Thursday, November 29, 2012

One year in Guinea

Today marks the one year anniversary of my arrival in Guinea. Congratulations G21!

490 cashew trees planted in Balandougou with Green Hand Action
56 books read
14 flat tires replaced
4 regions in Guinea
500 (estimated) bowls of rice and sauce eaten
2 host families who welcomed me with loving arms
5 pizzas eaten from the beach bar in Conakry
693 kilometers from Conakry to Kankan
18+ hours in the taxi from Conakry to Kankan
29 days fasted for the month of Ramadan
2 times talking on Guinean radio
10 people minimum in the average station wagon bush taxi
2 poultry that I killed and plucked myself
0 meals of toh eaten that I enjoyed
3 times that I’ve been on Guinean national television
26 wheels of Laughing Cow cheese eaten by my cat
80 volunteers currently in Guinea
2 other countries (Sierra Leone and Benin) visited
5 Guinean outfits received as gifts
1 trip to the Guinean dentist (not THAT scary)
51 mephloquin pills taken
300 moringa trees planted at Fasso Demen
31 heads of cabbage harvested in my garden
7 dance parties at the regional house
4 nights that I’ve seen shooting stars
2 water pumps that we’ve installed at the garden
136 days without rain during the dry season
100s of times that I have heard the song Makale
19 greetings shouted during the fifteen minute bike ride to my garden
3 cans of oatmeal eaten
15 boxes of matches used to light my stove
365 days in this great adventure...
and
457 days to come!



Sunday, November 18, 2012

Better Link to my Newest Pictures

Sorry, flickr is being weird and not letting me have a lot of photos and hiding them or something, so here is a better link to the newest pictures i've uploaded:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mvevans/sets/72157632014261475/

Tabaski and the Rain


Forewarning: I wrote this at the end of October and have only just got around to uploading it (sorry!), so some of the stuff might be a little dated.

Happy peanuts season! And I am not just talking about the fact that Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin are on TV all the time.  Here in Kankan, most of the rainy season crops are being harvested, including rice, yams, beans, and yes peanuts.  For my part, people love gifting me peanuts right as they’re pulling them up from the ground, so I am always biking around with a bag full of peanuts.  Luckily, the taste of raw peanuts has grown on me (I used to think they tasted like grass), so I’m in peanut eating heaven.  Plus nothing completes a lazy afternoon of tea drinking like a bag of fresh peanuts.
            The end of rainy season crops means that dry season gardening is starting again, which is the meat and potatoes of my groupement.  Water has begun receding from the garden area and we are slowly reclaiming all of the beds.  And as everyone comes back to the garden, I’ve started my series of gardening workshops.  The first, held in the beginning of October, was about a bed preparation technique called double digging.  By removing the topsoil, working compost into the subsoil, and then replacing the first layer, you can open the soil up deeper, allowing the roots grow bigger and faster.  This is especially important for clay soils like at Fasso Demen, where the subsoil has compacted to be nearly rock solid.  Besides the workshop, I’ve also created a demonstration plot, where gardeners can see double digging and normal bed preparation side by side and judge the benefits for themselves.  Future topics will include mulching, intercropping, and organic inputs.
            When I’m not toiling away in the garden, I’ve been working on rice.  In September, my counterpart and I attended a training on a new method of rice cultivation, System of Rice Intensification (SRI), in Benin.  It was a great training, run by Peace Corps and USAID at an agriculture school/research center outside Cotonou.  We got to meet PCVs and their counterparts from other countries in West African and I even saw a friend I studied abroad with in college. The visiting volunteers got to experience Cotonou, which is an awesome city with a beachy feel to it.  It also has ice cream and Indian food!  It was also my counterpart’s first time on a plane and he returned to Kankan a minor celebrity. 
            When we got back, we immediately started planning our trainings.  Our neighbor attends a local agricultural school whose graduates become extension agents and agricultural advisors, so we decided to have our first training there.  Over 65 students showed up, and some professors too.  Once we got over the initial hurdles of my strange American accent, which way the desks should face so as to best get the slight breeze, and a generator that no one could start, the training was a success.  As it is the off season, we could only go over SRI theory, but we will return next year for the practical segment, and to set up an experimental plot.
            Fasso Demen finally got to use our Super Moneymakers! That’s a water pump, by the way.  Conde and I attached all the piping and hooked it up to the well in our compound to see if the thing even works, and it does!  So what is it? Picture a Stairmaster with two hoses attached, one in a water source, be it well or river, and the other with a spray wand on the end.  There is also one that looks like a giant bike pump in place of the Stairmaster.  The pressure from them can shoot water over 20 feet in the air, so of course the whole neighborhood came to see what was going on and we had everyone try it, from my seven year old host sister, to the wizened old lady next door.
            Kenny, one of my site mates, and I have been preparing for our Agribusiness Conference, to be held later this November.  In a nutshell, agribusiness encompasses business skills and topics specific and applied directly to agriculture.  We’ve invited members of the local gardening federation and will be covering topics such as record keeping and marketing.  Since most gardeners sell their produce themselves at the local market, business skills will help them better plan and organize their gardening and hopefully increase their profits.
            Besides work, I have been enjoying hanging out with my family and neighbors.  Since we now have semi-regular electricity, I’ve been able to watch Guinean news more often, as well as Guinean and American movies.  Usually this results in me trying to explain some plot point.  Lets just say as confusing as Inception already is, it makes even less sense when I explain it in French.  Plus we all, myself and Guineans included, agree that Leo was better in Titanic.
            We also just celebrated Tabaski, one of the biggest holidays of the year, if not the biggest.  This is the fete de sacrifice, when everyone buys a big ram to sacrifice, although goats and cows are acceptable substitutes.  It is meant to be symbolic of Abraham’s almost sacrifice of his son, who at the last minute was switched for a sheep by God.  Our sheep spent its last two weeks tied up outside my house, befriending Quinn, my cat.  I guess that they weren’t great friends, however, since she had no problems eating her share of the sacrifice.
            Tabaski is especially big in Kankan because we have the Mamaya, a traditional women’s dance that draws Guineans from as far as Europe and America to attend.  It is held every night for a week in a round point called, unsurprisingly, Mamaya.  Several associations of people, called a sere, are formed and get to host it for three nights each, which basically means they all wear matching bazin (a type of fancy wax fabric) and are official dancers.  Anyone else can dance too, but its still a big deal.  There are several dances going on during the Mamaya, all kind of spiraling together around this circle.  It is pretty cool how the lines all fit together as they move in opposite directions.  My favorite is the men, who dance with this cane in a dance that has these silly looking tiny steps and reminds me of the Mr. Peanut mascot. 
This year, we also had several big names in Guinean music give concerts in Kankan, including Sekouba Bambino and Takana Zion, who was recently named Africa’s top reggae artist.  I unsuccessfully tried to attend both these concerts, arriving too early for one and too late for the other.  After nearly a year, it is still hard to understand the timing of events in Guinea.  In my defense though, I was with Guineans and even they didn’t understand when they would start.
I also totally forgot that I wanted to continue adding little tidbits about random Stuff PCVS Like, so I am now bringing it back with a vengeance.  First on the list: mayonnaise!!!! (a favorite of Lilly Schruben)

Mayonnaise
Okay, this isn’t actually something PCVS especially like, but he myriad uses of this condiment never ceases to amaze me.  There is the café francais, coffee or tea with a lot of sugar and a dollop of mayo floating on top.  The first time I regrettably mistook this for some type of sweet cream and ate it in one bite.  Every sandwich comes with a layer of two of mayo.  And of course there ist he plain mayonnaise sandwich, a local favorite.  Recently I had bouille, a type of rice or corn pudding, with mayonnaise stirred in (this was actually pretty good).  Perhaps the strangest thing about the mayonnaise phenomenon is the fact that, because practically no one here owns a refrigerator, it is never refrigerated.  As someone who worked in a restaurant where the temperature of the mayo was serious business, this shocked me.  Now, after using mayo that has sat opened on my table for three months and living to tell the tale, I still don’t understand how this works.  It seems to have the same ingredients as American mayo (oil, eggs, salt) and the brand I buy, BAMA, is even found in Publix across the southern US.  So what keeps it fresh after months of desert heat?  I guess it is just another miracle of Guinea.

Daytime Television
Unless you have a satellite dish, the only channel you can get on a normal antenna is Radiodiffusion Televsion Guinee (RTG).  At night, it basically only plays the news and tons and tons of commercials.  During the day however, there is usually at least one afternoon movie.  Sometimes, if there is nothing going on for them to talk about, we even get a double feature.  Any café or gas station worth its name usually has a TV tuned to this and it is a great place to relax during the heat of the day in which it is really too hot to leave the shade.  The best part about this, however, is the variety of films that get shown on RTG.  I’ve seen Scorpion King 3 (straight to DVD), The Full Monty (I have no idea how this was approved by RTG), and Hard Rain (Morgan Freeman was in this, so it is pretty legitimate I guess).  I don’t know who is choosing RTG’s afternoon line-up, but we would definitely be friends.

The Dead Toubab Market
The Dead Toubab Market is the used clothing area of the market in Kankan.  It’s not actually called that, but a volunteer started calling it that (toubab being the Malinke word for ‘white person) and it stuck.  It is where nearly my whole wardrobe is from at this point, as the combination of intense UV rays and washboards has ripped several of my garments to shreds.  Everything can be found in the Dead Toubab market, and I do mean everything.  If you’ve ever donated a shirt, pair of slightly (or very) used shoes, or even American Flag patterned leggings, it may have ended up in Guinea.  The day after the new shipment comes in, I always try to go and spend a bit looking through the piles of pre-worn clothes, searching for that long lost St. Louis Cardinals jersey or original Backstreet Boys 1998 Concert Tour shirt.  Even better than finding gems is when non-anglophone Guineans walk around in what turns out to be some very ironic shirts.  Some of our favorites are:

-       I <3 Vaginas
-       THE SPERMINATOR (with “I’ll be back” written below)
-       middle-aged men wearing Dora the Explorer or Hello Kitty shirts
-       “I love poopies!” with a brontosaurus on top (this one was finally gone from the stall last week which means someone bought it!)
-       I <3 Consensual Sex, although I guess this is a nice message?


Also, I have recently uploaded pictures to my flickr account.  Hopefully I’ll get to add some captions while I’m in Conakry next week helping with training. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mvevans/

Hope everyone has a great thanksgiving! I’ll be thinking of you and all the delicious food you’ll be eating!

Friday, October 5, 2012

Guinea is Back


Semi-trucks in Guinea usually have some sort of good luck or inspirational phrase hand painted on the back of them, “God is good”, “Don’t forget Your Mother”, “Wide Load”, but the other day I saw one that really struck a chord with me: “Guinea is back”.
            Since I arrived in Guinea almost a year ago, I’ve seen some remarkable changes in the country, especially in Kankan.  And I started thinking maybe Guinea (whose GDP is currently less than my university’s endowment fund) really is back.  To put this into context, allow me to briefly go over Guinea’s political history since independence.  For those of you already familiar with this, feel free to skip my amateurish account of the past half century. Or read Designing West Africa by Peter Schwab, which does a much better job of this with fewer pop-culture references.
            Guinea, or Guinea-Conakry, as it was referred to then, was one of the many French colonies in West Africa until 1958, when It gained its independence.  In that year Charles De Gaulle, then President of France, offered French colonies political independence, on the condition they be basically cut off from paternalistic French aid, not unlike a young 20-something in the plot of many a 90s-sitcom.  Guinea, under the leadership of Sekou Toure, was the only colony to accept these terms.  The French left in a haste, bring their investment and infrastructure with them.  Note that his is meant in the literal sense, as there are reports of power lines and railroads being ripped up and shipped out of the country with the French. 
In a sitcom, this is when the newly independent, rebellious offspring would learn how to cook and do laundry with the help of a gang of wise, street-smart friends.  Unfortunately, Guinea found itself friendless, although it did end up allying (to little gain) with communists states, most notably Cuba, bonding over their shared socialist governments.  Led by Toure, who became increasingly paranoid and authoritarian as the years went on, Guinea started to fall behind its West African neighbors, who were being propped up monetarily by colonial powers in exchange for natural resources and markets where they could sell their products of industry.  Neighboring Senegal, to go back to the overdone sitcom metaphor, was the prodigal son, attending an Ivy school on the parents’ money and emerging a refined socialite with all the opportunity in the world.  So favored was the country, there was a time that Senegalese born in Dakar, the capital, were eligible for French citizenship.
Eventually Toure, who at this point was resembling more notorious African leaders (i.e. Mobutu, Moi), fell ill and passed away in Cleveland, Ohio.  This was the first time Cleveland let down a crazed, egotistical leader, the next being in 2011 when Lebron left for Miami.  Toure’s death left an inevitable power vacuum that was filled by a string of corrupt heads of state, leading to Alpha Conde, who is so far relatively clean, but not without his faults.  Since his election, things have been somewhat stable, encouraging foreign investments and allowing Guinea to makes some major progress.
Anyways, back to my ‘semi’-inspired revelation that Guinea is back.  As I said, there is a whole wave of change happening in the country.  When I got to Kankan, I lived off a dirt road, used candles at night, and got my water from a well or borehole pump several houses away.  Now, I can get almost anywhere on a paved road, have a fairly reliable 12 hours of electricity each night, and fill my buckets at a spigot right outside my house.  There have been lots of other infrastructural improvements too: solar-powered street lights, street signs and “traffic cops” (pre-teen boys with rubber whips that stand at intersections and enforce the rules), renovations of the university and agricultural school, better cell phone service, WIFI at the local internet café.  There has also just been a lot of general construction around.  Someone once told me that construction sites are a sure sign of economic growth and I never took economics in school, so I’ll have to take their word for it.  Regardless, it does seem to create opportunities for unskilled, paid labor, giving subsistence or smallholder farmers (generally one of the poorest demographics) a chance to earn a little extra something during the off-season.
For Kankan, I think the most important development in electricity, however not because people have a lot of appliances or electronics (most just have a light bulb and maybe charge a cell phone).  I’ve heard that Kankan is a lot like Bamako, the nearest, comparatively developed commercial center and capital of Mali, but ten years ago, before electricity.  With electricity, manufacturing and industry enterprises appeared in Bamako and a booming tourism industry started up.  Now there are hospitals, grocery stores, and international universities.  This has already started in Kankan, with the opening of a new, more mechanized and hygienic bakery.  With the coup in Mali, study abroad groups have discussed moving their Bamako programs to Kankan, and one already has! To say that a university believes Guinea stable enough for its students is a lot, not to mention it helps put Guinea on the map (and not as the partner isle of Papua in the Pacific, which is where most people, including the US Postal Service, believe it to be).

*I wanted to put a picture of the electricity in my house here, but the Google server in Guinea is being uncooperative. 

Guinea is clearly in a stage of growth, pretty amazing considering the current global economy, but it is not in the clear yet.  The country is still waiting for its parliamentary elections, scheduled for December 2011, pushed back to July 2012 and currently under a deadline for the end of this year.  the delay has the opposition party, and some members of the international community, crying unfair play and it is still unclear whether elections will actually happen before the end of 2012.  Nto to mention charges of corruption sprinkled through all levels of the government, alleged ethnic nepotism and increased military presence.
As unfortunately tends to be the case in many countries, the two main political parties are strictly aligned with the two larges ethnic groups, the Peuls (opposition party) and the Malinke (currently in power under Alpha Conde).  This makes it infinitely easier for politicians to whip people into a fervor and carries the added risk of political action quickly turning into simple ethnic violence.  A lesser form of this has been taking place in Conakry over the past couple weeks, which protests and boycotts by the opposition party, culminating in riots and the death of an opposition protester.  The Washington Post had an article on the protests, (although its focus on the ethnic issue is a bit much, in my opinion) for those that are interested.
This is not to say Guinea is on the verge of political revolution.  Not at all.  If anything, the fact that opposition protests are allowed to happen shows Guinea is giving democracy a fair chance.  Given that things calmed after the riots, when they could just as easily have escalated following the death of a protester further proves this point.  For the moment, Guineans want to remain a stable country, enabling them to continue this progress they are enjoying.  In the end, it seems the real question is not if Guinea is back, but if it is here to stay.

Friday, September 7, 2012

Ramadan 101

What is Ramadan?
Ramadan is a month long fast practiced by Muslims.  Following the fast is one of the five pillars of Islam (the others being believing in God and the prophet Mohammed, prayer 5 times daily, giving to the poor, and the hajj to Mecca), so it is pretty important.  Besides the fast, it is also a month when Muslims strive to be especially religious and pious.  The lunar month is brought to a close by a party, which, from what I can tell, is what everyone is most excited about.

The Pre-Game: Endless Marriage Ceremonies
The two or three weeks preceding Ramadan are host to far too many marriages to count.  Seriously, I tried to count the number of marriage convoys/parades going past my house one evening and stopped after there were more than five in an hour.  The reasons for this are two-fold.1) You cannot have celebratory ceremonies during Ramadan, so anyone thinking of getting married over the next month rushes to get it done before.  You can get married during Ramadan, but all the fun parts (dancing, fasting, consummating the marriage) are banned so most people don’t.  Of course, there are the scrooges that don’t want to pay for the DJ, the meal, renting the chairs and tents, etc. and so have a marriage during Ramadan, but those are rare since all Guineans love a good party, even at their own expense.  2) Ramadan is a month of two extremes: fasting and feasting.  This means there is a lot of food preparation and cooking involved, so men rush to find wives to cook for them.  This isn’t just a push by the men, though, as some wives hope their husband will take on another wife to help shoulder some of the extra work during Ramadan.

Why Fast?
For Muslims, fasting represents putting oneself in the shores of the poor and hungry, humbling those who never feel the pangs of an empty stomach.  I fast both because I like what it represents and because it is a great way to be integrated.  Everyone gets really excited when they find out the toubabu is fasting and I’ve even won points with some of the more reserved members of my community.  Also, I just wouldn’t feel right working alongside the women in my groupement, asking them to undertake projects and the extra work that comes with it, if I weren’t fasting with them.

What You Can and Can’t Do
There are a lot of things that are restricted during Ramadan.  The big ones are:
-          eating and drinking between the first and last prayer of the day (about 4AM – 7PM).  This includes saliva, which means a whole lot of public spitting.
-          playing music aloud.  People can’t sing, play instruments, or listen to the radio.  The exception to this is the readings from the Koran.  I have heard a lot of suspiciously pop-sounding Koran renditions this past month
-          having sex during the day, although with all the spitting going on, I can’t see this being too big a temptation.
Besides those, there are some less faux-pas such as swearing, getting into heated arguments, and beating your wife and/or child that seem to take place with the same regularity as before.  Especially the arguing one.  Strangely enough, fasting doesn’t make peaceful conflict resolution any easier.
            As with all codes, there are also behaviors one must take up, or are at least strongly encouraged, such as:
-          women dressing more conservatively, although this only affects the hip, mini-skirt-and-leggings wearing girls from Conakry
-          extra prayers, especially at evening prayer time, which means the normal 10-minute prayer lasts up to an hour now.  the last ten days of Ramadan, there is also a 4-hour prayer session starting at midnight that you are supposed to attend.
-           
Who Fasts?
The general rule is any Muslim over the age of twelve.  However, there are exceptions for the extremely old, women who are pregnant, nursing, or menstruating, and people with a disease or disability for whom fasting may be dangerous.  It is also bad luck to fast while traveling.

But who really fasts?
From what I can tell, basically everyone who is able fasts, from those I have never seen go to mosque to women in head-to-toe coverings.  It is just as much a cultural part of life as it is religious.  Plus, those fasting get to break the fast with special dishes, tea or coffee, salads, juices, and extra-sugary bouille.  It only ends up being about a third of my community who fasts, however, since 50% of the population is younger than 15 and, save the rare instance of family planning, women are more often than not pregnant or nursing.

The Hardest Part
Surprisingly enough, the lack of food part of fasting wasn’t that hard,  If I’m working in the bush, I often won’t eat until I get back around 4 PM, so it’s only a few extra hours.  Not drinking is a completely different story.  It is hot here, and I usually average 4L of water a day.  Trying to meet my day’s H20 quota in the two hours before going to sleep is a bit difficult and results in a lot of midnight trips to the latrine.  Luckily, Ramadan falls during the rainy season this year, so it is not nearly as hot and dry as March or April.  I have no idea how people manage when that happens.
The other part I struggled with was waking up at 4 AM to eat, I would roll out of bed in a daze, cram a couple handfuls of rice in my mouth, and attempt to fall back asleep just as the very loud prayer from the next door mosque would start.  Afer several restless hours, I would finally get up at nine or ten, extremely groggy and having wasted most of my morning.  Towards the end, I decided I preferred to be hungry rather than tired and slept through the 4 AM mealtime.

Et le gaspillage commence… (and the wastage starts)
This was what my counterpart said the first day of Ramadan, when his sister-in-law showed him the 90 000 GF three-piece suit she had bough for Le Vieux, who is two years old.  It also came with 30 000 GF shoes (brown ones, and I didn’t have the heart to tell her they really clashed with the black suit).  Ramadan in Guinea is a little like Christmas in America, with lavish spending on unnecessary things, although I, as of yet, haven’t heard of anyone being stampeded at the local market in the rush to buy the newest soccer cleats (EDIT: The last three days of Ramadan, leading up to the big fete, the market was absolutely nuts and verging on 3 AM Black Friday Wal-Mart chaos).
            Through the month, in contrast to the fasting, families buy new clothes, cellphones and weaves (as in the hairpiece).  Kids also have spending money for once and buy balloons, candy and juice with every last 500 GF bill they have.  Then there is the celebration at the end of the month, with a giant feast, DJ or griot, and sodas all around (I drank three that day).  Not to mention the fancy clothes for that night, which can run up to 500 000 GF for a complet (pagne wrap, shirt, and headscarf).  To put that in perspective, my salary, which I live very comfortably on, is a little less than 1 000 000 GF.
            The timing of Ramadan this year is right before hunger season, when rice has not yet been harvested, so prices are high and people have little saved.  With the spending of Ramadan, even those families that had planned to save something for this season may be struggling, having spent their savings during Ramadan.  Most Guineans, as evidenced by my counterpart’s comment, are aware of this predicament, but just as we cannot resist that shiny new iPad or pair of designer shoes come December, the tradition of spending doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon.

The Moment We’ve All Been Waiting For
After 30 days of fasting, the moon finally appears in the sky and Ramadan is over.  The funny thing is we don’t know it’s the end until the day of.  Some Islamic countries will reference the lunar calendar and set a date for the final celebration, but others, Guinea among them, prefer their citizens to live in suspense.  This results in everyone running around like crazy the last 4 or 5 days of Ramadan trying to prepare for the fete and not wanting to be caught unawares.  The market was kind of like a grocery store before a snowstorm hits or on Thanksgiving morning.
            The actual day began with a mass prayer.  Because we wouldn’t all fit in the mosque, we lined up along the road and large space used for soccer games and markets next to my house.  As we sat waiting for the imam to start the prayer, the poor walked through the crowded prayer mats collecting ablations.  Shortly after it began, it started raining so I ran home with my counterpart’s wife (we’re only ‘fair-weather’ believers).  We spent that morning sitting around talking and drinking tea as the women prepared the big meal for that afternoon.  Someone had brought home part of a cow that had been slaughtered at her office, which we had left smoking over a charcoal stove for two days, that was to be the highlight of the meal.  We ate until we were stuffed and then spent an hour relaxing, not unlike Thanksgiving in America.
            The afternoon was spent greeting everyone and their brother (and their brother’s brother).  This is a really important part of the holiday and everyone visits all of his or her relatives, friends, colleagues, bosses, and acquaintances.  I tagged along with Conde as he made the rounds, being welcomed with more rice, soda, candy, and other delicious goodies at each house.  Along the way children ran up to us saying “I ye salima fo”, basically ‘Happy Holidays’, after which we’re supposed to give them money.  In this way, I guess Ramadan is a little like Halloween too.
            The festivities continued on for three days, with most people having the day off work or skipping it if they didn’t.  All the children spent their ‘trick-or-treating’ money on sunglasses and mini soccer balls and the teenagers got together to rent speakers and have dances.  Photographers roamed the streets asking people if they wanted their photos taken for a small fee.  Eventually it all wound down, kids popped their soccer balls, and all the photos were distributed.  Things have eventually returned to normal, at least until Tabaski comes, the even bigger celebration 70 days after the end of Ramadan.

Friday, August 10, 2012

Eat. Mange. Damaninke.


It wouldn’t be a ‘travel/life adventure blog’, if I didn’t reference that Julia Roberts movie that references that book, Eat. Pray. Love.  My version is more like Eat. Eat (in French). Eat (in Malinke).  I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but my life here revolves around food (even more than in the US!).  My Guinean friends and neighbors seem to have a similar mentality, as they are always commanding me with one of the above words while handing me some form of rice and sauce.  Guineans are either extremely hospitable or trying to fatten me up for a Hansel-and-Gretel style feast.  I’m fairly sure it’s the former, but they’re certainly succeeding at the later.  Additionally, friends and relatives back home are always asking what I’ve been eating, scared I might be starving in a place where food security is a legitimate issue.  Even my first host family in Dubreka asks me what I ate that day when we talk on the phone.
My 'pet' chicken that then became dinner.
            So, to appease the masses, here is what I ate for a whole week (May 2nd-9th).  I will qualify this by saying that this was the week after IST and the first real rainy week for me in Kankan, so I was feeling especially energized by the ability to not sweat 24/7.

Monday
BREAKFAST: Quaker Oatmeal (purchased at expat store in Kankan) with cinnamon and sugar with Nescafe instant coffee
LUNCH: Rice with soup sauce ( a broth with some onions, given to me by my host family
DINNER: potatoes and chicken, again lovingly prepared and give to me by my host family

Tuesday
BREAKFAST: beans (bought prepared across the street), spruced up with cumin, chili powder and sriracha; poor man’s mocha (instant coffee with hot chocolate mix)
LUNCH: Terriyaki Lo Mein from America (thanks mom!) with cabbage, green onions, garlic and eggs from the market
DINNER: reheated lunch (I still eat leftovers!)

Wednesday
BREAKFAST: Nutella (from the expat store) on bread; Nescafe
LUNCH: fish tacos, courtesy of CED volunteers passing through on their way back from IST
DINNER: potato leaf salad with cheese I made myself
DESSERT: yogurt and an orange Fanta from my counterpart



Thursday
BREAKFAST: Peanut butter and honey sandwich; Nescafe
LUNCH: manioc balls from the Togolese restaurant with a sweet tomato sauce
DINNER: pasta with cooked potato leaves (it’s like spinach!) and cheese

Friday
BREAKFAST: Oatmeal with honey and milk; Nescafe
2nd BREAKFAST: fried eggs with potatoes; Green Cucumber Tea (all courtesy of Adrian)
LUNCH: mangoes and raw peanuts (the taste of these grows on you)
DINNER: hamburger balls with a boiled egg inside with fries and a beer at the Bofanta restaurant
2nd DINNER: Rice and soup sauce; cold Coca-Cola

Saturday
BREAKFAST: beans a la Michelle; tea
LUNCH: Riz Gras (fried rice) from the Senegalese restaurant
DINNER: rice and sauce

So I forgot to write Sunday down, but I am betting it involved oatmeal and lots of rice and sauce. 

As you can all see, I am not starving in Guinea.  There’s a lot of fresh produce available and my family is always trying to force feed me.  In addition to these meals, there’s plenty of snacks available like peanuts, popcorn, fried dough balls, frozen juices, and meat kabobs.

I will take this opportunity, however, to point out that just because I’m not starving doesn’t mean food security isn’t a real problem in Guinea.  There are even some volunteers whose villages are so isolated they complain of a lack of produce at their markets (don’t worry PC parents, they’re not starving either), and those don’t come anywhere near the most isolated places. There are some parts of the year when vegetables simply cannot be harvested and even I, in the big city of Kankan, have trouble finding a nice variety.  Besides a lack of food in certain places and at certain times of the year, a lot of people simply cannot afford a well-balanced diet, especially in the protein department.

This is why PC Guinea has recently started a major focus on food security, including a Food Security Task Force and a lot more food security trainings.  Our goal is to have as many people involved in food security projects as possible, from a 5 minute lesson on hand washing or nutrition to starting a school garden.  I’m really interested in this and my work as an agroforestry volunteer fits in perfectly with this PC-wide focus, so expect to hear a lot more about it in the future.

That’s all for now.  I’m most likely off to go eat something, of course!

Sunday, July 29, 2012

New Pictures!

I've posted some new pictures of my time so far at site and of Sierra Leone (if the internet holds up) on flickr.

www.flickr.com/photos/mvevans/

Take a look if you get a chance!

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Slone: Rainy Season is Party Season


Well, I just got back from y vacation in Sierra Leone, or Slone to those in the know, to celebrate the 4th of July and my actually being allowed to leave.  I know what you’re thinking: isn’t that where Blood Diamond took place? So, to answer the inevitable question: No, I did not see Leonardo Dicaprio there.
As with most out of country trips, my vacation started with four days in Conakry waiting for my visa to get processed.  Why it takes 72 hours to fill out a piece of paper I will never know.  Especially since I think we were the only ones applying for a visa from the Sierra Leonean Embassy in Guinea.  This fact was confirmed when the consulate referred to us simply as the “visa people”.  The wait did give me a chance to explore Conakry and enjoy our headquarters’ AC and hot showers. 
I had only been in Conakry when I first got to Guinea and during swearing-in, both times only having the opportunity to leave the compound for yogurt and beer.  Based on this, I really didn’t like Conakry and was planning on going as little as possible (also because it is a 2-day trip from Kankan).  It turns out Conakry actually has a lot to offer.  The Marche Niger is as clean as a supermarket and the produce much fresher.  They even sell couscous and frozen chickens from normal market booths.  We visited the artisanal fishing port/market and bought crabs for a crab bake back at HQ.  There are a fair amount of nice Western/ American style restaurants considering the relatively small expat population.  I even had Chinese and Korean food, although the latter was in a karaoke bar/brothel. 
Besides the culinary adventures, what makes Conakry most different from Kankan is the cars.  Someone once told me that having a motorcycle, or at least a bike, is your identity in Kankan and having a car is your identity in Conakry, and I would say most Conakry residents buy into this idea.  Motorcycle taxis are banned and there are few personal ones.  Because Conakry is a peninsula, most things are too far to walk, so you must take a car.  Also because Conakry is a peninsula, traffic is a nightmare.  At one point, the peninsula gets very thin and there are only two main lanes going each way.  That’s two lanes for a city of 4 million (I’m guessing, I don’t know Conakry’s population) leaving downtown at the end of the workday.  One day, it took three hours to go less than six kilometers.  I definitely appreciate how bike-able Kankan is now.
After a week of waiting, we got our visas and took the surprisingly quick trip (only 6 hours!) to Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone.  Our only definite plan was to stay at the PC house the first three nights, so we headed there.  While the Conakry house is bigger and better equipped (see amenities listed above), the Sierra Leone house I beautifully situated on the top of a hill overlooking the city and beach.  There’s even a porch to watch the sun set over the ocean.
The first difference we noticed was the street food.  While Guinea has rather tasteless fried dough and tiny meat skewers, Sierra Leone has fried chicken and hotdogs.  One lady selling chicken even called it KFC.  Because it is a partly Christian country, alcohol is more prevalent, which has its pros and cons, but does mean we got to celebrate our first night in Freetown drinking hard cider and Beck’s in a gas station.  To be clear, this was something we wanted to do and were genuinely excited about.  After 3 months at site, our standards are low.
We spent the next two days exploring the city.  As with most capitals of developing countries, there wasn’t much in the way of tourism, but it was nice to have a change of scenery.  In the market, we found a man selling frozen cow hearts out of cooler, which a friend and I hypothesized were either shark fins or baby hippo legs before getting up the nerve to ask the vendor.  There is also a giant cotton tree (Freetown’s claim to fame) and really interesting colonial architecture.
There were two things I was most excited about for Freetown: the food (as always) and the beaches.  Our first experience with real/Western-style food was at a restaurant called Ringo’s.  Luckily we were the only patrons at the time, so we didn’t make complete fools of ourselves.  We arrived straight from the beach, salty and leaving a light dusting of sand in our wake.  And this was a nice restaurant, the kind with leather-backed menus.  We then proceeded to get overly excited over objects that would be considered commonplace in any American restaurant (i.e. napkins, salt shakers, complete and matching sets of silverware).  Once the food arrived, all social norms went out the window.  I literally had a photo shoot with my sandwich.  The waitressed, who had undoubtedly never seen such a scruffy group of expats act so ridiculous, found our charades terribly amusing and stood in the corner giggling the whole meal.  Again, we were lucky the restaurant was empty, because our next nice meal was at Crown Bakery downtown, during the lunch rush, when all the expats come out of the woodwork, or walled-off compounds rather.
The beaches were magnificent.  Freetown is nestled in mountains/tall hills that come down to meet the water.  The view from the beach is of a town amidst the clouds (especially during rainy season).  The beaches themselves are clean, white sand and relatively deserted.  By far the most beautiful was River No. 2, about 15 km down the peninsula from Freetown.  There we stayed in bungalows right on the beach, next to a lagoon that was a scene right out of Jurassic Park (minus the man-eating dinosaurs).  The waves were the perfect strength so we were only getting bowled over 20% of the time, and we had a great time frolicking in them and then later eating fresh-caught barracuda from fishermen who were docked in the aforementioned lagoon.
When we finally headed back to Conakry, eating some last roasted cashews at the border, I was happy to be back.  Freetown is nice and has many of the “luxuries” that I don’t have at site, but Guinea feels more like my home.  I missed being able to communicate.  While English is the “official” language of Sierra Leone, everyone speaks Krio, which might as well be another language.  Also ‘white boy’ just doesn’t have the same ring as ‘toubabou’.  I also missed my family and my community, who I’ve become really close with.  I was even craving a good old-fashioned bowl of rice and sauce.

Friday, June 22, 2012

Too Many Topics Here for A Cohesive Title


First off, I apologize for not posting a legitimate update for what at this point must be months.  Sitting at a computer and typing just never seems to appeal to me, so I’ve been putting it off. Plus I prefer using my internet time for more productive means, such as the following comparison between my baby friend, Le Vieux, and Pixar celebrity, Mike Wazowski.

I can’t even tell which is a baby and which is an animated monster.

In-Service Training
One of my past month was spent at In-Service Training (IST; PC sure loves its acronyms).  This was a workshop 3 months into my service when all the volunteers from my stage met up in Mamou for 3 weeks.  It is meant to provide any training we volunteers, after 3 months at site, feel we require for our job.  This included local languages, a cross-sectoral exchange, project design and management, and how to fill out US government paperwork.  Taxes seem like nothing after a Volunteer Reporting Form!

While these sessions varied in their levels of usefulness, the most useful thing was simply talking with all the other PCVS about our past three months,  It was nice to hear that other people were having similar problems, like waiting two hours for a meeting that never happens, and learn about all the awesome projects people have accomplished or are planning, like an environmental education club, a community garden and fruit orchard, a youth entrepreneurship group, a city wide waste management program (the list seriously doesn’t end).  Not only is it inspiring to hear all the things PCVs are doing, but it as a great venue to bounce ideas off each other, especially since there isn’t much opportunity for that at site.

It was also nice to get out of Kankan.  Since I live in my regional capital, I don’t get to have a weekend “vacation” from site each month.  Plus its nice to have a change of scenery once in a while.  In face, this may be the longest I’ve stayed in one place without traveling for years.  I got out of Kankan at just the right time, too.  The city’s water pump was broken my last week here, and it was scorching hot, which mean I was sweating a LOT and not washing my hair AT ALL.  I did not smell great on that bush taxi ride to Mamou. 

Mamou was like a whole different country.  It rained nearly everyday and almost, almost got cold at night.  There was an unlimited amount of water and all the foliage was bright green.  We took an AGFO field trip to a city about 2 hours north, Dalaba, and it was there I realized how different Haute Guinea and the Fouta are, at least physically.. In Haute, the road is flat and straight, leading through a savanna filled with baobobs and monkey, while the road in the Fouta curves around the edges of hillsides (reminding me somewhat of Italy) to ultimately end in a grove of towering pine trees.  We visited a hotel with an overlook that opened onto what seemed a never-ending expanse of valley after valley.
This picture really doesn’t do it justice.

I still love Kankan, but I will definitely spend some time hiking the Fouta while in Guinea.

Another great thing about IST was the two-day counterpart workshop at the end.  Of course, not everyone has a counterpart as stellar as mine, so opinions may differ as to the usefulness of these two days.  Conde, my counterpart, really took to the project design and management part and suggested a project promoting moringa (more info on this later) that he had been mulling over.  We also did a PowerPoint presentation (that he helped make) about Fasso Demen, our groupement for the other AGFO volunteers and their counterparts.  We left with a newfound motivation to get all our projects started.

Of course, I can’t talk about IST without mentioning our dear fried Bud.  Bud wasn’t his real name, but the mechanics shirt he wore our first day there read ‘Bud’, so that’s what we called him.  He always made sure we were well supplied with cold beer and not a mea went by without a marriage proposal from old Bud. 

Tree Nurseries Galore

I’ve recently started two tee nurseries, three if you count my own personal one.  One is with Green Hand Action as part of our cashew reforestation project.  It is in the edge of a nearby village called Balandou and the plantation it self is very much en brousse (in the bush), which is great because we are working with farmers that other extension agents don’t get to because of a lack of accessibility. 

Being in the bush does have its drawbacks, however.  While we were installing the tree nursery, the GHA team came upon a snake eating a bird.  We all, including the snake, freaked out and started running away.  Unfortunately, the snake chose the same direction as me, down a steep riverbank.  I had a watering can in one hand and an orange Fanta in the other and basically fell over myself trying to run from the snake.  After barely catching myself from falling in the river, I managed to escape with just a tear in my pants.  And I didn’t even spill a drop of my Fanta.

Snakes aside, the GHA nursery was a success.  We got nearly 300 cashew seeds sown, nearly all of which have sprouted.  We will be buying 300 more seedlings from a farmer in Kissidougou, then transplanting the best 500 to 5 hectares of land in July.  So far, it has been a really great process for GHA to go through, not just for the trees themselves, but to learn how to run a successful project.

The second tree nursery I’ve set up is with my women’s gardening group, Fasso Demen, as the start of our live fence project.  Because livestock roams free here, all gardens must be fenced in.  Even with a fence, the goats will manage to get in and feast on a farmer’s lettuce.  Most farmers in Guinea can’t afford barbed wire fences or even chicken wire, so each year they build a fence out of tree branches or bamboo, if available.  Not only does this take a lot of time and effort on the farmer’s part, but it also means a lot of trees are cut down to make a fence each year.  Hence, the idea of a live fence.

This is a fence made of living trees, usually fast growing species with straight trunks, like a fence post.  These are spaced fairly close together with smaller shrubs in between to create a fence.  Some farmers will eventually reinforce it with barbed wire or chain link, if they have the means.  There are other benefits to a live fence, besides reducing labor and protecting trees.  Trees in a garden provide shade, for plants and people, and will help[ keep the area more humid, like a microclimate.  Overtime, the presence of trees can even raise the water table.  The leaves of the trees can be used for mulching or composting, and since we planted nitrogen-fixing species, this will enrich the soil even more.

We are fencing in about 150m of the garden, some of which already has some trees in place.  My counterpart and I chose to use moringa and gliricidia, both of which grow very fast, so are common in fencing project.  Moringa has the added benefit of being promoted by the PC, mostly for its nutritional properties, and also being the focus of another project of mine.  With me, my counterpart, and about 5 groupement members, we were able to fill over 400 polypots (recycled water sachets) in a morning.  Two weeks later, about 80% of the trees have sprouted!
Two groupement members and I working on the nursery

Moringa Oli-QUOI??

Horseradish tree. Nebadayo.  Moringa oliefera. L’arbre de la vie. Or simply moringa.  No matter what you call it, it’s an amazing tree.  Moringa is being pushed by PC in West Africa for its drought tolerance, ability to grow in poor soils, and high nutritional value of its leaves and seeds.  You can even use a powder of the seeds to purify water.  Though not native to West Africa, it doesn’t show any characteristics of becoming invasive (as of yet) and does extremely well in this climate.

My counterpart is really interested in spreading the planting and use of moringa in our community.  While at IST, he proposed the brilliant plan of distributing dried and powdered moringa leaves, in combination with different local spices.  This way women can use this pepper/moringa mix (for example the same way they would use pepper.  We would of course talk up its nutritional benefits and hopefully people will see how easy it can be to improve their diets.

But wait, there’s more! After people have received their free samples and their interest is peaked, we will go around with moringa seedlings for anyone who is interested and willing to care for it. It’s like Costco-style free samples for sustainable development (for some reason I feel like those two things should never be connected).  So far, we have collected mass amounts of leaves from trees around the neighborhood and started drying them.  This resulted in my grown-man counterpart shimmying up a precariously skinny tree, while regaling me of a time he fell out of a tree as a child, was knocked unconscious, and everyone thought he had died.  It was both a hilarious and nerve-wracking experience.

Shake Your Money Maker

Through the benevolence of a wonderful Italian volunteer who worked with my counterpart, Fasso Demen is now the proud owner of two manually powered water pumps, with the awesome name of “Super MoneyMaker”.  the biggest problem for the women is the water situation at the garden, e.g. the lack of it during the dry season.  While there are several gardening techniques, i.e. mulching and sunken beds, that we can implement to help conserve water, there is no changing the fact that the garden is across the river from brick makers whose unrestrained water use and deforestation practices reduce the amount of water available with each passing year.  With these two pumps, we will be able to continue gardening through the dry season.  Not only will this ensure that members’ families have enough food during this period of scarcity, but any surplus can be sold for a much higher profit than at other times.  The pumps, though manufacture elsewhere, are simple to use and understand and all the parts can be found locally.  If the pumps are a success, we hope to set up a distributer in Guinea (currently the closest is in Bamako).  Since it’s the rainy season, we don’t have much need for the pumps at the moment, but give it a couple months!

Introducing the Newest Member of my Dembayo (Family): Quinn

I wouldn’t exactly call myself a cat person, but I’m certainly warming up to the idea.  A friend of mine left in June, making me the adoptive mother of Quinn.  She is probably the most loving cat I have ever met and is happiest when her face is as close to yours as humanly/ felinely possible (endearing at 2 PM, annoying at 2 AM).  My family says she is the most polite, well-educated cat they have met.  I think this is mostly because she comes to her name, even when Guineans call her, which is kind of a high-pitched “Quint!”.  Her favorite foods are Vache Qui Rit cheese and sardines.  Her favorite pastime is climbing to the top of my mosquito net and then letting go, to come crashing onto my head.


***

Well, thanks for humoring me and reading what turned out to be 4 single spaced pages of my ramblings.  I leave for Freetown the end of June, home to West Africa’s best beaches, cold beers, and sushi.  Needless to say, I am pretty excited.  To all of you in DC who are starting to experience the wonderful muggy heat of DC summers, welcome to how I feel all year!

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Material Girl, Living in a Material World


Since the next Guinea stage (G22 whoooo!!!!) will be coming in about a month and most of them are spending the majority of their time trawling the internet for information (yes, that includes probably reading this blog) and fretting about what to pack, I figured I would try and help out.  Here’s some lists of things I’m so glad I brought, thing I wish I’d left behind, and things other people have that I am jealous of.

What I Would Die Without
1. kindle (or other e-reader): Think of all that time you waste on facebook, then multiply it by 5.  That's how much time the average PCV spends reading. 
2. bike seat: I bike at least 5 km a day (often more like 10 km) and would be a whole lot grumpier if I didn't have this
3. solar charger (mine is the small square one from Voltaic, they have a PCV discount): The telecenters here you can charge things have extremely variable current (i.e. can blow out your battery) and are usually run by 12 year old boys, so I charge my favored electronics (headlamp, iPod, kindle) using this
4. French/English Dictionary: Someone told me I could this in Guinea, but I brought one because I had a Barnes and Noble gift card I had to spend and it is a lifesaver.  I have yet to see a good one in Guinea and the PC doesn't supply one (which is a rumor I had heard)
5. good pocket knife: I have used this for everything, from eating mangoes to scraping corrosion off the battery container of one of those barking dog toys.  One with a bottle opener is an obvious must

Stuff I Should Have Left Behind
1. watch: you know how everyone in the US just looks at their cell phone for the time? yeah, it's the same here
2. clothes: This one is tricky because at PST I always felt like I didn't have enough clothes (or enough "semi-professional" clothes), but now I have gotten clothes made here and found some treasure in the second hand market and am almost embarrassed by the amount of clothing I own
3. can opener: I don't know who was giving me packing advice, but again, someone was emphatic that I bring this, so I did.  Turns out that beating a knife into the top of the can works just as well, also you don't really ever buy canned food.  Another volunteer, however, did give herself a deep gash with this method, so if you're a butterfingers maybe keep this on the list
4. hiking boots: These took up valuable food weight in my bag and I've used them maybe twice (and I'm an AGFO volunteer!).  Chacos or sneakers will do the job just fine
5. sleeping bag/blanket: blankets are super cheap and you can find them in most any market.  Plus it is usually too hot for clothes, let alone a blanket

Things I'm Jealous Of (There's only 2, I guess I'm not the jealous type?)
1. food products: I didn't pack much food to take with me because I figured there would be expat grocery stores, but those are few and far between compared to other African countries and don't offer much variety, so bring some of your favorite goodies
2. speakers: I actually had my parents send me these because I was so jealous of everyone else's jams.  It is just nice to hang out on my porch and read to some Iron & Wine or start an impromptu dance party with the neighbor kids.  There are USB charging ones on Amazon for $10-15 and they're surprisingly loud

Okay well hope this helps, and I know other people have probably told you this, but it doesn't really matter what you bring.  Anything you absolutely need to live comfortably you can find in country with a little detective work (you can even get an iPod if you know the right guy).  Plus the less stuff you bring the less you have to carry (or the more food you can fill your bag with)

Sorry to those of you who were expecting a "real" blog post, but I have been busy, which is a good thing!

until next time!

Monday, May 7, 2012

My House!

So maybe I have just a little too much internet time what with being in a city, but I google mapped my house! Here it is.  I think you can type the coordinates into google maps if you want to look around my neighborhood.  The road next to me (N6) is the one that just got paved.

Don't have much to say this time except I'm heading to Mamou this weekend for in-service training.  It will be great to see everyone again after three months!


Sunday, April 29, 2012

The Changing of the Seasons


As the dry season enters its peak, we are certainly feeling it here in Kankan.  It is getting hotter by the day, although we have been lucky enough to have a lot of cloudy windy days to relieve us of some heat, but lots of wells are running dry.  My host family is connected to city water by a faucet, so we should have water year round, but I have noticed that more and more neighbors come to get water from us as their own wells dry up.  At the garden, many women have left for the season, as there are only one or two of the over 50 wells that still have water, and not much water at that.

The slowing down of garden work means that the focus of my work is beginning to switch from the groupement to the wider community of Kankan.  I have started a women’s student group with the female English students at the university and we meet twice a week.  It is a self-help group to encourage the students to plan for their future after university and hopefully gain some valuable life skills (e.g. how to write a CV, word processing skills, personal finance, etc.).  It also offers a chance for the women to work in cooperation together, and learn how to organize themselves effectively.

This past weekend was a PCV run Girls Conference for Haute Guinea.  Each education volunteer brought two girls, ages 12-17, from their village to Kankan for a four day conference.  We covered a lot of topics with seminars and activities: conservation and sustainable agriculture, nutrition, women’s health, HIV/AIDS, women in the workforce, and education.  Volunteers also led activities to that teach important skills such as decision making and conflict resolution.  Most importantly, the girls got to hang out with only other girls all weekend and just have some fun.  We danced, went to the market, planted moringa trees and then the girls would stay up until midnight talking.  It was just like teenage girls at camp in America.

By the time they all left Monday, I could see a difference in all of them.  They were more confident and each had written an action plan of what they will do to share the information they have learned when they return to their villages.  One of the university girls I work with now attended a PC Girls Conference when she was younger and said it was one of the things that encourage her to go to university, so I hope this has made a similar difference for all the girls that attended ours.  It will definitely be something that I always remember.

The rest of my time has been spent meeting more NGOs in Kankan.  When my APCD visited a couple weeks ago, he put me in touch with some environmental advocacy and reforestation NGOs in Kankan, who I have been meeting with to see if there is any opportunity for collaboration.  I also met a lot of people during the girls conference who are interested in working with a PCV.  The difficult part is trying to choose who to work with and seeing where I can fit in with their organization.  Most don’t really understand the role of a PCV and are just hoping I will somehow give them money (or marry them), so it takes a lot of explaining, at the end of which I am usually still given a request for financial aid.  For those that do end up understanding though, it will hopefully be a great opportunity for both of us.

***

I am officially a city slicker!  Since I moved here in February, they have been working on the road next to my house for what seems like forever.  They would grate it, then roll it, then wet it down, then leave it for a week so everyone drives over their work and then start all over again.  It turns out there was some method to the madness because now it is paved.  This means that I can get to most all of my work places (the garden, the university, the PC office) on paved roads.  I’m probably more excited than I should be about this, but come on, pavement!

***

And now some more Stuff PCVs Like, to help describe some of the more random parts of my life in Guinea.

100 FG Notes
Like most developing countries trying to compete in the world market, Guinea struggles with inflation.  This year, in an effort to combat inflation, the government began to print bills that are worth 100 franc Guinean.  Previously, the smallest available note was 500 FG.  The current exchange rate of dollars to FG is about $1: 6800 FG, so these new notes are worth about $0.07.  I can’t speak to whether these smaller bills will fight inflation (I always ended up dropping microeconomics before the semester started), but there is one advantage to them.  Because the bills are so small and new, most people don’t really consider them real money yet, so the main people I’ve seen holding them have been kids.  The kids aren’t using them to buy things though; they use them to “make it rain”.  For those of you not well-versed in hip-hop lingo, making it rain is when someone presumably absurdly wealthy throws money in the air over other people, making it rain thousands of dollars.  Ever since these new bills have come out, some kid will get their hands on 20 or so of them and stand in the street and throw it in all in the air.  This generally tends to draw a crowd of other kids, who proceed to go crazy trying to pick them all up, just so they can throw them in the air again.

Edit: It turns out making it rain is not only limited to kids.  I recently attended a wedding where women were making it rain in the dancing circle.  Traditionally at weddings, there are female griots, basically singers or entertainers, who come to the ceremony before the real band to sing songs about all the people in attendance.  When a song is sung about you, you are supposed to pay the griots.  Since the appearance of 100 FG notes, more and more women are simply throwing their money onto the dance floor.

Donald Ducks
Probably one of the greatest mysteries of the Disney franchise is Donald Duck’s wardrobe choice.  He is usually wearing that same old blue shirt, with no pants, but when he emerges from the shower, he has a towel wrapped around his bottom half.  If he walks around town naked from the waist down, why does he need a towel to cover himself in the privacy of his own home? 
The majority of children below the age of 2 in Guinea seem to heartily agree with the fashion sense of Donald.  More often than not toddlers are running around wearing a shirt, or even a winter jacket, but no pants.  The other day I even saw a boy wearing a suit jacket, and nothing else.  It seems to me that “Donald Ducks”, as the PCVs in Haute Guinea have coined them, are the mullet of Guinea.  Business on top, party on the bottom.

Thank you everyone so much for the packages and mail!! The problem at the post office was sorted so I have been eating lots of candy and delicious snacks and reading my fill of celebrity gossip this past week. 

J’arrive (“I’m coming” in French; Guineans always say this when they leave as a kind of goodbye, I guess to mean they are always coming back and its not really goodbye. Or maybe its just bad Guinean French and I’m reading too much into it. Either way, it’s the end of this blog post)