the road more or less traveled...

It's been such a long time, and so much has happened. I am about to hit the open road with Liz and her cousins for adventures in Senegal and Gambia. I will then return to Guinea and barely have a moment to breathe. So since I found myself with a whole day to do nothing, I guess I can update you on whats been happening.

- As many of you have read thanks to the other volunteers who are much better at keeping up their blogs G 15 (my group) has lost 2 more volunteers. Though I am not able to discuss the reasons for their depature, you can check it out at katie's blog (tckinguinea.blogspot.com). I was lucky enough to see Katie before she left, and it was the hardest goodbye ever. Melissa, unfortunately, I was not able to see but miss her all the same. Katie and Melissa, Haute, Kankan and Guinea just won't be the same without you.

-G 16, the new group has arrived in country. The reports I'm getting from the volunteers that are training them are great. This new group of volunteers seems to be extremely motivated and eager to learn and even more ready to get out to their sites (which they find out on friday) and start teaching.

- Friday marks the beginning of my very first vacation in Africa. Liz, and her cousins invited me to tag along on their adventures to Senegal and Gambia. I am really excited to start seeing other parts of West Africa.

- Work is going swimmingly. By the time i get back from vacation we will have already started a 6 week training for 2 very large groups of businessmen and women. It will take place here, in Kankan and Siguri a town about 2 hours from here. So until Sept. 13th, I'll be all over the place!

- Girls Conference is also coming up, along with the arrival of the new volunteers at site. Girls Conference was started long before my time as a volunteer, it takes place once a year. It was scheduled for June but there were some political problems that caused us to reschedule. However, each volunteer invites a girl from their village/town and they come to Kankan or Mamou for 5 days and learn about a variety of different things... from planning for the future, to health issues. I, along with Adam, are planning the Kankan Conference so its kind of my baby and I'm excited to see it finally happen.

- So turns out my illness from earlier in the month was a nice little cocktail of ameobas. It was nasty to say the least. I'm feeling better and hoping they decide not to resurface.

- There is real ice cream in Kankan. Real being a relative term. It is by no means anything like the ice cream we know, and speaking of ameobas it might even bring them back again, but for now its a nice, refreshing treat in the hot sticky mess that is Kankan in the rainy season.

For the moment thats all I can think of. I really need to be better about writing things down so I can tell you all about them. I'll post some pictures to make up for my lack of information. I'll be back sometime in mid-september. Until then, I love you all.


We stopped for breakfast in Kouroussa and these two girls stopped by to wish us Bon Voyage.


My favorite, non-volunteer resident of Sabadou Baranama. Lancine.

Storm rolling in over the mountains of the Fouta.

One of the four bats the boys killed in the volunteer house.

David rigged himself up a nice little contraption for sleeping.