Training’s Over, the Mouse Is Dead, and I’m Naming My Frog

April 1, 2004

Hi everyone! Been a long time...had some problems with my site and then haven't been able to get online til now. Well, just swore in as a PC Guinea volunteer! Thankfully training is over...it was very difficult to go through again, especially the homestay portion. I'm really looking forward to being out on my own again. Everyone will be leaving for their sites on Sunday the 4th. We'll be spending the next few days in Conakry shopping for supplies for our houses.

I just found out that my house, which I didn't have during my site visit, isn't in "la cite" of Kamsar itself, but just outside, about 1km away. It's actually the house that was meant for the volunteer that was going to be my site mate. His name was Kevin and he was in my training group in SED, but got medically separated from PC about 3 weeks ago. So, I'm getting his house. I hear it has 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms but I'll wait and see for myself. I'm staying in Conakry for a few days after everyone else leaves so I can meet with my NGO, PSI (Population Services International). I'll head to site around the 7th.

Alright, the following is the web update I typed up ages ago but was never able to send. I'm not editing it so bear with it if I repeat things.

Ok, so I’ve been having a problem with my website and haven’t been able to access it to make an update. Had one all typed out and ready to send during my PC site visit but alas, couldn’t. So, here it is - it’s old news to me by now and to some of you who got emails from me, but here you go anyway:

Anyone want to know where I’ll be living and working for the next year????? Well, I alluded to the fact in some letters to some of you that I basically had a choice between 3 projects. Choice is too strong a word, I basically was told about 3 possibilities that my APCD (Associate Peace Corps Director) for SED was considering me for. The ultimate choice was hers. She tries to match the skills and interests of all the trainees with the organizations that request a volunteer. It’s a tough thing to do - there will invariably be those that aren’t happy, at least initially, with the decision. The thing to remember though is that what you think your project will entail probably isn’t even remotely what you’ll end up doing for the 2 years. Organizations that request volunteers often write a job description that they think will ensure them getting a volunteer. What you find when you actually get there is that they’ve lied about most everything about the organization and what your role in it is. That’s the way it was in Kenya at least. I doubt it’s much different here.

Bottom line is that regardless of what any paperwork may say, you’ll find your own project during the course of the 2 years. Lots of volunteers give up at the beginning but what they don’t realize is that Peace Corps is all about adaptability and flexibility. If you don’t like what you’re supposed to be doing, change it. You have that power. Ok, so you want to know what my project is stated to be at this point? So do I. I got my site announcement on the 14th but my paperwork was completely blank. Usually it will have a general history of the organization, a brief job description and info about your town/village and what your housing is like. Again, mine was blank. Of the 3 projects I was told about, I got the one I was least interested in. Did me good to reread the first few paragraphs of this update. I’m sure I’ll end up loving my site and project.

What I do know is that I’ll be working with an American NGO called Population Services International (PSI). They are a health-related NGO and mostly do HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns and condom use stuff here in Africa. They are world-wide though. They also market treated mosquito nets to prevent malaria. That’s what I’ll be helping them with. They just decided to move the project to this new town and so they haven’t got anything set up yet, including my housing.

My town is called Kamsar and is smack on the coast. It’s an industrial town and has a bauxite mine and factory as well as being a port. Sounds real pretty, huh? Yeah, I think I used up all my luck in Kenya in terms of a beautiful and peaceful site. What it does have is internet access and a large population of ex-pats, mostly Americans who work with the bauxite mine and factory. There is a commissary with American food. There is also a mailbox where I can put letters with American stamps and they’ll be taken to the U.S. and mailed from there. It works the other way around too, for letters only. You send letters to an address in PA using a 37 cent stamp and it gets to me in Kamsar. Check for the address on the Contact Me page.

Can’t tell you about my housing but chances are very high that I’ll have all the amenities as this is a wealthy town with all the bells and whistles (a.k.a. water and electricity). It’s a difficult place to describe. Everyone told me grand things about it but no one had actually been there to see it for themselves, they’re all just going by rumor. I heard it was really developed and luxurious. What I saw on site visit was nowhere near what everyone made it out to be. Other than wide open spaces with paved roads there’s not much there that’s developed. Not many buildings to speak of. Yes, there is a patisserie (bakery) and a commissary with American goods (food). That’s all within the same block though and as best as I can tell, makes up the bulk of the "downtown". No building is taller than one story and they all are warehouse type buildings that blend in with the surrounding dirt. I’ve got an aerial picture of it on My Photos page that I came across and took a digital photo of.

Oh, I have a site mate. One of the trainees from my group is going to be in the same town. His name is Kevin and he’ll be working in an IT related project nearby. It’ll be weird having someone so close after being so isolated in Kenya. There are several other volunteers about an hour away in a town called Boke. Most of the people in my training group are in the middle region of Guinea, a region called Fouta Djalon. That’s where I really wanted to be. There are dramatic cliffs and waterfalls and lots of good hiking not to mention cooler temps.

My APCD knew I wanted cooler temps but felt that my site would be a better career move and allow me more professional development. This is exactly what I told her I would prefer to get vs. nice scenery, if it came to that. After all, the reason I chose to do a 3rd year was to develop my international skills and marketability. Plus, I’m rather limited in what I can accomplish in just one year vs. two. My project will allow me to hit the ground running and actually see accomplishments in my short time here. Trying to make myself feel better about not being in the cooler climate. The trainees who spent the week in the Fouta region actually got cold. Me, I sweated it out in Boke with temps reaching 128. Yes, 128 degrees Fahrenheit.

Story time:

Ok, let me relate to you a story about my nightly bathing ritual at my homestay. I take my bucket bath at night, usually after nightfall. I take my flashlight with me as there are always some enormous cockroaches hanging about inside the bathing, a.k.a. peeing room. Well, lately I’ve had another visitor in the peeing, I mean, bathing room. A frog. The first time I scooted it out with a stick but the second night I just let it stay in there with me as it didn’t seem to mind me being there so why should I mind it?

Well, tonight I shone my flashlight in there, mostly looking for the cockroaches and didn’t see my frog. Whatever. I go to close the door and something moves across my feet. I do a quick dance that would win me honors at any soft shoe competition but I don’t yell out. Mostly cause I recognize that it’s not a cockroach feeling, it’s more of a frog feeling. Until you’ve experienced both for yourself I can’t possibly explain it.

Sure enough, I shine my flashlight around the room and spot the frog. It looks at me as if to say, Hey, why didn’t you wait for me? I let it stay put and went about my business. Tomorrow night I think I’ll name it. What do you think about Tom? Peeping Tom. Oh, speaking about peeping, I saved the life of a chick today. A tiny chicken. There is a huge square hole dug up next to my house. I’m thinking it’s going to be the latrine hole for my future bathroom or maybe even a septic tank. It’s only 2 ft. away from a drinking well but that doesn’t seem to bother anyone. I don’t use this well for my drinking water so I don’t much care one way or the other but many do use it for drinking. Yuck.

Anyway, I’m outside peeling an orange to suck on. By the way, they peel their oranges with a knife but don’t go all the way to the meat. They keep the white outer skin on and just cut a small, mouth-sized opening at the top and then suck out the juice by squeezing the bottom of the orange and moving up the orange as the juice moves up. You ought to try it. I’m hooked.

Anyway, I’m out there and hear this peeping sound. I peer over the edge of the hole and see a tiny chick 12 feet below peering up at me - (the hole is empty, save for the chick as the toilet isn’t near to completion yet) I rush into action as any animal lover would. My host family of course doesn’t seem to be nearly as concerned as I am and it takes them 4 hours to find a ladder (that is just within their compound) and someone to go down into the hole and fetch the chick. I hope they at least name it after me. Actually, no telling whose chick it is. Animals run around willy nilly here. They belong to someone certainly, but they have the run of the village during the day.

Often times we’ll be having class near my house (there is a big open space just to the side of my house where we have our SED sessions, under a huge mango tree) and a sheep or goat will come rambling by, bleating away. Chickens and their chicks are a common distraction too. Not to mention the errant kids that just hang out and stare at us during our sessions. If they make too much noise our teachers will get up and make to swat them and they run away. Hey, us white folks are better than TV!!

Ok, another animal story. The second night at my homestay I’m putting my stuff away in a small attached room to my bedroom. I disturb a mouse which runs up the wall and into the empty and unfinished bathroom next door. I brought 2 mouse traps with me as I had similar rodent problems in Kenya and the poison they sold locally never seemed to work for me. So, that night I put out the trap, after trapping my finger repeatedly, and put a juicy morsel of food on the trigger.

Sure enough come morning I have one dead mouse. I put the trap back out the next night cause it may have been just one of a family of mice. I put food out on the trap again but this time when I check it in the morning I find the food gone but the trap un-sprung. Hum. Decide to try it again the next night but come morning the same thing has occurred. Now I’m just encouraging rodents to come into my room for a free tidbit.

Thought the family’s cat would be a good second option and I was just about to brave having it sleep in my room (it’s got lots of fleas and always tries to jump up on my bed - been there before with a bed full of fleas and would rather not go there again). So the next day I’m in my room and the cat runs in. It’s curling around my legs and purring when all of a sudden a mouse runs out from under my bed and makes for the unfinished bathroom. The damn cat just watches with interest as it makes its way across the room.

So, there goes Plan B. In its defense the cat is pregnant so maybe it’s too tired to chase mice. Whatever. I’m back to trying to trap it. I’ve been putting tiny pieces of food on the trigger in such a way that I’m sure the mouse has to pry it off and thus trip the trap. No. I’ve got one damn smart mouse. Last night I heard rustling around and when I turned on my flashlight, there was the mouse on top of the water filter (two buckets) which sits on my desk. It’s just staring at me and then disappears. It probably launched itself over the trap unscathed as I swear I heard it giggle.

Oh, here’s another animal story. Did you know chickens could and do climb trees? Yep, got a picture to prove it. It was up there trying to eat some fruit. It’s a kind of fruit I’ve never seen before. Kind of looks like a bleached out tiny pear. It tastes like an Asian pear. They call them apples. There are apples here too, but usually can only be bought in Conakry. I just can’t wait for mango season. Now that I know I have to compete with chickens for the best fruit though,,,

Well, I’m closer and closer to the end of training. Swearing in will be April 1st. Really looking forward to having my own space and cooking for myself. This assumes of course that my housing gets worked out in the next few weeks. Oh, guess what? The other night (I wrote most of this update 2 weeks ago) I finally got the mouse. I put peanut butter all over the trigger and sure enough it was so habituated to getting a free meal that it went right for the trap soon after I turned the lights off for the night. I heard the trip spring shut and then heard a pathetic shuffling as it was slowly suffocating but still trying to escape. I don’t feel bad in the least.

Check out my new photos. Ok, take care and don’t forget to write - I know I said my site will have email access but it doesn’t mean I’ll use it often or that it will always be working. Snail mail is still a great thing to get and so far I’ve only gotten one postcard. Thank you Elizabeth! I’m giving the rest of you the benefit of the doubt and thinking you sent letters but they got lost. I’m holding off on writing any more letters until I receive some - and getting an email from you after I wrote you a letter doesn’t count. Get the hint? I really, really want snail mail.