Back to Guinea: Dust, Training, and the Final Stretch

December 11, 2004

Greetings from Seattle. I arrived Wednesday night after traveling for 24+ hours. All in all it was smooth traveling all the way. That is until I got home and opened my bags.

Someone, most likely in Guinea, helped themselves to some items in one of my two bags. The thing that gets me is that they somehow opened the locked bag, took out my shortwave radio, speakers for my walkman (actually both Karin's that I was returning to her), my walkman and travel alarm clock, then relocked the bag! That was nice of them I suppose. Thankfully they didn't take my CD's which are a lot harder and more expensive to replace than some of the other stuff. They also went pawing through my other bag and in the process shuffled my stuff around such that the delicate wooden camel I bought for my mom's birthday got 2 of its legs snapped off. Thankfully they left me the broken legs so we can glue it. Other than that, all was fine.

I've decided to do another update so soon as I received some feedback on my Dec. 6th update that made me think I should get more specific on my new site. So, here's all the scoop on Saramoussaya:

It's a small village, about 2500 people, that is about 5km off the main, paved highway that bisects the country. The road into Saramoussaya is unpaved but not too bad. Then again, I didn't see it during the height of rainy season.

Because it's off the main road for several kilometers, it's nice and peaceful. But, this also means that transportation is difficult. There is always at least one bush taxi (small sedan vs. the Nissan mini-vans in Kenya) that leaves Saramoussaya every morning to go west towards Mamou, the Prefecture (Saramoussaya is a sous-prefecture).

Basically that means administratively the prefecture is larger and has more development and more government officials. A sous-prefecture is much smaller (usually about 10 sous-prefectures within a prefecture) and has far fewer amenities and government officials—or in other words, much less developed and poor. It's still more developed than a mere village within a sous-prefecture, of which there are many.

To get to Mamou, where I can in theory use the internet plus also shop for veggies I can't get in my village, not to mention buy boxed wine and pasta, takes a minimum of 2 hours one-way by bush taxi. Mind you Mamou is only about 80km (or about 48 miles) from Saramoussaya. It takes so long because the vehicles are in such poor condition, overloaded (and thus struggle going up hills), and the road is pretty bad in many spots—as in the paved part has been washed away and you're left with bare earth and huge potholes.

I've made the trip into Mamou twice to use the internet and both times it's been down. That's a 5+ hour trip (the plus is for waiting around time for a taxi to fill to go back to Saramoussaya) all for naught. I've at least come away with pasta, wine and veggies so the trips weren't a total bust.

I haven't ventured east to Dabola, the next Prefecture to me. Transportation is less frequent going that direction and the road gets worse.

Ok, now for my village. As I said there are about 2500 people all spread around so that it doesn't feel like there are that many people around. I've got several neighbors close by, some in huts and others in mud brick houses like mine.

There is a village water pump about 40 yards from my house which is perfect as I don't have to carry the water far once I fill my 20 liter containers. Many times there are kids to help me fill them and carry them back. They put the containers on their heads to carry but I just use my hands as I think my neck would snap off. They grow up doing this so their necks are very strong.

Most of the women and even the 5-year-old girls have beautifully sculpted arms as a result of all the manual labor they do. The men are cut too but it's more genetics in their case as they don't do nearly as much work as the women.

I have two bedrooms (I only use one and have old icky furniture that came with the house stored in the other), a large sitting room and a bathroom with a sink and toilet. I don't have running water but I use the sink to wash my dishes, use a bucket to bathe, and pour water down the toilet bowl to flush it. Works well enough and I'm thankful I don't have to go outside to use a latrine, especially in the middle of the night.

I don't have a kitchen so have put a table in the sitting room where I've got my water filter for drinking and my propane stove. I don't have electricity and in fact no one in Saramoussaya does. The house has light fixtures and outlets though as at one point there was a diesel generator that powered the house.

The climate in my new region, the Fouta Djalon, is much more agreeable than the Basse-Cote where Kamsar and Boke, and Conakry are. At night the temp gets as low (inside the house) as 69 degrees F. During the day, inside, it reaches about 82 degrees F. It gets hot during the afternoons so I usually stick inside the house where it's cooler.

Regardless of the heat, it's never humid like it was in the Basse-Cote region. I go days without breaking a sweat. It's glorious.

The tribe I'm among now is Peul and they speak Pular. There are also some Susu people (same tribe as in most of the Basse-Cote) and many Malinke people (who inhabit the next region over, Haute Guinee). So, there are many languages spoken but mostly it's Pular.

Many of the older people (that are educated) and all of the officials, speak French. Many school-going kids do too, albeit not well. I'm trying to learn Pular but it's a tonal language and difficult. Meaning that there are words that are very similar sounding to a non-speaker and only differ in meaning based on the tone used when speaking. If you don't get the tone right, you're saying gibberish. I'm mostly at the gibberish stage but people are thrilled whenever I try so I keep trying.

As far as work goes, I haven't been there long enough to really figure that out yet. I've met the one and only women's group in Saramoussaya and will see how I can help them. They have a farm together and grow peanuts, manioc, sweet potatoes and other veggies.

I've traveled to a nearby village to meet with their groups, also agriculturally focused, and will see what I can do for them too. Everyone is asking for farm machinery, tractors, etc., and I'm not able to really help them out there but I'll try and focus on improving their group's management structure and possibly teach its members to read and write (at least numbers).

In Saramoussaya there is a newly constructed center for girls that have either never gone to school or have dropped out. Boys are allowed in too. The center will teach them skills like sewing, etc. so that they can try and earn a living.

Not sure how I can help the center but I figure I'll start with the management committee and train them on proper and ethical management so that the center can stay in business for the long haul. I want to show the center and the groups solar drying and cooking too. We'll see.

I don't have too much time in the village upon my return. I counted it out and I'll only be back there for 9 weeks before I leave to close out my service (COS). My COS date is May 1st, I think, but in Guinea they want you to come to Conakry at least 2 weeks before then to take care of all the medical and administrative stuff.

In Kenya they didn't want you anywhere near Nairobi until 3 days before your COS date. Talk about a stressful 3 days! It'll be much less stressful this time around in Guinea and in fact I'll probably leave Saramoussaya the first week of April to go to Conakry to begin the process.

I'm there at that time for a conference and my replacement will have already gotten to Saramoussaya so it doesn't make sense for me to travel all the way back to the village to stay for a few days only to turn around and travel back to Conakry to close out. I've been told I'm going to be replaced with another business PCV. The new group arrives in Guinea Jan. 15th and will finish training and swear-in at the end of March. I think I'll overlap with the new person for a day or two.

As for what my plans are for after PC, I'm not too sure but I've already applied to some jobs (haven't gotten them) based in Europe and will continue to do so. Also thinking of grad school. May or may not travel around when I'm finished. I'll have to wait and see if I get a job offer first.

Well, that's it I think. If anyone has any specific questions they'd like me to answer, shoot me an email and I can do a FAQ update next time around. Happy holidays!

February 14, 2005

Happy Valentine's Day. Thanks to my mom sending me a box of chocolates, I too was able to celebrate. This particular holiday isn't as big here in Guinea as it was in Kenya—it was HUGE in Kenya—but oddly enough it is celebrated here, at least in Conakry. Restaurants put up flyers showing special meals they'll serve tonight, etc. I pre-ordered some hummus from the Lebanese guy up the street from PC so that'll be my special dinner tonight ;o)

I just finished up with helping at training. It's a good group of trainees—35 of them. The SED group has 12, including the guy that is going to replace me in Saramoussaya. They'll be traveling out to their newly announced sites this coming weekend to spend a few days getting to know the layout and meet the officials in their towns/villages. They'll then head back to the training site near Conakry to finish up their training. They are due to swear-in on March 31st.

I'm not sure that I'll still be at my site when my replacement comes in early April. Still no official word on my COS date but my boss seems to think it's not going to be a problem for me to leave May 1st. She's not the decision maker though so I'll wait for official word before getting plans made for any post-COS travel.

I had traveled out to Saramoussaya for one week after my last update before I had to turn around and come back this way for training. It was odd being back in the village. I thought my neighbors would be excited to see me again but no one paid me much attention. I'm told that that's par for the course for this ethnic tribe—they're very reserved and unemotional. A far cry from the tribe I was around in Boke/Kamsar.

My cat, Connie, was well and soon lapsed back into being my constant shadow. My house was filthy when I got home—at least an inch of red dust coated everything I didn't put away. This includes my couch and throw pillows. Only got a few mud wasps nests back inside on the walls and ceiling. I was prepared for worse.

I hopefully head out to site tomorrow morning and will stay there until I leave to COS—about 6 weeks. I'm torn as to what I want to do in those 6 weeks as it doesn't make sense for me to start projects as 6 weeks isn't enough time and I don't want to get something going and then have a change of volunteer disrupt the flow of whatever I was aiming for.

Then again, I could continue to do research and figure out what the needs of the village are vs. what they say they are. That process can sometimes take your full 2 years. I feel like my usefulness here in Guinea never got realized. It's been an interesting 3rd year. I'd do it again, but just hope that I wouldn't experience the same setbacks as I seemed to here in Guinea.

My French has definitely improved and I've been able to meet some wonderful people—host country nationals as well as fellow volunteers. Ok, enough of that talk—I'm not finished yet...

January 17, 2005

Happy New Year to everyone. I arrived back in Guinea on the 15th, after 3 long and boring flights. As I need to speak to several of the staff here at the office I must stick around Conakry until Wednesday as today is a holiday and thus the office is closed.

I'm anxious to get back to Saramoussaya mostly to see if my cat is ok. I also told the villagers to expect me around the 17th and I don't want them to think I've abandoned them for good. I'll only be in the village a little over a week before I turn around and leave again for 2 weeks—I'm helping out at training for the new group of volunteers that just arrived.

34 new trainees arrived in country on the 13th. They are the newest group of Public Health, Agroforestry and Small Business volunteers. My replacement is among them. They find out their sites while I am there helping out so I'll get to meet and talk with him or her.

My village has known all along that I'm only there for a very short time before leaving. They've had a PCV (Education) in years past so they know the routine—it's a 2-year stint and unforeseen things can happen to shorten the service, etc. They know all about my "trouble" in Kamsar and that I was due to leave Guinea, regardless of my site situation, in May of 2005.

Thankfully they're not expecting much out of me in the coming months as there's not much I can accomplish in such a short amount of time. I'm basically scoping the site out for potential projects for my replacement. Whether or not he or she will use the research I've already begun collecting or not is up to them.

It's interesting being back. I actually stayed in the compound all day yesterday and watched 4 movies. I just got back from going into the market area about a mile or so from the house. It's an odd feeling being stared at for just walking down the street. I'd like to say I turn heads like that in the States but...

Kids were yelling out "whitey" in the local languages, taxis were blaring their horns for people to get out of the road and all the sellers at the market wanted me to come and look at their stuff. It'll be much calmer in Saramoussaya.

I'm not looking forward to the trip out there though. An 8+ hour crowded taxi ride with a change of vehicles and all my bags just makes me cringe. I'm not expecting to get back to Conakry before April (might be here overnight when finished with training in mid-February) so I'm trying to make sure I take care of all my administrative stuff now so that I'm all set to COS (Close of Service) in April.

I now have only about 8 weeks left in the village which sounds like a decent amount of time, 2 months, but I know it will fly by so quickly. I have no word yet on my jobs that I applied to while in the U.S. so assume that I'll be back in the States in May to start the search in earnest.

I'm not sure if I'll be doing any traveling when I'm finished. Some friends are possibly going to Nepal in May and I'd love to meet them there but we'll have to wait and see if the timing is right.

All in all though I'm ready to be finished with my PC service and can't wait to get a job and a "normal" life again. I'll update again when I can.