A very Merry Christmas and a happy Coup year...

all I want for Christmas...is coup....baby

Just a few days before christmas, we heard the news that the President of Guinee, Lansana Conte' had died. Now, there had always been rumors that he was dying but most people didn't give them much credit as he had been dying for the past 10 years or so. But with his death, the military took power and the constitution was dissolved and the civilian government disbanded. A military official, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, declared himself president and has appointed a 32-member council to rule untill the country can hold free, credible, and transparent elections in December of 2010. He is calling his new regime the National Council for Democracy and Development (CNDD). As the country had already begun the process of registering voters, I hope that the international community with which President Camara is to be meeting with today will convince him to hold elections earlier sometime in 2009. Despite all of the hubbub and worry, we are being told that many Guineans are very happy with the change and the turnover of power has been very peaceful thus far. The late president Conte' was buried today and the Prime Minister,Ahmed Tidiane Souare has ceded to the military president.




Through all of this, Jon and I have been safely swaddled (not unlike the baby jesus) in the volunteer house in the capital with air conditioning, electricity, and internet. We passed a lovely, though slightly unreal christmas, together with other volunteers. And amazingly we were able to bring in a lot of the christmas spirit with decorations, food, and even a christmas tree and eggnog! we spent a few late nights stringing ribbons, decorating the tree, and cutting snowflakes out of paper and I must say that we did very well. Jon even got into the spirit by playing Guinean RISK with the fellows in Santa hats.

My friend Isy and I carried on my christmas tradition of making sugar cookies. We quickly realized however that we did not have any cookie cutters at all. So what did we do...we improvised like all good PCVs and made cookies cutter trees and santas and candycanes out of ...what else: beer cans. I must say that I am very impressed with everyone's christmas spirit and wonderful creativity.

I was able to get a nice call on Skype from my mom, dad, bro, and my aunt and uncle. It was so wonderful to hear all their voices through the magic of the interwebs. Its always so nice to hear the voices of friends and family always, and especially at christmas. There have been many troubles with our cell phone reception and we have missed many calls so I was glad that they were able to get through. For anyone who has been trying to reach us, keep trying and hopefully you will get through!! We love you!





At this time, we are allowed to leave the compound during the day but there is a government imposed curfew from 8:00 PM until 6 in the morning. Most likely we will all be going back to our site a smidge early, most likely the beginning of the week. Although Jon and I were really excited to spend some time out on the islands off the coast, it seems that until things are a bit more stable, we will be passing our time back at site.

Hopefully we will have the time for one more update before we leave but for now, Merry Christmas to Everyone. You were in our thoughts and very missed during this holiday.

Kim

I only (claim to) love the night

no flashlight : mt. eerie

I can only love those dark hills
because I live in the day.

I can only see the mountain
because I live in town.

I only (claim to) love night
because I have only smelled it.

Actually living in the night means not talking about it.

I can only say "no flashlight"
because once I accidentally forgot it.

Actually living in the night means actually walking
in the dark, means

to find caves in song.

Every night when the sun slowly sinks and as the last liquid colors leak from the horizon I think about this song. The nights here without electricity or light pollution are so dark that we are nightly confronted by our reliance on light. We go though incredible numbers of candles and I can say that I have never felt so rested in my life as our nights tend to end very early as the clockworks of our body have changed in tune with the moon. But all of our friends and neighbors wander through the night, fully aware and a part of that darkness. I sleep with my headlamp next to my head, ready for any sudden noise, with that infantile yet ingrained fear of the darkness. My body now is so accustomed to waking with the light and sleeping when the sun goes down that here, in Conakry, amidst the lights and television and computers, I am constantly overstimmulated and I stay up until strange hours of the night enthralled with Facebook because my body doesn't know how to shut off now with out that darkness. Perhaps I am beginning to love the night.


In other news, I pedaled out to a nearby village last week at the request of a student of mine in my 7th grade class named Bintouraby.I was able to go and visit her whole wonderful family. We went out into her father's plantation and I saw acres of orange trees, rice patties, palms, and even coco and pineapple plants for the first time. Bintou had specifically asked me to bring my camera and I was able to take many phots of her family. Everyone is so pleased to have their photgraph taken and some of the nicest gifts that you can give to someone is a picture that you took. We also went over to where her father processes all of the rice that he grows. The picture can not do it justice but the dried rice is put through a machine that is run by a motor of which both appear to have been made 100 years ago and leak oil like a seive and the shaf is removed from the kernel. After that, the rice is shaken and sifted using these big round woven discs and the rice is gathered to be sold. After my visit I was given a huge bag of oranges, grapefruits, bannana, and plaintains...and to top it all off....a rooster. It is difficult for me to accept the overwhelming generosity of the guinean culture but for them, that is just how things are done. They told me that I am now a part of their family and hope that I visit soon. They were so thankful that I was teaching at the school. Its completely overwhelming since sometimes at school I feel like I'm just treading water with the students and yet they are so n=very thankful for the work that we are doing, or at least trying to do. Above is a picture of Bintou and our new, soon to be name rooster friend. Our other cadeau chicken, Mia, had been carefully attending to 9 eggs and we look forward to seeing the funny new fluffy ones when we get back to site.



Other then that, we are just resting and relaxing in Conakry and doing all the research for secondary projects that we would like to implement in our village. At this time we have 3 projects that the village would like our help with: 1. a solar panel to run a water pump that would bring water to 5 spouts throughout the village. Right now it runs sporatically with the assistance of a generator but when it is working everyone comes running with theor buckets and bidons. 2. Help to research and set up a chimpanzee reserves on Mt. Bena..yeah thats right, aparently there are chimps here! How rad! So we are going to try and work with the Jane Goodhall Society with that. hopefully we will be taking a trip up to see the area after the new year so stay tuned for photos of that. 3. The expansion and imporovement of the market space in moosaysah. Although this project will have to wait until my Sussu gets a lot better, but it is something that would really benefit all the hard working market ladies in the village.



We are doing a little decorating around the volunteer house to get ready for Christmas but its a bit hard to get into the spirit when you look out the window to plam trees or take a step away from the AC. Hopefully today when we commence the cookie making and christmas music, the spirit willl arrive. But we have set up a little (fake) christmas tree but Jon's mom sent us some balsam fir insense so we are trying to pretend a bit. If only we had one of the cheesy fake fireplaces by which to hang the stockings with care. I will be putting up some pictures of our christmas festivities in our next post. Jon and I are planning to spend a few days out on the Isle de los off the coast of Guinee which is supposed to be really stunning.

More to come but just wanted to get something posted. Hope that you are all well and are traveling safely to your holiday destinations. I hope that the falling snow is beautiful and that you can all curl up and enjoy it with some tea, a napping cat, a crackling fire and a nice toasty blankets. i miss that.

Love to you all,
Kim and Jon

That turkey has one hell of a carbon footprint.

As I'm writing this, Kim is finishing up with some last minute correspondence and school work on the computer and the two of us are trying to prepare ourselves for our trip back to site.
We had a wonderful time celebrating Thanksgiving and hope the same for friends and family back in the states. The Peace Corps flew in two turkeys (hence the title) which we diligently obliged by devouring. Beyond that, everyone lent a hand to make side dishes and deserts in copious array giving rise to a veritable smorgasbord (to quote Templeton the rat from 'Charlottes Web'). Besides eating Kim and I joined our fellow volunteers in watch a great deal of movies. I finally saw the new Indiana Jones (rather disappointing at parts) and IronMan (which I probably enjoyed to much). Other then that, the two of us passed the holiday weekend in relative quite enjoying the sites (but not the sounds and smells) of the local beach bar which offers beautiful sunsets framed by palm frond silhouettes.
A couple interesting photos to share.
Here’s me carving one of the turkeys with one of our Peace Corps buddies.

Here is a picture of a really neat bug Kim managed to photograph.

Here is a photo of the homestead with some of the neighborhood kids.

Here is a portrait of Rambo. I hope to take a better photo of this wonderful piece of modern art but, deadlines being what they are, I was forced to post as is.

Here is a second, more refined approach the medium of visual representation brought to you by my little Guinean neighbor/brother.

Lastly a portrait of the artist (or rather a photograph)

An aside: there's a forthcoming photo of a huge Baobab that Kim and I have been meaning to show off. It’s striking, and makes me feel like John Muir when I get up close. Until next time, be well. Know that were thinking of home, friends, and family.
Yours as always,
Jon and Kim

a letter to my future self

I was thinking that I would take this Thankgiving to post a bit about the things that I have been thankful for in the time that I have been here. Also, as the time approaches for the new group (G-17) to arrive, I thought I would also empart a little advice that I wish I had known before touched down in Conakry. I know that for months before my departure I was searching the internet and reading all the blogs and packing lists that I could get my hands on. And so...with out further adeiu..

A letter to my future self:

1. Clothing: Even though I tried to pare my clothing down to the bare essentials, I still wish I had brought so much less. Clothing can be custom made for really cheap and if you can find a good tailor, you can have some really wonderful things made for less then $10 american dollars. Also every market has a place to buy secand-hand clothing and I often find great quality clothes and funny t-shirts there. Also at all regional houses there are free boxes where volunteers, when frantically packing to go home after their service, leave a good quantity of nice (and sometimes bizzare) items that you can browse for free!

The clothing that I appreciate the most here are those that are comfortable, light and airy. For men, try to find lightweight pants. The bain of my existence is handwashing pants...it takes a long time and they get very heavy to scrub well. I brought 2 pairs of chacos and though I love how durable they are, I wish I had bought one pair of choco flipflops instead of 2 of the strappy models. Plain, basic cotton t-sirts are great because you can usually find cloth to match one color but because most fabrics have multiple zany colors. Darkish colors are good because things get really dirty here. I live in tanktops and Jon wears cotton hanes colored t-shirts almost everyday. Both of those things were great investments.

2.Books
I obsessed over my book choices for a month before leaving. I didn't bring that many books but I assure you, and new volunteers, you will see when you arrive at Conackry, that there are more then enough books to satify even the biggest bookworms. Each Regional house has a hugelibrary of books to choose from. Bring 1 or two if you're worried, but really you will have plenty of books to read and time to devote to the pastime.

3. Clothes washing and bathroom experiences
I was so worried before I came here about what I would do without a washing machine. Now, as Jon says, we can wash our clothes anywhere in the world. After the first few times that are pretty labor intensive, you get into the rythym of it all and now its not a big deal in the least. As for the bathroom stuff, I hadn't really thought about it too much before I left but within a few days pouring water over myself to shower and squating to do my business it seemed perfectly normal. And strange to say, I sometimes prefer it this way. And don't worry, people will give you hilarious instructions on how to preform all bathroom operations when you get here.

4. Weight loss and Illness
I gave much thought and worry to how much weight we would lose here. Jon and I have both lost a good amount of weight during training and Jon especially is slimming down. This is mostly (amazingly) because we actually eat healthier here then at home. Without junk food and midnight gas station runs, suddenly we are at much healthier weights. And snack food here generally consists of peanuts, whatever fruit is in season, and manioc in multiple forms....not too many trans fats to be found! As for illnesses, thus far (knock of wood inshalah) we have been lucky. I had a bit of a stomach virus when we first arrived but other then that we've been alright. I think the most important thing is to wash your hands a lot. During training I always carried a bottle of hand sanitizer to use before I ate. I have become less dependent on that but I still wash my hands very often.

5. Nice smelling things!
Sometimes after a hard day, all I want to do is wash my face with my St. Ives Apricot face wash. It has gotten me through many a difficult day in training. nice soaps and shampoos can make a bad day disappear...or at least just make one smell better and that always is a plus! Don't skimp on these. I am so very thankful for those nice smalling things!

6 Friends and packages
Receiving emails, letters and packages from friends is always a heart lifting experience. Seeing pictures and hearing stories of home diminishes the distance for a little while and re-news our resolve. I am so thankful for all news of life at home, pictures,emails, letters, calls. Thank you so much!

7. Life without running water or electricity
There is a saying here that "Yeah, I could have running water, but it seems cruel to make the kids run ". All water that we use for drinking, washing, cooking, or cleaning, and "flushing" the tiolet has to be carried up the hill to our house. Before we figured out that there was a well much closer behind our house, we would send "petites" to fill and carry our bidons of drinking water. We would pay them and give them oranges or chandy for their work but always I feel bad. We have tried and often do this work ourselves, but when we are tired, or sick, or just plain lazy we ask the kids to do it. Recently the school has been dolling out the punishment for misbhavior of carrying water up to our house. Although the american conscience twinges at this idea, in guinee this is a normal practice...and lets be real...thats all water that I don't have to carry. And to be honest, sometimes its satisfying to see the object of my classroom frustrations sweating and grunting their way up the hill. :)

Life without electricity is very strange. The darkness of night here is all encompassing. I have never experienced darkness as I have here. We tend to go to sleep at 9 each night. Now that I am in Conackry, I feel so overstimulated by light and sound that I tend to stay up until all hours of the night watching movies or using the internet simply because I can. It is during these dark nights that I am even more imporessed with Jon's choice of ipod and and so very thankful for our headlamps and rechargeable batteries.



In other news,
We have expanded our family to include our new chicken friend, Mia. She was a gift to us from the "president de femmes"or the president of the women's groups in Moosayah. She is beautiful and we are hoping soon to expand our family with some new little fluffy guys. We also "borrow" our neighbors kids, or more correctly they borrow us as well as Milo, the lovable forever puppy that naps continuously on our porch.


I am going to post a more informative update later, but for now, please enjoy a few photos and to all the new folks headed to Philly and beyond in the coming days!!! Du Courage and Bonne Chance!!!! We look forward to meeting you!!!

Impressions of 'site'

Hello everyone Kim and I have just come to visit Conakry after spending nearly a month at our site (see photos). The people - and our immediate neighbors in particular - are remarkably kind people and we can't imagine a nicer community to be living in for the duration of our Peace Corps service. Our house is on the top of a hill. Through our bedroom window we can see the beautiful Mount Bena and every night we sit on the porch, often with the neighbors dog Milo laying at our feet. For the first 2 weeks we cooked only with charcoal outside on our porch. Our "host mom" would help us out and bring over rice and sauce and, depending on the quantity of fish, it was generally very good. We have been learning how to make various dishes with eggplant or "abergines" au francais ou coba coba in Soussou as that is practically the only vegetable that they sell in the market. Kim and I try to take turns going down to the little market we have and the ladies harangue us in their light-hearted way: either we eat too much bread or we don't eat enough spicey peppers They have apparently been keeping tabs on each purchase we've made since we've arrived. Most mornings we go to the market and or ears are filled with the market ladies giving us their greetings of "Mama Nana Soumah!" (Kim's guinean name) or "Tana mu xri!" Good Morning in Soussou. The market is crowed with people buying and selling. Young girls and boys walk around with huge plates on their heads filled with corn or sweet potatoes or sweet seaseme candies. There is generally many shouts of "Fote' Ca Va?" which is pronounced Sa Ba by cute little Guinean children. This basically means "White person, How are you?" The market is full of so many different colors and smells: piles of dried, smoked fish, colorful "bengbe" or very spicy piedmont pepers, huge bowls of rice, salt, sugar, homemade soaps, beans. Spread all over the ground are displays of manioc, chives, eggplants, potate and manioc leaves, which are used to make sauces, and huge baskets of oranges. Every night we sit out on our porch and watch the lightning or storms that are very common at this time of the year. We tend to go to bed very early every night. Without lights, television, or computers...there's not too much left to do but go to sleep. Kim's finally conseeded that having brought the Ipod was a good decision and that "as much as she may have griped about it, it's nice to be able to have comfort of watching American TV while in a little village in West Africa". Most of the water that we use for washing is from the rain that we collect from the roof. Water for drinking is taken from the well and is treated and filtered. We have to go down to a pump every so often and fill up our bidons. To do this we make a very precarious trip with the heavy containers on our bikes and then push them up our huge hill. Needless to say this is very difficult. However, it is very humbling to see that ANY guinean child is ready and willing to put that heavy thing on their head and carry it up that crazy hill with out a problem. The other day Kim decided to see for herself what is was like. With much laughter, we tried to balance that heavy bidon on her head. She didn't get 50 yards before she was pretty much done with that experiment. This system of getting "petites" to do the heavy lifting is a culturally acceptable form of work for kids and I am fairly certain that we will be paying some children to get our water from now on! School began without too many hitches. Although school was slated to begin on the 15th, it didn't start until the next Monday the 20th. This allowed us to have our closet neighbor PCV come and visit. This in turn allowed for a welcome change of pace and the oportunity to see our community through another persons eyes. In the end, the experience made us particularly grateful for all the little things that have conspired to make our village so 'right for us'. This Thursday we formally gave the school the donations that were collected at our going away party. Everone was very grateful for the supplies. (Thanks everyone for all your help!) Recenetly we recieved a gas tank for the camping stove we bought last month. This has made our life sooo much easier, in that I know longer need to start a charcoal fire using plastic bags and wait an hour or two whenever meal time rolls around. That being said, I think we appreciated the food more when we were forced to wait. We also had some furniture made which turned our really nice. Along with interior decorating, Kim and I have been putting together the beginings of a garden which required us to commision a Guinean man to go out to the woods and cut palm fronds and wood for us to consturct a wall from. Our town is prowling with hungry sheep and goats just waiting to pounce on our unsuspecting seedlings. Since we've been in Conakry we've been able to relax a little, use the internet, watch some movies, watch some news, eat some schwarma, and get some shopping done( and the AC is a bonus). Also, two of our friends are finishing their service and are headed home this weekend so we've been able to spend a little time with them, which has been nice. We're leaving to head back to site in the very near future and don't anticipate another opportunity to post an entry roughly until Thanksgiving. Until then, we hope everyone is doing well, that you enjoy the pictures, and that you know we think of home often and miss you all. Jon and Kim

a brick of francs

Tomorrow morning Jonathan and I will finally be sworn in as "vrai" volunteers with the Corps de la Paix. It's all pretty sureal right now. I can say with certainty that training has been the most severe test of my endurance then anything I have as yet experienced.
That being said, I am both relieved and slightly sad that training is over. On the one hand, our lives are finally ours once more to be lived in the manner of our own choosing. We will finally have a house, a space of our own and independence. we will have time to adjust, to rest, and maybe even to read. And yet on the other had, we are really stepping out from our nice and sheltered microcosm into a lot of unknowns. Most likely for many of us, the language that we have feverishly been learning may be of little truly practical use when we get to our sites and 3/4 of the population only speaks sussu or malinke.
Today was a very strange day. Today we went to the bank to withdraw money for our adjustment to site (aka all the stuff we will need such as gas camp stoves, pots, pans, spices, cutlery, plates, etc) Needless to say this is quite a bit of money under normal circumstances. In Guinea however, the rate of inflation is incredible. One american dollar is equivilent to about 4,500 Guinean Francs. So as we roll up to the bank teller to take out our 6 million Guinean Francs we are handed a brick and I mean a brick of money banded together with plastic lacing. And then upon leaving the bank we have to pass by people sitting on the ground begging and refuse as we cary our wads of money to buy groceries or treat ourselves to icecream and pizza...a luxury that most guineans will seldem or never have.
And the sureality continues...




Today I was able to have two short converstations with two wonderful friends. It was amazing to hear their voices. Please know everyone that even though we aren't able to call or write all that often that you are thought of all the time. We miss you all very much!

The next few days should be pretty busy for us. Tomorrow we are going to the US embassy to swear in as Volunteers. After there will be much swimming and fete-ing for the next few days.( I have heard rumors of pig roasts and bbqs and broniews and creme brulee!!) We also have a lot of shopping to do. Between now and then, I will try to post some more pictures on facebook and elsewhere so you can see a bit about what our lives here are like here. And hopefully byearly next week we will be at our site celebrating the end of ramadan!!!

Love to all!! Enjoy the pictures!!! I will try to finish posting more later!

Well it is Africa

Well we did make it to the Capital a week after posting the last update. Unfortunately there were rolling blackouts and the internet cafes were non-operational. For that reason and a host of others Kim and I have been, more or less, incomunicato for the better part of a month. I'd like to take a moment and apologize to all those who have patiently waited for Kim and I - with bated breath I'm sure - but we have sincerly been unable to post until now. That being said, I think you can expect us to be updating this blog much more frequently over the next few weeks.
Our Pre-Service Training, as they call it, is ending come wednesday and we will be affectating (swearing in) at the end of the week. This means that anyone hoping to hear back from us should try to email us because we'll have the facilities available to correspond.

It's difficult to tell a single, cohesive story about the last month of 'stage'. Too much has happened. Kim and I visited our site and met some of the villagers. We went to a soccer game and were introduced to most of the town. We saw the school where we'll be teaching (pictures forthcoming), and met the sous prefet (local government minister). It's a pretty little town and we'll post some pictures of it in the near future. When we returned to the town where we're being trained Kim and I started 'practice school' which is exactly what it sounds like. What was originally a nerve wracking concept, teaching 40-something Guineans, became common place and we both feel very optimistic about our ability to manage our classes when we arrive at site. Practice school ended about a week ago and we're presently visiting with our host country counterparts (our highschool principle) at a mountain retreat. Here we're discussing our plans for when we arrive at site and start work. Everything is going well and things in general are becoming more 'normal' - if that can be said.

Thanks to everyone who has been sending us packages, letters, and emails. They really make the distance barrable.
All our love
Jon and Kim

du vin, du courage, currant, and princess punch

I have been going over in my head how I could possibly describe the last month in one cohesive blog entry. I am fairly certain that I will be unable to aptly capture what a whirlwind of an experience: both good and bad we have had thus far.

...Je vais essayer...

We have been in training for a bit over a month now in a small village. This is a place where all water that you use has been carried in a bucket on top of someone's head. We sleep every night under mosquito netting to avoid contracting malaria. This is a place where if the electricity comes as it does somestimes, it is either in the middle of the night and you wake up with every light on in the house or on very lucky nights when it comes on at 7pm, the entire village cheers in joy (including ourselves). Living rooms are filled to capacity and tvs are dragged outside so that people can enjoy the luxury of watching badly recorded pirated movies usually in a language that no one understands anyway, crazy Bollywood classics, or most usually locally produced choppy and degraded movies in the local language of Susu.Our toilet is a hole in the floor. Everyday, we try to communicate very complicated things in child-like French and usually fail miserably. We shower everyday using a cup and a bucket. We have a neighbor that loves to speak Susu at us even though she knows that we have no idea what she is saying and it makes me glad that smiles transcend language.

Everyday we go to language classes, Tech classes for our subjects ( TEFL- Teaching English as a foreign language and Physique), Cross cultural sesssions ( to try to better understand Guinean culture), Medical, Safety, and Admin sessions round out the mix and in general, to use a phrase from Colleen, its like trying to drink from a fire hose. Classes are generally punctuated by one or two heavy rainstorms a day, and sometimes the rain is so intense on the tin roof that you can't hear anything and we just play cards or plan lessons or sleep to the sound of the rain. On Tuedays and thursdays we have what are lovingly known as "bureau lunches". These are the days that you look forward to because you know that if nothing else goes right, you will at least have a king-sized feast waiting for you at noon.

We are staying with the Soumah family, a wonderful Susu family that live about a 10 minute walk from "L'ecole 3" where we have our classes each day. Our host mom is named Cadiatou and she is a wonderfully warm and genuine person.Her husband, Cabrahal recently passed away and I can tell it has been difficult for the family. Jonathan and I were both given Guinean names and he was named after this man which is quite an honor. I was given the name of Nana. My family loves this names because when they add AHHH to it as they often do when they are teasing me of if I inevitably do or say something silly, it makes the name for Pineapple in french. They get a big kick out of this and I enjoy it as well.

Hopefully I will take a group picture soon and post it and I will explain who's who in the Soumah clan.

We arrived here during the height of the rainy season which means that we also arrived at the height of mosquito season and despite all my best efforts those suckers find me pretty tastey and I'm covered in bites. But the rain has been so nice to listen to at night. Some of the storms have been amazigly intense. A few nights ago, lightening hit the house of a neighboring fellow volunteer and disintigrated his phone charger that was plugged into the outlet. So there have been many weather-related excitements.

It has deffinitely been the most intense month of my life filled with the most imposible highs and lows. From the lows it seems that one may never resurface and from the highs one wonders what all the fuss was about before. Unfortunately, Jonathan tends to take the brunt of my frustrations but luckily for me he does so gracfully and lovingly for the most part. I can only hope that I can be as supportive to him.

We are currently taking a tour of some volunteer sites in the region and towards the middle of next week will spend a day at the site that will be our home for the next 2 years: Moussayah. We are in email contact with some volunteers that stayed there and we are looking forward to corresponding and getting and idea of the place. We are staying at our Regional Capital in the city of Boke with many of the other volunteers in the area. They have been showing us around to all the hot spots (aka places that sell cheese, icecream, and american snackfoods. Tonight they threw a princess-themed party and much hilarity and dancing ensued. I have pictures to post soon.

I will hopefully be able to post again sometime this week and there is another trip to the capital in the works in a week. Hopefully this small snippit will tide you over untill then....

Love to all and to all a good night!
Be Well,
Kim

TouchDown!!

We touched down this morning at 9:45 local time in Conakry, Guinea!!! Just stepping onto the runway onto actual land just made what had, up to that point been a very surreal experience astoundingly real. I was overwhelmed with emotions...so much time preparing and here we were all were finally stepping into the country that will be our home for the next 2 years. Confused and jet-lagged we met all of our Peace Corps directors and administrators and walked out to the baggage claim where we were greeted warmly by shouts of welcome and joy from the Peace Corps Volunteers already in country. And for what would be another of many time this day, my eyes misted over in a fog of tears of overwhelming joy, apprehension, relief, and sadness too.

Today was a whirlwind. We were all really wiped out from our travels and road weary but the Volunteers and PC Staff helped move our heavy bags to vans where as we traveled to the headquarters, we saw our first glimpse of what a "developing nation"really means. Needles to say, our mouths were hanging open for a while and I certainly had some feelings of misgivings as I saw before me what I had seen only in pictures, moving there in real life, with all its scents, sounds, and colors.

To add to the unreality of the day, we reached the PC headquarters to find them safely corralled with walls covered in beautiful murals and rooms with AC, bathrooms with flush toilets, and a wonderful lunch not far away. We met our countrydDirector, education facilitators, and so many of the staff that our tired minds can barely remember their faces at this time, not to mention their names. But all that will come. I practiced my french and as they say, petit a petit, little by little....

We hung out today with the Peace Corps Volunteers and asked millions of questions, and they were endlessly accomodating, and no matter what stories they told, the good and the bad, they all agree that this is an experience that is not to be missed. Sitting here now, with a second wind, trying to wind down for the first night in guinea (and under a mosquito net no less!) I know that this is so. And though I'm nervous, I'm so incredibly inspired by the people that I'm meeting, those in our staging groups and those from previous groups, that I know that we would not give up this experience for anything in the world.

Love to you al! And let the adventure begin!!!!!

Be Well,
Kim and Jon

Packlist

So it's a staple among those who volunteer with the Peace Corps(pcv) to post a pack list (plus I advertised that it was forth coming). Well, we arrived in Africa this morning and I already have regrets that I brought a bunch of unnecessary stuff. In this spirit I post a pack list of what Kim and I brought annotated with thanks, regrets, and what i'll falsly title 'insights'. (By the way, Guinea is great, the people are amazing, PC HQ is unbelievable. Kim is posting applicable content as I'm typing this...its a race; expect typos)
Books:
-Mobey Dick
-A Prayer for Owen Meany
-A Game of Thrones
-Lonely Planet's Guide to West Africa (Guinea PCV library honestly has an entire shelve dominated by these)
-War and Peace
-Book of French verb conjugation
-What is a What
-L'Estanger
-Le Petit Prince
-The Scarlet Letter
Don't worry guys we got a ton of audio books of librivox and the pcv library is pretty huge

Electronics
-Ipod classic (thanks again to kyle and joshe for thier help with the content)
-Itrip
-Portable radio
-discman
-tape recorder
-solio solar charger (i've yet to see this thing work although other volunteers vouch for it)
-Battery charger (along with a bunch of rechargables)


Clothes
-too many pairs of underwear to count
-a negligable amount of sox
-bathing suits
-I brought some shorts, kim brought some dance pants
-quick dry, ultralight towels, one each
-4 days worth of dressy outfits each
-2 ties which I wonder when I'll use
-cotten shirts
-wiking shirts
-dress shoes each(mine I regret bringing, or atleast wearing while traveling. I don't particularly forsee wearing them a great deal)
- 1 ratty hat each
-Chocos, one set for me, 2 for Kim (greatist things ever)

Accessories
-4 pairs of sunglasses between us
-Scissors
-3 multi tools (thanks to the Roys and to Kyle G)
-tweezers
-clippers
-an absurd amount of pens, pencils, markers, and crayons (thanks to the friends of the Gibbs family; these supplies are to be donated when we get to site...or so I assume)
-2 cheap watches
-3 nalgenes
-3 headlamps
-a whole bunch of granola bars
-hand sanitzer
-additional toiletries
-a bunch of deodorant (tom's of maine)
-a great big bundel of paperwork
-1 sleeping bag each
-a 2 person tent
-some toesies (to help channel that yoga magic)
-a bunch of elastic bands, tuperware, and ziplock bags
-duct tape
-map of the US
-Hammock (can't wait till I'm using this)
-something like 12 toothbrushes (as if they don't have them in Africa, what was i thinking)

Gifts
-skittles
-maple syrup
-a picturebook presenting different arial veiws across the US


to all those whom we already miss,
be well

Jon (and kim by proxy)

last minute laundry

Here we are in Philly! We've just undergone 2 days of staging, or "pre-training training". We've finally been able to meet the 23 other volunteers that we will be spending the next 27 months with. I walked into the conference room Monday a bundle of nerves and today, as we left it after 2 days of ice breakers and flip charts, cultural sensitivity and logistics, yellow fever vaccinations and our first mefloquinine (malaria prophylaxsis) pills, we stepped out as colleagues,friends in the making, ready to take the next step on the adventure that has drawn us all together.

Tomorrow, we make the trek to New York that will eventually land us in Guinea, and although I feel nervous about all that is to come, the excitement of learning a new language, floundering and finding my place in a place foreign and unknown, and hopefully, finding some sort of friendship and acceptance in my new Guinean home far overshadows any doubts and concerns.

Here. we. go.



breathe.

Be well,
Kim

hitting the road

So Kim and I are getting down to the wire. She's already returned to Mass. and I'm getting ready to leave Ft Kent on Tuesday. I'll be stopping in Bangor and Portland to visit and say goodbye to friends as I travel down to stay with Kim's folks in Canton. Its sad to leave the North. Kim and I had a heck of a time this past year what with the snow and the floods. I bet she's happy to have it behind her. We've been waiting and anticipating for this next step so long that I think we grew accustomed to the wait. In a sense I think we're half surprised that our departure date is coming up so soon. With all the things left for us to prepare and pack it seems that we haven't been able to say goodbye to last year.
I'd like to take a second to thank all the faculty at the ft kent high school for the kind letter that they wrote Kim and I. I'd also like to that the members of the 'civil rights team' and the "warriors for change" for their kind gift and for making my year truly memorable. Particularly to the members from the "warriors for change", an incredibly rewarding group of students to work with. Together we managed to collect and send over one hundred and twenty-five pairs of shoes from ft kent to Kenya to provide protection against parasite contraction. Anyone interested in the program should check out Shoe4Africa.com.
I suppose Kim and I will post our pack lists in our next entry. Meanwhile, I've been spending the past couple days trolling librivox for audio books and organizing our ipod. Kim and I invested in a solar charger which we'll use to keep our ipod going since we expect to be with electricity when we arrive at site. We're hoping that between the solar charger and the ipod we'll avoid the depths of homesickness and anxiety that might otherwise come along with living without electricity or running water. It's impressive how much time I've sunk into this ipod. Hopefully serve us well. Maybe if we give it a good, sturdy name like Wilbur or Elinor we'll see positive results. Is that superstitious?
Well I guess that's all for now.

Be well,
Jonathan

James Dickey Poem from Rachel (my love)

FACING AFRICA

These are stone jetties,
And, in the close part of the night,
Connected to my feet by long
Warm, dangling shadows
On the buttressed water,
Boats are at rest.

Beyond, the harbor mouth opens
Much as you might believe
A human mouth would open
To say that all things are a darkness.
I sit believing this
As the boats beneath me dissolve

And shake with a haunted effort
To come into being again,
And my son nods at my side,
Looking out also
Into dark, through the painted
Living shadows of dead-still hulls

Toward where we imagine Africa
To bloom late at night
Like a lamp of sand held up,
A top-heavy hourglass, perhaps,
With its heaped, eternal grains
Falling, falling

Into the lower, green part
Which gives off quick, leafy flashes
Like glimpses of lightning.
We strain to encounter that image
Halfway from its shore to ours:
To understand

The undermined glowing of sand
Lifted at midnight
Somewhere far out above water,
The effortless flicker of trees
Where a rumor of beasts moves slowly
Like wave upon wave.

What life have we entered by this?
Here, where our bodies are,
With a green and gold light on his face,
My staring child's hand in mine,
And in the stone
Fear like a dancing of people

Closed: Gone Fishing

Although you would never be able to tell from the safety of the Boucher home high on a hill, Ft Kent and a good portion of Aroostook County in Northern Maine experienced very significant flooding beginning yesterday. An above average snowfall combined with 3.5 inches of rain caused huge swelling of waterways and road washouts. The Fish river poured over its banks, flooding West Main St. and The St. John was very close to spilling over it's30 foot dykes.

Jon and I had this vision of us in hip waders lugging sandbags to protect the town from the invading waters. We called around to ask about the need for volunteers early in the morning to no avail so I went to work as usually. After about an hour of checking my email, I was told that I should start moving my office materials to higher areas. Now I work in a Wellness center that also houses a gym with treadmills, weight machines, bikes and elipticles that all had to be lifted up as well. I am assuming that this preparation is in advance of a possibility of flooding in the next few days....that is until I look out and see that Main street is already full of water and that the flood is starting to roll into our parkinglot. Jon had been on his way to pick me up from work but as no cars were being let downtown, he had park about a mile away. When we finally found each other we decided to take a look around and see if anyone needed help to escape the water. We helped one of the business owners to grab stuff from his office and then wandered around looking for other places to volunteer. We traveled by foot all over town looking for places where we could be of use. All that we really saw were people standing around and staring at the oncoming water and saying "Wow, that's pretty crazy." over and over again. We asked everywhere we could, and even went to the command center where all the Emergency Management people were sitting around chatting and eating sandwhiches. It was absurd. There was no sandbagging, there was no resistance to the water's movement...nothing. Every so often some trucks would dump some dirt next to the waters apprach hoping that it would stop it. Sometomes I think that's Ft. Kent's Mantra in fixing problems: just put some dirt on it and it'll be fine-even when that problem is far too much snow and ice or a flooding river....

I have yet to go back downtown to see what the damage is like at work. I think I will take the trip later today. It appears that no one was injured during this flood. Our thoughts go out to all the bussiness and families affected by this extreme weather. Ft. Kent is already a town that has its fair share of difficulties and the town, I think will take this pretty hard as many of the town bussinesses have been affected. I don't think we'll know the full effects of the flood until the water recedes in a few days.

Hope all is well. Send some good vibes up to the County!!! Be Well,
Kim

Snow Balls and Cotton Tails

From Kim

Yup. It snows here. A lot.

And through the experience the last few days of yet another snowstorm we have determined at least one concrete thing about the next 2 years: It will not involve the shoveling of frozen precipitation in any way, shape, or form!!
Buut really....a snow storm on the first day of spring!!!? And with this much snow, we won't see the bare ground let alone flowers until the end of JUNE!!! Yes, its beautiful........................but enough already!!!

I'm sitting here with my ever present copilot, Mr. Kitty Boucher, the handsome but unpredictably malicious badass orange tiger tomcat. I'm listening to NPR while Jonathan plays one of those confounding war strategy games that take 300 hours to play and out of which he somehow gets neverending enjoyment. He's currently conquering Tunisia or Maldovia or someplace and I haven't heard him speak or move for the past 3 hours.

Today was Easter and it was filled with the usual Easter things: Bunny Chocolates, Jelly beans, and far too much Ham eating. AND Yes. I ate ham...and a lot of it. I figure if I'm going to have to eat meat in Africa, I might as well start now and get used to the idea and try to learn how to cook the stuff. And by the way....umm ham is tastey!!!! After 10 years of vegetarianism I'm stepping off the wagon and carefully testing the meaty waters. From all the Peace Corps blogs I've been reading, I'll need to be a lot more flexible with my food preferences or I won't have much to eat.

Jon and I are trying to get used to the idea that in July, after a year and a half of paperwork, beuracracy, and waiting, we will finally be stepping into the adventure we have been longing for. Jon mentioned this in his last blog but I thought I would contribute. At the very begining of this whole process we were told that I would be working in a health extension and Jon would be doing Agroforestry. At first this shocked us as neither of us had any experience in either field. But we rallied and researched and got ourselves accustomed to our new identities over time. With a last minute switch a week ago we have had our placement changed and now it seems that we have lost something very dear to us...something that existed for us in only the most rudimentary and yet very distinct way before. This nacent vision passed out of our lives in an instant and I feel that we are mourning for it in a way. I think we just need some time for the formulation of new identities and we will take that first step tomorrow when we accept our placement in Guinea, West Africa September 28, 2008-September 27, 2010.

In the words of Garrison Kiellor
"Be Well, Do Good Work, and Keep in Touch"

Big - albeit convoluted - News

From Jonathan

After weeks of waiting on edge for word from the PC about our prospective assignment, Kim and I received news four days ago that we were eligible for placement abroad. Of course we couldn’t access any of the information online. So we waited for the paperwork to arrive through the mail. To place this in the proper context you need to realize the a few weeks ago we were made aware that we had been found ineligible for service in the original program we had been anticipating (of course the PC staff wouldn’t tell us what country we were rejected from so Kim and I logically deduced that we were denied either Avalon or Agartha). Since then our placement officer went about shopping us around to the various African nations in hopes that our specific ‘skill sets’ might find a new, less discerning, home. This of course made us uneasy.

For the past nine months or so I had been living with the prospect of spending the next few years doing agriculture and environmental outreach. In my mind I imagined coming home a green-thumbed environmentalist equipped with the legitimacy of foreign service. I had nine months to imagine the direction I would take as a RPCV (returned Peace Corps Volunteer for all you unfamiliar with PC acronyms). These thoughts probably seem premature but to me they were unavoidable considering the long Northern Maine winter Kim and I have attempted to endure (pictures to come shortly, its ridiculous). Similarly, Kim had been preparing herself for work in the community health sector. Now, faced with the possibility of being placed in radically different programs, Kim and I wait. And wait.

Now that you’re up to speed on the emotional turmoil underlying our expectancy, I’ll tell you what you must have by now guessed. Kim and I will be…teachers…in Guinea.

Despite the initial shock at the drastic change in our assignment (and there was plenty), Kim and I have decided to accept our placement offer and, barring any unforeseen development, will be departing the 7th of July. Kim will be teaching Science and I’ll be teaching English. Kim obviously is more than qualified. As for me, those who know how awful I am at spelling recognize the tragic comedy of my assignment.

Now that that the waiting is over and the initial shock has passed, I expect the next few months will be spent practicing French, worrying about what to pack, and dreaming of Africa.

P.S. Will-to-Flower. I hope everyone appreciates the ‘Nietzschian’ word-play. Can you believe the concessions Kim makes.

Immersion

Immersion
-denise levertov

there is anger abroad in the world, a numb thunder,
because of god's silence. but how naive,
to keep wanting words we could speak ourselves,
english, urdu, tagalong, the french of tours, the french of haiti...
yes, that was one way omnipotence chose
to address us-hebrew, aramaic, or whatever the patriarchs
chose in their turn to call what they heard. moses
demanded the word, spoken and written. but perfect freedeom
assured other ways of speech. God is surely
patiently trying to immerse us in a different language,
events of grace, Horrifying scrolls of history,
and the unearned retrieval of blessings lost forever,
the poor grass returning after drought, timid, persistent.
God's abstention is only from human dialects.
The holy voice utters its woe and glory in myriad musics, in signs and portents.

Our own words are for us to speak, a way to ask and to answer.