So it has been a long time since I last updated this blog. Since my last post a lot has happened, and through it all, getting myself together and writing a post became very difficult.

Soon after the last post tragedy struck in the village. Miriam Mwamba, the head teacher at our nursery school passed away while giving birth to her second child. It was incredibly sudden and absolutely heart wrenching... The baby, at the time, survived, but Miriam had a series of seizures and passed away about 24 hrs after the delivery. After a couple of days there was a funeral held. It was incredibly emotional. Even I, who only knew her for a few months, had a really hard time holding it together. Seeing the first born girl and Alex, the husband, was really difficult. And that day marked, by far, the hardest moment of my Peace Corps service. I have seen a great deal of death and dying in the villages over the last year and a half, but this is as close as it has gotten to me.

After allowing some time for everything to start to settle, and trying to allow all the dust to settle to see what all of us were left with, I started to assess where we were. Miriam was the foundation of the school, and to imagine it continuing without her was almost impossible. Also Alex, who is one of the people who had everything to do with all of the project we were working on at the moment, had moved to Kasama, and will likely never return here for good.

To add even more tragedy to the heartbreaking loss, Alex also lost the child, whom he named after Miriam after her death, to Pneumonia. I could not believe it when he told me. No one should have to go through so much suffering.

As you could imagine for me, or the village for that matter, to rebound from such a loss is incredibly difficult. Maybe because of the death, or possibly partly because of that change in seasons and work loads, I saw a great deal of the motivation to start and maintain projects dwindle. The Nursery school, which was already hurting financially, now had a stigma attached to it, and a lot of the villagers did not want to participate in propping it up.

The stigma I am talking about apparently is pretty deep rooted in a pseudo-belief in Sorcery. any people in the village believed that since Miriam and Alex started the Nursery School, that someone who was jealous put a curse on them and the school. Therefore no one wanted to be a part of it. I also soon found out that this worry about jealousies and whatnot extends to any project that is started that seemingly benefits one or a small group of people. It is really interesting to see how this belief in Sorcery is manifest. People tell me they don't believe in it, but it is very clearly often the explanation used for anything unknown. The headmaster of my school put it best when he said "Oh, I don't believe in Sorcery or any of that stuff... but it exists!"

On top of all of that, we also had some corruption issues with some of the new staff at the clinic. There has always been distrust between Government workers (Clinic, School, Court, Agriculture office) and the people residing in the village (farmers, carpenters, etc.). The Average villager in Mwamba truly believes that those coming from the cities ae just stealing money that is supposed to go towards developing the village. I must say I can't blame them. It is everything they have known up until now. So this adds a whole new dimension to my work. We need to find a way for everyone to work together, and for everyone in the village to feel like they both have a stake, and have some say over projects that are to come.

I think this experience speaks volumes about the difficulties of development work. It took me 7 months in my village to begin to understand some of the complexities and undercurrents in the society I am living in. To believe that a NGO can roll into a village and build a water pump without such an understanding is not only misguided, but also simplifying a complex society in a very insulting way. This is really one of the reasons I believe in the Peace Corps philosophy and paradigm. There are lots of things we can improve upon, but some of the basic tenants in place, I can confidently say, are among the best that currently exists.

So, back to my situation... By the beginning of July, I have become a bit frustrated by the lack of movement in the projects we have set up. I think it really is a combination of many things. Luckily, I have been able to get away for a bit. The first half of July was doing some Peace Corps work in the town close to my village, and the second half was going on Vacation with some family, and also with a friend that came for a couple of weeks.

It gave me some time to get away and regroup. When I get back, there will be a lot of change. I will be moving houses to a proper mud hut, I will be living next to the head man of a nearby village (and hopefully eating with them daily), there should be more clinic staff to work with, and my mind will be renewed. I am trying to look at this as a fresh start, and a time to make a final push, in these next 9 months, to buckle down and guide some improvement to the lives of some of the villagers. I think being equipped with a new and fresh perspective, and learning from all of the past mistakes, will inform a more positive and productive direction.

After having the meeting with the chief about the nursery school I had to go to Lusaka to see off Jessica (The only other Guinea Volunteer that came with me to Zambia). She had decided to go home, and I wanted to make sure we were able to hang out a bit before she took off.

While I was gone, the Chief was going to address the whole issue with the nursery school with all of the concerned parties during one of his weekly meetings.

After a really great last hurrah with Jess I went back to the village. Already not in the greatest moods considering the circumstance, I met with the Headmaster of the Primary school and the Director of the Nursery school. They were supposed to tell me how well the meeting went… turns out the meeting did not go so well…

They told me that the Chief must have spoken with someone else in the time between our meeting together, and his weekly meeting. He ended up doing 3 things: First he dissolved the committee because they said they made really bad decisions… fair enough. Next he put the Headmaster in the school in charge of putting a new one together. Lastly he fined the Director of the nursery school 3,500,000 Kwacha (about 700 dollars). The chief said that the director, who is also a teacher at the primary school, was a thief and a drunk. He said that he stole the money from the hammer mill.

Now, this teacher is one of the people I really trust in the village. I am 100 percent sure he did not steal any money. He also really doesn’t drink… I am not sure what happened, but I was shocked. I was really apologetic to Alex, the director, and told him that I would do everything I could to take care of it. He is about to have another baby, and his daughter just broke her ankle, so this would be a bad time to pay that kind of money.

So… I decided to try to meet with the chief. The plan was to show him my confidence in Alex, give him some more information about the nursery school, and to hopefully convince him not to fine Alex. I tried really hard to get a meeting with the chief, but eventually I was forced to call him. I had to go to Lusaka the next morning and I really wanted to take care of this before I left.

The discussion did not go as planned…

I tried to gently tell him what I described above. It did not go over well. Later I found out that he was mostly annoyed that I called instead of seeing him in person. I did not realize this was a problem. He seemed very angry at me for questioning his decision. He then said he would not fine Alex, but that the Nursery school was in my hands now and he wants nothing to do with it. I was speechless. Without his help, pulling the school together would almost be impossible. After a bit of verbal fumbling on my side, he hung up.

THEN, to add insult to injury, the Headmaster of the Primary school, Mr. Chungu, met with the chief. I guess the Chief expressed his anger toward me questioning his decision. Apparently it was very heated. Mr. Chungu then called me and told me that he also does not want to have anything to do with the Nursery school because he did not want to be on the bad side of the chief.

I explained to Mr. Chungu that I did not mean any offense by it. I just wanted to add a bit so that the Chief could make a decision with all of the available information. By no means did I mean to contradict his ruling. After all of this, I went to Lusaka thinking that the whole project is in tatters, and at the end of the day it was my fault.

I finally got back to Kasama. I also just got a phone call from Mr. Chungu. The miracle worker that he is, he had another meeting with the chief and apologized on my behalf. He also told the chief that we badly needed his help and that we all had to work together.

In the end, the Chief is happy, Alex does not have to pay the fine, the committee can stay together to create the Constitution, and the Chief is helping fund some of the things we need to do to pull the project together.

PHEW!

Its been a very emotional week…

When I got to my village, I kept hearing stories about the preschool that last, real, volunteer built. My official counterpart, who I don’t really work with anymore told me that it was mismanaged and that the director of the Nursery school was stealing money and resources and not paying the teachers. Knowing not to take just one person’s word for it, I set up a meeting with the Director. After a long meeting, which included receipts, he explained everything that happened to the school to cause it to be in its current state.

So the Nursery School was started to have a running capacity of 100 children. It was funded originally by an NGO. Then the NGO also purchased a corn meal grinder to be able to pay for the teacher’s salaries and the running cost of the school. The community was responsible for the shelter for the corn meal grinder and some of the supplies for the school. Also, the NGO wanted them to, when they make profits, plant 8,000 trees and give out a grant of around 450 dollars to a local women’s group for a project.

The last volunteer set up this project towards the end of her service. It really looked like a good plan. Unfortunately when she left, the only one in charge was the director. Because he had the money in his personal bank account and the school was struggling financially, people started turning against him in the village. This caused people that should have volunteered to help build the structures to demand money.

Then there were problems with the corn meal grinder. It was bought brand new, but the mechanic that put it together didn’t assemble it correctly. That caused it to break down… which in turn caused the villagers to assume that he bought it second hand. Then there was another spate of mechanics that broke it more of couldn’t fix it, all demanding money.

So after talking to the director, he told me that the employees haven’t been paid in 8 months, the grinder was working finally, but now well, the school did not yet have a constitution and was not registered with the gov’t, and was running with only 40 kids. He had already begun making charcoal to get some money for the staff. That was going well. Actually, pictures after #9 below are the finishing steps of preparing the charcoal to be prepared. More on that in a bit.

Ok, the headmaster of the primary school, probably the person in the village I work closest to, the director of the nursery school and I were summoned by the Chief of my area. This Chief is probably the 4th most prominent chief in all of Zambia. He is a really smart guy who used to be a journalist. Anyways, we explained what happened at the school and our plan looking forward. He gave us a few ways that he could help. That includes getting the money back from the mechanics that couldn’t fix the machine. I ten talked about our painful shortage of teachers, a need for more class rooms, and the fact that there is only one person at the clinic and he only has a high school diploma. Chief Mwamba was very skeptical about the village because he knows it is mired with village politics and stealing. I was telling the chief that, with me around, this new headmaster and staff of the primary school, and some other people I have met that have seemed eager and motivated to work, that now is the time to invest in the village, and I will do what I can to bring people together.

The meeting went really well. The chiefs have a lot of clout. Literally the NEXT DAY we got another trained staff member at the clinic with the promise of a registered nurse in the near future, 3 new teachers and money to begin building 3 more classrooms! So awesome.

Then I sat down with the headmaster of the school and brainstormed on how to build trust between the different sectors in the village. We decided to have a large meeting where we invite the heads of he court, agricultural office, clinic, nursery school and primary school. We also invited a government rep, the people on the committee in the village responsible for development, the guy that is supposed to inform people about government welfare programs, some of the village elders, and a person from an NGO called World Vision. So this is what you are looking at under #’s 6, 7, and 8. 6 was the meeting itself. 7 was all of the clinic workers sitting around a Peace Corps book they found, scheming about how to get me to do a funded project. And 8 was lunch. You can see an example of some of the food if you look closely.

The meeting was getting these groups together, presenting their responsibilities and goals in the village, discussing development priorities for the village as a whole so we can all work in the same direction instead of against one another, and talking about how we can work together on projects that are of shared interest. We also talked about how to make information about services that the government provides more accessible. The meeting was great. We even talked about building trust by opening up the books of each sector to one another and setting up some checks and balances. I was thrilled and think that is laid a great groundwork for future projects to be more likely to succeed.

Ok, what else do we have for pictures… so number 1 is a tour around the village with people from a national heritage preservation organization here in Zambia. So when the Chief of Mwamba dies, he is embalmed. A special group… the ones dressed up in black… are responsible for this. So they pick a site and stay there for a year ding this process. They will cook beans with salt, use the liquid and pour it into the body. Then they will literally smoke the body on a rotating stick for the whole year. Now these guys can’t bathe, shave, or see their families for this entire process! It was really cool to hear about it. Well, at every one of these sites, they leave a large piece of ivory in a bowl. The national heritage people now want to preserve the sites. That was a really fun day.

Number 2 is our little “market”. You are looking at just about all of it. It is two little stands.

Number 3… One of the radio stations called Radio Mano and the ministry of education people came for youth day. So the radio people were interviewing kids about their lives in the village. Then there was some dancing. The one pic is of some of the kids in our drumming club. The last one in that group is when 2 guys held up these sticks and the girl was dancing up a storm while balancing on them.

4 are just 2 kids that were at the youth day thing. I love my superhero t-shirts.

5 is how I charge all my stuff. Very important activity of each day is making sure those chargers stay in the sun. Probably takes up more of the day then it should…

# 9 was the charcoal making. So basically you stack up logs, smaller at the bottom to bigger at the top. Exhausting work. Then, the pics you see are us covering it with mud so that the heat cannot escape. You then keep a hole open and set it on fire from the bottom. After letting it burn for a bit you seal the hole and the logs get really hot and basically cook for a week. Then you take it out, let it cool, and you have charcoal. Anyways, the process was absolutely exhausting, but fun and earned me some great integration points with the villagers. One of the guys was showing me his contortionist abilities and I told him he was clearly in the wrong business.

Ok, lots of pictures... so this is how I am going to work this. I will just number groups of pictures and explain them in the next blog post. otherwise this will get rediculously long.

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So this is the sign going into my little village. Pretty fancy huh? just wait till you see the back...nice, huh? so polite!

This is the dirt road I ride on to get into the Provincial capital.

Here are the all star teachers at Mwamba Basic School. we just got done with a 5 hour long meeting talking about how to improve the testing numbers. they are really a great group, and I see myself working ith them closely throughout my service.

This is the headmaster of my school that is drinking local beer out of a calabash usin a metal straw.... awesome!

This is that local beer... ummm, not really sure how to describe it... it is millet based and REALLY thick as you can see. After it is prepared, you boil water and pourit in. Then you use the straw to fish for the liquid. Actually not bad.

This is me with my handy dandy lawn mower. Look carefully and you will see it. It takes a while,but it never breaks down.

And in the yard is this monstrosity! don't touch or you will be itching for days.

Can't continue without an adorable picture of my cat... (for the Chaco's company, my mailing address is listed on the blog. size 12 please)

This is the Peace Corps house in Kasama. pretty nice. here's another pic from the front:

not a bad setup...

There are 2 main reasons i in biking more then I ever have before. For one, like I explained, I am responsible for thirteen villages that surround my own. Also, I live a relatively short 30 km away froo the provincial capital.

For the villages in my catchment area, I cycle out to all of them at least once a month for the under five clinic that they hold. The villages are of varying distances. A couple are only a few km away, and the furthest is about 20km. Aside from the under five clinics, I also have to travel out to each to train each village health care worker. I have found some very motivated people, and that makes of want to in out there even more.

When it comes to the provincial capital, I don't have an option other then to bike. The road my village is on is hardly a road. It is more like a compacted dirt path that is wide enough for a car. Although a car could technically fit, no cars take that road. So, biking it is. The other problem is that, since i am in Kasama district, which includes Kasama, the provincial capital, i have a lot of work that involves visiting offices in town. This often means that in one day i will ride out to Kasama, hold my meeting, and ride back the same day. That makes 60km in a day on a mountain bike through mostly sand, gravel, and stone.

For the trips to Kasama, the ride up is grueling. Mostly up hill, it feels like forever. The way back is way better. This is really ideal because when I stock up on supplies and load up the bike, it is nice that it is mostly down hill.

So I make the trip up to Kasama at least once a week. All in all, between some cycling in the US, and everything I am doing here, makes of think that I will be reaching the 10,000km mark by the time, or soon after, I get home. Pretty cool. And this is on road biking, bush paths are not quite as fun as speeding down pavement on a super lite road bike. Bikes here have to be more like tanks. Gotta have spare parts on hand, mud guards, and a steel bike rack on back to support forty pounds or more you strap on it.

All of this also means that I have gotten good at bike maintainence. I re-tool my bike at least once a week to ensure smooth rides.

Anyways, at least the rides are getting easier!

Ok, so clearly I am bad at keeping up with this. I really haven't had a substantial blog post since I got to site, so I will try to make up for it now.

OK, so my village, Mwamba, is about 350 people strong. As compared to guinea, where my village was over 2000 this one is tiny. Rural Zambia is like this. It is really a lot more rural then Guinea, yet there are more organizations mostly due to a stronger government and many more NGO's. Anyways, although the village is small, I am actually responsible for this and the thirteen surrounding villages that make up the catchment area.

My village has a relativly nice clinic that lacks a full staff. Right now there is a cleaner and a part time high school graduate... Oh boy. We also have a school that has about half of the necessary teachers. Both the headmaster of the school and the person heading the clinic seen very motivated, which is great.

I will give a brief history of what i know of the volunteers that lived here before me. It will help to see my current situation in context.

The first volunteer i know about was a fish farming volunteer some eleven years ago. They teach how to make little man-made fish ponds that are a great way to make money. He started a fish farming cooperative that is now by far the most successful group in Mwamba. I say their budget and they are doing great!

More recently there was a health volunteer, like me, named lisa. She was, by all accounts a super volunteer. She trained a ton of health care workers, built a pre-school, and formed some strong relationships among other things. She would have been a fantastic example.

Now here is the kicker... The volunteer just before me was also a health volunteer but was almost exactly the opposite of what PC volunteers should be. He was in the village for only two weeks before he left but his legacy is just incredible. Before he even got to the village he knew what if wanted to do. First mistake. We are literally only supposed to observe for 3 months so we really understand the problems. Then he, in his infinite wisdom decided to create a fire house and a gym where kids can do physical education twice a day... Ok, sounds wholesome, but consider where i am... We are in the middle of the bush.

You would need to stop the water or find the nearest river to get water from. Then you have to lug it to the house that is on fire. The houses are made of grass roofs. Unless you get there within 2 min, the roof will be gone anyways.

Also, with regard to the gym, kids here are probably stronger then i am. They are constantly running around and even in to the fields and do hard labor. Also, what is the use of am enclosed gym when the vast majority of time the weather is perfect? It gives of the same feeling as when i eat ice cream too fast...

So, as much as I love my village, they have some unrealistic expectations of me. They really are pushing for infrastructue projects that I refuse to do unless I eventually see they are nature enough to keep it sustainable.

Ok, so what I am working on right now... I am starting by re-training all of the community health workers in each of the villages in the catchment area. I will train them on educating on everything from HIV, nutrition, water sanitation, importance of vaccinations, malaria, general hygiene, and more. My major focus will be on helping then better advise young mothers on child nutrition.

Past that i want to work with the health center and the ministry of health to get more baby weighing scales, get a full time staff, and train the current staff on useful simple procedures like suturing and injections.

Due to the highly motivated headmaster at the school, i also will work on that end. I am in the process of meeting each of the clubs and i will help out with the health related ones. Also, the school, er really the entire province did very poorly on the last test. So, the headmaster has asked me to in to a meeting with all of the other teachers to discuss what to do. This should be kind of fun and awesome because it is all in english.

Lastly future projects i want to do include teaching permaculture. This is a style of gardening that produces very strong plants, requires little maintenance, protects against heavy rains while utilizing water efficiently when pains are scarce, and encourages a variety of foods that is good for food security and nutrition. We learned it in our latest training and it seems promising. Also, i would like to see if we can't fix the water pumps in my village. Most are broken or rusting out.

Ok, that is a good place to end for now. I will add more very soon.

Awwww! She is the cutest little furry cute ball in the whole wide world, isn't she! Yes you are! Yes you are!

Here she is attacking my new drum that I got in Mali...

Here she is attacking my bookbag...

And this is what happens when she messes around. No no, no she will know what will happen when she does something bad. Now don't give me any of that "thats sooo mean" or "She is just a kitten" She has to be a well trained hunter soon, and if she doesn't I am throwing her in the corn meal grinder, so it is for her own good.

So this is Christmas in the Village at the Cathoic Church. My counterpart, the person I work with, is actually the prayer leader. There was tons of singing and dancing. If I could post videos I would show a few, but this will have to suffice for now.

More from the church. This lady is part of a very strict sect that all dresses as monks or nuns.

This is one of my counterparts, not the prayer leader. Until we get full time staff at our clinic, he is the one in charge and who treats people. He is very young, but very motivated.

Alright, this is the inside of my house. This is my little kichen. The stove on the table is powered by ethanol gel. Very cool. Also, I got the Paintings in Lusaka at this Artisan village. Remember the cultivator hat?

Here is the living room section. Now equipped with some furnitue it finally feels more like a home. The masks in the corners are from Mali.

Here's the new drum from Mali in all its glory. I will find some more time to do some drumming here. It seems like there are lots of people playing, so I am excited to dive in.

Here is another corner of the house. All of the pics are from the same room, but the room is pretty big compared to the hut in Guinea.

Christmas was in the village going to church and eating with one of my counterparts. It was a lot of fun. Although I miss home, family, and friends a lot, i am happy I stayed in the village for Christmas. New Years was spent being really lame in Kasama with other volunteers. Lots of movies, TV shows, fixing little bits o the house up.

Now my plan is to go back to the vilage for a couple of weeks, then it is off to Lusaka for my In service training for Peace Corps. There is where I will meet all of the other volunteers from the intake that I am now technically part of after the move to Zambia. Also I will hopefully pick up some ideas and a little more technical and language training so I can really dive in when I get back. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season!

Here is my house! A little beaten up but I loove it. I have tons of space and it stays nice and cool. Next step, furnature!

Here is a pathay leading away from my house. The village is beautiful and very green.

This is the Heath Clinic I work at. I hope to be doing most of my projects out of here. Also, here is where they will organize all ofthe outreach for the 13 villages I am going to be responsible for.

Here are some pictures of Thanksgiving dinner. This was my first real party in Zambia. The current voluteers have been really great at making me feel at home.

In the middle there is our grumpy Peace Corps Volunteer Leader. He is the one responsible for the house that is located in our Provincial Capital. He actually is a really nice guy and has helped me out a ton!

A couple of volunteers technically from my "class" that are in Northern Province with me.

Thisis one of our married couples. They are great. Chris on the left also was in the Capital soon after I arrived into the country and really helped show me around Lusaka.

And these are the two dogs that live at our Provincial house. The one in the foreground used to be another volunteers dog until it killed a goat in the village! awesome!

Peace Corps Zambia. This is the "Insaka" that we had all of our language training was. notice the curved plant on the right hand side... That is where I lovingly hit my left eye wit every time I go to class.

This is the Peace Corps Zambia Administrative office

Jess and I walking to class way too early in the morning...

This is the Building for my Community Health Improvement Project. One of the big projects under our umbrealla is the HIV/AIDS Project.

Here is the cat that stole Jess's Pizza and harasses us for our lunch. This black cat was the first thing I saw when I got here... bad omen...

Ouch....

Here is the computer lab. I spent more time on the internet in the past two weeks then the last 10 months combined.

The bunk rook where we stayed. Notice the hats above the window, look familiar. Thats mine on the left and Jessica's on the right

Ok, these picture AREN'T from my hut. This is on a site visit at a volunteer named Ruben's site. In the foreground is what is called an insaka. It is where you usually would cook or just hang out during the day when you don't want to be inside the hut. In the back is his house.

Off in the distance there is the tiny little bathroom

This is the showering area. This is really similar to my shower area in Guinea

As you can se, everything is a little ways away from his hut. Definately not like Guinea where the villiages were really dense. I can't believe I am basically describing my last villiage as a bustling metropolis in comparison to this.

Here is a closer shot of his house and the dirt road that leads up to it. I could not believe the driver could find this place. he basically knew every footpath you had to take to get here. it is literally a half hour or more off the main road. What was more impressive was the fact that the next night he was able to find it again but in the dark. I am going to get lost... You all know my keen keen sense of direction

Here is Ruben's very own mango tree. I have heard that I will have some as well. We are just starting the rainy season, so I am getting here just in time to gorge myself on Mangos.

Gotta end with a sunset picture. Sorry about the cheesyness..

So, how the Program in Zambia works is that before you go to your villiage, you tag along with another volunteer at their villiage for a couple of days. I just got back from my site visit, and there are a lot of pretty distinct differences between this and my villiage in Guinea.

The most striking thing, and what you would notice immediately is that Zambian villages are much more spread out and rural. We were just over 1 hr outside the captal, and 5 min ouside of a town, but the landscape was only spotted with huts. In Guinea I had a villiage that was relatively dense and had about 1,500 people. Here You have a hut, a cooking hut, a wooden "dish rack" a latrine, and a bathing area. It is more land and you only really see the next hut a bit off in the distance.

How the villiages seem to work is you have your town, and around it are these tinny groups of huts. Each group of huts is a small villiage and as a volunteer we will be responsible for a group of these villiages. On this trip we took probably about a 45km bike ride around his whole group of villiages. It was really cool to see the different dynamic for each one. I think it will make my job of learning about my area a little harder, but I am excited to try different things in the different areas.

The Heathcare and the development of the healthcare system in addressing preventative care is much father along then it was in Guinea. A lot of the things I was trying to initiate in Guinea already have a foot hold here. Thats exciting because I will be able to do some higher level work. I saw libraries that were built, Medicine that is pretty well stocked, and people that already got a lot of information on things like AIDS. There are still lots of problems, misinformation and need for innovative ideas on how to educate the population, but the structure will be much easier to work with.

As for the experience, I found that as night falls the spiders and massive bugs are unleashed. I have never seen such a wide array of bugs in my life. There were these really ominous looking black spiders that were about the size of my fist. They were very shiny and evil looking (sorry, I am not an entomologist). Also there are what are wonderfully named scorpon spiders. These things walk on 6 legs and the front two are way up in the air and look like claws. In addition there were just tons of grasshoppers, termites, moths, praying mantis', stick bugs, leaf bugs, etc.

The huts were nice. they have little openings (I wuold say windows, but there is no glass, just metal mesh. The roofs seem like they are often a problem. I am pretty sure they were more sturdy and water resistant in Guinea. It is not a circle also, more of a rectange with multiple rooms.

The next post has some pictures of The volunteer's housing area as well as some of the office.

Oh god. I think I am having PTSD from learning all of the French in Guinea. Now we are taking a shotgun 2 week course in Bemba. I really wish I didn't suck so much at languages. Well I am going to do a little, as Liz Roddick would say, heads down, power through. It looks like we will be doing aabout 8 hours of straight language everyday. I know you are all dying to get a little taste, so here it is:

A: Muapoleni Mukwai! (greetings)

B: Endita Mukwai! (greetings back)

A: Muashibukeni Mukwai (good waking up)

B: Endita Mukwai, Mwashibuka shani? (good waking up back. did you wake up well?)

A: Ndifye Bwino. Nga Imwe (yes, well. and you)

B: Panono Panono. (a little bit)

A: Ishina Lyenu nimwe ba nani? (what is your name?)

B: Ishina Lyandi nine _____, nga imwe? (my name is _____, and you?)

A: Ishina Lyandi nine _____. Shalenipo! (my name is _____. stay well!)

B: Kafikenipo! (go well!)

Fun huh? Pronounciation is rough, but structure seems do-able. We'll see.

So I heard some more info on my soon to be site. I will be place only 15 km away from the regional capital. That will be nice. it is far enough that I won't go all the time, and close enough that if I need anything I can bike in. Unfortunately I will be about 18hrs from the Capital capital.

My Province is apparently beautiful with lots of hills/mountains, and lots of streams and waterfalls. Also it seems like one of the few provinces that stays pretty green all year round. We are also bearing down on the rainy season, so it should be getting VERY green soon. Looks like there are some bugs and apparently lots of snakes. Judging by my track record with paying attention to my surruondings, I am calling that I will be the first volunteer to be bitten by a Black Mamba.

I should be having cell phone reception due to my close proximity to the "city".

I also heard that my community is very motivated and the last full volunteer there did tons of work. Lots of pressure, but I can't wait to try to live up to it.

Thats it for now. I am trying to post more often while I have internet!

Here are some Photos from Bamako before I left to Zambia. I am going to miss all of my Guinea Volunteers a ton. They were, and are, like family to me. I really do hope to stay in touch!

Bamako football stadium watching Mali vs. Sudan. That's Kiki and Nick watching intently. The Peace Corps staff hooked us up with tickets.

Ben taking some pics like the good Asian tourist that he is. Sorry Ben.

Outside my house at Toubaniso. Ok, this might need some explaining. When we got to Bamako, we stayed in this training facility for Mali Peace Corps Volunteers. The nake means little white person villiage. Hilarious. We all slept 3 per room. Of course Ben, Nick and I shared a room.

This is the Road on the way into Toubaniso. Its a really beautiful compound.

Here is where we finally got the word that our program was being temporarily suspended. This is the hanger we also went to every morning to get briefings.

Here is the Building where we got out 3 meals a day and had the computers where we did our resumes and decided on what we were doing for the next couple of years of our lives.

We got a pingpong table! It was awesome!

The situation room. This is the inside of that last building. this is us stressed out trying to get some info off of some very slow and often broken computers.

A blurry picture of the other 2 of the Triumpherant.

The big screen that we projected movies and "the Wire" on most days. Man they pampered us for those couple of weeks.

The Bar we hang out in called The Camp. Looks like an American Bar. It was great! Awesome food, cheap drinks. Great for stressed out evacuees.

Some more of the bar and Nick being social.

Us spending way too much on food and drinks.

Trying to relax

But can't stop working. This is Ben trying to get Plane tickets and failing miserably, and Jess Worl laughing at him. Hope that worked out....

The Pool at the American Club we got to hang out for free whenever we wanted. Awesmoe deal, great staff. They also had movies, Tennis, Basketball, a nice bar, etc.

Ben, Nick and Katy lounging next to the pool.

All of us at our last big dinner together. Great Italian place with delicious food.

Last group the night before took off.

The last photo of the Triumpherant.... until next time. This should be a photo on the Peace Corps website. Look at that diversity!

OK, So here are some of the last pics I took in Guinea. Most of these are during the end of Ramadan celebration. Enjoy!

This is everyone sitting outside for the prayer

Here is the Chief of the District of Layasando. He is such a character. Nice hat too!

This is the Imam and his crew leading the prayer

During the Ramadan Celebration you dress to the nines,, these are some of my counterparts kids all dressed up in their Obama jerseys. Oh God! Don't eat that plastic bag!!!

There we go. These are some of my favorite kids in the villiage too

Oh, there's another one of their brothers. Really I could keep going, my counterpart in Guinea has 14 children!

Here is My Friend in the villiage, Bahfodi and the Sierra Leonean Abduliah. Both dressed up for the celebration. Here are my adorable mother and father in Layasando. Normally they are all smiles, but when the camara is rolling this is all I get.

Some more of my Family... nice clothes, huh?

Some haircutting on the day of the celebration.

oooh, he does not look so happy

Awww, the last picture of my cat before I left. Well, I can't get her back, so she is just hanging out in what used to be my hut and getting fed occasionally by Bahfodi. Don't worry though, I told them they can eat her if i don't get back.

One last look at my hut....

Ok, so here is my new mailing address here in Zambia. Letters are strongly encouraged!

PO BOX 410374

Kasama, Zambia

Ok, so we have arrived in Lusaka, Zamba (the Capital City). I will give you some general first impressions...

this place is WAY more developed then Guinea. It seems like that is limited to the City, but It is crazy to see. Parts of it actually look like America. Jessica Worl (the other Guinea Volunteer that came to Zambia) and I found some crazy, nice in Americam standard, restaurants, and sent way too much money. to give you a bit more, we found a bowling alley, a movie theatre, a camping store, electronic store, and more. Maybe this sounds siilly, but for an old Guinea Volunteer, it was amazing. I guess this is what happens when you actually get tourists into the country and have strong buisnesses invest in your Capital city.

This probably isn't a good sign, but I am already getting annoyed with all the stuff. I am actualy really excited to get back to a mud hut and talk with people that aren't used to the crazy flow of tourists.

So we got our orientation and the program looks great. I am doing CHIP (Community Health Improvement Project). The program is a combination of what used to be an HIV/AIDS ed project, and another that focused on all of that other stuff that I mentioned I did in Guinea.

Here in Zambia AIDS is a huge issue. I think the statistic is 16 percent of people have AIDS, and that nuber increases drastically around urban areas. I have hear that it kills over 4000 teachers each year. I think that the situation provides a great opportunity to foster some real change in the communities.

Anyways, I am trying to get a bit adjusted. I will write another post right away with the new mailing address for all of the hundreds of people sending me letters :-P

Ok, so I finally have the word on what is going on with us. Basically, after discussions between Peace Corps and the State Department, the decision came down to temporarily suspend the program in Guinea due to a lot of uncertainties and safety concerns. For the last week or so, all of us volunteers have been making our decisions to either end our service, transfer, or go back to the US and wait for the program to reopen.

I decided on a transfer for a variety of reasons and so I had to send in my resume to the programs in Africa (and possibly outside of Africa) that could take me. All of these volunteers who I consider very much to be my family are now taking off all over the place. we have volunteers going to Niger, Senegal, Benin, Botswana, Madagascar, Mali, etc. Me, I am going to the Northern province of Zambia to continue to do Public Health work.

Looks like I will be spending 2 weeks learning Bemba, the local language in my province, and then I will go out to site.

So, a couple of things about Zambia... from what I can find, there are a couple of very Urban centers but past those cities it gets really spread out and rural. Apparently you can find a lot of the original culture out in the villiages. As I get some more info, I will definately share it...

the Ok, so here is the low-down on what is going on in Guinea and what tha means for me....

ON sepember 28th there was an incident in the Capital Ciity of Conakry where soldiers killed 157 people that were protesting the candidacy of the current military president. The killing, raping and maming came, from all reliable accounts, unprovoked. At first Dadis Camara, the President, said that he was sorry for what happened. Then he came out saying the military was jus defending themselves, and now he says that the oposition party, the one holding the protest, hired the people to dress up in military outfits and kill the protesters to make Dadis Camara look bad.

Son after this happened the military took all of the bodies no riddled with bullet holes and sent them to a mosque where some family could claim them. the rest of the bodies are said to have been put in a mass grave somewhere. The whole situation is incredibly sad, especially onsidering how peaceful and non violent Guineans are. Before September 28th, I would have thought something like this would be imposible.

ok, so now, what that means for me. All Peace Corps Volunteers and a majorty of the staff has been ordered by the state department to leave the country. After Peace Corps fighing tooth and nail to keep us in,Peace C orps went through the logistical nightmare of contacting and picking us all up to move to the border. This is a difficult situation considering the lack of cell phone coverage in huge swaths of the country and few roads.

We eventually made it to Mali and are staying in the Mali Volunteers training site and us 100+ volunteers will be staying here for the nex 2 weeks. It is a difficult thing to leave a villiage that you have been working and living with for as long as some of us had, s Peace Corps makes special effors to make us as comfortable as possible and to have some distractions. Also, the Peace Corps Mali staff has bent over backwards to accomodate us.

So now we wait. The State Department will decide in 2-4 weeks if we can go back or not. Realistically the chances are very low. So, my other options are as follows. And this list is basically most ideal situation to least: I can...

Transfer to a different country in the same region and just finish my service

Transfer to a country outside of my region, go through some training, and stay for the rest of my service

Transfer to a country outside my region,, go through training, and stay for another 2 years

Go back to America and wait for the program to reopen

or end my service while keeping all of the benifits I would have gotten if I was there for 2 full years.

so, we'll see what happenes in the coming weeks. When the decision about us going back is made, I will have to choose an option very quickly, so I am doing some soul searching right now to decide on what is best.

Ok, so this is the sign going into my villiage. Good one to start with but the rest are in no particular order

this is my new house in Laya. Painted the Peace Corps logo on it. I will show you the inside later

This is my cat protecting the house. You can see her little cat door. If that one day becomes a snake door, that cat better walk the walk.

This is a shot of the inside of my house. I painted the Sun on the wall to liven it up a bit. I ave added some masks and stuff since this picture. when I get a chance I will update.

This is one view from outside my new hut... look! more huts!

This is are market on Wednesdays. The tree is massive, and a great backdrop for walking around the market

Here are a couple of fun artsy pics from outside my hut in the moonlight. This is my roof...

And this is a Mango tree in my backyard

Here is a little path outside of my Homologues house. He is who I work with.

This is my favorite tree just outside my villiage. In real life it isn't on its side like it is in the picture :-P ... sorry, I am lazy.

Here is a present from a friend for my B-Day. Awesome hat, right!?!

Here is my pride and joy Jembe drum,. Costed a hell of a lot of money, but it's worth every penny. I don't know how this gets back to the US, but I will make it work.

Speaking of Jembe drums, here are the kids I want to play it with. I also hope to get some lessons from the older players in the villiage.

Cute kid that doesn't look very sick going to my homologue (i the background) for care right at his house.

Here is my best friend, BahFodi, in the villiage that doesn't like me taking pictures, and the sierra leonean, Abdullai, that refuses to speak anything but English to me.

Bad ass cop in our villiage. Actually he is really funny and nice, and not even a real cop. The villiage has a group that act as enforcement, but they aren't exactly official. They like to wear military gear though

Foosball table... oh yeah. And Bonne Chance means goodluck in French

This is an excerpt frmo my Malinke Study guide. That is the local language here. I love this book. Filled with useful information...

As I said earlier, This is that car that broke down... grrrr

So it dawned on me that I am jumping on this blog thing late in the game. Anyone probably reading these blogs only gets through 140 characters before they get annoyed and leave... either way, I'll keep writing :-P

So, it all started when my friend took a Peace Corps Car (since it happened to be driving through from Kissidougou (southeast of me) to pick me up, and we would both go to Faranah (north west). He needed to use the internet to do a Peace Corps Report, and I knew where to go.

Being the rainy season now, we of course got caught in the rain every time we went outside. Now, when I say we got caught in the rain every time. I literally mean every time. No joke, within 5 minutes of stepping outside for the entire weekend we were poured on. And to add insult to injury, just about every time we went into the house we were staying in, the rain magically stopped.

So we went to the University in Faranah to use the computer. I thought it was open at 7:30 pm, but turns out I remembered it wrong and it only opens at 17:30. So, we had a couple of hours to kill... We figured we would head to dinner. We both heard tha this hotel, about 5 km away had, a couple of years ago, burned down. But we also heard that it was rebuilt and had great food. So we went all the way to this hotel, and as soon as we got there we could clearly see that the hotel was still tortched and they clearly weren't serving any food.

So we went back to the University, ate at a little rice bar on the way and got on the computers. My friend tried to do the report but the computers didn't work well and kept shutting off. Also, there was a virus that erased all of the pictures on his flash drive, every picture since he got here to Guinea.

So, we went back to Layasando (my site) and he was planning on staying there for a night. We then climbed up my cellphone reception hill like I do every sunday. Of course, the wind started whipping, and it started to downpour. Well, not to leave it as me just being wet and cold, but i also broke my phone by letting it get soaked... smart.

The next day my friend left and I was hanging out in my villiage for the rest of the day. That night, I was eating some rice and meat. I bit down, and chipped my tooth on a rock in the rice. For those of you that know, yes, it is the same place I chipped my tooth before and, yes, I again look like a hillbilly.

So, I do my laundry the next day and then call the PC Doctor to find out what I should do. I basically told him that for now it is pretty much cosmetic, but that other times it happened I did have some sensitivity. Of course he told me to go to the Capital to get it looked at. So that night I headed into faranah again where I could get a Taxi in the Morning to Conakry pretty easily. I got a taxi at 8:00 in the morning. Ok, so normally the trip to Conakry takes 9 hours. Keep that in mind.

After 1.5 hours, the car broke down bigtime. Usually the Guineans are good at rigging that stuff and getting on the road again, but this time was ifferent. We waited there for 6 hours in the middle of no where. I eventually had to make a decision about whether to sleep there in the bush of walk to the next villiage 10km away and find a taxi.

If I knew what the situation was when the car died, I would have walked right away, but the driver kept telling us that another taxi was on its way to pick us up and take us. Comming up on hour 6, we got it out of him that they haven't even left Faranah by then! Also, during those 6 hours I gave away a bag of peanuts to a young mother and all of my freaken water because everyone in the car were either kids or old people that needed it way more then me.

So, I walk towards the next villiage, and I find a bus on the way. The buses are in rough shape and go at a snails pace, but I figured it would be my best and cheapest bet. So I got on the bus and it started crawling forward. The young mother was still with me, and I ended up holding her baby for a vasy majority of the trip.

So we finally pull into Conakry at 3:00am the following day without stopping for food once. The bus also broke down at one point, which I found hilarious, but we got back on the road immediately.

So, 3:00 I am sitting there where the buses stop in Conakry just wanting to get to the Peace Corps transit house. Unfortunately there are no taxis running until 6 so I had to wait 3 hours. ouch...

Finally I got on my way. Eventually I got to the PC house and I went to see the doctor. He said I could get an appoointment that same day. That was awesome because people generally go to Dakar, Senegal for dental treatment, and that would have taken forever. So I got showered and felt slightly better, and then left to the dentist. She took one look at my teeth and said that she couldn't do it and that they don't have the stuff to do it in Senegal either.

Fantastic...

So The doctor said that he could either send me to America, to which I refused to use 2,000 + dollars of American taxpayer money for a cosmetic fix, or he could give me a voucher for when i go to India. So the rest of the story is to be determined.

Also, if all of that wasn't bad enough, I got sick here and have these bug bites that are unbearably itchy, and this coming for a person that has endured countless bites in the past 8 months...

But now I am in good spirits and am about to leave Conakry. I am going to try to stick on a couple of pics right now before I take off...

Okm so I got 15 min, and a french keyboard, let see what I can do...

So, I have just changd huts. My villiage needed to move me, and after months of trying to light a fire under them, it is finally livablem and I moved in yesterday. Before i had a bed to fit 4 people which took up prety mch the whole hut. Now I have so much more space with a bed ust for 2. Sounds small, but i am psyched!

I also just got a Camara that my parents sent to the girlfriend of my closest vounteer, who just brought it over. I will be taking tonls of pics and putting them on here asap.

I also just found out that I wil be going to india at the end of Qugust for a weding. It seems surreal that I will be leaving for 3 weeks to India and wil be able to see me family and everything. I am sooo excited!

Couple of aditonal project ideas. I will be doing a world map projct. This includes painting a world map on the school and doing some geography teaching. not heath related, but fun and good for opening up minds.

Als, I will be teaching english twice a week to a group of young men in exchange for them helping me with health projects. I am not really all that jazzed about teaching english, but these guys have really taken me under their wing and helped me out, so its the least I can do. I can also use their standing in the community and mativation when I do lessons on health topics like AIDS.

Oh, and b the way, I am sure I wrote about the cows in the villiage that ran through me fence, well, they did it again in my new hut.... I can't believe it. They are after me. I know this makes me a bad Hindu, but I am about to harpoon one to send a message....

Alright, I will be on again soon to do some reporting for Peace Corps. I will write again then.

So I came to Conakry, the capital city, for a quick break after training. I have been having a great time here.

We have been spending a ton of time at a little bar on the beach where you can see the most beautiful sunsets. In the distance is a small group of islands that I will one day visit as well. The beach is really the Atlantic Ocean. It provides an awesome backdrop for throwing the football around, playing cards or just generally hanging out.

Aside from that, we have eaten some incredible food. There is a Chinese restaurant that I blew a huge chunck of cash. It was completely worth it seeing that it was even good for good American Chinese food. It was really fantastic. We also ate a couple of times at this pastry place that makes amazing shwarmas. A shwarma (and I may be spelling that wrong) is kind of a wrap. It usually just has meat and potatoes and stuff in it, but this place includes some peppers and tomatoes and cucumbers. Amazing.

Aside from the normal meals, we also got to have real life ice cream. I can't tell you how much I will love going to a friendly's when I get back to the US. Outside of Conakry the only icecream you can get, and this is only in the biggest cities, is a really crappy soft-serve. Don't get me wrong, I definately eat it, but it is a far cry from real ice cream.

Also in Conakry I bought some fabric to make some Guinean clothes. In guinea, there are some fabrics specific to different areas. For example, indigo trees are really only found in the Fouta region, so they are famous for their deep blue fabric. Also, in the Haute and Forrest region, they make something called Forre Sacre. It is a rough orange fabric with black print. Both are very authentically Guinean, so I bought some of each. When I get some more money, I will definately be making some clothes with them.

Alright, well, I am finally going back to my site tomorrow, so my Blog posts will again be far between. I have a better system now, so I will try to keep it somewhat up to date.

Ok, so I got some pics from friends from some time earlier, and, as you can see, some need explaining... This first picture is me working on stopping the bleeding of a dog we took to the vet after its tail was broken to get it cut off. It is the dog on one of the married couples in our PC class, and its name is chance. As this pic was taken, I was waiting on some supplies to stop the blood. It was originally bandaged by the vet, but after the dog was playing a bit, the tail started to bleed out. It was pretty disgusting, but I did what I could to fix it. As you can see, the dog is fine. Now he is so much more grown, and the tail ended up healing nicely. His name, by the way is "Chance" meaning luck in French... fitting. This is a picture from a World Malaria day celebration that is somewhat recent, organized by the girl with the aviators on. It was a lot of fun, and it was nice to see a volunteer that has been in country for over a year now organize and carry out a large scale project like this one. This guy is a musician from her villiage that played this really great instrument called a Kora. he plucks the strings for notes, but also, the instrument rattles from the metal top.

And, for all of you wondering, this is my cat "Pocket" She is adorable (a little less now that she is older) but really annoying. My goal is to get a dog and have it eat her.

Alright, so I will quickly broach the subject of food for a bit. If any of you are wondering, yes, this is an attempt to get pity from you.

In Guinea there are 3 main sauces: Peanut sauce, soup sauce, and leaf sauce. With these you can add any type of meat, and for the leaf sauce you can either use potato plant leafs or Manioc leafs.

I actually like all three for the most part, but they are not anywhere close to the variety and flavor of food you can get in the US. Also, you are hard pressed to fine something with more then 2 different kinds of veggies in it. Mostly there is tomatoes and onions…

Now, where I live (Haute Guinea) there is also something called To. This is made from pounding manioc and boiling it in water. Eventually, after a process I don’t really understand, you have this weird, really thick, paste kind of stuff. Now, the proper way to eat it is to take some in your spoon or with your hand, and dip it into a gooey okra sauce called gombo, and then eat it.

Again, I actually can eat it without a problem, but the texture of both the To and the sauce is a bit rough.

For breakfasts there is something called bouie, which is kind of like a porridge, and for lunch a lot of people eat Kay Kay, which is, yet again, another food make out of Manioc.

As you can probably tell, Manioc is one of their major foods. It is just this white starchy potato-like thing that is easy to grow year round. This makes getting people their nutritional needs difficult. They eat TONS of this stuff, and when they are full, they think all is well, while in actuality, they have not gotten very much real nutritional value from it.

As for other things that you can find on the streets, there is a plethora of snacks. You can get fried doughy stuff, fried plantains, bananas, avocados, little bags of peanuts, etc. Not all of these are in my village, but these are kind of the standard ones.

For drinking, they put a lot of drinks into sachès, or plastic bags, that you bite the end off and drink that way. They put anything into these little plastic bags. They will put pressed black coffee, really strong tea, juice made from ginger, juice made from a fruit called Bissap, and more. They will even sell small amounts of gasoline from these little bags, but not to drink :-P

Alright, well, that’s my random food post. I will update as I learn more.

Well, I am almost 3 months into my service!

So far, knock on wood, I am doing great. I have had a few housing issues. My villiage is changing my hut and dragging their feet. But all in all I am doing great.

Food, the biggest challenge up till now is completely solved. My best friend here in Guinea, the person that owns the coffee shack named Bahfodi, is now giving me food just about every night. Also, I discovered a dish they sell all over the place called KayKay which is pretty good and is delicious with bananas or Avocados (both in plenty in my villiage)

I also have gotten most of the children to stop calling my the name for white person (toubabu) and start calling me my African name, Mamadi Mara. This is key to my integration level and sanity.

I am really enjoying myself and feel very much a part of the community. The more I can do this, the easier each project I hope to do will be.

I am now in Faranah, my closest city, and on my way to Mamou where we are having our in-service training.

Basically, this is the time where we get back together with the other volunteers after we learned a lot about our respective communities. We will use this time to run ideas by each other for projects, learn about possible funding options (stressing possible ways of raising funds for projects locally), learning some local language (for me Malinke), and eating some good food. Also, for the last 3 days, our counterparts from the villiages come and we all brinstorm plans for the near future.

I am incredibly excited to hear everyones stories, and also excited for all of my project ideas to be shot down by current volunteers as impossible :-P

Well, that leads me into my possible projects... Now, bear in mind that is am absolutely certain that some of these will crash and burn, but I figured I wil take the shot gun approach, fire wildly and hope that something sticks.

Ok, so here is the current list of things i want to start right away, or have already done some work on:

Nutrition lessons for pregnant mothers, families with infants, and general community nutrition. This will include mainly weighing babies, targeting those that are malnourished and working with them to augment the food they are giving the child. I am also interested in working with a plant called Moringa (which is found here, packed with vitamins and nutrients, and currently used often in Indian cooking), Sumbara (a "spice" they use that is now being hijacked by a chemical susbstitute that contains tons of protein and calcium), and Cashew nuts (they eat the cashew fruit, but they throw away the nuts!).

Lessons on the ill effects and costs of smoking. I fell into this one by hanging out with a group of young men. I was kind of jokingly teasing someone who was smoking and it turned into a lesson that I am continuing to repeat, and I want to possibly do in a more formal way.

Talking about domestic violence. Another volunteer asked me to help her on a project on this subject, and when I was leaving to her site, some of my friends in Laya aksed me what it was about. This started yet another informal talk that I may make more formal if I can come up with some good ideas.

Water health. I have been talking with people on an indivdual basis on the importance of using clean water. I plan to continue this. There are a lot of poeple that live a great distance from the pump water, the only water they should be drinking, so I am tring to find ways to help them stay healthy.

Fixing up the health post. I would like to do some minor rennovations to make it look a bit nicer. i would also like to get into painting some heath based murals on the inner and outer walls. Fun and practical!

Working with the health care worker (yes, there is only one in my villiage of 2000 + people) on asking the right questions. I think he can use the times when he visits someone who is sick to talk to them about healthy living if I can get him to ask questions that relate to the illness but also reflects on their daily lives.

I also would like to work on some more difficult projects like those that follow, but that will take some more knowledge of French and my local language, as well as being even more well integrated in my community.

This includes working with HIV/AIDS and other STDs, Family planning (including the use of contraception), Female genital mutilation (rampant here in Guinea), and more.

I will report back as to how effective, if at all, these turn out to be.

Take care, and I will be posting again in a couple of weeks when i leave Momou.

Or as we call them in the US, NGO's or Non-Governmental Organizations. I am developing a strong love/hate relationship with them.

On one hand, you have a lot of money and funding flozing into countries that are desperately in need. I will say that in general, for crisis, NGO's do some great work. Quickly getting supplies to an area desperately in need is something they do pretty well.

As for their abilities as long term developmental organizations, I would have to say that in general, they are insanely ineffective. This is, fundamentally why I decided to join Peace Corps. By no means is it perfect, but they understand that you need to take time to learn a community and produce sustainable changes. Also, they know that throwing money at a country without adequate oversight is not effective.

I have seen countless materials printed in English for health workers here that hardly even speak French! Also, they give out Money and Medication without any level of accountability. I have witnessed how much medicine my little health post gets after it travels through the large cities where they steal it and sell it to local pharmacies. This is medicine that should be given to people in the communities free or almost free.

If they took a tiny percent of the money and used it to follow the money or medicine, or put in place a system of tracking it effectively, the practical benefit to the community would increase a hundred fold.

I real;ly do believe that the problem is that, regardless of the changes, or in this care, lack there of, they still get the same funding each year. They can honestly say they gave TONS of medicines to these countries, and therefore can get their donors to continue giving, while the reality is that little of that is going to the people that need it most, and almst none of it can be self sustaining within the country.

Al the while, the people that work for the NGO's still get the same salary, which, I highly doubt is tied to the practical effectiveness of the NGO.

This really gets me thinking about joining one after I finish my Masters (or PhD, Amma). Trying to infiltrate and improve even one of these organizations would do a world of good.

Sorry for not posting for a long time! I am now in my Villiage and working with my homologue. He is an incredible person. So my villiage actually consists of about 2000 people, and it has on Health Post. A health post is the smallest level of the heath care system in Guinea. My homologue is the head of the health post. Unfortunately, he is the only one that works there, and he doesn't get paid... not exactly ideal. He is the only one as of now giving any medical care to my villiage. If there is something that someone has that is very bad, they will either have to go to the Health Center which is 5km away or the actual Hospital which is 35 km away.

My homologue is incredibly patient and is always working. Even when he goes home for lunch or goes home for the day, people know where his house is and will constantly come by with medical questions. He is very patient and will help just about anyone that comes to him at any time. Apart from working there, he also cultivates to make money for his enormous family (2 wives and 13 children)! i don't know where he finds time to do anything else. Apart from Layasando, he is also responsible for all of the tiny villiages in "the bush" that are near Layasando. He often goes out there to give vaccinations and if there is a real need for medical treatment.

For the past month and a half I have been foloowing him around. i take blood pressures and will help him question patients with medical problems. I am going to try to help him learn what kind of questions to ask and when. Not only will that help diagnose a patient correctly (even though he has limited madicine and can only really treat a few things ) but it would also give an opportunity to give advice on how to change their lifestyle so that they do not get sick again.

A classic example we run into is poeple with stomach issues. After a bit of questioning, I find out that they drink river water when fishing. Now, the river water is disgusting and full of Bacteria and parasites, so it gives us a great opportunity to tell them only to drink water from the pump (which gets ground water from very deep, which is much safer then river or well water.

I also plan on doing a lot of work with Nutrition. there is not much food in Layasando. I am almost positive that many poeple are not getting the nutrition they need. There are local ways we can help that. For example, there is a plant called Moringa that is full of great vitamins and protein that grows in the villiage that they simply don't know about. Also, people here eat Cashew fruits but throw away the nut! I am going to try to show them how to prepare that as well. The examples go on.

Other possible projects I can work on include AIDS/HIV education, family planning, malaria prevention, general hygene (its amazing what washing your hands and wearing shoes will do for your health), organizing the health post, starting paperwork, weighing and offering nutrition advice for babies (which will be one of my first projects), Domestic violence, female mutilation practices (which will only be well over a year into my service due to the sensitivity of the topic, smoking education, teaching english, and much much more.

For now, i have been learning a to about my villiage. It is a large cultivating and fishing villiage, and I have already gone fishing with some of the people. they walk through the Niger and fish with nets. It is really incredible to watch. I have also asked for one of the drummers to make me a drum, and I plan on taking lessons after everything settles down some more. I have been to weddings and funerals, naming ceremonies and sacrifices and have learned a ton about the people on the way.

I am also making some great friends. One is the owner of a "coffee shop" that I go to every morning. He helps me with just abuot everything I need. He has been so nice and incredible generous. He is also the captain of the Layasando football (soccer) team.

My name here is Mamadi Mara. i found out there is a lighthearted rivalry between the Mara's and the Oulare's. Its hilarous, most of my converstations begin with me calling a Oulare a theif, and him calling me crooked. It is grea, I can even jok like that with the cheif of the Villiage and even soldiers. Everyone loves it and loves, even more, that i get it. Therefore, a lot of my friends end up being Oulare's.

I have also been doing a little work in the Health Center in the next town over. I am a little distressed about the work they are doing. They seem not to follow a good level of hygene that, with the materials they have, they could, and they lie about what they do to get more funding. For example, I went through some patient records and found that they do not weigh babies, but they will report that they do to get more funding. Also, much of the Medicine that is supposed to go to Layasando is stolen From the Hospital or the Health Center and sold in Pharmacies before it even gets to us.

Let me be very clear though that this happens only with some of the people really high up. Everyone I have me in the villiages or the cities have been incredibly kind and honest. I can't tell you how many times I have dropped money or forgot something somewhere only to find a Guinean chasing after me to give it to me.

Anyways. I am sorry I do not have pictures. After my site visit during my training my camara just stopped working. if all goes well, I will be getting another one by the end of june and I will make up for pictures now.

Ok, thats it for now. I will be working to find a regular schedule of getting to the internet (very roughly every month). Take care, and until next time!

Ok, so I just finished training in Forecariah! I passed the language exam, and that meaning I can actually swear in as a volunteer this coming friday! I am incredibly excited. We will be in Conakry (the capital) for 3 or 4 days, then I go to Kan Kan (my regional capital) and then to my villiage called Layasando

Here is an arial picture of my liittle villiage. I went there a few weeks back during out site visits. It is a beautiful little place with all of these huts. The villiage is on the road between Faranah, and kissidugou, and right next to a little town called Tiro. The place is beautiful and pretty green considering we are in the middle of the dry season.

Here is my hut! I have a little hay fence that encloses my bathroom and my yard. I am excited to be able to plant things. The only downside of Layasando is that there doesn't seem to be any food, and even worse, no one seems to care! They have a market every wenesday, but it is literally a handfull of rugs with a few things on it. Luckily I am only 5 km from Tiro, so I can bike there easily and get food there too. Also, I am pretty much decided on getting a dog. They are adorable and helps keep critters out. Also, it is apparently really easy to bring it back to the US.

This is my bathroom whose walls are a little too short. There is a hut right behind mine, so it is a little awkward showering in the morning. What I am really excited about is showering in the rain during the rainy season. That will be amazing! My toilette is just a hole in the ground. Definately a squatter. I am going to come home with thighs of steel after these two years! ok, other stuff. I am losing English much faster then I am gaining French, so I sound like an idiot all the time. Sorry for when I return hope and can barely communicate. About the PC program, I am really impressed with how much we have learned, and how amazing of a job they do at givig us babysteps all along the way. It is helping all of us become very integrated very quickly. We got to watch the Obama inauguration at a tiny little "videoclub" that we rented out. Luckily there are a few generators here and there. I have broken up 2 fights in Forecariah so far, so I am glad my bouncer training has come in handy. One was a fight between two families, and one was a fight about a supposedly stolen chicken. I will elaborate on the second... The chickens just run around, there are no fences or anything, so if anyof them decided to flee, there is nothing to stop them. Also, the lady accusing the other of stealing the chicken (costs about 4 US dollars) had a baby strapped to her back who she threw off, and started throwing punches... yes, I said she threw the baby... that ended up being a very angry, broken French conversation i had with her! otherwise Our training city was amazing. everyone is so warm and friendly and constantly saluating. It is a never ending string of:A. Bon Jour!B. Bon Jour! A. Sa Va?B. Sa Va! A. Sa Va Bien?B. Sa Va Tres Bien! its great! Also, My Cousins and Aunt here in Forecariah are going to the US!!! their dad works in Brooklyn, and just got a greencard! i was trying to describe to her some of the culture and was adament about not saying hi to people she didn't really know well in NYC :-P Alright, I will be going to my site by Tuesday, and will be going to the regional capital each month. I will either send messages then or at very least every 3 months when I go to Conakry. Take care!!!

ok sorry, I have very limited time on this. I just wanted to type a quick update. After I am sworn in, sometime after Feb 5th, I will be able to write one with a lot more details.

I am doing great here in Guinea. I am one of the few not to have gotten sick. I amctually feel in one of the best shapes of my life! (knock on wood). We had a bit of an interesting Christmas with a Coup d'etat in the Capital city. We were in Forecariah, so we had no problams at all. Our Prefect (the lady that was the head of the town) was kicked out by the military, but it was peaceful. Also, there were a lot of what we will call happy gunfire into the sky to celebrate.

Now I am in Conakry for New Years. I have just a few minutes to spit this out because we have an internet list so we could all get a chance in the day that we are here.

I love my Host Family. They are amazing. they are all part of a family called Griotes. That bascally means story tellers and peace keepers. They are incredible people and have been incredibly kind and inviting to me.

We have been doing some intense training. Language, skill and cultural trainings pretty much all day, everyday. I am learning tons of incredibly useful things and am starting to formulate general plans for where I actually reach my site.

We will be finding out site placements on Monday which I am incredbly excited about. My hope it in the Haute region of Guinea. It is a desert, but it is filled with incredible culture. There is actually a site near what they call the Forrest Region (which Peace Corps is not stationed) that I would love to get... we'll see.

Anyways, Letters are always appreciated if any of you get bored! I miss everyone so much, and I will again try to spend a little more time next time talking about the absolutely incredible time that I am having here. Take care, and if you have any further questions on what I am up to , my Brother can give you some of that info (sorry Manoj) mgmenon@gmail.com. Take care, and i will post gain soon!

So, I am now in Guinea. Let me start this by saying that I have no pics yet. I didn't take into account that my camera cannot transfer pics directly. I need to find a way to get the SD card into one of these computers. Till then, check out the other blogs I have suggested to the right to see if any of then have pics up.

Ok, so I got here after a quick stop in Philly where we did our staging. I officially turned into a Peace Corps Trainee (PCT) on that day. We then went over some logistics and met all of our fellow PCTs (remember what that means from above?). That night we all got to hang out and really get to know each other a lot better. I was happy to see that everyone was pretty open and really put themselves out there. I cannot think of one of them that I don't like (even now) on any level.

The next morning we got up and got our first Malaria Medicine and a vaccination for Yellow fever. I am happy to report that, so far, even though I am taking the malaria pill that is supposed to cause bad dreams, I have not had any problems. We then got in a bus to the JFK airport, and apparently had to find our way from there to Conakry without any PC (Peace Corps) staff.

Turns out we all really are adults and did fine. We flew from JFK to Dakar, Senegal, where we had to go thruogh customs again and re-check our bags. This was a little rough because we thought we checked them till Conakry, Guinea, and wouldn't have to do that. It got hectic for a hot second there, but we all worked together pretty well and pulled though.

We then wend on a filight into Guinea. Landing in the morning was incredible. We had to walk into the airport from the airplane, and immediately saw current PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers (people that went through training and officially were accepted)), some staff and the Country Dirctor (my Boss). Everyone was so nice and understanding that we were so tired. I could just feel their energy. They helped us get our bags and took us in the PC bus and Land Rovers to the Peace Corps Headquarters and, right next to it, the Transit office (where we sleep). the place is pretty well gaurded and has some barbed wire on it. I also noticed that they checked the bottom of our car with mirrors for, I think, bombs. That was a little nerve racking, but getting to know the place a little more, I felt much better about it. Peace Corps is all about taking every procaution to keep us safe, even if it seems a little excessive. Also, the gaurds are the same ones for the Embassy here, and so I think they just use the same procedure.

We got to rest a bit and pick our rooms, which we share with 7 others. we then played some catch with my football on the beach which was a 2 min walk from the building. On the way back from that we saw 5 baby puppies (pics will be up as soon as I can figure this out) next to a tree stump! they were SOOO cute, and we were briefly considering taking them. Sediki (one of the current PCVs (his name is actually Adam, but this is his given name)) helped us talk to the locals, who thought it was hilarious that were were swooning over the puppies. They were also going to give them to us as a gift.

one of the things that I have learned is that, although, to almost every count, that Gunea is a suffering country with corruption and the lack of resources, and with each family making a GDP of only 600 dollars a year, that they are incredibly friendly and generous. Also, they LOVE us Americans who are here as PCVs.

So, after football we had our orientation and met some staff. We then went to the Beach Bar and hung out for a good part of the rest of the night with current PCVs and some of us PCTs. I then came back to my room to find my roomates spilling all about their lives! It was hilarious! we just met each other 3 days before, and we were already letting it all out. I loved it and joined in. The stories are in confidence, but I can tell you that they were rediculously jucy. We did the same thing the next night with more people, and again it was great.

I can now say that I know most every PCT very well, and that I got to know the current PCVs really well too. The PCVs are incredible recsources and just amazing people. They are going to help train us for the 2 months of training ahead.

Oh! food! So far the food is great! I havent gotten sick at all, and it tastes wonderful. The only problem is that right now they are slowly easing us in. The real food won't be like this. It will be much harder to get used to. I learned from the PCVs that Guinea really is the crazy challenge that I think it might be, and that we will be challenged in way many other PCVs in different counrties are not. But living in a place like this maximizes the chance of making a real difference. I also truly believe that it can be good for the soul if done with the right perspective.

hmmm, what else.... we started with our first day of language training. I am not looking forward to the rest! It seems like it will be tough, but I was reassured by the PCVs that some did not know any French before and now they speak really well.

The language here is difficult. Some, mostly in citys speak French, so we will all be learning that. unfortunately, in most of the areas that we will be living they will speak a different language. there a quite a few different kinds. As soon as a site is chosen for us, we will do some basics for survival, and PC will expect us to do most of the work on our own. Until then, it is French classes for the next 2 months.

Today, a Muslim holiday, we had off because no one was coming to work. We all had a day of rest before we take off tomorrow to Forrecariah. the PCVs took us to our first market experience. At first you see all of the markets on the side of the street, but then we went into these tiny alleys where it was filled with other stores. We bought a few things and listened to the PCV, Jess, haggle a bit with the vendors to lower the price. I think they give much more respect when you can pull out a few lines in Sousu, one of the country languages. When we got back, the country director invited us over and let us use his pool. It and his house were beautiful. While sitting in the pool, all I could think was, better enjoy it while it lasts :-P. I actually can't wait to dive into the actual culture of this place. The people are different then most other places I have been. Even the people on the streets asking for money will give you a big smile even though you didn't give them on me. Actually, last night a child was running alongside the bus, and I was worried he was going to get hurt. I looked at him and gave him a concerned face and said Attentiones! (Which means pay attention)

After swiming, we ate a dinner cooked for us by the PCVs. It was great! We thenn took off to the beach bar to finally witness the gorgeous sunset. After we got there, I realized that I didn't bring a football to toss around, so me and Julieanne tried to make it back to the pace corps headquarters. After a little getting lost and walking around we finally found it and went back with the football. Some of us started playing and the Guinean kids got really excited. we ended up spending the next 2.5 hours tossing the ball around with a hoard of Guinean children on a gorgeous night at the beach watching the sunset. To make the scene even better, there was a life band playing some reggae music, and closer to the bar, the remaaining Peace Corps members were dancing with the locals. it was an absolutely amazing final night in Conakry.

Next stop is a town called Forecariah (not sure of the spelling, but it is really close to Sierra Leon). We will be having our training there starting tuesday. Durring this we will be staying with our adoptive parents. They will be our first unfiltered glance at Guinean life, and the lifestyle we will have to accomodate. This means pit latrines as bathrooms, no electricity, and pump water that needs filtering for drinking. I am so excited. The tough part is that it will be hard to communicate much of anything, at least right off the bat. I am goiing to try to go in with the attitude that It will be exciting and fun! I remember many days in India where I would basically have to play a bit of cherades to be able to communicate, and hopefully that will help. we were also reassured that the familys expect this and have mostly all had former volunteers lving with them before.

During the language and cultural classes we will get assignnments of things t ask our families. We will then have to report back with their answers. also, we will have to ask them to help us cook and show us how to do laundry. Also, all of the families will have children and probably teenagers who I will be spending most of my time with playing and muddling though with the language. They will also hopefully take us out to the markets.

Ok, I will leave it at that for now i have no idea when the next time I will be at a computer is, but I will post again as soon as I can. happy reading and please don't forget to e-mail me and let me know what you are up to.

Well, I am actually leaving tomorrow to start the long journey to my final destination in a town in Guinea. How it is working is I am flying to Philadelphia tomorrow morning at 9:30 am. When I get there, I will be meeting a few of the volunteers at the airport, and we will be traveling to our hotel. Before I can even check in, we will be having our orientation and meeting the rest of the volunteers coming with us.

In the next couple of days we will be taking a bus to the JFK airport where I we will get on a flight to Dakar, Senegal. That serves as a kind of hub for a lot of Africa. then we will fly into the Capital City of Guinea, Conakry.

After a few days there, I think we will be taking another bus to a town called Forecariah. this is where most of the training wil occur. It should be about 2-3 months there where we learn about the language, some of the culture, including some of the subtleties, and abou our actual assignmants. from what I understand, some of the current Peace Corps Volunteers will be doing some of that training for us.

So, this marked my last thanksgiving for a little while with my family. It was incredibly sad to see my Uncle, Aunt and cousins leave. They are some of our closest relatives, and i can't believe I will not be able ot see them for my stint in Guinea.

Now I am facing the actual reality of leaving my Parents and my Brother behind. i think up until just about now I have not really grasped the fact that I am leaving what has always been a safety net for me, my family. i can't even imagine how hard it will be tomorrow when I get on the plane.

I also realized yesterday that I watched my last Bills game for 2 years... considering how they did, it is probably more of a relief. no more crushing defeats on Sundays.. no more masochism of following a team that continues to destroy your hopes and dreams. I don't know where I will ever find all that disappointment that I lived with for the past 11 years...

I digress... As tough as it will be, the adventure ahead is really exciting. As I try to avoid imagining what it will be like in Guinea, I can't help but thing of all of the great and crazy challenges that we will face there. I also can't wait to meet all these new people even though it will be difficult right off the bat.

ok, that's enough. the next time I post will most likely be when we have finally landed in Guinea. If it isn't then I will quickly edit this portion of the post out and deny that it ever existed!

So, as I am getting closer to leaving, the reality of me flying to a different country half way around the world is setting in. I am now doing some packing to make sure I have everything I need and it all fits, and I am actually saying some final goodbyes to people at work and some friends.

Just yesterday was my last day at work at the Mt. Hope Family Center. I have viewed my fellow co workers as family for the last 2 and a half years. I could not believe that I was saying goodbye. I will be able to see the people I work with most closely before I take off on Tuesday, but for the rest of them, it was hard and very surreal. I can't believe they actually made me turn in my keys! I was hoping I could keep those and just walk on into the building when I get back.

Up until now I have been having little going away parties. I had one for friends at my brother, Manoj, and my old room mate and very good friend, Tony's, apartment. this included a weird mix of Manoj and Tony's biomedical engineer friends that I have also become friends with, people from the bar I work in, Mex, and some people from Mt. Hope. that was tons of fun, and I was happy to have the opportunity to take a lot of pictures that I will be bringing with me.

Then, Fred, one of the PhD's and the head of research at Mt. Hope, threw a party at his house. It was really nice and decked out with tons of appetizers. I really appreciated the chance to tell them how much Mt. Hope meant to me, and to see a bunch of the employees for the last time before I left.

So, here we are. I am 6 days away from leaving. I think I am still in a bit of denial, but things are slowly becoming more real. I have been in contact with a bunch of other volunteers that i will be training with. the conversations we have had up until now have been really great, and really helpful in ensuring that I won't be forgetting anything important. there has also been a great forum to discuss our concerns with each other.

All in all, i think my greatest concerns are leaving friends and family here at home with a very limited ability to keep in contact with them (see the Mailings section of this blog) and learning the new language.

I was realizing the other day when thinking about how it will feel to leave home, that i had never actually taken an airplane alone. It was a crazy thought, but I have always been with my family, friends, or my brother on every plane trip I have ever taken. I am sure that it wil serve are a very stark reality when I am getting in the plane and realizing that I no longer have that crutch that I have always had.

As for the language, my fear is that I am just not very good at it. through my 4 years in High School that I took Spanish, I learned very little, and retained much less. My hope is that I really just lacked the motivation, and my time and amount or resources I will dedicate to learning the language will make me much more successful.

Past that, i am actually very excited about the challenges, experiences, and adventures that lay ahead. I am not at all worried about the food, climate, culture differences, living situation, or anything else like that. I know it will be hard, but i am confident in my ability to adapt in that way. I feel like I have a leg up with my duel culture being Indian American. I already know how to eat with my hands, eat exotic foods, take bucket baths, use their types of toilets, I am used to drinking warm, boiled water, etc. Most importantly I know what a completely different culture looks like, and I know not to underestimate the extent of the differences that can exist between cultures.

I will try to post at least one more time before I take off....

This was put together by one of the Peace Corps volunteers going with us named Dorian. I am giving her a huge shout out because it saved me SO much time. So, if you send either peanut M&Ms or non-refridgerated cheese, I will be sharing it with her.

Guidelines for Mail

I am told that receiving mail and care packages is key to keeping up morale in a successful volunteer. Please write often and send packages as often as is practical. In a place with few comforts, a box of things from home will seem like Christmas any time of year (and no matter how hot it is!).

MY ADDRESS:

Sajay Menon, PCT ("PCV" after February 6, 2009)

Corps de la Paix Americain

BP 1927

Conakry, Guinea

WEST AFRICA

The way mail works in Guinea is that the only place that actually has a mail system is the capital, Conakry. This is where our PC headquarters is located. All mail should be delivered to PC HQ, and then they do a monthly mail run out to my site to give me everything I have received. During training (12/4/08 – 2/6/09), I may receive mail more frequently.

Something you send could take up to six weeks to actually get to me, and outgoing mail is no better. But PLEASE send letters and packages as often as possible. I will do my best to respond. please don't feel bad if itt takes forever to get a reply

Anything that will arrive after February 6, 2009 should say “PCV” (Peace Corps Volunteer) rather than “PCT” (Peace Corps Trainee) after my name.

LETTERS:

When you send letters, number them clearly at the top and put the date. Also, you can make a photocopy of the letter before you send it in case any get lost in the mail, so we will still have it if it never gets here.

Good things to send with letters are photos, news articles, etc. Due to budget cuts, Peace Corps recently canceled the Newsweek subscriptions they have provided to volunteers since the beginning of the Corps. Do not send money or anything valuable as oftentimes the edges of letters will be clipped to see if there is anything of value inside.

If you’re sending a postcard, put it in an envelope. Otherwise, the pretty pictures are likely to end up posted on some Guinean’s wall instead of mine.

Be sure to write “AIR MAIL” and “PAR AVION” on the envelope.

PACKAGES:

1. Print the address label from a computer if possible to make it official-looking. I have read that packages with labels printed by hand have not made it to their destination.

2. Insure the package, even if it’s just granola bars. One volunteer kept track of his packages and received 100% of those that were insured and only 56% of uninsured packages. Write “INSURED” and “ASSURANCE” (French) on the outside. Also write “AIR MAIL” and “PAR AVION” on the box.

3. Number and date your packages so I know I am receiving them.

4. If there is something super-important you really want me to get, put it inside an empty tampon box – apparently no one will touch it. (ok, this was written by Dorian, i am not sure if I will have the same luck, but give it a try)

5. Mail is less likely to be tampered with if it’s addressed in red ink.

6. It’s also less likely to be tampered with if you draw crosses and write religious phrases on it (in French) such as “Dieu regardez-vous” or “Dieu merci”. Another idea is to put "Educational materials Enclosed" on it

7. Please tape the box up really, really well after you seal it so no one can easily reach in and steal stuff.

8. If sending food, please wrap and double wrap in plastic bags (ziplocs preferably, since I can reuse them) to avoid rats and other wonderful creatures from sharing in on my treats.

9. You will also be required to fill out customs declaration form PS Form 2976-A. You can complete this form at the post office or online before you ship at https://webapps.usps.com/customsforms/. Indicate all contents as “Used” on the customs form to reduce the risk of theft.

10. On the Customs form, when listing the contents make them lame. For example, tell them you are sending me pencils or education materials and not expensive chocolate or soccer balls. Just downplay everything. If you’re sending books, magazines, DVDs, things like that, you can mark it as “educational materials” (I would say you could even mark that for stuff like soccer balls and stuff for kids), as it is less likely to be tampered with.

11. If what you’re sending is relatively heavy, I suggest sending with the post office’s Priority Mail flat rate international box (same as the domestic box), as the weight restriction is 20 pounds as long as the stuff fits in the box. The rate is $38.95 for the regular box (11" x 8.5" x 5.5") and $49.95 for the larger box (12” x 12” x 6”). This rate is only good for parcels, so DO NOT include a letter inside as you may be charged the letter rate, not package rate, for the whole package. If you want to include a letter, it is suggested that you tape it underneath the address label or to the inside page of a magazine so it is unlikely to be detected. If what you are sending is light, you may be able to pay less than the flat rate. Ask your local post office.

12. There is no method of disposing of trash or recyclables where I will be going (other than burning or throwing on the ground), so please minimize packaging or put things in containers I can reuse, like Ziploc bags, jars or airtight plastic containers/Tupperware.

Be aware that you can do all of this stuff online at www.usps.com, including ordering free flat rate boxes, printing postage, and scheduling a pickup. In fact, you get a 5% discount on the shipping fee if you do it online.

WHAT TO SEND:

I compiled this list based on things I might enjoy and the advice of current and past volunteers.

-AA & AAA batteries

-Photos (of you with your kids, you with pets, places/vacations, etc…)

-Magazines/Newspapers (People, Time, National Geographic, Newsweek, etc…)

-Crossword puzzles

-Duct tape

-Movies/TV Shows on DVD

-Hair shampoo/conditioner

-Shaving cream/Razors (old school double edge single razor)

-Stuff kids would like: SOCCER BALLS (I will have a bike pump to inflate it), stickers,

glue, tape, kids safety scissors, colored pencils/pencil sharpener, paper, picture

books, inflatable beach ball world globe, etc…

-Books

-Vegetable/tree/flower seeds (make sure it’s something that does well in Guinea’s climate)

-Indian pouch meals, especially with paneer cheese (International Foods aisle)

-Dried fruit/fruit leather

-Dried veggies

-Peanut M&M’s and other candies and chocolate

-Hot cocoa mix

-Nuts/Trail Mix

-Edible Seeds (sunflower, pumpkin, etc…

-Jiffy Pop popcorn (you know the kind you put on your stove and it pops into this big bubble)

-Granola bars

-Energy/protein bars

-Non-refrigerated cheese (Velveeta, parmesan, Hickory Farms, www.barryfarm.com sells

powdered cheese to make sauces)

-Non-perishable condiment packets (Taco Bell sauces, ketchup, mustard, soy sauce, crushed

red pepper, etc..)

-Spices (garlic salt, cayenne pepper, cumin, chili powder, coriander powder, taco seasoning, pesto sauce, other Indian spices, etc…)

This list is mainly geared towards the Parents. A letter here and there would be the most appreciated.

EMAIL/INTERNET:

Please send ALL email messages to sajay.menon@gmail.com. You can also read my blog at http://sajayinguinea.blogspot.com/.

please e-mail me with updates about your lives. I really want to stay in the loop with everything going on. I will do my very best to respond to all of them. Just keep in mind that it could take 2 or 3 months before I get to a computer. Please feel free to share the blog with any other family or friends as well. I will post stories, pictures, package requests etc…

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I will not have a phone in Guinea

I look forward to hearing from all of you! Thanks so much for being so supportive!

Alright, now I guess I will take you through the ridiculous process that I went through to join the Peace Corps. Let me just preface this by saying that this was mostly due to extra ordinary events, and that most applications and what not go through relatively smoothly.

I began working on my application in August of 2007. After filling out the very long application and getting my recommendations in order, I sent it in to the Peace Corps. They say that if you want to join the Peace Corps, you should be sending in the application between 9 months and a year before you want to leave. I decided to be safe and turn it in a year before my set availability for departure.

After applying came a bit of a wait. I didn't hear anything for a few months. After calling the Peace Corps office a few times, I got through to Shannon Small. She told me at that point that she would be at the U of R in a week, and I could have an interview at that point. This kind of freaked me out. After months of nothing, this seemed out of nowhere.

So, I had the interview at the University of Rochester. I had a very good time. Shannon was great and brought up a lot of good points I didn't even think about. She talked about the isolation of the Peace Corps, the difficulty of inspiring change within a community, and also how my race may affect my time there. Anyways, the interview went very well, and she told me she would call me in a few days.

Again, this was ridiculously quick compared to the amount of time I waited up to this point. I got a call a couple of days later. Shannon told me that she wanted to nominate me for a placement in the Dominican Republic if I learned a relatively high level of Spanish by then. Thinking I could just take advantage of the free classes through the UofR that I got at the Mt. Hope Family Center, I accepted the invitation.

After starting the intermediate class that I needed to take to qualify, I quickly realized that I was in WAY over my head! The teacher was teaching the class solely in Spanish! So, that wasn't going to work... I decided to be honest with Shannon Small and told her that I didn't think I would be able to get to that level in time. She understood and said she would try to find something else with not so high a language requirement.

She called me a few days later with another opportunity! I could go to a tiny Island, also in the Caribbean called Dominica. I was incredibly excited with the nomination. I then began the long process of Clearances. I had to go through a legal, medical and dental screening as well as submit some more paperwork. The Medical clearance is traditionally difficult and mine proved to be no different. I had to send it back a couple of times to finally answer all of Peace Corps questions.

After another few months, I finally got my invitation for Dominica. After that, my brother and I decided to take a last minute trip to Europe together to spend some quality time before I left. As the time for my trip got closer, I got more and more nervous because I would only have a week after I got back from Europe to get everything packed and ready to go. Just before I left, my placement officer (now Brian Melman) gave me a surprise call. He told me that two of the expert trainers in Dominica quit, and that they had to peel off a whole group of Peace Corps members from the upcoming training, and I was one of the ones to go. He immediately offered me another position... in the Dominican Republic. At this point you should be as confused as I was. Turns out, it somehow got in my file that I actually completed the Spanish course, and that I was qualified to go there. I told Brian that this actually wasn't the case. He told me that he would then look into it.

A few hours later Brian called back and said that I now have a few options: I could go to Dominica a year later, I could still go to the Dominican Republic because they would waive the language requirement for me due to my other qualifications, Or I could wait till Dec and go to Guinea (North West Africa)! Now, I have to say, this rarely happens. I was very fortunate to get a choice.

So, here were my thoughts... I didn't think I would be well quipped, language wise, for the Dominican Republic, and I would also have to leave the morning after I returned from Europe. Dominica would have been great, but I really couldn't wait the whole year. Turns out that I already put in for my two week notice at work and they already found my replacement. That left me with Guinea. The placement couldn't be more perfect. I really wanted to work with Public Health, and I really wanted to go to one of the African Countries Peace Corps works with. It also turns out to be more of that Peace Corps experiences you would expect, no electricity, pumping your own water, mosquito nets, and whatnot.

After having a conversation with my brother and parents, we all decided this would be the best place for me. So, I called Brian and let him know my decision. After that, it was mostly a long wait. The Mt. Hope Family Center was good enough to find work for me to do, and Now I am about 2 weeks away from my departure! So that's how it all went down. If there is anyone thinking about joining, please feel free to contact me with any questions. I am now filled with advice about the process.

OK, so I have a little bit of updating to do, so this will be a bit retroactive... I guess I will start by describing why I decided to join the Peace Corps. This will be a bit long, so feel free to skip this over :-P

I guess I would say that I had an almost ideal life. For the things I could not control, like who my parents are, what would be my environment, how they would raise me... things like that, I have always benefited. We never had a lot of money, (I would consider us very middle class), but I had everything I needed, and an abundance of those things that were not monetary. With that came some desire to give a little back to the world that gave me a great opportunity. So here are a few reasons why I can honestly say the world has been very good to me.

Lets start with the parents. They are the greatest parents I could have ever hoped for. Being absolutely unconditionally loving, no matter how often I messed up, was not the least of it. They raised me so well, and I really believe they are responsible for any success I may have. They were always kind, loving, and proved to be great role models for me. They also cultivated a pride in my Indian Culture while always promoting finding the best in both my American and Indian Cultures. It is because of this that I feel like I will have an advantage in adjusting to a whole new culture in Guinea over my service. Also, and I guess most importantly, they laid down a very good foundation of morals and priorities in life that help me be the best person I know how to be.

They also always supported me and supported my decisions. Even when I (supposedly) blindsided them with deciding to go into the Peace Corps, true to form, they calmly replied "you are just like your grandfather" who I had never met. Apparently he volunteered with a man named Swami Vivekananda (who was an incredibly famous and selfless public servant in Indian). They were immediately proud of me and offered a ridiculous amount of support. With how difficult it is to support your son going over seas to a foreign land for over 2 years, they rarely flinch. They knew that this was very seriously what I wanted to do.

Next comes my brother, Manoj... I would consider him my best friend, and someone I would go to first for any problem I have. He has helped me though some of my toughest times. Also, we both would do anything for the other at a moments notice. Now, talk about a role model... he has been able to follow that "path to success" that so many people aspire to do. He has more work ethic in his little finger then I have in my entire body. He had to, to get his Bachelors Degree in the very demanding field of Biomedical Engineering, and continue on to his path towards his PhD. Even doing all of that, he still finds time to volunteer at a local school, mentoring and tutoring kids. Through all of this, he never looked at me and my erratic movements between majors and life choices with anything but pride. I think he always knew that I just needed to find my passion and things would start falling into place. He has always been a great marker for me and a very centering force as well.

alright, now to the influences to join the Peace Corps specifically. Mainly over a 2 year span, there was a number of situations that focused my interest in the Peace Corps. After some reflection, it seemed very clear to me that that was my next step. Here is a significantly shortened, but still really long description of those circumstances:

It started years and years ago... most of middle school and all of high school I felt a draw to join the Peace Corps. At the time I thought I would be going into Engineering or into Medicine eventually (like any good Indian) so i figured that I shouldn't take another 2 years out of what would end up being a really long time before I start what I will call my real life.

Looking back, throughout High School and College, for reasons I won't discuss here :-P, I felt I did not really have a chance to grow a varied set of skills and just grow personally. I felt as if there was an imposed schedule for my life that kept me from doing some of the things I really wanted to do. For a long time there, I also subscribed to this schedule for life. Only after college did I realize that that wasn't for me.

Back to college: after a long journey to find out what I really want to do in my life, jumping from Biomedical Engineering, Pre Med, Biology, Religion, and Psychology, I finally decided on a degree in Psychology and Religion. I think I landed on these two subjects both because they truly interested me, and they also profoundly shifted my outlook both of the world and myself.

Religiously, I am Hindu. Many of the courses I took in college was to better understand the religion I grew up with and to hopefully reinforce my beliefs. I also took courses in just about every other major religion. through my Hinduism classes, I began to better understand the concept of Dharma (basically what one's duty is in life). I can best describe this by saying that it is the path of least resistance. That doesn't mean it doesn't involve work, it simply means that which you do that doesn't push against yourself. There are many possibilities for this according to Hinduism: The homemaker, the religious zealot, the business man, the volunteer, etc. I truly believe that the last is more of my calling. That feeling has been with me for as long as I can remember.

On to Psychology... I began the subject because I really enjoyed the fact that it is not a hard science. I like the humanity in Psychology, and I hope that never goes away. During my time at the University of Rochester, I worked on a study involving Happiness with a professor named Veronika Huta. She was a great mentor to me. she taught me about the different types of happiness and how they are obtained, and ultimately it fell right in line with my belief that, for me, I am happiest when I am helping others. It was incredibly reaffirming for me.

After college, I began working at the Mt. Hope Family Center at the University of Rochester. The Mt. Hope Family Center is an incredible place. It is a Psychology Research Center which also does a great deal of outreach and clinical work. Not only is it state of the art when it comes to bridging research and evidence based clinical work, but the people that work there are incredible as well. in general, most of the employees of the center do a wide variety of great things. To see them would inspire anyone.

Working at Mt Hope, I got a sneak peak into a strata of society that struggles a great deal. these inner city families live with so little, and the more time I spent with them, the more I understood how difficult it really is to pull yourself out of such a hole. With racism, people constantly trying to take advantage of them, a broken welfare system on top of a whole slew of other things makes the task nearly impossible. To find out that these conditions existed just minutes away from my relatively cushy home in the suburbs shocked me. After working there, my coworkers became some of my best friends because they were among very few who could understand.

Next, I was flipping through the TV, after I graduated and started working at the Mt. Hope Family Center, and landed on the worst show in the world. This show is on some CNN off-shoot channel and its anchor is a guy named Glen Beck. in my mind, he is among the worst people in the world. I was watching him interviewing this lady on his show, and they were claiming that they had it bad before, and they pulled themselves up from their bootstraps, and all Americans should do that. If they don't then they don't deserve out help. well, I can tell you with absolute certainty that he has no idea what a hard life really means. he has no idea how much of a leg up he really had.

One of my co-workers at the Mt Hope Family Center put it well when she told me about the concept of a handbook for success. This includes all those things that we take for granted that us suburb kids grow up with. That includes a feeling of inevitability when it comes to going to college. Also, this includes knowing where to look, where to apply, how to dress, how to talk, and many other things that give me a leg up. What my good friend Glen didn't understand was that he, and for that matter I, had that handbook, and those stuck in that spiral don't. That on top of the fact that there is an endless amount of history and the current, less obvious racism that stacks up against them. To deny this is either being naive or purposely hiding yourself from reality. I didn't feel that way, I knew that I had a leg up. it goes back to my point in the beginning. I got so many things from the world, I should try to give that to someone else who wouldn't have otherwise had it.

Lastly there was the very untimely and premature death of a dear cousin of mine in India, Nikhil. He was among the best people I knew. Although we were only able to see them when we went to India, he, his sister Anjana, and our cousins Vishnu and Iswarya are who I consider my closest cousins. He constantly gave unconditional love to those around him, and would do absolutely anything for others in need. He was younger then me and died in a motorcycle accident. This occurred in my Junior year of college and rocked my foundation. That was the moment I knew that I had to make the most out of my life and I needed to do it my way.

So, the result of all of these things pretty much happening in tandem was me deciding to go to the Peace Corps. I began doing all of the things i had always wanted to do. I read more, took and EMT class, learning a little construction, volunteered in the community, exercised more (running, biking, racket sports, etc), started to eat right, and reconnected with my family whom I love more then anything else.

It was quite the transformation, and I can truly say that I have never been happier.