fish fish fish fish

Haute Guinea is a magical place. The rainy season is knocking on the door, the flowers are in bloom, the grass is actually green and the fish fetes are in full swing. What is a fish fete you ask? Pull up a chair... During the dry season most of the tributaries of the Niger River dry up, leaving only these giant lakes, called Mar's (sp). The fish that live in the Mar's procreate, creating a nice little population in preparation for the big celebration. The month of May marks the end of the dry season, and as we all patiently await the rains, we celebrate by catching fish. A third year volunteer, Cathleen, graciously invited us to her former villages fish fete, the village is called Nounkounkan (noonkoonkan). Adam, Ciara, David and I hopped in a taxi, in our matching outfits to Nounkounkan. We arrived dirty, and sweaty per the usual but hopped out to be greated by Cathleen's host family. We said hello to everyone and awaited the arrival of Cathleen, who was out and about in the village and the others arriving with Steve our Country Director.

The village quadrupled in size with people coming from all the neighboring villages, Siguri and Kankan. We spent the earlier part of the day waiting for the others and walking around the villages shopping, eating and even sneaking in a quick nap. The festivities began with a dance of all the young women who are ready to be married. They danced through the market with their swords, making their way to where the drum ceremony would be held. We made our way over and were promptly greeted by one of the drummers and he escorted us to our seats. The funny thing about being an etranger (aka stranger or white person) in Guinea is that you get to sit in what we like to call the Patron seats. The drummer led us through the crowds of people to our seats at the head of the ceremony, where all the important people sit. We lounged in our seats and drank our coca colas and enjoyed quite a view of the drum ceremony. Drum troupes came from all over Haute. The group from Baro (near Kankan) was my favorite. The danced in elaborate costumes, and we finally got to see the masks that we've been told are seen in Haute. They drummed until dark, and continued on through the night. After we ate dinner and did some star gazing we headed back to the drum circles then off to an all night dance party. We danced almost until morning, or until 2 am. I was exhausted, we left so early, had a long day and needed to get up early because the fete-ing was far from over.

We woke the next morning to the sound of women singing, tradition I guess but it was so early! The troops were rounded and we set out into town in search of caffine. There are bar cafes all over guinea where you can enjoy a nice cup of sugary lipton tea or even coffee, should you dare. After recharging we grabbed our fishing nets, Steve our Country Director and headed off to the drum ceremony (yes there was another one). The ceremony of course, would not start for hours so we entertained ourselves as well as about 200 Guineans by singing Row, Row, Row your boat, Down by the bay, and the DJ played some music for us and we danced in the middle of a huge circle but alas it was time for the ceremony. The 'facilitators' cleared out some space for the dancers and it began. The drum ceremony was the precede the fishing. The drum troupes came out and danced as well as some of my fellow volunteers and the the masses made their way towards the mar. There were nets, buckets and these bird cage looking things everywhere... we were reading to get fishing. The fishing begins with the firing of a gun and then everyone goes charging into the mar/lake/bog like thing. Its incredibly muddy and disgusting but I've never had so much fun in my life. Ciara and I started out with a net and finally got the technique down and we started catching fish! Mostly we caught mud, but there were fish in there. Adam and I ganged up with Kim another volunteer and tried to maximize net space, catching quite a few fish that way, and we even let a big one slip through our fingers. We fished until we couldn't fish anymore and made our way through the muck to the shore and finally back to our lodging. We were covered from head to toe. We unsuccessfully cleaned off, ate some rice and got back in the cab to come home. We made it back to Kankan in one piece, though exhausted. We looked through every last picture (there are over 1200!), recounted our favorite memories, laughed a David's sunburn, which looked like paint splashes all over his back and finally drifted off to a fish filled sleep. The next morning we all decided that were going to every last fish fete next year because it was so much fun, and because I feel like I can do the fete justice so I've posted pictures, be sure to check out my Picasa (where I keep all my photos)! Enjoy

Welcome Home...

I am finally back in Kankan after a very long hiatus. Me and a few fellow Hauters did a quick tournee, making stops in Kissidougou, Tokano and Koumban and finally made it back to Kankan on saturday night. Of course it wouldn't be home without a proper welcome. We were cheerfully greeted by the ever smiling and crazy Felipe, he was blasting Lionel Richie to welcome us... we set down our bags and caught up for a while. Our regional coordinator came over to welcome us home and at that moment I remembered I had left a bunch of packages in my trunk. I was so excited to eat some jellybeans and put on a clean pair of pants. Little did I know there would be a few surprises waiting for me. I opened the trunk and a family of mice had taken up residence! I screamed mostly out of shock, ok mostly out of fear, and everyone came running. The trunk was taken outside and we started removing the rest of the things to make sure there were no more, and of course we found a monster of a mouse living in my bag of books. At least he was trying to bone up on business techinques. Needless to say the mice ate most of my medication, they were probably really drowsy from the benadryl and must had a stomach ache after that because they ate my Tums too. Jerks.

In even weirder news, Adam, Felipe and I were walking through town on sunday and we saw a huge crowd of children. We had no idea what was going on until we saw that a man had a chimpanze on a leash! He was parading him around town and of course he spotted the only 3 white people in town and started yelling at us, telling us we MUST say hello to the chimp (and give him money, of course). Felipe took off, and that left Adam and I... we had no where to go. The man and the chimp had us pinned up against a building. I am pretty sure we both saw our lives flash before our eyes. We had no idea what this chimp was about to do. Well the chimp just mosied on up to us with his hand out, he just wanted to shake our hands. We begrudingly shook his hand (and didn't give him any money) and he went on his way. It was so crazy! We told everyone about it and weren't sure they would believe us. I'm not sure if we even believe it happened. Life in Guinea... it's full of surprises.

... and getting caught in the rain

IST is slowly wrapping up, and its almost time to head back to site. For me, since getting sick, I've been away from site for almost 5 weeks. I am having terrible anxiety about going back because it feels like the first time all over again. Although I'm having major anxiety I am ready to go back, I have so many ideas for projects and can't wait to get started. Also in late June Girl's Conference is coming up, and I along with David and Adam are lucky enough to be in charge of the conference in Haute Guinea. Needless to say we have a very busy 5 weeks ahead of us.

In other news David's counterpart arrived with glorious news, besides the fact that he tells me I'm skinny all the time. I don't even care that hes lying, it makes me feel good. And whatever works right? Anyway I finally have a cat! His counterpart's cat had 3 babies and I get one of them. I chose a female and I think I am going to name her Tiya, which is Peanut in Malinke. I guess I should wait and see what she looks like...though most Guinean cats look the same.

Also the rainy season is in full swing. We've had some wicked rain storms in the Fouta, also I've heard Kankan has been getting its fair share as well. I am a little nervous because there is a hole in my ceiling and when I last returned my living room was full of water. I have my regional coordinator on the case, and hopefully he can save the day... or just most of my stuff from being ruined.

I've also posted a bunch of pictures and have more to come, and I know a few of you have asked for the link... without further ado...

http://picasaweb.google.com/amy.hylinski/PeaceCorpsTheFirst5Months

I haven't had a chance to comment on the pics, so if you have questions just ask... or better yet I'll just leave it up to your imagination.

All roads lead to Mamou...

Greetings from moyenne Guinea. G15 has reunited for a two week In-Service Training. We were all so very excited to see each other afterall, it has been almost 3 months since we've all been together.

I finally was able to leave Conakry late last week, and trip home was eventful of course. This is Guinea afterall. Katie and I departed with our other traveling companion David (Douda) to head back to Kankan. We road in the Peace Corps car until Mamou and then needed to get a taxi back to Kankan. Well we arrived in Mamou a little too late. Kankan is an 8 hour trip from Mamou and we are not allowed to travel at night, so basically there was no way were making it home. After much debate and stress Katie and I arrived at ENATEF and spent the night, note that we had been here about 2 weeks before on our way to Conakry and would be back in a few days time for IST. The following morning we called the guy in charge of the taxi gare (we had gotten his name and number the day before) and tried to get ourselves a ride back to Kankan. This of course proved to be difficult. We started calling at about 7 am and at 10:30 am we still had no ride... so we did what we had to do and deplaced an entired 6 place taxi to get home before the sun went down. It was a little expensive but there was no way we were spending another night away from home because we had to leave in a few days time only to return to Mamou. So on we went. The 8 hour ride was full of cigarette smoke, compliments of our cab driver, lots of coca-cola, yogury and biffa cookies. We arrived in Kankan as the sun was going down. We arrived just in time for the rain... one of the first real rain storms that I was able to witness. It rained cats and dogs all night long and I rode my bike home through the flooded streets to re-stock my supplies and grab some more clothes for my two week stint in Mamou. I was able to decompress for about 2 hours mostly because I did not want to go back out in the rain, but then it was off to say hello to everyone because I had been gone for so long. I am pretty sure all my neighbors think that I've left for good without so much as a goodbye.

I went to say hello to my co-workers, who were thrilled that my heath was improving. Though they did manage to torment me for a good hour by throwing mangos at me and trying to get me to catch them (read the previous post about my allergy). It was hilarious...for them at least. I said farewell and told my homologue that I'd see him in a week because he'd be joining me and the other PCV's for some IST business. From there I went en ville to say hello to the market ladies, my friends at the pharmacy and my tailor. Everyone was so mad that I left so quickly and that I was leaving again in a days time! I had a few people tell me we were in a war, and most of them asked where their gift was... you know, the usual. I finished up saying hello and made my way back to the Peace Corps office so that I could prepare for my voyage. On the way back to the office I ran into Adam, my favorite health volunteer from Missimana. We took care of some extra business and dinner preparations in town and headed back. The following morning we waiting for Alex to arrive, then packed up the car and hit the road to Kissidougou. We picked David along the way...well turned out he was in Kankan he never got the message that we were coming to get him. So we were on our way, we made a few stop to 'check the tires' and even stopped in Tokano, Conde, our Driver's village to meet his second wife. In the event you were unaware, muslims are allowed to have up to 4 wives. The marriage will be taking place in a few short months and needless to say all of the Hauters are excited to be invited and partake. We finally made it to Kissidougou and it is beautiful. Its so green! Zach has a seet set up and really awesome neighbors. We had ice cream, chicken, french fries and lots of popcorn. Adam, Jess, David, Alex, Zach and I also managed to find some fabulous boxed wine and finished the day off with a nice night cap. After lots of huit americane and debauchery we awoke to finish our journey to Mamou and pick up Sarah and Melissa. We stopped in Faranah after picking up Melissa, we managed to frighten about 40 children by chasing after them, and I had the most fabulous potato salad. I also saw a chimpanze! We hit the road, finishing a bottle of gin, most of a bottle of whiskey and a box wine. Needless to say the ride was interesting. We stopped numerous time to 'check the tires' and finally made it to Mamou 2 hours later. I think Daffe and Conde were happy to get rid of us.

We've been here for a week now and we've had more language than we're used to, it feels like pre-service all over again. I have managed to learn ALL the bad words in Malinke. I can now say, I am farting, I just farted, I have to fart and I can't stop farting in Malinke. I also can call people a butt crack and a piece of poop. Of course all of these phrases are useful, I can't wait to get back home to try them all out. As for the rest of the week we have some more language and a hiking/swimming trip planned. We still have a week left so I'll be able to update more, and I have posted a ton of pictures with more to come (on Picasa, email me if you need the link). Also a big shout out to my favorite APCD Josh and his wife Elin CONGRATS!!! (ps. I am a great babysitter)