For a long time I've had absolutely no desire to go to Europe. So it's surprising to me that I'm now in Spain for the second time this year. How on earth did I get here? Two days ago ... 3:30 AM - Leave Bamako with about 10 other volunteers 8:00 AM - Get to Casablanca; Take fellow volunteer Julie to the train station to meet up with my friend Zak in Rabat; "Your mother is looking for you!" -- Police officer at Casablanca Airport 9:00 AM - Try to get back into airport to make my connecting flight: "You're coming from Bamako ... you lived in Guinea ... you speak some Arabic ... and you're American? I'm sorry but that's a little weird." -- Royal Air Maroc ticketing agent 12:00 PM - Leave Morocco 3:00 ... read more

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 first time he's ever seen a volunteer pray. I sneak glances into the courtyards of my neighbors. Women are getting water from wells. Men are in front of their houses brushing their teeth. Everything is ... read more

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 eating a lot of American food here, but don't judge me, it's counts as foreign food to me now. There are so many tourists here, it's ridiculous. Barcelona is the #10 most visited city in ... read more

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 being that of a hoe. Even I'm working more than usual. Because everyone's out of school, when they're not planting they want to learn English. So I've been having about three private lessons a day ... read more

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 inferred that we were Peace Corps volunteers and started speaking to us in Wolof (the predominantly spoken local language in Senegal). We apologized in French, saying we didn't understand. But apparently Peace Corps is very well known here, and has a great reputation because this didn't really bother ... read more