I just heard someone mention off hand on the radio that Senator Obama won Indiana. As with the entire election, this is nothing short of a miracle. The impossible can happen. I know everyone's tired of hearing about the election, but please indulge me a little because this story needs to be told. On November 4th at 10 PM about 20 men and myself gathered in my mayor's living room. I must emphasize that I live in the middle of nowhere, if this was happening in my tiny village it was doubtlessly similiar in villages throughtout West Africa. A $3 liter [View Full Entry]

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Hanging out in Guinea for more than 9 months now. Things are going relatively well, I'm still healthy, and Ramadan is almost over (alhamdulilah!) Last Saturday I took a taxi directly from my village to the town of Kissidougou. The ride ended up being 19 hours. We broke down a couple times, and had to stop to break the fast at sunset. But even then it shouldn't have taken that long. When I take trips like that, I begin to realize why everyone in the US thinks I'm crazy for being here. [View Full Entry]

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Typically Amazing Travel Story: Because there are no taxis that go from my Regional capital to my site, I thought I'd try taking a taxi to my prefecture capital first and then to my village. I got to the taxi stand at the late hour of 9 AM and became aquainted with 3 girls from the prefecture capital who had just finished Terminale (we run on the French education system here which means everyone goes to Grade 13, which is called Terminale or, the last year). This was truly a blessing as the night before I couldn't sleep because I couldn't [View Full Entry]

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Sorry for the late entry everyone (and it won't be a great one at that ... I have to run and get to the taxi stand). I went down to Conakry for the 4th of July (and gorged on lots of American style food), but was asked to leave immediately afterwards to show the new Country Director my village. We've have a great staff here in Guinea, and the new director and his wife are only adding to it all. So I'm still alive, don't worry. I wanted to upload pictures, but it seems that their might be a virus on [View Full Entry]

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22 April 2008 - Random Notes My boss was here for a day a is was wonderful. I was able to vent all my frustrations and worries. She calmly reassured me that they were all normal and I'd been handling them the best I could. She said she picked me for my village because I was a little more outgoing, a little more prepared, both of which surprise me. I don't care if she said that about all the volunteers, it still meant a lot to me. A random kid just showed up at my house with 4 mangoes. I don't [View Full Entry]

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24 March 2008 I’ve been having some bad days and getting dis-spirited. I often feel like my French is getting worse and that I’m not learning any Pular. I always feel like I’m not doing enough and often that I’m doing nothing at all. I was horrified when I realized in one week I’d finished reading 3 books (compared to the 5 I read in the first two months.) But then there are little signs of success here and there. My elderly neighbor, Nenne Kanne, who only speaks Pular (to others, but mostly to herself) has started using some French with [View Full Entry]

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24 February 2008 Abdelrahmane just told me that heaving breathing outside my window every night was sorcery and that when he hears he runs away. \Scared out of my mind, I kept asking him questions After about 20 minutes and thanks to the English-Pular dictionary that some missionaries made, I learned that “bird of sorcery” means owl in Pular. This revelation made me feel better until I remembered that I was taught that owls go “hoo,” not breathe heavily. But then again, I’m not an owl expert. Maybe Guinean owls don’t go “hoo” and ju [View Full Entry]

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11 February 2008 Yesterday for dinner we went to a restaurant and ordered hamburgers. We got hard boiled eggs covered with a thin layer of ground beef swimming in a pool of oil and cold french fries. We opted to make our own dinner tonight and made pancakes with chocolate sauce, mexican eggs, salsa, guacamole, and garlic bread. A little random but amazing. 12 February 2008 Yesterday we went shopping. Kim and I got lost a couple times in the market and got about 20 marriage proposals. It's a time intensive process, so even though we were out all day we [View Full Entry]

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That's right, today 35 of us we're sworen in as Peace Corps Volunteers in the beautiful country of Guinea. We've officially started our 24 months of service! Crazy stuff. I'm really excited and nervous at the same time to be off, literally in the middle of nowhere, for a good while. We're chilling for awhile now, but I'll be off to my site for good on the 15th. This means a couple of things for you, random reader of the blog. First, I'm only going to have internet access once a month at most from now on. Second, you should send [View Full Entry]

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31 January 2008 I can't believe January is over. Everyone here will agree that December was one of the longest months of our lives but January just disappeared. I'm not ready to leave Forecariah. We only have 5 full days left here. That's crazy! I don't want to say goodbye to my family. I'm really gonna miss Oumou. I took for granted having a girl my age to talk to. She's a rare find here and I'm extremely grateful for her. Generally only guys can communicate easily in French (outside of big cities). All the women in their 20s stopped going [View Full Entry]

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