http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Guinea/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Africa , Guinea en-us Thu, 10 Dec 09 23:15:06 +0000 Thu, 10 Dec 09 23:15:06 +0000 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 730. I rush out of bed. I have to meet someone at 8. I quickly get dressed and run up t http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Guinea/Lab-/blog-441113.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Guinea/Lab-/blog-427834.html Looks like I will be here another night because my VISA for Mali won't be done until the afternoon.I guess that is ok it might be worth it to walk around the city a bit feeling healthy for the first time.It poured rain last night like really really hard rain.The most rain I have ever heard or seen before.I had a really delicious meal of fish and pasta for dinner before wandering around the stre http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Guinea/Conakry/blog-421417.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Guinea/Lab-/blog-414847.html Gute Fahrt und viel Glueck das war das Motto vorgestern auf der Fahrt von Kankan nach Conakry einmal quer durch Guinea. In den meisten anderen Laendern bekommt man nur eine gute Fahrt gewuenscht hier in Guinea reicht das wohl offensichtlich nicht. Zu bewaeltigen waren ca. 600km angepeilte 1013 Stunden im'taxibrousse' Buschtaxi meistens ca. 2025 Jahre alte Renaults oder Citroens mit dre http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Guinea/Conakry/blog-411888.html Irsquom going to try to be as respectful as possible while writing this however Irsquom sure that at some point Irsquoll 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Guinea/Lab-/blog-383690.html Tuesday 23 December 2008 The death of General Lansana Cont 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 offi http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Guinea/For%C3%A9cariah/blog-383686.html Apparently a year has passed since I left the US. Irsquom marking the anniversary by spending three weeks where I got started in Guinea Forecariah. Irsquom helping train a new group of volunteers that got here at the beginning of the month. For all there friends and family that may be reading theyrsquore doing really well and I know I can speak for the other volunteers and say that all http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Guinea/For%C3%A9cariah/blog-383671.html AFRICAI am having difficulty paring down my emotions thoughts and experiences from Guinea into a single blog entry which may undoubtedly become more of a novel than a light read on an experience of only 4 weekshellipTherefore Irsquove decided to start at the end of the trip and remember that less is morehellipI hope this short read does justice to the intensity of this journeyhellipFor http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Guinea/Conakry/blog-375351.html 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 emphasi http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Guinea/Conakry/blog-347012.html I have now arrived to Ghana and will be here until October 21 volunteering with FOCOS a spinal club food clinic. I will be updating my website at www.g3adventures.wordpress.com. You can also look up my Youtube channel with the user name G3ADVENTURES. I hope you follow along in my journey http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Guinea/Pita/blog-329096.html 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 ta http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Guinea/Conakry/blog-325542.html Typically Amazing Travel StoryBecause 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 g http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Guinea/Conakry/blog-309918.html 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.S http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Guinea/Lab-/blog-298304.html 22 April 2008 Random NotesMy 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 vol http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Guinea/Conakry/blog-278519.html Woke up in the morning and went to Christ Orphanage. The kids didn't have class today so we sang and they played with my hair for a solid three hours which was both wonderful and disgusting at the same time...problem is I know EXACTLY where their hands have been.Some EXCITING news from the orphanage Emily's parents donated money to Christ for her birthday With the money Raymond was able to buy http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Guinea/blog-268394.html 24 March 2008Irsquove been having some bad days and getting disspirited. I often feel like my French is getting worse and that Irsquom not learning any Pular. I always feel like Irsquom not doing enough and often that Irsquom doing nothing at all. I was horrified when I realized in one week Irsquod finished reading 3 books compared to the 5 I read in the first two months.But then t http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Guinea/Lab-/blog-265340.html 24 February 2008Abdelrahmane 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 EnglishPular dictionary that some missionaries made I learned that ldquobird of sorceryrdquo means owl in Pular. This revelation made me feel better until http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Guinea/Lab-/blog-256708.html February 15 2008Another long travel day this one much longer than the others. We left quite early and the total trip took 11 hours. We left Koba early with a quick formal visit to the SouxPrefect. We then continued along the way backtracking to Kindia. From Kindia we headed towards Kouroussa on a paved highway. One of the large centres we went through and stopped at for lunch was Mamou. I http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Guinea/blog-247007.html February 14 2008Happy Valentinersquos Day my husband wished me in the morning. Wow couldnrsquot believe it was February 14th already. Valentinersquos day is not a big deal here and did not see anything advertising it. Our lsquoromanticrsquo day was spent traveling around all day looking at Bauxite plateaus. It was a fun day bumping up and down over a portion of the south permit th http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Guinea/blog-247004.html