Blogs from Conakry, Guinea, Africa - page 2

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 10-13 Stunden im'taxi-brousse' (Buschtaxi), meistens ca. 20-25 Jahre alte Renaults oder Citroens mit drei Reihen, die voll sind wenn 10 Leute drinsitzen, sodass die Bewegungsfreiheit sehr stark eingeschraenkt ist. Losgehen sollte die Fahrt eigentlich zwischen sechs und sieben uhr morgens, aber da die Taxis grundsaetzlich warten bis sie voll sind, wurde es mit der Abfahrt dann doch acht uhr. die ersten 100km gingen relativ zuegig vonstatten, danach fingen die schlagloecher an. und zwar von einem ausmass, wie man sich das kaum vorstellen kann. zum glueck ist auf ... read more

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 of gas was put into the generator and tuned to France24. It was an hour before any polls closed, 2 before there were any results: Vermont, 3 votes for Obama. Applause for this not surprising ... read more

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 stop thinking about the plight of girls in my village. Around 10:30 we finally got going. The girls took care of me the entire time and made sure I was fed (cookies, avocados, and oranges: ... read more

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 me real mail to communicate with me and to keep me sane. And third, you should me packages to keep me sane AND happy. :) These can get pricey very quickly though, so be careful. ... read more

So the illness set in a little sooner than expected, but that's life. I'm doing better already, running at about 80%. Not to shabby at all. I'm hoping for 100, because in the morning we're moving in with our homestay families. For our first and last days in Conakry we've just been meeting all of the staff and getting the basic overview of all that we'll be doing for the next three months. There are currently volunteers going through Training will us, so that has been extremely helpful. They've been answering our endless questions that range from "How do I get a dog?" to "How do I wipe my ass?" The past two nights we went out of the compound as a treat. Last night we went to a Middle Eastern restaurant that was very fancy ... read more