zot in Niger bush camels

Yesterday was spectacularly bad. Perhaps naievely, I had hoped that the greater part of the struggles and unhappiness had ended when I left site for IST and returned jubilant and joyful. But even normal life has its ups and downs, its only that the ups and downs in Guinea are so much more pronounced.

There are few things as annoying (for me at least) as being laughed at without explanation. Its worse when the people laughing are talking in a foreign language so you don’t know what they are saying, and its especially worse if you already don’t have the highest opinion of them. So it was that one of the sisters in my family, with whom I had danced next to during a saba (wedding preperation dance), had two pictures of us dancing, but wanted me to pay for them (of course). I had already forked over the deposit, and decided I didn’t mind paying for one of them, but that she could pay for the other, so I brought out the remaining balance on the one, which turned her into a laughing fit, telling everyone else how funny something was while I stood there and asked her what was so funny about fifty times. Now maybe it wouldn’t be upsetting if it was in English and I knew why she was laughing, but I’d like to see her in the states being laughed at by five white people for doing something they all thought was stupid while no one actually explains it and still keep her cool. I finally through up my hands and went inside, much to their continued laughing delight. This same sister has made it a joke to ask me for money every day and generally be a completely unfunny pain in the rear.

All of which was too bad, because I received a fantastic package from mom and Chuck in the mailrun run earlier that morning and was looking forward to a relaxing Sunday spent reading my mail and eating snickers. Instead I spent most of it fuming, and then eventually left to go recharge my computer and type up my three month plan (mostly in an effort to find a peaceful place without the family asking still asking me to pay for the pictures even though I quite obviously didn’t care about them anymore).

I arrived at the internet place only to find I had forgotten the paper with the plan on it, but I spent a while calming down and putting together the spreadsheet so that I could just drop what we had written into it this morning (done and done).

Then when I returned I spent a while arguing with my family again, this time because they wanted me to get rid of my cat because it had pooped in their house. Funny, if you don’t insist of bringing my cat into your house every night, she probably wouldn’t poop in it. I just paid the equivalent of $12 to have her vaccinated, so I am not about to give here away.

Anyway, these run ins with the family have left me feeling decidedly antagonistic, but at least instead of feeling like I want to leave I just feel like I will try to spend as much time as possible with my other friends here, which is a good thing I guess. Still, my contented attitude toward my service has been disrupted and I find myself struggling to be positive. I knew this day would come, I just thought maybe it would be a few more months off.

And then I was sick this morning and unfortunately had several meetings scheduled that I couldn’t cancel, so I did my best to make the ones I couldn’t reschedule be quick, and then went back to bed. Now Guinea has decided to rain, and the rain here always leaves me feelings peaceful.

No life is all cherries and ice cream, and I’m at least glad that when things hit the fan here I don’t immediately start thinking about finding a way to justify going back to the states. Besides, maybe what I came here for is partly to learn how to be comfortable, or at least handle, being laughed at. I am certainly getting a lot of practice.

I feel the need for a synopsis post, something to sort of sum up what has been happening, but it probably will be a few days until I find the time to do it.  When I was applying to Peace Corps I remember being frustrated with the day to day content of most blogs, feeling that they lacked any sort of substance or analysis, defaulting to a report of daily events.  I’d like to remedy that as much as possible, but its hard not to sit down and just report on what has been happening.

I have spent a lot of money the last few days, buying supplies in bulk and generally getting things that I have needed or wanted to get but not had the money or chance to buy yet.  Mainly this consists of a case of tomato paste and a case of pasta, a case of candles, and a tea set and charcoal burner.  But I also had to get my cat vaccinated.  70.000 FG!  Sajay and I almost just threw our cats in a ditch and ran away (just kidding, we would never do that, as long as they don’t scratch us anymore).  So yeah, he was here today and we did a lot of shopping.

Yesterday I tried to do a lot of stuff, stopping by people’s places multiple times but finding no one.  Today was slightly more successful, and tomorrow should be semi-productive before the mailrun arrives on Sunday.

When you first arrive at site and you are sitting around wondering how you are actually going to pass two years without going crazy of boredom, it seems impossible that you will ever be busy.  But after IST my calendar has filled up so quickly its scary.  Today Sajay and I sat down and planned out rough dates for the various trips we want to do, and in such a way that we will actually get to spend a month at site every now and then.  Basically between trainings, regional trips, training a new group of volunteers, and miscellaneous other things, it hardly seems like we will have the time to get any actual work done at site.  So we wanted to schedule things so that we had some long periods of time, especially in these first early months, so that we could actually get some work done and some relationships well enough established to be able to make things happen easier once all the other stuff kicked in.

Still, I can’t help but get a little panicky.  On average there are maybe three weeks between trips, which doesn’t really seem like a lot.  In my first couple of months I wanted as many diversions as possible because each day at site was a trial, but now traveling is much more of a trial and I want to be home as much as possible.  Its a good sign of being integrated I guess.

I also started an accounting system, beginning June 1st.  I want to see how I spend my living allowance, and it might be useful information for both the Peace Corps office and for other volunteers and prospective volunteers.  Plus its just an interesting thing to know.

And I bought a larger agenda book to plan out and keep track of what is happening.  I may or may not be further developing an already dangerous addiction to organization and planning.

I am doing my best to get rid of my mango jam because I am realizing that I am much more likely to eat pineapple or mango salsa than mango jam.  Its a rough world.  Hopefully by Sunday I can do a batch of pineapple salsa.  I expect it to be amazing.  Also, I thought I had found a woman selling beans that would be an easier way to eat beans than preparing them myself, but they tasted something awful, so for now I am back to square one with that.

I have so many things I need to do or am in the middle of doing that I might go crazy.  And I started running, which has been really good.  A volunteer is having a half marathon in September or October (I forget) and I need to be in good enough shape to run it.

Okay, that’s enough rambling for now.

So I was in Kankan for a few days for “Warden Training.”  Warden training is a day long affair in which we discuss our roles and responsiblities during different states of elevated alert.  It didn’t seem particularly useful, but I thought it was at least going to be a fun chance to see other volunteers.  But instead I didn’t have much fun, spent a lot of time feeling like I wasn’t connecting with anyone, and wanted to come back to site.  Now that I am here my spirits are picking up again, but it wasn’t very fun, which is too bad, since regional visits are supposed to be a sort of vacation.

The trip there went fine.  We had four volunteers in one car and so we got a row to ourselves and played games the whole way there.  I went running Saturday and Sunday with some other volunteers, which was really nice, and inspired me to get running at site (we will see about that).  I had the chance to go back on Monday, but instead I decided to wait for Tuesday and go back with some other volunteers, which was a mistake, cause Monday was a giant waste.  We spent the whole time wandering around en ville and waiting for our money to arrive at the bank.  Result is that we did nothing but also didn’t get to relax, and I was exhausted by the end of it all.  I did win about 17.000 FG playing poker though ($3.20).

There is one plus though.  Kankan has copious amounts of frozen beesap (made with habiscus) and gingam (made with, well, ginger).  That stuff is so freakin good I could, and did, drink ten or more a day.

Oh yeah, and the taxi ride back was a danger to my life.  I will skip the details, but it was ridiculous.

My first day back in Faranah has been good though.  I cleaned and organized my house, bought a few things, recharged my computer, and set up a record system to keep track of my finances here.  It should be interesting to see how I spend my money.  People are always to excited to see me after a trip that it almost automatically puts me in a good mood.

I made pancakes, but they came out more like crepes, and the taste isn’t that great either.  Unfortunately I tried several different things this time, and so I don’t know exactly what it was that made them weird.  The scrambled eggs were good though.

Okay, nothing specific to report.  Mail run comes on Sunday, and Friday Sajay and I are taking our cats to the vet to get their rabies shots.  Tomorrow I am supposed to meet with my counterpart to work out a plan for the next few months, which should be interesting, and hopefully will be good.