Disclaimer: The contents of this page, and all links appearing on this page, do not represent the positions, views or intents of the U.S. Government, United States Peace Corps or Peace Corps Guinea. Kindly do not republish anything found on these pages without explicit permission of the author. I wake up at 7:30. I rush out of bed. I have to meet someone at 8. I quickly get dressed and run up to the roof of the Peace Corps office. I begin praying the morning service of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. The guard tells me later it's the [View Full Entry]

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Saturday around 6 PM I said good-bye to my Dad and hopped the train to the Barcelona airport. My flight with Royal Air Maroc (Royal Moroccan Airlines), was scheduled to leave around 9 PM. However when I checked in they told me the flight was delayed an hour. After I got through security, I saw on the monitors that I was now leaving around 11 PM. After grabbing something to eat, the little TVs now said around midnight. Turns out the RAM pilots had gone on strike. I was told to wait it out. By midnight, I'd made good friends with [View Full Entry]

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After getting the last seat on two different flights, I arrived in Barcelona on Sunday. My baggage didn't quite make it, but I didn't expect to make it myself let alone my bag, so no big loss. My Dad got here a couple hours later and together we took the train into the city. We headed to our simple but gorgeous hotel. One it's most attractive features is that it is right in the middle of Las Ramblas, the main tourist/strolling boulevard ... and right across the street from one of the largest markets. Food. What a great idea. :) I'm [View Full Entry]

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I know, I know ... what the heck am I doing in Spain? Three weeks ago my Dad managed to call me (it is possible!) and informed that I'd be meeting him in Barcelona on the 16th. Why Barcelona? The Catalonian capital was chosen to host the 33rd World Convention of Narcotics Anonymous (WCNA). So here we are, along with about 5000-7000 NA fellows. So this week, thousands of recovering addicts from across the globe flooded the streets of Barcelona. While a majority of the group came from the United States, where NA began, every continent is represented [View Full Entry]

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The rainy season is finally here! There's no more school, so all the college and high school students come back to the village for the vacation. No more ridiculously hot weather. And my favorite, no more relying on a well 15 minutes away for all my water. Now it's delivered to me, straight off my roof. :) Far from being a vacation time, everyone is working more than usual. Practically everyone is in the fields most if not all of the day planting corn, rice, peanuts, cassava, sweet potatoes, and okra. All of this is done by hand, the only assistance [View Full Entry]

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Ok kids, here's the deal. I'm still hanging out in Guinea (18 months down, 8 to go). A year ago I started fundraising through Peace Corps to renovate the elementary school in my village. This thing was built by the French, back in the day when colonization was still in style. In the 50+ years since then, no repairs have been made. So basically, it looks like a bomb hit it. If it were in the US, it would be demolished as a public health risk. But this is Guinea. So the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders have class there. Cool, [View Full Entry]

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Due to the lack of appropriate medical facilities in Guinea, I've been whisked away to Senegal for my mid-service check up. Despite all the fun forms and doctor visits, I'm choosing to see this as a second vacation. First things first, the moment I got off the plane, I was greeted by sliding glass doors. I'm travelling with another volunteer from Guinea and we took this as a sign that Dakar would be a little different than what we were use to in Conakry. The customs officials immediately inferre [View Full Entry]

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After three weeks and four cities, I'm headed back to Guinea. Of course there are a few speed bumps and pit stops along the way. When I got to the airport, they told me I was two days late for my flight and out of luck. As person after person failed to find me in the system, I calculated all the money I had on me (even in Guinean Francs) and wondered if it would be enough to buy another ticket. I was fully prepared to bargain for a lower price. Fortunately, before I could use my African market skills on [View Full Entry]

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I’m going to try to be as respectful as possible while writing this; however I’m sure that at some point I’ll fail. For this I apologize to whomever I offend. A year and half ago, if you asked me, I would have told you that hardline feminists annoy the hell out of me. They still do, most anyway. (That is to say women who said the only reason they wanted Clinton for president was because she had a vagina; women who only apply their “principles” to white upper or middle class women therefore excluding the majority of their supposed constituency.) However, [View Full Entry]

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Tuesday 23 December 2008 - The death of General Lansana Conté, the President of Guinea for the past 24 years, is announced on the radio. Wednesday 24 December 2008 - The military takes over Guinea. They celebrate by shooting into the air throughout the night. We were scheduled to go to Conakry for Christmas, but for safety reasons we stayed in Forecariah. We had a Christmas Eve party at the office. Most of the trainees were planning on spending the night there. This was good because around 9 PM gunfire was going off throughout the town. The military is celebrating tha [View Full Entry]

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