some of teh stuff I wanted to do, and I mentioned that I was interested in starting a group of peer educators. It would be a group of college (high school) aged kids who are interested in social issues, and we would meet once or twice a week to discuss different topics and practice different skills. It would probably be entrepreneurial-based, but would also cover health and gender issues, and maybe include learning English. He was really receptive and I left the meeting pretty excited about what we would be doing.

Saturday I was supposed to go dancing but no one called me to go. It was just as well cause I was kind of nauseous and not that excited about it anyway. And Sunday I just washed my clothes and read a Michael Crichton book called Rising Sun, which was all about how the Japanese were taking over the American economy. Its funny because it was published in 1992 which is about the year the Japanese started their decade-long recession. In all it was a good relaxing weekend, though I was increasingly missing my life in America (reading books that take place in approximately modern America, while a joy, are also not so good for how I feel afterward). My hard days have changed from feeling unhappy here to missing my life and people there. Its a good change, because it means that I am increasingly enjoying myself in my day to day life here, and that is important.

Monday my mailrun came! It was very exciting. They were a day late because one of the Peace Corps drivers passed away (he was only 35 or so). I didn’t know him, but people were pretty sad. Anyway, on that note, I got two boxes and a few letters, as well as the postcard for Jake and Allie’s wedding! One of the boxes was just jars that I had requested from Conakry to make mango jelly and pickles with, but the other was from my mom and had jerky and nutritional yeast and snickers and canned chicken. All the joys of modern life. It was fantastic.

I was supposed to meet someone at the internet place on Monday, but, as is becoming a recurring theme, they didn’t show up. I’m thinking of imposing some kind of filter on meetings, because I am tired of making them and then going somewhere or waiting around only to have no one come. I haven’t decided how to do this yet. So instead I sat at the internet for a while, drank some ice cold ginger drink, and then came back and read my mail until my 16:00 meeting, which did happen, but probably only because we meet at his house. Still, it was a productive meeting and we worked on developing his ideas for an ONG and how it would look. I made more progress in getting through to him that we had to talk about what he wanted to do, not what people with money would want to hear. We can do that part later.

So I started Monday depressed, laying on my plastic mat and thinking about my life, but I ended it fiarly happy. As I’ve said before, it is crucial for me to feel like I am actualy doing some work, or I start to think this is a waste of time. Oh yeah, the other thing that happened on Monday is that I saw the Director of the DPJ and he said he was already getting together a list of interested people for the peer educators group, and I talked to him about a list of potential people for Girl’s Conference, which is a weekend seminar for girls that we do each year.

I spent Tuesday morning writing my Etude de Milieu (and playing more than a little nethack). Me and Cece also were doing a test to see how many mangoes I can eat in a day. If I haven’t mentioned it, mango season is upon us, and there are many mangoes to be found. He wanted me to try for 30 but I thought 20 was probably more realistic. I ate 5 in the morning and 7 in the afternoon, which left me feeling rather ill. Around 20:00 I started eating the last 8, but I could only make it through 4 before I thought I was going to die, so I called it at 16. Cece was very disappointed in me. Its good I stopped though because I woke up at 5:00 this morning thinking I might be making a trip to the bathroom to upchuck all that mango. Fortunately that seems to have passed.

I also literally chased a petite off my front steps. Most kids are nice, but some don’t know how to handle me and respond by being cocky and patronizing. He was sitting there making fun of my conversation with Cece so I told him to leave. I told him at least three times, but the kids think I am kind of a pushover because I don’t smack them, so I had to actually shove him off my steps and chase him away. Its not really a good thing because he will probably just be more impolite now than he was. On the other hand, people here seem to have big dramatic conflicts and then be fine the next day, so we will see what happens with that.

Today I am meeting with my assistant program director from the Peace Corps, and my homologue. The APCD is making rounds through volunteer’s sites and she is at mine this morning. I want to talk about a few ideas with her, including possibly doing some work to help Guinea develop its economic analysis capabilities. I am going to ask if she can get me contacts both with the government and with the state department and USAID to pursue that idea. I also want to talk to her about having a math competition for girls.

This weekend I might be going to Kissidougou to visit some volunteers. Next week the security director will visit my site, and next weekend I am either going to a site to help dip mosquito nets or to someone’s birthday party, and then there is only a week left before in-service training. I can’t tell whether it seems like time is flying or crawling by.

Oh yeah, and Cece eats more than twenty mangoes each day right now. But he is 14 and lives off rice, so I think he is just always hungry.