Conakry at last...

Ok, so I'm not officially a volunteer yet. Tomorrow is the swearing in ceremony. Today was the farewell ceremony. We left Dubreka for good and came here to the Peace Corps House in Conakry. We go to our sites on Sunday.

The hardest part for me was saying goodbye to my host mom. Over the past 3 months (slightly less), I have come to love that woman. By leaps and bounds, she has done more for me here than anyone else so far in stage. That's saying a lot. I really can't begin to describe it. So I won't. The most amazing part is the relationship we developed. She only speaks Susu and I only speak English and a decent amount of French. My Susu is virtually non-existent. But somehow we know each other well. It's amazing how much can be communicated through facial expressions, hand movements, basic salutations (which can mean a lot more here than back home), and the small bit of Susu I do know. Over the last few days she's been coming into my hut and standing in the entrance to my room, with her huge smile and a hint of sadness on her face. She says things like, "Boubacar sigama Boke" or "I siga Dabiss" or "Fo I N Fama",or usually something else that I don't understand. Basically she's saying, "you're leaving! I'm going to miss you." And she mostly just does it by standing there for awhile not saying anything at all. Anyway, I invited her to our farewell ceremony, and made it very clear to my host dad that I wanted her to come. But this morning, after giving out all my presents, I noticed she wasn't dressed to go. I asked my dad why, and he said she's not going. They told me she had to stay home to make the rice. I can't really explain why this was so sad or upsetting. It was though and I didn't know how to deal with it. I'd like to think she felt more comfortable staying home and saying goodbye to me at home. Either way, it made me somewhat resentful of the cultural norms here and somewhat resentful toward my family for allowing it, but I really don't think i understand it fully. So I decided to let it be, mostly I was just sad to say goodbye and I wanted her to come to the fun ceremony (which wasn't that fun anyway). She was crying when I left.

Anyway, it's great to be done with stage. I feel like I'm in some sort of twilight zone. It hasn't hit me that stage is over and it hasn't hit me that my service is really about to begin. I'm just trying to relax and enjoy my time here in Conakry with my fellow trainees most of whom I won't be able to see again for a long while. We have all sorts of great amenities at the PC house here, such as free internet access, a nice beach bar one minute away (we are right on the Atlantic coast), air conditioning, and good food which is not rice and sauce. So I'm enjoying it. I just finished reading some really good emails from my family and a friend and I have lots and lots on my mind. I wish I could write more but people are waiting for the computers so I have to go. I'll write more soon I'm sure. I have till Sunday. Hope things are going well, I love getting emails from people, from anyone. It's nice to hear how y'all are doing. Take care,

Anders

Snail Mail Letter #3 - almost done training stage

2/27/05 Sunday 15:26 Everything is on army time here LETTER #3

Hey everyone, I just experienced my first rainstorm in Guinea. Apparently, it only rains once or twice during the dry season here. I was outside earlier doing some reading in the shade because it was far too hot and humid in my hut. I was sitting under a couple of huge mango trees and the sky got suddenly dark as if it were about to storm. I didn’t think it would actually happen though, since I’ve been here 7 weeks or so and haven’t seen as much as a drizzle. But sure enough, it came. At first, I thought the lightning was just another explosion from the granite mine nearby. But once the rain picked up, the thunder was unmistakable. I hopped on my bike and went home before getting too wet. I was so happy it was raining. Mostly because it was a nice change and a very cool breeze came with it. I sat in my hut with the door open and enjoyed the storm. But before long, I felt a dripping on my head. I got up and walked into the room part of my hut and noticed lots and lots of little leaks. My enjoyment of the storm quickly faded as I noticed the biggest leak was directly over my bed. I started sweating again as I frantically rearranged everything in my room to places where they wouldn’t get wet. My pillow was soaked, along with my mosquito net and parts of my sheets. The sweat is enough dampness for when I sleep. I don’t need rain to top it off. However, I never completely lost the good mood I had been in, and before long, it overshadowed the mess my hut had become and pushed out the bad mood that was creeping in. I sat down in middle of my hut where no rain was hitting and played a little guitar. The rain subsided and the cool breeze stayed. There’s a distinct smell outside after a rainstorm and when I smelled it, it made me think of home, probably because it’s a very familiar smell and this is the first time I’ve smelled it since I’ve been here. So I decided I’d write a letter back home. The storm has stopped. My host mom came in and swept out all the water in my hut. I’ve hung my sheets to dry and everything is back in order. I’m actually quite glad it rained because the last few days have been the hottest and most humid yet to come and now it’s much cooler. I think it was also a good lesson for me on how to prepare for very leaky huts. I’m sure it will prove useful when I’m in my hut in Dabiss and rainy season comes. 170 inches of rain a year! I better be prepared. Oh well. I hope my sheets dry before I go to bed tonight.

So I think I’ve lost about 20 lbs since I’ve been here. How crazy is that? I weighed myself in Conakry on the first day we got here. Then I weighed myself on the same scale just last weekend. It told me I was 22 lbs lighter. Now I suspect this scale could be unreliable but the fact that I used it both times makes me think I did lose weight. I also have other reasons to believe I’ve lost weight. I know I put on extra pounds on the holidays just before leaving, so that probably disappeared quickly. I’m also down to the last hole on my belt, having started on the 2nd biggest. But I feel like I’ve lost around 10. I bet it’s more like that. But don’t worry. I’m eating lots.

Ok, here’s a critter update. Along with the endless ants, cockroaches, and spiders that are constantly invading my hut, I’ve also had wasp nests and wasps, toads, termites, and most recently a bat! It was quite the scary ordeal trying to cope with the bat flying around in my hut. It flew out one night at about 3 AM, after I opened my door with the intention/hope of it doing just that. Last night I was drinking out of my Nalgene bottle when I noticed a huge, dead cockroach floating in it! Some of the spiders in my hut are the size of my hand. It’s so fun living in Guinea.

Mom, I hope you are appreciating all the different colors here. I’m using the pens you sent me. One question though. Why purple and not green? I’m much too manly to use such a girly color. I can’t let it go to waste though. Hey, my host mom is quite the good cook. But I am really missing your cooking over here. I miss good food so much……

I’ll preface this by saying that Guinea is a very beautiful country, but there is trash everywhere over here. There’s no trash system - no trash cans, no trash collectors. So everyone just throws their trash on the ground. There are places where trash is consolidated and burned, but most places (especially market villages) have trash everywhere. So it’s kind of funny having all these Peace Corps volunteers come over here and learn how to litter and be comfortable with it. When I have trash in my hut, I toss it into the alcove and my host mom sweeps it outside every morning. What’s cool, though, is that people here manage to produce very little trash on a daily basis. They really don’t waste anything. I wonder if trash is more of a problem in America….

There’s a man who delivers bread on his bike to everyone in Gbereire each morning. Last week, he was riding his bike along the main road which passes Gbereire, was hit by a large Mack Truck, and died on impact. It was pretty sad because lots of people in our town knew him well, including my host dad. He came and talked about it with me for awhile in my hut. Very sad. I think it was sad for him because it was so unfortunate. People here have to deal with death quite often and I think they usually take it well. But the deaths are usually from sickness, which they are so used to. It’s so much harder when it’s an unfortunate accident. You can tell that they take it differently.

We had our first ET last weekend. (Early Termination of services) A guy named Kevin went home. There were a lot of reasons contributing to his decision. Kevin was actually here one year ago with the G-7 stage (we’re G-9). He had to ET because he tore his ACL playing Frisbee. So his knee is still bad. He also got a good job offer in the states. He actually got here late, so we don’t even feel like he’s part of our stage. Sad to see him go, but it felt like he was never even here. We’re still waiting for the first ‘real’ ET. I wonder if/when it will come. We all seem to be doing well.

So guys hold hands a lot here. It’s really true. They do it all the time. On the 3K drive from here Dubrekaville, you’re bound to see at least 5 pairs of guys walking around holding hands. It’s totally normal. It’s a sign of good friendship. I’ve become good friends with my host brothers but I just can’t make that cultural leap and hold their hands yet. It’s still too weird for me right now. What’s funny, though, is that men show so much affection for other men here and it’s accepted and normal. But it’s completely taboo for men to be affectionate toward women or vice versa. I haven’t seen so much as a handhold. Very interesting. One current volunteer told me she almost got arrested for making out with some Irish guy in a dark alley one night.

I’m so excited about my site visit. It will be a well needed break from stage. After the first site visit got cancelled, I was somewhat ridiculed for thinking it would be rescheduled. Everyone else was down and quite certain that we wouldn’t be going. Guess I showed them. Anyway, it should be fun to see Dabiss, Boke (my regional capital, my hut, the people I will be living around for the next two years). I’ll be sure to write again about my site visit experience.

Athena Childs was a visiting PCV. It’s so weird to have Athena here. She’s been helping out this past week too. I wanted to surprise her when I got here, but she had already figured it out. It’s invaluable having the current PCBs come help out with stage. They’re all G-7 volunteers and they came to Guinea in January 2004. They provide so much practical advice. The experience they have, their stories, everything, is so interesting, relevant, and useful. They occasionally cook us meals as well, which aren’t rice and sauce! So good……

So, I hope you found this letter interesting. I had a good time writing it. Mom, I think sending those pens and this paper helped my letter writing more than anything! Who knew? Well, just to tell you how I’m really doing…. Hmm… Let’s see. I’m extremely happy. I’m constantly glad that I came here. I’ve been getting closer and closer with my host family and I can already tell I will be quite sad to leave them. They are an incredible group of people. I’ve started learning Susu and they absolutely LOVE it when I try to say something. Tough language. I feel very adjusted now. I think I got over that initial wave of culture shock. What a wave it was. Apparently there’s a second wave of culture shock when you go to site. I can imagine.

Family, I think of you a lot. Love and miss you. I hope you are all doing well. Keep the updates coming on your lives. I’ll do the same. I still have to pack for site visit… and it’s late. I’m procrastinating. Feel like I’m in college again. Take care.

Love, Anders

email #3 - a brief update

I'm in a town called Kamsar right now. It’s an expat town on the coast, about 40 or 50 K from Boke. It has lots of American amenities (sp?) and we're going to swim in a pool after this. We came here from the Peace Corps Boke house today to get a little taste of the "vacation spot" us Basse Coters have. I have been having a blast. There is a girl named Hannah who is a PCV that lives very close to Dabiss. She has been showing me around. Sunday morning, we got up and took the 53 K trip to Boke on an unpaved road in a taxi with a completely smashed windshield and about 6 or 7 other Guineans squeezed in. The ride however, was surprisingly smooth, only taking about 75 minutes, which I can't say for the ride back, which took over 4 hours. It’s hit or miss with the taxis here and there's no way of telling which ones are better. Anyway, I was very happy with what I saw in Dabiss. Its a small village and like most places in Guinea, everyone was warm and welcoming. Most of them spoke Landouma, which I think is a Portuguese dialect; this means I'll probably have to stop Susu and learn this. I was fortunate to have Hannah with me who speaks Landouma impressively. My Health Center Chef, who was also my counterpart in Mamou, showed us around town and fed us for lunch, dinner and breakfast the next morning. He is a really great guy. I like him and it’s nice to already know someone in the village I can trust. It took us about 30 minutes to walk around Dabiss and saluate (a frenchish term for salutations...salutations are huge over here) everybody. And that was at a nice, slow, leisurely, Guinean walking pace. I stayed in the hut they built for me. It’s a relatively small hut, probably smaller than my one in Gbereire, and it is centered smack in the middle of the town. I have a Mosque on one side of me and Koran school on the other, and then about six other huts surrounding me as well. Fortunately, I also have a large yard around my hut enclosed by an 8 foot high grass fence. So I still have my privacy which is quite nice. In my yard I also have an outdoor cooking hut, which will be a nice shady spot for me to relax in during the day when my hut is too hot. I also have my own private latrine and bathing area. That’s about all. Hannah and I stayed the night there and then returned yesterday. We had a great time. It was nice to go and see the place but we honestly didn't have a lot to do there, so it was good we only spent one night.

So that’s the update. I hope things are going well. I'm doing great.

Love,
Anders