I uploaded photos!

Just wanted to let you all know I have uploaded photos to my Flickr account! I keep forgetting to bring my camera places, so I don't have too many.

www.flickr.com/photos/mvevans

Hope everyone has a good new year!

The Video Club

The local Carrefour has lots of great activities to entertain the average Foute. There’s a bar where the Christians and less dev out Muslims can imbibe a skol or Geluxe, a Guinean beer.  The local boite (danceclub), Espace, has a great dance floor, complete with breathtaking pyrotechnics (flashing Christmas lights).  More importantly, it has a lot of those ceiling fans that look like desk fans, a favorite of Foute’s everywhere.

My most frequented establishment, however, is the video club (shame on you who thought it was the bar).  The video club is the bush equivalent of a multiplex cinema.  For 500 GF (about $0.05), I can watch a Guinean feature film on the 22“ TV.  Plus, if you come in for the last 10 minutes, you can usually catch the end without having to pay.

The building itself is wooden with a corrugated tin roof.  A curtain covers the doorway to help block outside light and noise, although the somewhat gaping hole in the side wall isn’t really a concern.  Gberiere’s video club is pretty luxurious: its crumbling concrete floor is set in a sort of stadium seating. Wooden benches serve as the seat of choice, although the crowd usually spills onto the floor during busy weekend nights.

The screen itself is a Chinese-make TV, smaller than the average American household has in the living room by a longshot.  A leak last rainy season has left the screen with a split discoloration, the bottom tinted a bit purple, the top green.  It is so dusty here that the lens in the DVD player is inevitably dirty, causing the disc to skip a bit.  Other times, a video club patron walking by may accidently unplug one of the AV wires, causing the audience to direct a lot of loud Susu towards the perpetrator.

“Outburst” isn’t really the right word to use, since people are shouting the whole time.  The audio is loud, so one must shout to be heard; or maybe the audio is loud to cover the shouters.  We may never know.  Talking on the phone is not only allowed, but encouraged, so that your friends know you are cool enough to be at the video club when they called.  The younger kids bicker through the film and the even younger kids sleep on their mothers’ backs.  The other day, the lady next to me was nursing an enfant.  After she got up, she was soon replaced by a man holding a live chicken by the feet.  The chicken was remarkably calm, considering it was watching what resembled a homemade action movie (think Michael Cera’s Star Wars video in AD) upside-down.

I’m still undecided whether the films seem plot-less because I don’t speak Susu or because the plot is so hard to follow.  They do all have the following things in common:

-          A minimum of 3 montages

-          Slapstick humor

-          Suspense music reminiscent of Inception

-          At least one protagonist inexplicably wearing a scarf in 100 F weather

-          An unnessary amount of special effects in the opening credits.

It is my firm belief that The Room would do unbelievably well in these video clubs, if not for the lack of plastic spoons in Guinea.

In spite of my inability to follow and understand Guinea films, the video club is a fun place to spend an evening.  I get to hang out with my sister and her friends and try and glean some cultural tidbits from the films.  So far, however, all I know is that a deep ominous noise means someone is hiding in my closet spying on me, or that the man serving me café au lait is actually my long lost brother.  Now, if only there was a snack bar…

Kankan Here I Come!!

Not too long of a blog post today, but just wanted to let everyone know I found out my site today.

I will be going to Kankan!! It is the second biggest city in Guinea, located in Haute Guinea in the East.  The language there is Malinke, which is also spoken in several other West African countries, so it will be useful there as well.  I will be working with a women’s group, largely women, in their gardening and entrepreneurship work.  There will also be the opportunity to work with the local university for environmental education and protection activities.

I don’t know much about Kankan, but there are several other volunteers within a few km, so that is great.  If you are feeling bored over your holiday break, feel free to look up some info on Kankan and forward it on to me.

Hope everyone’s got their trees up and is ready for the holiday!

A Day In The Life of a PCT

I know what you’re thinking: Two blog posts in one week? Are you even in a developing country?  There isn’t even anything too blog worthy to write about, but I figure I should take advantage of this luxury while I can.

Here’s what my average day as a PCT (Peace Corps Trainee) looks like:

6:30 AM: The rooster wakes me up and I debate whether to lie in bed until my alarm goes off or go try and get a prime spot in line for the ‘toilet’ (pit latrine)

7:00 AM: Greet everyone in the compound.  As I’m usually still half asleep, this comes out in a Susu/French/English mix, much to everyone’s amusement

7:15 AM: Eat a breakfast of a baguette with a) a fried egg, b) egg salad, or c) peanut butter

7:45 AM: Try and leave for my 8 o’clock French class while my host mom insists I bring a sandwich or 5 for the road

8:15 AM: Inevitably arrive late for my class.  Try and concentrate on the past tense for the next four hours while chicken continuously walk through our ‘classroom’

12:30 PM: Eat a peanut butter and banana sandwich for lunch, supplemented by sweet potato fries if the ladies down the street made them today

2:00 PM: Garden or technical work.  Earlier this week we started our tree nursery using old water saches and we’ve direct seeded carrots, cabbage, eggplant, and beans in our beds so far.  I’m still hoping we can find avocado somewhere!

5:00 PM: Water and weed the garden if I’m on the schedule, otherwise grad some ataya, the local tea.  This is kind of like a tea version of Turkish coffee: a shot of very sweet, strong tea.

6:15 PM: Arrive home and be advised that I should ‘shower’ (bucket bath) immediately.  I guess my family is trying to tell me something…

7:00 PM: Eat a dinner of rice with some sort of fish-based sauce followed by an orange and grilled bananas

7:30 PM: Speak with my family in slow French and then listen to all the village gossip in Susu.  Don’t worry, my lips are sealed.

8:30 PM: Head down to the carrefour (crossroads with restaurants, videoclubs, and a dance club) with my sister.  Chat with the vendors or watch whatever movie is playing at the videoclub.  Last time it was Commando.  My younger brother then proceeded to tell me all he knew about Arnold Schwarzeneger and “calofornie”

9:30 PM: Return home and put on the lightest clothing possible so that I can sleep under my mosquito net (which adds about 10F of heat) without sweating too profusely

9:45 PM: Fall asleep while writing in my journal or studying French

My days are pretty busy as we only have 9 weeks of training to get our French to the required level and to learn the local language of my site, as well as go over agroforestry techniques.  I think my French is really improving though, and I am having a great time hanging out with all the other AGFO (agroforestry) volunteers.

Some people (my Dad) have requested pictures, but the internet is too painfully slow at the moment.  I know a picture is supposedly worth a thousand words, but hopefully this much shorter description will suffice:

Gberiere is a small village located a long a tarmac highway.  None of the roads in the village are paved, though there are power lines for our intermittent electricity.  Train tracks to a bauxite mining center go through the village and the horn is a nice background soundtrack to my days and nights.  Most houses are cement or brick with a corrugated tin roof, usually with a thatched gazebo or hut on the property too.  Each property has several buildings and is called a compound, though very few are actually enclosed by a wall.  At dusk, you can see the glow of the neighbor’s cooking fires as the finishing touches are added to meals.  The moon has been very bright lately, so people sit out and talk for hours under its watch.  Our garden is in a nearby wetland that is submerged as a rice field in the rainy season, but has tomatoes, manioc, and other vegetables planted now.  Nearby are three mountains that looks as though someone has punched straight through the Earth to create them.  Their cliffs are so steep that trees grow out horizontally along their slopes.  One of them is inexplically named ‘The Dog Who Smokes’.

Hopefully that can tide you photomanics over for a little bit.  I will be spending Christmas in Conakry and will try and upload something there, where the internet is faster.

Shout out to Ms. Crist’s class!! Don’t worry I haven’t forgotten about you. I’ve sent a letter with a staff member going back to America for vacation, so hopefully you will get it soon.

On that note, I think mail is taking at least 4 weeks.  I only just got my absentee ballot for the November elections a few days ago, so patience is key.

I hope everyone I don’t get to talk to beforehand has a wonderful holiday season!

Michelle

P.S. This morning I could see my breath when I woke up it was so cold! It’s the little things!

C'est une comedie, non?

I have just finished the first week of homestay and the phrase uttered to me on the bus by a young boy still holds.  Life truly is a comedy.

I am staying with a homestay family in Gbereire, a village about 5 km from Dubreka.  Agroforestry volunteers were placed here because it is a closer approximation to what our lives will be like at site than Dubreka.  I have a thatched hut all to myself about 15 ft. in diameter.  It is much better than the cement houses with tin roofs because it doesn’t hold in the heat.  Family is a loose term in Guinea and most tend to be very large.  All the houses surrounding mine are somehow related and people are always going from one to another.  In mine alone, there are 7 children, a couple grandparents, some sisters and the parents.  I have been given the name Mahawa Camara after my 23 year old sister.

ach day involves a lot of language class and some technical training.  We have begun making our garden and finished fencing it in yesterday.  The majority of my day, however, is spent greeting people.  Greetings are very important in guinean culture, so I do a lot of them.  After I wake, I walk around our house and greet everyone.  Then I brush my teeth and greet everyone again.  Walking to school or to the garden, I greet every house I pass.  I even do it while jogging, which goes a bit like this:

Gaggle of Children: Fote! Fote! (the local name for ‘white person’)

Me (while gasping for breath): Tana *pant* mu xi? (Hello!)

GOC: many screaming responses while grasping my sweaty hands

Me: Ala Tantu (God Bless)

GoC roll on the ground in laughter.

And then, I move on to the next house…

The language in the Basse-Cote region (the Westernmost region) is Susu.  Everyone speaks it and for many older women, it is the only language they speak.  French is taught in schools, so most people have a basic understanding of it.  This means my conversations with my host mother resemble a game of charades, her with a full bucket of water atop her head and me holding 4-7 oranges, both gesturing wildly.

About those oranges: I think my family is trying to fatten me up.  Every morning I leave home laden with snacks for the day.  Yesterday, I had a grapefruit, 2 oranges, a cucumber, 4 bananas, a peanut butter sandwich, and a mayo, boiled egg, oinion and tomato sandwich.  Keep in mind that lunch is included in my stipend.  Those are literally just snacks.  I also get a ton of food for dinner and since it is rude to refuse food, I eat until I am stuffed.  Good thing I’m going for those jogs.

As far as contacting me for the next 8 weeks while I’m in Gberiere, phone calls and letters are most reliable.  I have internet for about an hour a week, from 5-6 PM my time on Thursdays (12-1 PM EST).  This means I can respond to e-mails, but the internet is so slow I only get through so many.

The phone number I posted before is WRONG!!!! The correct number is (+224) 68 06 11 41. 

The best time to call is after 9 PM my time, so if you’re bored on your commute home, give me a ring.  I plan on buying a separate SIM card that has cheaper rates to the US, so may be calling you sometime in the future.  The above number is still the number to reach me on though.

Sorry that I haven’t posted pictures, but the internet is WAY to slow for that.  Hopefully I will find an internet café in the future to upload some.

Won tina! (See you tomorrow in Susu)

Hi! from sunny Conakry

I’m here!  We made it! Guinea stage G21 arrived in Conakry Tuesday night to a not-as-sweltering-as-imagined heat and a welcome banner.  We loaded our luggage, and there was a lot, onto the PC vehicles and drove a short ways to headquarters.  It was dark out by the time we had collected our bags, so we didn’t see much of the city, but it seems busy.  At 8:30 PM, the streets were crowded with people grabbing dinner, shopping, or walking home from work.  The number of women selling oranges (pre-peeled of course) was ridiculous.

The PC headquarters is like a 5-star hotel to us.  We’re sleeping in bunk beds throughout the transit house, which is AIR CONDITIONED!! We even have hot water and western toilets, talk about luxury.  The compound itself is huge, as it hosts the offices of the majority of Peace Corps staff, as well as the transit house, which can house around 40 volunteers.  You can see the beach from the roof and it is just a short walk to a local beach bar to grab a beer.  Guineans recommend Skol.  We stopped by for a visit Wednesday, after a day of forms and vaccinations, and watched as hundreds of soccer players ran around on the sand.  Add the sunset through the Harmattan haze to this and it couldn’t have gotten more picturesque.

There hasn’t been too many blog worthy events so far, as we’re mostly still just doing orientation and meeting the staff.  We will head to Dubreka on Saturday, where we will be ‘adopted’ by our host families.

I also have a phone number! I don’t actually have the phone yet (I should by Friday PM), but I do have the SIM card.  The PC has a plan with Orange, a cell phone provider, where we can call all PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) and staff for free.  Pretty nice, considering our salaries are almost non-existent (and we don’t get those until after training). I can text international for around $0.15, so let me know your number if you want to get some texts. 

Call me!

Phone number: (+224) 68 06 11 61

I miss you all, but am having an awesome time!

63.5 lbs...

is the total weight of the two bags I'm bringing to Guinea.  To be fair though, most of that is beef jerky and Kraft Macaroni and Cheese sauce packets.  Some other miscellany I have packed are:

• 6 bottles of contact solution
• 1 Aeropress espresso maker and 1 pound of coffee (I'm bringing my caffeine addiction overseas!)
• 1 French/English dictionary
• 1 giant bag of Starburst
• 3 vegetable peelers (two are for gifts)
• 1 solar charger
• 4 different charging USB cords
• 1 harmonica
• 20 drink mix packets (Liza would be so proud!)
• 100s of pictures of you all

What can I say? I'm a blue box kid.

I'll be taking the train to Philadelphia tomorrow (Sunday morning), where I will have one day of staging before leaving Monday night for Guinea.  I won't have my cell phone, but I will have my computer so if you want to talk, shoot me an e-mail and I'll try to give you a call.

I've had a really great last couple of weeks hanging out with friends and family and I will miss all of you so much. That said, I am really excited to start on this grand adventure!

Remember, if you want to receive super cool mail from Guinea, make sure to send me your address.

Next time you hear from me, I'll be in Guinea!

2 weeks till Guinea!

Well, I have one fortnight left in the US until I leave for Guinea.  My things are somewhat packed, if by packed you mean cluttering up the living room in a giant pile.  But I definitely feel ready to go; after waiting for so long it seems like the 28th can't come soon enough.

So what exactly will the next couple months look like for me? Probably a lot like school.

I leave the morning of the 27th for Philadelphia, where all the other volunteers, including the public health and community economic development folks, going to Guinea in G21 (that's our volunteer group number) will be meeting to sign some final forms, get shots, and enjoy our last cheesesteak for a couple years.  Then we load into a bus the next morning and depart for JFK airport in New York, where we will catch a flight to Conakry (Guinea's capital) via Brussels and Banjul.

Then, after about a day's worth of traveling and plane food (which I secretly love), we will walk off the plane and be hit by that wall of humidity and heat so characteristic of tropical places.  That's another thing I secretly love.  The first couple days will be spent in Conakry at the Peace Corps headquarters.  We will be getting some more vaccinations, taking our language tests (see how I said it would be like school?), and just generally getting oriented.

After recovering from jetlag, all of G21 will head to Dubreka, a town about 50 km from Conakry.  Fun fact: it is also President Conde's hometown.  This is where our pre-service training (PST) will be taking place for the next 10 weeks.  Remember those language tests? Those decided what level French class we would be placed in.  After a while, we will start learning the local language of our site.  This could be Susu, Malinka, or Fula depending on where we are placed.  Each day we will spend about four hours in language class in the morning at the training center.  The afternoons will be spent doing cultural and technical training.  More details on that once I get there.  I need to have something to write about in my next blog post.

Where I'll be spending the next 3 months.

During PST, we each stay with a homestay family in Dubreka.  This helps us with our language and cultural learning, as well as gives us a base within the community.  My homestay was one of the best parts of Tanzania, so I am really excited for this.

You are probably all thinking this sounds great, but will you talk to me while I'm there?  What will you do without my entertaining anecdotes and spot-on sense of humor in your life?  Have no fear, there are several ways through which you can get a hold of me.

During PST, I will have pretty reliable access to a rather unreliable internet connection, so e-mail is the best choice.  Please use this e-mail, as I probably won't be checking any others regularly: mvevans89 [at] gmail.com.

I also love getting mail, and while I'm at site that will be the best way to contact me.  At the moment, the US doesn't accept mail from Guinea because of security risks, but the Peace Corps has a deal with the Embassy where they will bring our letters back to the US to send, so it will be not be a one-sided penpal situation.  My address is:

Michelle Evans, PCV
Corps de la Paix
B.P. 1927
Conakry, Guinea
West Africa

Make sure you date and number letters, as they sometimes don't arrive in the order you sent them. And write par avion on the envelope or it may be shipped by sea, camel, or other equally slow method.  Any type of mail is appreciated, with letters, photos, current gossip on Bret Michaels, anything.

Also, please e-mail me your mailing address before I leave so I can write back to you. Or include it in the letters you send me. Or both.  Otherwise how will I send you pictures of me doing unbelievably exciting things?

How I will feel if I don't get mail.

I will be getting a cellphone in Guinea, although it may only work sometimes at my site.  The easiest way to call me is by using a calling card or through Skype, which costs about $0.50 a minute.  Skype is a computer program that lets you make calls to phones through the internet using your computer.  It also has free video chatting, but I doubt my connection will be strong enough for that.

Of course you can always leave comments or questions on this blog and I will try my best to answer them in the next post.

Congratulations to those of you who have made it through this lengthy blog post!  Hopefully this answers a lot of questions you may have had about the beginning of Peace Corps.

Til next time!

Agro-what??

Since learning that I'll be serving as an agroforestry volunteers, I've received a lot of questions about just what exactly I'll be doing and what agroforestry even is.


Agroforestry, as defined by the World Agroforestry Center, is:


"a collective name for land use systems and practices in which woody perennials are deliberately integrated with crops and/or animals on the same land management unit."


A less 'jargony', yet more vague definition offered by the Peace Corps is:


"[helping] communities with projects to conserve natural resources."


Basically, I will be working to incorporate environmental sustainability in development projects, especially through the use of trees and forest resources, by helping people get the most out of their natural environment while also conserving it for future generations.  Right now, I don't know what this means I will be doing exactly, since it will all depend on the needs and resources of the site where I am placed.  Some examples of past agroforestry projects include:

• production of sustainable fuels and more efficient cookstoves, such as briquettes
• constructing live fences, i.e. fencing made of bushes and trees
• starting and continuing compost projects
• creating tree nurseries and community gardens
• setting up a beekeeping program
• starting environmental clubs in schools

Peace Corps has made a nice video about agriculture projects all over the world (see below).  As for me, you'll just have to keep reading and check back in a couple months!

An invitation leads to...

more paperwork!!

I received my formal invitation last Saturday, the 6th.  It came in the form of a giant packet, with information on what I should do next and on my country and position. I'll be serving as an agroforestry volunteer in Guinea, leaving November 28th.  After immediately sending in my acceptance of the invitation, I read through everything I could as fast as I could.  Then I started looking up even more info online.  As a heads up, if you are researching Guinea, be prepared to look over a lot of websites on guinea pig care.

With the packet came a request for more forms.  I had to turn in an updated resume and aspiration statement that will get sent to Guinea's country office.  I also had to apply for a new, government passport and a visa. Now I'm waiting to see what the medical office will need from me and motivating myself to study french everyday.

A bientot!

I'll have an invitation by next week!!

Just got off the phone with my Placement Officer. She was super super nice and asked me questions about whether I felt ready, knew about the challenges PCV's face, etc.  It was a short conversation, about 15 minutes, and at the end she said I would be receiving an invitation within the week!! It's for agroforestry in sub-saharan africa, leaving November 28th, so I'm pretty sure it's Guinea. Sooooooooo excited!!

How Not to Write About Africa

I love this article by Binyavanga Wainaina.  Anyone who is writing, or reading, about about their time in an African country should read this. And so, since I'll be doing just that, I figured those of you reading my blog might be interested in reading this too!

http://www.granta.com/Magazine/92/How-to-Write-about-Africa/Page-1

The Dreaded Timeline

Considering how many other timelines I have read while waiting to hear anything from the placement office, it seemed only fair that I post my own timeline for people to look at for some sort of reassurance that they haven't been forgotten.

January 8th, 2011: Submitted written application

February 4th, 2011: Interview

February 9th, 2011: Received nomination for French speaking Africa doing environmental education with a departure date in late November

February-March 2011: Worked on the medical/dental applications

March 17th, 2011: Sent in medical application

March 29th, 2011: Medically cleared

July 11th, 2011: Called Placement Office because I hadn't heard from a placement officer yet.  Sent in a transcript and updated resume

August 1st, 2011: Contact with Placement Officer

August 6th, 2011: Received my official invitation to serve in Guinea, leaving Nov. 28th

November 27th, 2011: Staging in Philadelphia

November 28th, 2011: JFK> Brussels> Banjul> Conakry