Thursday, March 27, 2008
Tu etais perdu?
I've been hearing tu étais perdu a lot over the last few days, literally it means 'were you lost?' But basically people have been wondering where I've been as have many of you, well I hope! The volunteers of Haute Guinea paid a visit to Kankan for St. Pattys day, and then I traveled to Mandiana and Faralako, two villages about 4 hours away from Kankan for a few days. I will update more later but I wanted everyone to know I'm alive and well... and we finally had the last of the mango rains so in a few short weeks it will be mangos a plenty! Until then...
Saturday, March 8, 2008
I see you baby, shaking that...
Monday, March 3, 2008
A picture is worth a thousand words...
So hopefully I'll be able to go back to my house tomorrow. Who knew that having a clogged latrine would cause so many problems? However, it taught me a lot about myself, life in Guinea and patience.
As I had mentioned before I moved into the volunteer house for a few days while my toilet situation was resolved. It's been a nice couple of days hanging out with Cathleen and Felipe, they are other volunteers. Cathleen is doing a third year in Kankan and Felipe is in Mandiana, but hes been sick. Anyway, we've been hanging out watch dvd's on the computer and just chatting. Saturday I had a meeting my my NGO, and it was a class on credit to a women's groupement... now I know this all sounds foreign, as it should, but its really hard to explain and I don't want to bore you. Little did I know that the meeting would last 4 hours, and that it would all be in the local language, Malinke. Needless to say I understood maybe 10% of it and I fell alseep. Whoops.
Also Josh, my APCD came to visit me on saturday and we spent the day galavanting around town, eating some really good food (and im not joking) and just taking in all that Kankan has to offer. It was nice to see a familiar face and show him what I do only a daily basis, and just chat with him about all things going on here. He was mad that I didn't take any pictures of my toilet fiasco, especially when I looked like a member of the haz-mat crew trying to clean up the poop that was invading my house. He did get to experience the smell first hand. I promised that next time, should I have a problem with my toilet, I would document the whole thing. I was sad to see him go after breakfast on Sunday morning, but he was happy to see that I am doing well and truly enjoying Kankan.
Now going back to the toilet, the rest of Sunday turned out to be a total nightmare. I was enjoying watching Harry Potter on my laptop, which I had just received in the mail, when Mohammed the guard told me I had a visitor. Well I was none to pleased to find my counterpart and the landlord of my building. I ran to the office to get Daffe, and then the shit hit the fan. My counterpart, landlord and Daffe all started arguing! In front of a whole bunch of people, and though it was a mix of french and malinke I full understood what was going on. No one wanted to pay to fix my broken toilet. Now there are some other circumstances that caused this to happen but that are far to complicated to explain but what it came down to is no one was willing to fork over the cash. I was totally frustrated, and was at the point where I was just going to pay for it. I was so mad, and I am not supposed to cry in front of anyone I work with (its a weakness here, and Guineans don't know how to deal with crying) so I had to remove myself from the situation. Finally, I composed myself, hopped in the Peace Corps car and went over to my organzation to trying and figure stuff out. I called my APCD and broke down, but he helped me to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Now in the states when we have a problem like this, we call a plumber, they come over, problem solved. Here it is far more complicated... everyone is poor, so in this situation it didn't seem pressing that my toilet get fixed, and as to who should pay for it well that only made things more difficult. Now I'm not sure if I mentioned before that it takes time to get things done, I am basically the fastest moving thing in Kankan. No one is here is in a hurry to do things, their philosophy is that it will get done, eventually. This is a hard concept for Americans, especially someone truly impatient, like myself. So the fact that we had to bascially bend over backwards to get someone to pay for the toilet replacement, drive over to the plumbers house, wake him up from his afternoon repose (nap), go by a replacement toilet, go back to the office to find the plumber who also went to go by a replacement toilet, then wait for him to show up at my house was infuriating. Finally the plumber arrived and started working, though there was some point at which the work wasn't going to get done until wednesday because it was sunday... you know, no one works on sunday. But needless to say he started. I sat in the living room trying not to vomit because there would times when you catch and huge whiff of poop... even the Guineans said it smelled bad, and when they notice a terrible stentch you know its bad. At one point I'm sitting there and Daffe asked me to look at the plumber, I really didn't want to see what he was doing by I agreed...only to find a Guinean plumber, with his arm covered in plastic, shoulder deep in my poop filled toilet! It was quite possibly the grossest and funniest thing I've ever seen. For that reason alone I wish I had a taken a picture. But after an entire day of waiting, arguing, more waiting and uncertainty I finally have a new toliet and can go back home, as soon as the cement dries. God willing (as the say here), tomorrow.
On another note I did see the cutest and most heart warming thing yesterday. I was sitting in the back of the Peace Corps car waiting for the plummber to pull himself away from his nap, and I saw the most pitiful looking dog. This poor dog could barely walk, was deathly skinny and looked like he was barely clinging to life. Guineans don't exactly treat dogs or cats here like we do. They aren't really pets, the are more like a nuissance. They get rocks thrown at them often, and are usually covered in flies and cuts, and if they do happen to live with a family they still aren't treated that well. Well anyway this poor dog tugged at my heartstrings. I felt so bad and wanted to get out and help him, I wasn't sure what I was going to do with him but I felt like I needed to do something. However I didn't need to do anything. Out of no where came this older Guinean man... he went over to the dog, scooped it up in his arms and carried to his house a short distance away and started to hand feed the dog some food. Now mind you I was already emotional at this point, but I completely fell apart. I was so happy to see someone actually caring for this animal, and the only thing I could do was cry. At this point the others were back in the car and I had to fake that nothing was wrong, but it was one of the most heartwarming things I've seen, and I can only hope that the dog gets back on its feet and that man cares for it for the rest of its life.
I did get a chance to visit the Milo River the other day with Josh, and it was crazy! I took pictures and as soon as I get my act together I will post them along with others.
As I had mentioned before I moved into the volunteer house for a few days while my toilet situation was resolved. It's been a nice couple of days hanging out with Cathleen and Felipe, they are other volunteers. Cathleen is doing a third year in Kankan and Felipe is in Mandiana, but hes been sick. Anyway, we've been hanging out watch dvd's on the computer and just chatting. Saturday I had a meeting my my NGO, and it was a class on credit to a women's groupement... now I know this all sounds foreign, as it should, but its really hard to explain and I don't want to bore you. Little did I know that the meeting would last 4 hours, and that it would all be in the local language, Malinke. Needless to say I understood maybe 10% of it and I fell alseep. Whoops.
Also Josh, my APCD came to visit me on saturday and we spent the day galavanting around town, eating some really good food (and im not joking) and just taking in all that Kankan has to offer. It was nice to see a familiar face and show him what I do only a daily basis, and just chat with him about all things going on here. He was mad that I didn't take any pictures of my toilet fiasco, especially when I looked like a member of the haz-mat crew trying to clean up the poop that was invading my house. He did get to experience the smell first hand. I promised that next time, should I have a problem with my toilet, I would document the whole thing. I was sad to see him go after breakfast on Sunday morning, but he was happy to see that I am doing well and truly enjoying Kankan.
Now going back to the toilet, the rest of Sunday turned out to be a total nightmare. I was enjoying watching Harry Potter on my laptop, which I had just received in the mail, when Mohammed the guard told me I had a visitor. Well I was none to pleased to find my counterpart and the landlord of my building. I ran to the office to get Daffe, and then the shit hit the fan. My counterpart, landlord and Daffe all started arguing! In front of a whole bunch of people, and though it was a mix of french and malinke I full understood what was going on. No one wanted to pay to fix my broken toilet. Now there are some other circumstances that caused this to happen but that are far to complicated to explain but what it came down to is no one was willing to fork over the cash. I was totally frustrated, and was at the point where I was just going to pay for it. I was so mad, and I am not supposed to cry in front of anyone I work with (its a weakness here, and Guineans don't know how to deal with crying) so I had to remove myself from the situation. Finally, I composed myself, hopped in the Peace Corps car and went over to my organzation to trying and figure stuff out. I called my APCD and broke down, but he helped me to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Now in the states when we have a problem like this, we call a plumber, they come over, problem solved. Here it is far more complicated... everyone is poor, so in this situation it didn't seem pressing that my toilet get fixed, and as to who should pay for it well that only made things more difficult. Now I'm not sure if I mentioned before that it takes time to get things done, I am basically the fastest moving thing in Kankan. No one is here is in a hurry to do things, their philosophy is that it will get done, eventually. This is a hard concept for Americans, especially someone truly impatient, like myself. So the fact that we had to bascially bend over backwards to get someone to pay for the toilet replacement, drive over to the plumbers house, wake him up from his afternoon repose (nap), go by a replacement toilet, go back to the office to find the plumber who also went to go by a replacement toilet, then wait for him to show up at my house was infuriating. Finally the plumber arrived and started working, though there was some point at which the work wasn't going to get done until wednesday because it was sunday... you know, no one works on sunday. But needless to say he started. I sat in the living room trying not to vomit because there would times when you catch and huge whiff of poop... even the Guineans said it smelled bad, and when they notice a terrible stentch you know its bad. At one point I'm sitting there and Daffe asked me to look at the plumber, I really didn't want to see what he was doing by I agreed...only to find a Guinean plumber, with his arm covered in plastic, shoulder deep in my poop filled toilet! It was quite possibly the grossest and funniest thing I've ever seen. For that reason alone I wish I had a taken a picture. But after an entire day of waiting, arguing, more waiting and uncertainty I finally have a new toliet and can go back home, as soon as the cement dries. God willing (as the say here), tomorrow.
On another note I did see the cutest and most heart warming thing yesterday. I was sitting in the back of the Peace Corps car waiting for the plummber to pull himself away from his nap, and I saw the most pitiful looking dog. This poor dog could barely walk, was deathly skinny and looked like he was barely clinging to life. Guineans don't exactly treat dogs or cats here like we do. They aren't really pets, the are more like a nuissance. They get rocks thrown at them often, and are usually covered in flies and cuts, and if they do happen to live with a family they still aren't treated that well. Well anyway this poor dog tugged at my heartstrings. I felt so bad and wanted to get out and help him, I wasn't sure what I was going to do with him but I felt like I needed to do something. However I didn't need to do anything. Out of no where came this older Guinean man... he went over to the dog, scooped it up in his arms and carried to his house a short distance away and started to hand feed the dog some food. Now mind you I was already emotional at this point, but I completely fell apart. I was so happy to see someone actually caring for this animal, and the only thing I could do was cry. At this point the others were back in the car and I had to fake that nothing was wrong, but it was one of the most heartwarming things I've seen, and I can only hope that the dog gets back on its feet and that man cares for it for the rest of its life.
I did get a chance to visit the Milo River the other day with Josh, and it was crazy! I took pictures and as soon as I get my act together I will post them along with others.
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