T.I.G

Happy Holidays Everyone! It doesn't feel much like Christmas because its 9000 degrees in Guinea. A lot has happened in the past few weeks, so I'll try to recap as best as I can.... now to pick up where I left off.

My host family is great. I have a dad, mom and 6 brothers and sisters. I hang out mostly with my 17 year old sister and 11 year old brother Douda. Aissete, the 17 year old, speaks some english and she helps me out a lot my french. My host mom finally warmed up to me mostly because she thinks its hilarious that I try to speak puular - the native language that my family speaks. Now mind you I can only say like 4 things in puular, one of which is 'me hare' or I'm full. But she definitely appreciates the effort. My brother Douda or David is my biggest fan though, hes like my shadow. They are all so great and so patient while my French is improving. I've also been given an African name... Aminata. My little sisters name is also Aminata, so the usually call me Aminata 2 or just deux (2).

In some not so happy news, I thought that it I threw this in the middle you'd forget about about it later... but we've had 2 people ET or end their service already. G 15 is now 35 strong. We miss the 2 girls very much and it was really hard on all of us... I think last week was one of the toughest so far, but alas we trudge on.

In happier new we found out our permanent sites last Tuesday. I will be in Kankan, its a large city in Haute Guinea, or far far east Guinea. I'm working with an NGO, and most likely I'll be teaching people computer skills. And because I am a SED volunteer and totally spoiled in Peace Corps terms... I'll have running water and probably electricity! There are also other volunteers that are relatively close to me so theyw ill be able to visit. I'm really excited to have such cool people close to me. I suggest checking out KanKan on wikipedia or Google since my time on the computers is limited. Also come January, after site visits, I'll be able to tell you more.

Now for the title of this post. It started out as T.I.A. or This Is Africa, but has since been revamped to read T.I.G. or This is Guinea. We say it every time something happens in Guinea, that would be totally out of the ordinary in America, but such is life in Guinea. Here are a few examples...

Two young kids playing out in a thatch roof hut with a doll and knives, this is Guinea.

Your mom goes over the well to fetch you water from the well and her boobs are totally exposed (sorry for the faint of heart, but there are lots of boobs to been seen here... and not the good kind.)

the local kids play soccer in jellies (if you don't know what they are... google it).

You wake up in the morning with a cockroach on your head... TIG baby TIG.

Well we are in Conakry for about 24 hours for a Christmas celebration and are all desperate for computer time. So if this post is short and all over the place I apologize. But I am having a great time and can't wait to tell you more about life in Guinea when there is time. Hopefully I'll be getting my hands on a cell phone soon. Also I did get to talk to my mom and sister on the phone yesterday and it was great to hear their voices!

Merry Merry Christmas and Happy 2008!