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)