Blogs from Guinea, Africa - page 5

February 11, 2008 A day of meetings! It was a fun and interesting day. We were driven around Conakry by Paul, the driver. It is quite common to have a driver, especially in a rental vehicle. Another interesting aspect of driving around, there is a lot of horn honking. Honking usually is used to let people know you are coming so don’t cross the street or watch out, if they are walking along the road edge. There are people everywhere in Conakry. It is amazing the level of activity. People are so busy. The other neat thing about Conakry, is that it is on a peninsula, surrounded by ocean. It is wonderful. There are interesting looking fishing boats and people selling fresh fish along the side of the road. It is an amazing town, although traffic ... 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

Doing great, 2 weeks left of training. Visited my site this week. Wonderful. If you want to know where exactly ask my Dad, Nina, or Claudia. More random exerts: Sunday January 20 A Day in the Life 8:37 AM - Leave Counterpart Workshop in Bush Taxi with two other trainees and two of our Guinean Counterparts 8:45 AM - Lost my counterpart 8:50 AM - Stopped by driver's house, not saluated, not offered any rice. We're all offended. 9:04 AM - Stopped to get tires. 9:13 AM - Counterpart shows back up. 9:20 AM - Nick & Neil randomly find us. I meet my counterpart's brother. 9:30 AM - Leave Mamou! 10:22 AM - Breakdown outside Bouliwel. 11:45 AM - Tune up/bathroom break outside of Pita 12:30 PM - Made it to the PC office in ... read more

Random exerts from my journal over the past two weeks: December 8: Tonights my first night with the new family. There are supposedly about 15 people living in my house. I don't know if I've met them or not. My sister, Oumou, is in charge of me. She takes really good care of me. I have my own huge bedroom and bathroom. I'm so spoiled. Not to mention that it's dark it's dark and the electricity just kicked in. I have electricity! I'm so fortunate for everything here. My sister has been so patient with me. She holds my hand in the dark. People work all the time here. Even the little kids. Everyone is always doing something. I feel lazy because I don't know what I'm suppose to do or how to do it. My ... read more

After months of multiple applications, blood samples, and random jobs I arrived in Guinea last night. I'm with a group of 36 other volunteers-to-be and we all sort of freaked out when we were waiting in Philadelphia for three days at our staging. The moment we landed in Conakry though it was like coming home. All the stress and anxiety immediately disappeared. I knew right away that I'd made the right choice. The streets in the capital are crazy and crowded. People are everyone at all times of the night. Driving is hectic to saw the least. I'm extremely grateful that I'm not allowed to drive awhile I'm here. My first impressions of Guinea are incredible. I've never seen such a beautiful country. Guineans are the nicest most hospitable people you'll ever meet. We're being extremely ... read more