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