Feb. e-mails

02/08/2008
Well it's official. I swore in as a volunteer today. There was a ceremony with some of the important people of Guinea including the U.S. ambassador and some other NGO heads. It was nice, it didn't take to long, and there was food. When we got into the capital I went to a Chinese restaurant I had heard of and it was the best food I have had in country. In fact it was some of the best Chinese food I have had period. Today I tried an Indian restaurant. It was good but very expensive. Anyway my new village won't have much for me to buy so I might as well splurge while I have the chance. The Lebanese have little grocery stores all over Conakry so I also went there today and spent a tone of money on things like beans and spices and more western foods that I won't be able to find up country. The last few weeks of training were great! I learned a lot about agro forestry and I am finding that I am quite passionate about it. I think if all goes well over the next two years I would like to go back to school for it and make a career out of it. I have gotten really close to some of the other trainees. To be honest it would be impossible not to. When you share these types of experiences with people they become good friends, even people you wouldn't have talked to in the states or didn't like at first, you just learn a lot together. Like the most comfortable squatting position when you have the shits (the only way to poop in country), and the best way for keeping the mouse out of the bed at night (the little suckers have no problem getting through the mosquito netting). But all in all it has been a wonderful experience. I have started to find laundry meditating; it takes so long you might as well. I also find that I am able to get things cleaner then the machine could. The Day I turned a badly dirt and grass stained sock white was a proud day.
I tested out of French at Advanced High which made me feel very proud because the only thing above it is fluent. When I got here I tested into Intermediate low ( rating goes; 3 novice, 3 intermediate, 3 advanced, fluent) The PC language program is internationally recognized and advanced high will look really good on my résumé, plus I can argue over prices with the best of them. Not that this will help much in my village as almost no one there speaks French. I will be living in a Malinka village where they speak Monika. Guineans only learn French when they go to school and my village is very small and most have never been. I was interviewing one of the groups I will be working with and of the 64 only four were literate in any language. This was a big wake up call for me. The village we did the training in was fairly large and most had some form of education. Even though I knew the literacy rate here was low I guess I just never really got it. When I asked how many people in the group could read they all actually laughed at me. They just thought it was a funny thing to care about. So I guess by the end of my tour I will be speaking Monikaka well. It is spoken all over West Africa so it will be useful if I travel outside of Guinea.
I already have a lot of project ideas for my new village so I am really excited to get started.