I can't believe how long its been since I last wrote, sorry to keep all of you waiting. If you're wondering what the title of my post means, its 'i was lost' in Malinke. Moving along with the title I'll tell you what I've been up to since August.
I got back from Gambia and Senegal, in probably one of, if not the most painful rides ever. I would've liked to dedicate and entire post to the trip but as not to dust off old wounds we'll keep it short. Don't get me wrong the Gambia was fantastic, granted we didn't leave our fantastic hotel for the entire stay but it was well deserved. I can't thank Liz's cousins Anna and Neils enough for putting us up and allowing me to have an incredible vacation. Anyways Liz and I needed to hightail it back to Guinea for a conference so we left with what we thought was plenty of time. Ha, little did we know there were other things in store for us. We left the Gambia on a Saturday and promptly arrived in Guinea on Wednesday. 4 days of hell, in a fully loaded bush taxi not just with 37 people, but complete with luggage and some monkeys just for fun. When we finally made it to our conference it was almost over, and we made quite and entrance. I'm almost positive that our smell proceeded our actual arrival, but we did receive quite a few looks (mostly of disgust). The next morning I piled back into a bush taxi, something I swore I wouldn't do for a very long time, and headed back to Kankan. I should mention that during our adventure across three african countries I acquired a very nasty infection on my feet. I'm not sure of the exact source but I had horrible kankles (swollen ankles, for you PC people out there), and I was oozing something fierce once I finally planted myself on stable ground. I called our trusty PCMO (doctor) and after much debate and briefly meeting the new group of volunteers, I was back in the car on my way to Conakry. I was thrilled to be traveling again. Though this time luckily I was in a Peace Corps car so it wasn't awful, but the anticipation of my diagnosis in Conakry made the ride a little long, to say the least. Upon my arrival in Conakry I was lucky enough to spend 3 days in the hospital, still with no diagnosis. Our doctor was up country, and the hospital staff was less than up to par. But I was glad to be stationary and in air conditioning and being feed decently. As soon as the doctor was back in Conakry he brought me snacks and water and assured me that I'd be out of the hospital soon and be able to spend the rest of my stay in Conakry in the Peace Corps compound. He came to retrieve me and sure enough I was back in Peace Corps land. It was nice to see my fellow PCV's of course they were not shocked to see me in Conakry with some weird skin infection. I spent the rest of my days in Conakry confined to the house because of the rain, and risking further infection. So I watched A LOT of movies and caught up on some much needed sleep. I was cleared to head back to Kankan a week later. I left Conakry in a Peace Corps car with Balde the Driver, Boiro the Regional Coordinator of Labe and Daffe our Regional Coordinator in Haute, along with a few other passengers. The plan was to meet our car from Kankan in Mamou, which is roughly halfway across the country and go the rest of the way with Conde. Unfortunately about 2 hours into our journey we found out that the Kankan car had broken down about 15km outside of Kankan and that the Conakry car would be taking us the rest of the way. The driver was not happy but we refeuled and continued on. As it was getting dark and we were almost back to Kankan we say 4-way flashers on the side of the road....it was the Kankan Peace Corps car! Poor Conde, along with his niece and cousin, who had hoped to go to Conakry, had been stuck on the side of the road in the middle of no where since 8 in the morning! Our car stopped and we moved the car from the side of the road so that we could retrieve it in the morning. We piled back into the car and headed home. I was delighted.
Finally back in Kankan I got right down to business, my organization was in the middle of a 6 week training and I had already missed half of it and they were anxious to have me back. I spent about 3 days in Kankan only to turn around and head to Siguri for a week to finish off the training there. Also on top of that my organization was in a hurry to finish up because the month of Ramadan was right around the corner. We came and left Siguri in a flash, I headed right back to Conakry with my organization to finish up work there. Let me backtrack a bit, in case you didn't know Ramadan is an entire month of fasting. Muslims across the globe wake up at 4:30 am to eat, then fast all day long, and finally are allowed to eat again at around 7 pm. Let me tell you that everyone is SO cranky. Not only are they cranky but hardly any work get done. I also tried to fast and made it about 12 days and decided it wasn't for me. But because there is hardly anything going on during Ramadan everyone asks you if you are fasting, and thats about it. Ramadan finally came to an end about 10 days ago and its like a new light has been lit over Kankan, its nice to see people happy and chatty again, just like normal.
Towards the end of Ramadan a new group of volunteers were sworn in, out here in Haute we have 8 newbies. They are all education volunteers. We welcomed them with a lot of rain (not by choice!) and lots of good food before we packed them up and shipped them off to site just in time for the school year to begin. The kids went around and met the officials, did some shopping and finally departed Kankan to make their respective villages their new homes. My heart goes out to one volunteer in a village very dear to my heart, Levi in Tokounou. Poor Levi, he had no idea when he was going to his village because at the end of Ramadan there is a big party (well I'll say big, but leave it to your imagination) and no one works, they just eat themselves silly because they've been starving for 30 days. So Levi had to hold tight until the festivities were over, and then he could go to site. Unfortunately for Levi, there was a fete (or party) immediately following the end of Ramadan fete. But we decided to pack him up and head to his village anyway, the fete on October 2nd, was independence day for Guinea. So again nothing was open and no one was working. I even got wind that in Kankan the military was going around town forcing people to close their shops and celebrate their independence (so much for freedom, right?). We arrived in Tokounou, oh yes, I went to help him move in, and there was no one to be found. We had to go around the village and track people down and when the door was finally opened to Levi's hut it was a mess! The mattress was disgusting, for lack of a better word, and his roof was about to fall in! When everyone was finally mobilized Daffe, the regional coordinator, lost it on the village. He was so mad, because the village had had enough time to prepare for his arrival with plenty of reminders. Even more angry was Conde, our driver. Tokounou is Conde's birth village and he was extremely disappointed. Levi is Tokounou's third volunteer so it's not like this is something new for them. Well Conde let all the officials and others know just how made he was. All of this was happening in Malinke, and I'm sure most it went over Levi's head. I tried to translate as best as I could, then took it upon myself to try and clean up his hut a big. Armed with a gang of children I got down to business. It was ok for the time being but we made the village get right on fixing his roof and finding another mattress. In certain cases, if the village isn't ready the volunteer will be taken back to the regional capital until is ready, or if the volunteer decides they want to change sites. Fortunately for Levi , hes a good kid and was ready to take on Tokounou. He even got out his guitar and started playing for everyone so as to distract some of the tension. We piled back into the car said good-bye to Levi, and I hope he's doing well.
Back in Kankan I was in full swing planning Girls Conference. I was lucky enough to be the coordinator for this regional conference and was responsible for getting it off without a hitch. Ha. Girls Conference was originally supposed have happened in June, but due to some military problems it was postponed, it was then rescheduled for August, but much to my delight a few volunteers in my region fought really hard to have it pushed back so that I could be present. So it was rescheduled one final time for the beginning of October, right after the fete's of course. The planning details are boring, and required me mostly running all over Kankan to make sure officials would be present, the girls, volunteers and guest speakers would be fed, and all other things in between. The biggest pain was trying to find somewhere for the girls to stay, unlike the conference in Mamou, where there conference and lodging were in the same building, here in Kankan it was up to the Prefet (who is kind of like a mayor) to find housing. We didn't have housing until the very last minute and I thought I would keel over and die. It just reassured me that things here do take a little longer to do than you'd think, and as always testing my patience. With housing found about 2 days before the conference was about to being I had some my fellow volunteers in town to help me with last minute details. If there was one thing that I learned during this whole process of planning, its that I'm a terrible delegator. Any of the volunteers here will attest to that. I just felt like I needed to do everything, which I didn't but because I was the volunteer in Kankan and the only one running around like a chicken with their head cut off, I felt like the responsibility all fell on me. So a big THANKS goes out to David, and especially Alison for picking me up and putting me back together and helping me through those last crucial moments.
Girls Conference got underway, Alison and I were running around until the last minute just to make sure the girls' housing was clean and ready for them (which it almost was, when they started arriving). I was so nervous the night before the actual conference because I had to make a speech, in french, in front of everyone. I hardly slept and woke up with some nice diarrhea, which of course only made things that much more pleasant. We got there, and I was still running around, and finally as the officials started to arrive it was time for my big opening speech. It was over faster than I thought, with about as much sweating and stumbling through words in french as I thought, but Girls Conference was officially underway. The Prefet gave a great speech and talked about the importance and Adam and Ciara opened up the volunteer portion of the schedule with a session on AIDS. Over the next three days the girls heard from all the volunteers on a plethora of things from AIDS, to family planning, and nutrition. I hardly saw a minute of the conference because I was running around getting food, snacks and other various things. But luckily I did get to see one of the best parts of the conference, the panel of professional women. I invited 4 women from Kankan to come and speak to girls, unfortunately 3 of them showed up but luckily my new boss was in town and was happy to sit in on the panel. The three women work in Kankan, one is the Chief of a Health Center here, another was a Doctor that works with Faison Ensemble, and the other works for an Organization here that is kind of like mine. They were fantastic and gave the girls lost of great advice, and they were so happy to have been invited. They said that there aren't enough opportunities for young girls in Guinea to hear about how they can succeed with their education and lives. They thanked me a million times, but it was them who did all the girls at the conference a favor, I can only hope that they take some of the lessons back with them. After the panel of women the girls went around town to see women working in Kankan. I was so happy with all of them, they all learned so much and were so excited to share their knew knowledge. We ended the conference with painting, bissap, certificates and a big fat plate of riz gras. We shipped them back to village the following day, and I hope that they share their experiences with their friends so that they too know there are opportunities out there. Girls conference was a great experience for all of us, though next year I hope not to be planning the whole thing, I can't wait to be involved and spread knowledge to more girls across the region. In the works I believe is a boys conference, I'll keep you posted on that as well. Also because I missed most of the conference I don't have pictures just yet, but as soon as I do I'll post them.
Now that I have some down time before I'm back on the road again helping my organization give trainings I've done nothing but eat and sleep for the last 2 days. It was glorious. I haven't had a break like that in a while, I keep telling Guineans I'm going to sleep like a crazy person for a week. They just shake their heads and laugh. But for the most part spirits are high and while I'm enjoying a bit of free time I've got a full schedule in the upcoming months. I'll be helping out with trainings and I'm also helping a tailor organize a expo. He recently started an organization and wants to get his work out there and by out there, I mean out of Guinea. So we're organizing an expo in Kankan to showcase his work and the other artisans in hopes of finding them some funding so they can keep running. Its a challenge thus far, but we've still got some time to work out the kinks and in the end I hope something good happens for him. If you're interested or know people that might be shoot me and email and we'll see if we can get some contacts going. While going internationally is a big dream at the moment it'd be nice for people to see his and the other artisans work. Anyway I think thats all for me now, with the rains dwindling and heat soaring, and anxiously awaiting the 'cold' season I'm here, there and everywhere but I hope to be in touch soon!
