Harmattan wind's just blowing along

Jon Om-ing with some of the neighborhood kids. They don't understand Yoga really but think that Jon is a ninja.

Jon and I went to visit some friends out in the Fouta region and found...amazingly...PINE TREES!!


This pod/fruit thing is awesome and tastes like a really sour fruit rollup.

We are back in the bright lights of the city catching up on our pop culture, relaxing, shopping for hard to come by goodies like tuna and oatmeal, and enjoying our first mangos of the season.
This last month has passed amazingly swiftly but it was definitely getting to be time to take a bit of a breather. Life in Moossayah is beautiful to be certain. We wake up to the prayer call at 5:30 every morning and lay still and drift and listen to the world awaken. Every morning we listen to the harrowing world news on the BBC, listen to the voices raise in panic of a financial crisis, and then watch the daily life here continue, unchanged and untouched. As I listen, I heat water for tea and oatmeal.The harmattan winds blows the heat away all night and the temperature in the morning is wonderful. Our neighbor lets the sheep, chickens and our goat, Sierra out of their coup. Sierra quickly makes her way over and runs right into the house to say good morning with a little "meeeh" which also says "give me breakfast". I quickly oblige with a handful of rice. After locking up of big red metal doors, we head down the hill towards school. On the way we say good morning to everyone in whatever language seems to fit at the moment, French, Sussu, Pulaar. The same kids that we pass each and every morning will come running, breathless and yelling "Nana Soumah, Nana Soumah!!!" waving their hands frantically. You'd think that they'd be used to us by now but still they all need to say their little "Ca bah?"
We are joined on the route by all of the primary school kids in their blue or red checkered dresses or khaki uniforms. Kids carry piles of wood of their heads or bidons in their hands to fill with water as a duty to the school and to their teachers. Others hold breakfasts of boiled manioc with hot pepper on shreds of bannana leaf. Arriving at school we are generally among the first to arrive. If the classes start on time they are at least 20 minutes late.

Life at school can be very challenging but also really rewarding. Jon and I are both feeling like we are finally finding our stride. We are using teaching techniques that these kids cannot even fathom but slowly but surely they are starting to catch on a bit. That being said, trying to maintain discipline in these large classrooms is a HUGE challenge and has brought me to my wits end on a number of occasions. Many student's level of french is so low that many cannot read or understand the lesson and act out or talk with their friends. So, instead we try to explain things in a more visual manner which tends to work a little better. But for every bad day or difficult moment, there is always something there to balance it....and if the balance isn't quite reached, then there are always good books to escape to or a little tv or music on the ipod that can get us through the rough patches.




We have been really busy. We helped do an AIDS presentation to each of the classes at the school. The information was presented in Sussu by a fellow teacher and then we demonstrated correct condom usage (using a wooden stand in) and asked the kids questions. We used pens and pencils that you all donated as prizes for correct answers.(Thanks again!) I have started an unofficial "Equipe des filles" or girls soccer team. We meet Monday-Wednesday for practice. At this time there are 7 girls who show up fairly regularly and I feel like it is gaining some steam. As in all things, there have been ups and downs, but I like it in a selfish way because it gets me out of the house and running around. Eating only simple starches can be a bit harsh on the waistline!

Jon asked me to share and experience from last week. In doing a review for a upcoming exam, I decided to break the students up into groups to answer questions and then try to find a creative way of presenting the information to the class. Now creativity does not come easily to these students who are so used to simply memorizing passages of information. And though I did not see much real new creative thought, it was fun to see the kids working together to solve a problem. I was hoping for some funny skits or drawings but basically just received carbon copies of drawing that I had already done. But, one of last groups to present was lead by a very serious student who solemnly greeted all members of the class and just as methodically thanked me for giving them this kind of assignment because they really liked it and had never done anything like it before. Its strange that the whole time I had thought that maybe I was just wasting my time and I wasn't obtaining the results that I wanted, but this one student appreciated that this was new and different and I suppose that, in itself, can be labeled a success.

We've also got alot of stuff coming up as well. The Association des Jeunes or the Youth group in town has approached us to help them with an evening AIDS sensibilization and dance for a big group of the young people in Moussayah. So Jon ad I will again be leaving Conakry with a big old back of preservatives to give out at the event. Along with that, we had a meeting with and NGO that works with water pumps called SNAPE Société nationale d’approvisionnement des points d’eau or the National Water Supply Service. We were hoping that they would be able to replace a pump and a generator that would pump water the five spouts throughout town. But because of two failed attempts where solar panels and other generators were vandalized or broken, they would not help with the funding for new machinery. That being said, they said that if we could raise the money, they would kindly install and train all the necessary partners. So we will continue to work on this and keep you informed on any progress.

I wanted to mention our rather amusing (or aggravating) ride from Moussayah. We took the only car that was leaving after school got out on Thursday. We are already sweating and the hottest part of the day hadn't even hit yet! The taxi was an ancient conversion van and this is always a bad sign as with these vehicles, they tend to stop at every house and every person on the route to take on more passengers or strap on some more huge bags of cassava to the already top-heavy car. And this was no exception. What would normally, in a Peace Corps SUV take 30 minutes, took 3 hours. Jon and I have actually biked this same route in the same amount of time. Add on top of that right before departing the driver asks me to get out from my middle seat next to him. He lifts a blanket covering a slab of metal. He then precedes to lift this metal hood and there under where I was sitting is the cars engine. He tops off the radiator with some water (who needs coolant?) and off we go. So not only are we traveling during the hottest part of the day but I am two inches from the engine. I must have lost two pounds just from sweating on our 3 hour voyage. Not to mention the heat from the 20 or so other people that were sharing the same taxi with us. You just have to love the transportation system of Guinea...there is nothing you can do so you just endure and laugh later.

That's about enough for tonight but I wanted to include one more picture of Sierra because she is too funny and fluffy to ignore. I am looking forward to getting back to her morning greetings. Here she is looking particularly adorable.....



All our love to everyone! Thanks so much for your letters, calls and packages, it always amazing to hear from you. Stay Warm.
Be well...
Kim and Jon

they who gather flowers

Jon and I are back in Conakry. Today we went to one of the nicest resturaunts in the city, the Domiere, where we feasted to our heart's content on all sorts of fine cuilinary delights. After 6 months (!) here in guinee eating mostly rice and sauces of different types and qualities, or soups of the middling vegetables that we can find at site, we decided that it was time for a treat. We went with all the G-16ers from the basse cote region and we ate until we were all about to burst...and were oh so happy about it. Needless to say, for the rest of the day we were not all that mobil but very very content.
Tomorrow we head out to the region of Guinee called the Fouta to a city called Mamou to go to our IST conference where we get to learn about how to begin secondary projects. Jon and I are very excited to begin working on secondary projects as soon as possible. Teaching at a school that doesn't always work the way that one might expect can be a tad frustrating so we are looking forward to having other outlets to inspire change and development in the community. We recently took some first steps in trying to get some projects up and running with S.N.A.P.E, a water resource NGO, and The Jane Goodhall Institute.

Jon and I have had some pretty amazing adventures since the Christmas coup so there are quite a few stories that we would like to share:

Right after christmas, we had made plans to go hike this mountain nearby where we had been told that there lived a troup of chimpanzees. We had been approached a few months ago by a man named Mr. Bangoura to help him to teach hunters and others in the community the importance of protecting the chimps and their habitat. He offered to take us and we quickly agreed. We left early on our bikes for the one hour ride to the village of Djaboui. We left just as the sun was coming up over the house and burning off the morning fog. Biking out was beautiful as the road follows the mountain range. The secondary path the leads up the the village is a really fun little biking trail that Jon and I had actually found by accident one time before. On the way we pass through another small village where we are greeted by many people. Since we were out to search for animals, a family nearby brought over a tiny baby monkey that they had been keeping for a pet. It was so tiny, scared, and cold, that I just wanted to take it home with me. But it quickly reinforced the need for community education about the importance of conservation and protection of wild animals. When we finally reached Djaboui, Jon and I found that the village was actually comprised of three huts belonging to the Soumah family. Mr. Soumah is the head of the association of hunters that have been working with Mr. Bangoura and who are interested in spreading the word about ending the overexploitation of resources and protecting the chimpanzee population. Djaboui translates as "under the mountain"and that it certainly is. The family was incredibly welcoming, almost overwhelmingly so. We were given kola nuts, a very important cultural sign of respect and we were invited to eat a meal together with them after the hike.





We ascended the mountain along with a group of hunters all tooting very ancient-looking rifles that certainly did not look fire-able. The guns seems to be held together with electrical tape and rubber bands and look as if the would explode if anyone tried to fire them. But the hunters knew the mountian like the back of their hands and led us to a stream called the "Chimpanzee River". Although now it is more of a trickle, one could see that during the rainy season, it was quite the raging torrent. We were able to find some beautiful spots and we even found some nests up in the trees where the chimps sleep. (see below) But unfortunately we did not see any real chimpanzees. We did however find a very lovely water fall. We hope to go out there again sometime this month, possible overnight to get the chance to really see some chimps.


At the end of the hike we returned, weary and only a bit worse for wear(...much of the hike was through real jungle so we had our share or scrapes and bruises) to a delicous meal of rice and sauce. We passed a lovely hour or so spending time and taking pictures with the family. Before we left, they gifted us a rooster which then accompanied us to Moussayah on the back of my bicycle



About 2 weeks later, Mr Bangoura invited us again to a ceremony to be held with a group of hunters in another neighboring village. Jon and I had some reservations as sometimes these things can be a big unorganized and awkward since we don't understand the language or the culture fully. But our host "mom and dad" , the Sousprefet and his wife were invited too so we decided to take a chance. When we finished rumbling along the very bumpy road and arrived at the village we were immediately glad that we did go. Apparently, the mother of one of the local hunters had died and it is an old custum that all of the hunters will come down from the mountians,fields and forest, lay down their gun, and spend the whole night singing and dancing with their friends and family to celebrate the life of the deceased. When we arrived, the entire community was gathered around singing to the music of the kora (a string instrument made of a tall stick and a big round gord). The hunters were dancing in the circle. We were the guests of honor and were again presented with kola nuts and a delicious meal of freshly hunted game in a spicy sauce. The griot sang songs and the hunters continued dancing sometimes with their guns and sometimes without and sometimes acting out scenes of the stalking of their prey...complete with somone playing the part of a deer. Also, a bit disturbingly, they would suddenly life their guns and shoot them up into the air, each time giving us a shock.

For all of our worry about going and frustration of the unknown, by the end of our evening there, we truly did not want to leave. I hope that this is a lesson and reminder to us to continue to embrace these very unique experiences and not to let the fear of the unknown daunt us. Unfortunately I do not have any pictures from this evening as it was too dark and possibly a bit too important of an occasion for the imposition of flashbulbs. But certainly it was a memory that we will both hold very dear.

Jon and I have bought a goat.We named her Sierra and we are having a great time with her. She is very funny and very attached to us. Each time we leave her she is very sad and cries. Our chicken Mia also had 4 chicks. We have named the two white ones Castor and Pollock, the dark one is Sweede, and the brown is Stewie. The eat rice out of our hands and are very fun to watch. When you can't watch TV, you might as well have your own live sitcom on your frount porch!





Last but most certainly not least, I wanted to explain the title of the entry. Africa is a place where children play with flowers and scraps of cloth, sardine cans and old bike tires. About a month ago, my host brother Alashane came up to me to show me a tin can lid on a string that he was twirling like those old games kids would play with button before dora the explorer, video games, and tonka truks. He came back a moment later with a big red blossom that he had attached to the string and it opened and closed marvelously with the inertia. I quickly discovered that the tree that produced the flowers was actually on our hill though I had never noticed the flowers before.

This time of year in Guinee is a time of very powerful winds and distintly lower temperatures. (I'm sure everyone at home with the frigid snows would laugh but it can get pretty chilly here in the evenings and early mornings.)The night's strong winds knock down the flowers and each and every morning, as soon as the sun has risen and burned off the fog in the valleys, they come. Little children with bare feet and dirty knees come racing up the hill, jubilently pick up all the flowers they can carry, gather them in their shirts and skirts, and laughing, they descend again with their treasure, content with the day of playing that they have ahead of them.




We take off tomorrow and most likely will not have internet again for about a month or so. But hopefully we will have more fun adventures to share with you then...

a la prochaine..
Be Well,
Kurasi tango...
Era famah (We love you!)
~Kim and Jon

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