That’s right; this is the last of our Peace Corps blog postings. For a combination of reasons we are headed home. After our evacuation from Guinea we came up with a list of reasons why or why not to transfer to another country and continue service. What we decided is that our service in another country would have to be completely different so we wouldn’t continually compare our situation with what we had and experienced in Guinea. The second, and most important, factor was that whatever position we accepted would be more structured so we could gain some more specific job experience and hopefully have a positive impact on a larger number of people. It was the only thing we specified as important in our interviews with prospective countries. We would only have a year so we wanted to hit the ground running. As you all know we accepted positions to reopen the program in Madagascar. For me it was to be work with the Sahamalaza National Park coming up with a plan for tourism development and also helping to organize mangrove reforestation efforts. For Amy the idea was to work closely with a health clinic on family planning issues and make sure that people were being educated as to their options regarding health care. We spent a month taking daily Malagasy language lessons and completing a variety of safety and community integration requirements in preparation. So, what did we discover when we finally arrived at our site? The park employees (my counterpart among them) ride motorcycles 100km to the south to work at another park office where they have computers and electricity. Almost nothing is done with the park in our town besides taking the occasional complaint. This other town to the south happens to be off limits to me (for safety reasons the Peace Corps has labeled it a “red zone”) so I couldn’t go there even if I had the means. It is also forbidden for me and all other volunteers to ride motorcycles. Okay, so there has to be something I can do here right? No, not really. The park does not have a boat or even local canoe with which I could access the islands and reefs that constitute the park. This is what the tourists want to see, I’m supposed to promote, and even I can’t visit. There is a guide association that consists of a few farmers who speak some French and hope to make a few extra bucks if some tourists come through. They are friendly but their interest in us does not extend beyond wanting to learn English (which I have a hard time justifying because tourists are French and occasionally German or Italian). The most concerning aspect of all the work is that an open hostility exists in the community between local authorities (the mayor, district president, park employees, etc…) and the local tribal prince. Following the coup earlier this year and the resulting instabilities the tribal prince saw an opportunity to profit from park resources (through fishing in restricted zones and logging) and actually encouraged the public to do it as well. He also stated that the government officials and other local authorities no longer have any power and that he has the full support of the gendarmes (law enforcement with automatic weapons). All of this information was relayed to me by my counterpart and also available in print in the October 2009 issue of an international environmental conflict and cooperation newsletter. I have been assured by my counterpart that tensions have lessoned but that up until just recently park officials were being threatened. So, needless to say, there is a strange vibe that exists in the town. The prince owns one small restaurant which his people go to and all the others go to a different small restaurant about 200 meters up the road. We try to be polite and friendly with everyone but being seen with the “wrong people” presents a problem for us. Amy’s frustration besides these safety concerns is that the community doctor hasn’t worked with a Peace Corps volunteer before and doesn’t particularly want to (to be fair it’s because he is organized and doing a fairly good job already). The result is that our prospects for work are limited to a couple of hours of English classes each week and small scale projects with local farmers if I can find one who’s interested. It is simply not what we transferred here for. Lastly, the former volunteers here had an issue with a crazy woman who stands or sits just outside the fence and screams while hitting herself for hours at a time. This issue was obviously never resolved and we have the pleasure of dealing with her as well as another crazy man who pushed through our locked fence at 5:00am to use our latrine and left feces on the floor.

I really don’t think that Peace Corps meant for it to be this way. I have no doubt that it’s difficult to find suitable sites for volunteers when everyone in the villages just tells you want to hear. More often than not foreign aid means money and a village is not going to pass up that opportunity by saying the wrong thing. As transfers we were unexpected and Peace Corps was probably in a hurry. I’m sure we could have changed sites but that involves at least another month of moving, settling, and integration that we simply do not have the heart to do again. Please understand that the negatives are not meant to reflect the Malagasy people or Madagascar as a whole. The people have generally been very friendly and the country is certainly unique. We were living in a region that some people pay thousands to come to for vacation (they visit the resorts to the north, Nosy Be and Diego Suarez area) but we don’t want to be on vacation. We want to work and be productive. We both feel that there is no sense in just sitting around if we can be accomplishing something somewhere else. If we could jump right back into work in Guinea then we would do it in a heartbeat.

We had a wonderful experience in Guinea, made some good friends, and did some good work in an often forgotten corner of the world. The truth is that Peace Corps gives the volunteer an incredible perspective and also imprints a positive image of Americans in the minds of people all around the world. It seems to me that we need that now more than ever before. We will miss it but it’s time to move on to new things. Good luck to our friends overseas and thanks to our readers.

Enjoy the photos of Madagascar!

Our arrival was interesting. We had been on the plane for a long time and were a little out of it when the pilot said we were descending into Antananarivo (the capital of Madagascar). We put our seat backs up and starting trying to see something out of the window from our middle row seats. We didn’t spot any lights and noticed that the little screen in front of us said something like 4800 feet. Boom! We hit something which turned out to be our wheels touching the runway. It scared the crap out of us. We quickly remembered that Tana (as the locals call it) is in the highlands. It was about 11:15 pm when we met an embassy official who sped us through customs which didn’t help much because our bags were probably the last ones off of the plane. One of the Peace Corps admin staff picked us up and brought us to the transit house for volunteers. The door was locked with a code lock. In preparation for the arrival of volunteers (we are the first ones back in the country following an evacuation of the program in March) the locks were changed. We got to spend the night at the house of the staff member instead which was fantastic. He even treated us to a big breakfast of pancakes, sausages, and fruit smoothies the next morning (Where are we? This isn’t West Africa).

Tana is a wonderful city spread out over rolling hills with some fantastic views and interesting architecture. At first glance you might think that you are in an old European city with winding roads, some cobblestone streets, well organized produce markets, and cute two story houses packed tightly together. The people look more Polynesian than African and have been very friendly. The little restaurants are fairly clean and have tasty food (including pork, yeah!). It’s mango season right now so you can even get fresh mango juice with a meal. The weather is perfect. It is the end of winter/beginning of spring and it’s probably about 60 degrees at night and high 80s during the day. At the moment we are definitely spoiled. We have to remember that this is the city and eventually we are headed back to village life on the hot Northwest coast of the island.

So, right now we are cramming the Sakalava language (a dialect of Malagasy) into our heads and hoping that we manage to retain some. We have two excellent language trainers who alternate each day. The structure of the language is fairly easy but pronunciation is difficult. Try saying even a basic phrase, “Tia miahazakazaka zah” or “Faly mahafantratranao koa zaho” (“I like to run” or “Nice to meet you also”). Some of the words are ridiculously long. Our training manager has a last name with 27 letters, no spaces, and no hyphens. Nearly all verbs in the language start with an M. We seem to be progressing alright but really we wouldn’t know because we don’t have anyone to compare to. Being the only volunteers in country has been a strange experience. We realize now, even more than before, that the friendships that you form with other volunteers are a big part of your service. We miss our Guinea crew (especially G17) and are looking forward to meeting the Madagascar volunteers who are reinstating and arriving here very soon.

We are staying with a Malagasy family about 65km outside of the capital where things are vastly different. One thing is that people seem to wake up and go to sleep with the sun, 5:00am and 8:00pm. The language trainers came to the house here for a few days for classes but then took off back to Tana to see their families. We’re lucky because our host mother and father speak French so we can communicate and it’s not so awkward (our family speaks standard Malagasy and not Sakalava anyway). The house is a neat little two story brick and wood house which looks a bit like an elaborate tree house on the inside. The parents share the cooking duties and seem to really take pride in their food. They are genuinely excited when they see that we like the taste. We do get rice in some form for all three meals but they use all sorts of other interesting ingredients. Today is Sunday and we walked to church in the next little town over which we think made our family pretty happy. We got to “sing” in Malagasy as Mama and Papa showed us where to follow along in their books. It was interesting but long. This afternoon Papa walked us down to a lake where we went fishing with cane poles. We didn’t catch anything but we got to watch other people catch fish who were using different baits (they looked kind of like crickets). The lake we were at could have easily been somewhere in Georgia or Tennessee. I think that somewhere in the back of our minds we had a stereotype of Madagascar being a big jungle, a falsity perpetuated by numerous movies, documentaries, and magazines. The truth is that Madagascar is a huge island with so many different ecosystems, appearances, and people. We try to find similarities between here and other places we have visited or want to visit. We have only ventured just outside the capital so far and already we have mentioned Alaska, Northern Maine, Costa Rica, the south of France, Scotland, Holland, somewhere in Southeast Asia (another stereotype probably), and almost any state in the Southern Appalachians. Our site is another two days drive from here so I would imagine that we’ll be seeing all sorts of different things. We have been told that our town is situated on a river only about 3km from a mangrove forest and the coast. We are supposed to have a simple wood house (built that way so that they can be easily assembled after cyclones) with a little yard inside town and right around the corner from the national park office. Amy will be working with the local health center on health education and projects similar to what she was doing in Guinea. I will also be working on similar projects with regards to agriculture but I am really excited because my official counterpart is a national park. Sahamalaza National Park (there’s a website in French) is a fairly new park and, as I understand it, the first marine national park in Madagascar. There is a lot of other work going on around the country with the conservation of marine resources but it sounds like this part has been a bit neglected. Soon we get to move to a training center situated on a lake a couple of kilometers from this village and meet all of the other volunteers. Then it’s only two more weeks and we get to be on our own again. By the time I have the opportunity to post this blog it will be outdated but our internet opportunities are limited. We should have telephone reception at our site though so we will post our number here when we get a new number. Stay tuned. Happy Holidays!

Rice paddy fields in Mantasoa.

View from the balcony of our homestay family's house.

Homestay mother feeding the geese.

Chris-Heijn and Homestay father fishing at the lake. The training center is on the other side of the lake.

November 17th...

The training center is incredible. It feels like we are at a really nice summer camp. The chef here makes food that you would pay $15 a plate for back in the U.S. We had beef with a rich mushroom cream sauce yesterday for lunch. The scenery here is gorgeous. Amy and I have been running every morning in what I would consider a runner’s paradise (hard packed dirt roads, rolling hills, cool temperatures, and we are at somewhere around 5000 feet). We are continuing on with language and cultural classes. Yesterday we sat in a room with 5 staff members who presented us with possible situations we could encounter at our site and we were supposed to give culturally appropriate answers. It felt a bit like a job interview. The funny thing was that nearly all of the awkward situations they presented had happened to us at least once in Guinea. At the end they complimented us and as we were leaving the room I lightly tapped my hands together, one hand in a loose fist and the other open. It’s kind of a habit that makes a soft popping noise. I do it sometimes casually when I am walking or when I get up out of a chair. Disclaimer: don’t read the next sentence if you are under 16. Well, as it turns out I was actually telling the staff to f**k themselves. We spent the following 5 minutes going over hand and body gestures and their connotations. Oh well, at least I figured it out here and not with some village leader.

At about 5:00pm yesterday all of the other 15 volunteers arrived from the airport. We have a mixed crew of reinstating Madagascar volunteers and a few Peace Corps Response people who are former volunteers returning to do six months in a crisis response position (for example: education and planning for the upcoming cyclone season). There are a few small groups within the whole group that have spent time together before but nobody knows everyone. This is good for us because we aren’t being treated as outsiders. We are here for about a week and then it’s back to the capital to gather a few things and head to our site. We will have a neighbor to the North living in our banking town about 1 ½ hours away. Other interesting notes are that our site is now considered a fly site and we are being issued life jackets. We are far enough from the capital to warrant having to take a small plane if we need to get back to the capital to help with trainings or for emergencies. The life jackets are because we will apparently be doing work in other small villages along the river running through our village. The river also flows out to a bay where we can take other larger wooden sailboats out to some of the islands and the reef just on the outside. It all sounds interesting but I am sure that just like our previous experiences the reality of our situation will be much different from our perceptions currently. One thing we know for sure; we are ready to start working again.

All the Peace Corps Madagascar volunteers and our acting director, Leif. Eleven reinstated volunteers, Four Peace Corps response, and Two Guinee transfers.

View over Antananarivo from the Ambassador's house. In the right hand corner, on the top of the hill is the queens "castle."

OUR NEW PHONE NUMBER: Country Code: 261 Number: 0330350388

And happiness, we should have reception all the time at our new site.

This morning we didn't know if we were ever going to leave and now we are getting on a plane tonight to travel for the next 24 hours.

We are in the midst of goodbyes and country transitions. The Guinea Peace Corps program has been officially suspended. Some volunteers have elected to go home and others to be placed in another country. Once the ball got rolling, people were flown out fairly quickly and so now there are only about 20 of us left still awaiting on our flight arrangements.

We are sad that we will not be able to return to Guinea. I am sure any news you have seen on Guinea has focused on all the negatives, the massacre and the instability of the government. I know that it just helps to highlight the stereotypical hopeless Africa. But we saw the other side, we lived with the people of Guinea and witnessed how hopeful and determined the young people are for a positive change. We were taken in by Guineans and treated as their friends and family members. They no more want a oppressive military leader than the Western world does, but the lack of education and underdevelopment makes it difficult to overcome. However many obstacles, Guineans have the potential to resolve this themselves, and we wish them all the best.

On a brighter note, we have been enjoying ourselves in Mali, as you will see from the pictures below, and we have a new country….Madagascar! We are supposed to leave sometime next week, and we will be the first volunteers in country. Madagascar was evacuated about a year ago and they are just starting to reopen the program, so we will be joined by about 15 other volunteers in a few weeks. From looking at information online it is going to be quite a change. We are excited!

Here are some more pictures of Mali:

The road between Guinea and Mali

On the edge of a cave where they used to sacrifice animals.

Habib Koite... We went to see him play at the french cultural center. He is a really well known Malienne artist, he has even played in the U.S. I tried to attach a song to the blog, but can't get it figured out. He is phenomenal, if you are interested in African music you should search him online. Since the Guinea Race was canceled, we had our race in Mali. Paul and I organized a 5k,10k and 1/2 Marathon a couple of weeks ago. This is the start of the 1/2 marathon. About 40 of the volunteers participated, it was great fun. Even our country director participated, you can see him behind the 1/2 marathoners.

There is a bar down the road from the place we are staying, and one of the patrons owns a chimpanzee. The guy brings him to the bar and the chimp drinks beer, eats rice and sauce and hangs out with the locals. Truly amazing and yet terrifying.

I thought I would end with a toilet. I realized I have never posted a picture of bathroom facilities in Africa. Just in case you were confused, you don't sit on the hole, you squat over it.

All 100 of us Guinea volunteers are staying at a training outside of Bamako, Mali. Overall it hasn't been too traumatic, Peace Corps has been taking good care of us as you will see from the pictures below. It is sort of like summer camp for adults. PC has been doing a great job of keeping us entertained, trips to town, the Mali culture museum, the American club, and a Mali-Sudan soccer game. It may sound like a fun little vacation, but the constant entertainment is necessary to keep everyone from becoming emotional disasters. Even with all the activities, it is still a roller coaster, one minute on happy vacation mode and the next realizing we have just abandoned everything we worked for the past year and that we may be leaving all the friends we have made in a couple of weeks. Our official status is still "consolidated in Mali", but two people from headquarters in Washington DC flew in today and so we think/hope that at our meeting tomorrow they will update our situation and start giving us our options. Until then...

At the airport in Dakar, CH and Joe had linen outfits made so we could arrive in Mali in Style.

Sunrise on one of our morning runs near the training center. We are going to have a Guinea 5k/10k/half marathon Race here next weekend with all the volunteers. Mali is very flat, savannah land so it is easy running.

Our training center, it is set up like a little village with lots of hut circles.

The nice flat road we run on outside the center. Donkeys are a popular form of transportation. The other morning we saw a donkeys pulling a cart with two young guys laying in the back sleeping. I guess they trust the donkeys know the way home.

The Mali-Sudan Soccer match.

Swimming at the American club, there was also sand volleyball, tennis courts, a movie theatre and they served us cheesburgers and fries for lunch, good times.

Amy and I at the Alhambra in Granada, Spain

Tim (Amy's Dad) and I catching a nap in Granada

Caceres

The view from the back porch of the villa where we stayed for the week

From Guinea to Senegal to Spain and Morocco then back to Senegal... and now Mali. We are currently in Dakar, but Friday we will be flying to Bamako, Mali to join the rest of the volunteers from our country. All Peace Corps Guinea volunteers are being consolidated in Bamako, Mali at the moment because of the political situation in Guinea. We will be staying at a training center there for a few weeks to see if the situation improves so that we can return. We are in this sort of awful limbo right now not knowing what will happen next, and hoping we will not be abruptly detached from our village and friends in Guinea. In the meantime here are some pictures from our journey...

The taxi gare in Labe, Guinee where we waited 8 hours for our first taxi to fill up. At least there were sheep and a cute puppy to entertain us.

Chris-Heijn as the sun was setting in a small town in northern Guinea. We stopped at sunset so all the Guineans could break their Ramadan fast and eat.

Roadside mechanics on our bush taxi.

This is the Jurassic park part of our journey when we all had to get out and the guys had to help push all the taxis through the mud. It took us 20 hours to go 120 miles, yes we could have run faster, the road was more like a hiking trail than a route for cars.

Muddy, wet feet for the next 10 hours in the taxi.

Part of the road in the daytime near the Guinea, Senegal border.

Disgusting and slightly traumatized after 40 hours in bush taxis.

The first glimpses of Senegal.

Dakar, Senegal, one of the most westernized cities in West, Africa, quite a change from the countryside.

Massive statue being built in Dakar with lots of controversy from the locals.

Mosque on the beach in Dakar

Buying some jewelry from one of the local women.

We took a little boat to the island in the distance and CH surfed.

One of our wonderful dinners in Spain with lots of food and wine.

Standing on a rooftop overlooking Tangier on our little adventure to Morocco.

The news in Guinea is not so pleasant lately. Just search Google news for Conakry, Guinea and see how many articles pop up. The somewhat good news is that we are actually in Dakar, Senegal. It's sad to hear all the awful stories from what has become our second home. We hope that all of our Guinean and American friends are staying safe and keeping somewhat of a normal routine. The problems seem to be located almost solely in Conakry so everyone upcountry should be fine. We talked to one friend who says that things are quiet by him and life is fairly normal.

So, what's our story...We were returning from a our first vacation during our service when we were told to delay our flight plans. Our vacation was a wonderful week drinking and eating in Spain with our families (Thanks again! We will post pictures as soon as possible.) We got to Dakar and spent one night deciding weather we wanted to take a bush taxi back to our site or save our sanity and buy flight tickets. This was an important decision because on the way out of Guinea we spent three days traveling (41 hours of which were actual drive time crammed into a taxi) with 45 minutes of real sleep, not much food(It's hard to get food during Ramadan), and obviously no shower opportunities. I think we can handle just about anything now. We had to replace an axel once, almost flipped once, pushed the car out of mud pits the size of football fields in the middle of the night more times than I can remember, crossed one crocodile filled river on a raft packed with cars and pulled by a chain to the other side, shared a small prayer mat with Amy and our friend Joseph for 45 minutes of sleep in swampland while our driver disappeared to fix some random parts that more than likely fell off of his car, dealt with corrupt military and incompetant drivers, and waited numerous hours in filthy taxi parks where we were told that the taxi wasn't leaving so we had to go to another town instead. Oh, did I mention it is rainy season. Imagine Jurassic Park scences in pitch dark on roads the size of hiking trails minus the T-rex of course. It was intense. We did see some of the most amazing birds and meet some interesting characters from Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, and Niger. We are also spoiled with incredible scenery daily but realize after the fact that people pay thousands of dollars to see wilderness like we saw.

Anyway, wow, I got off on a tangent. So, we decided to buy flight tickets and wandered Dakar searching for airlines and travel agencies. We walked miles comparing prices, being told that flights were sold out, and realizing that nobody accepts MasterCard in Dakar. After half the day spent searching we found the best deal and tried to buy the tickets. Nope, card was blocked so we had to make a call. We left, made the call, and came back and the prices had gone up. We decided to go direct to the airline, Air Mauritania, and buy the tickets but they only accept cash, so we sucked it up and went back to the agent. Surprise, surprise when she pulled up the info the prices dropped again. Yeah! We bought the tickets for a departure the next day. Then we find out that political demonstrations went bad in Guinea and people were dying and injured. Peace Corps said they would make sure we were safe and send a vehicle to the airport. Next day we waited at the airport until the the departure time when we were told that the plane had technical difficulties and the flight was cancelled. We were taken to an airport "hotel" after a ridiculously long wait outside the airport. We called Peace Corps Guinea to cancel the ride and were told to stay in Senegal. We got back to the airport to pick up our bags at 11:00pm and helped an American woman with her little girl get her bags (she didn't speak any French) and gave her some food for the girl. We waited in the depths of the Dakar airport baggage area for 20 minutes and finally got our bags, contacted Peace Corps Senegal, and got a ride to the transit house (we immediately dropped our bags and walked across the road to find the cheapest, biggest, and coldest beer we could find - because that's an option in Dakar).

So what now? We are being treated very well by Peace Corps Senegal with more comfortable accomodations and some cash to get food. Otherwise we are just waiting for word from Guinea. We are in twice daily contact. Latest is that we have to postpone our flight until next Friday at the very least. We'll keep everyone updated.

As some of you know I am in the process of organizing the construction of a latrine at our village health center courtesy of our mystery donor in the U.S. and some funding from my brother. I just want to spend out a quick special thank you if you are monitoring this blog and let you know that a letter and photos are on their way to you now. The project is nearly complete so what ever turn this political situation takes in Guinea the residents of our village will be better off because of your generosity.

To everyone in Guinea and back home: we have a new temporary phone number in Senegal: 221 77 183 81 78

A quick look at our last couple of weeks at site....

Can you spot the porto (white person)? These are all the young guys in our community, a part of the Association de Jeunesse (Young People's Association). Most of them are university students and have just returned to our village for the summer vacation. Chris-Heijn organized a reforestation project, so this is all of them gathered together before the planting effort.

A few of the guys ready to plant trees from Chris-Heijn's pepinere. The guy on the far right and the one with the hat, they are our neighbors.

A little planting teamwork.

We just completed this mural at the health center. It is a promotion for birth control. The picture on the left shows a family with 3 kids, all well-spaced, lots of food including meat, books representing university, and a concrete house. The picture on the right has 5 children all close together with signs of malnutrition, and only one pot of food. The bubble above the left picture shows the three different types of birth control available, pill, injection and condoms. I am working with PSI to get the pill and the injection offered in my health center because currently they do not offer birth control. Hopefully we will have it within the next week.

A picture of my garden behind our house, we have rosemary, beans, peppers, tomatoes, moringa, tons of basil, cilantro, lettuce, flowers, squash and a few others I am forgetting I am sure.

Flowers from my garden.

Our local jewelry maker. He is resizing a silver ring I had made in country, pretty cool stuff.

This is what happens when we run out of gas for our stove. Chris-heijn had to start a fire and we had to sit outside and cook all our meals with an audience of petits. Luckily it happened just a week before the director came because he brought us another tank.

This is our favorite petit, Haf Ziou, he is constantly hanging around our house or running down our path making sounds like he is a fast car. They had just climbed our orange tree and picked us some oranges.

Nico and Ana are running a large half marathon in New York tomorrow. I don't know if you'll get this message in time but we wish you both the best of luck. I'll be tracking your progress through the NYRR website so make me proud. Oh, internet access is a wonderful thing.

It's raining a lot in Guinea, especially here in Conakry. I've been tempted to go for runs in the morning but the puddles are more like ponds or lakes and are probably not very clean. I end up hopping around for thirty minutes like I'm doing an intense trail run. When I finish I realize I've probably only covered a mile or two.

Well, I'd like to tell you that when I come to Conakry I explore new neighborhoods and meet new people but most of my time revolves around food. It was a funny realization I had when I was eating my pizza last night. I had spent the day in downtown eating random foods (hummus, chwarmas, pistachio and coconut ice cream, a hunk of brie cheese) and buying foods to take back to our site at one of the two small Lebanese grocery stores (mustard, chocolate, strawberry jam). Today one of the volunteers made a salad with chicken and tomatoes on top and shared her ceaser dressing that she got in a package from home. It was a treat. It's summer vacation from school right now and many of the education volunteers have been visiting the U.S. They all seem to return with goodies such as bottles of wine, assorted candies and cookies, and even homemade wild blueberry muffins. Actually, I'm probably missing out right now so I'm going to go find out. I'll write more tomorrow (maybe about my work for the last few months if I'm feeling inspired).

I just felt like writing a little for anyone who might be interested. It's Chris-Heijn and I'm in Conakry for a quick visit. I have a two day conference to assist in improving the agroforestry program in Guinea and making better connections with non-governmental organizations and aid agencies for support in our work. We have a new program director who was formerly my technical trainer. He is an extremely motivated and knowledgable Guinean with plenty of experience working with Americans.

Amy is on her way to a Malaria workshop in Mamou. It's a few days of training for village doctors and nurses on malaria prevention techniques and proper diagnosis. She will be joined by all of the other health volunteers in the country.

We are now no longer the "newbies" or "freshman class". We received an new group of trainees/education volunteers. I had a chance to meet them in Mamou on my way down and they seem like a good bunch. They are headed out to visit their sites for the first time. It's interesting to see them and then realize how much we have changed. I listened to stories of site visit anxiety, being grossly overcharged for basic market items, and being intimidated by local language. That was us only 6 months ago. I still can't claim to speak Pular very well but, enough to get respect when I recognize a fellow speaker who happens to be a taxi driver or market vendor. I feel like I instantly receive special treatment if I engage someone in conversation. Just last night I walked into town and and bought some food from a woman along the street. She gave me extra fried bananas, extra fish and extra hot oil (I didn't really want this but she was trying to do a nice thing) because I greeted her and asked her where she was from.

Amy and I also played host to the Guinea Country PC Director at our house. He spent an afternoon and one night with us. We gave him the grand (I use this term loosely) tour and introduce him to some people around town. We were given "priority seating" (a bench) at the final game of a soccer tournament that has been going on for two weeks. We left after a lengthy dispute over a red card handed out to a player just after scoring a goal. Guineans take their futbol seriously. Amy then made us her wonderful rice with Thai peanut sauce and fresh basil on the top. We had some good candlelight conversations and a rainstorm that night. In the morning the fog rolled in and reduced visibilty to about 200 feet. It was as if I had planned it. I had been telling Dan (Country Director) how wonderful the fog can be for our morning runs. We made one stop at the house of the CRD (sort of like a mayor) for a luxury breakfast of fried beans/meat, some fried potatoes, and kankilyba (I am guessing on this spelling - it's a local bush that is used to make tea. When mixed with a little canned milk and sugar it tastes oddly like the milk that's left in your cereal bowl after you have eaten Fruity Pebbles but warm of course). All in all in was a good visit and he got a good perspective on life in the village.

Hey Nico. You guys really hit the mark with my birthday package. Even the country director was jealous of the contents and he gets regular supplies from the U.S. Thank you.

I'll try and write more quick thoughts in the upcoming days but I just heard that they are serving pizza tonight right down the road. You can guess what takes precedence.

THANK YOU...

TO ALL WHO DONATED TO GIRLS CONFERENCE!

Mom and Dad Urban

Aunt Jamey and Uncle Charlie

Cassie Kleier

Laurie Ortiz

Matt Finn

Nathan Schroeder

I know there were others who were interested, but were too late... don't worry there will be more projects to contribute to in the future. The conference was amazing, the girls had a lot of fun and were exposed to a broad range of important information including; female excision, nutrition, HIV/AIDS, family planning, women's rights, how to give a presentation, malaria, how to succed in school to reach university and the importance of education for women. All of us volunteers were each in charge of leading a session, and everyone managed to make them fun, interesting and interactive.

Sam (another volunteer) and I led the session on nutrition during which we talked about the food groups and the importance of eating a variety of foods. Most people here are malnourished because they eat the same rice and sauce every meal, and believe me the nutritional value of sauce is minimal because it is cooked to death. We had them organize a variety of foods we bought at the market into the food groups and then put special emphasis on the protein group and ways they could cheaply include protein into their diets, beans and peanut butter. (Lack of protein is the number one type of malnourishment here.) Then we all went into the cafeteria and I taught the girls how to make peanut butter banana cookies as a different way of incorporating protein. All my neighbors au village love them, so I am constantly feeding them to all the little kids because they all lack protein. Anyways we had a lot of fun, even when we had to stand in the rain cooking our cookies in the marmite over a fire outside.

Each volunteer brought at least two girls with them, we brought two, Hadiatou and Aissatou. One of them had not left our small village for 4 years and had never been to a bigger city like Mamou or Labe. It was really neat to see them being exposed to all these new ideas and to some of the other girls who came from bigger cities and were much more educated. Their transformation from the beginning of the week to the end was amazing, they were so much more confident and outspoken at the end. Aissatou told me the most interesting thing she learned was that excision is bad and all the reasons why. Every girl in our village is excised, so they just think it is normal and they actually get excited because they get to have a party (and it is probably the only party anyone will ever give them because they don't celebrate birthdays). Hopefully our girls will go back and bring some fresh thoughts to the other girls in our village and realize they have options of going to school and having a career instead of getting married and having 10 babies.

Us with our two girls and some of the other volunteers. Everytime we wanted pictures with our girls, they all wanted more portos (white people) in the picture so it would look cooler. Hadiatou is in green and Aissatou is in blue.

Hadiatou and Aissatou doing a skit on the importance of hand washing, hence they are shaking hands because one of them has pretended to go to the bathroom in the bush, wiped with a rock (yes they said this actually happens), did not wash her hands afterward, and is shaking someone elses hands spreading germs. They did skits on all sorts of topics from excision to early marriage. The idea is to go back to our villages and do skits for our village girls. Guineans are amazing at skits, they love acting and do a fantastic job at being dramatic and funny yet getting the point across. I was inspired, I hope were too.

I have just completed my longest stretch at site/ au village, 6 weeks. Luckily the rainy season has started so everything is getting green, I am able to work in my garden more and at least every other day we have awesome thunderstorms, so all in all the time went by quickly. The worst part was towards the last couple of weeks when we started running out of our american food supplements and were eating the same things day in and day out. Contrary to what any Guineans must think there is such a thing as too much rice and sauce. Although we did have a fantastic three day stretch when we ate chicken every day. The CRD/mayor wanted to give us money for a chicken, but we can't accept money so he gave it to a family who bought a chicken and prepared it for us. The next night the CRD insisted we eat more chicken and had his wives make a chicken meal for us. The following day we had one of our neighboring volunteers visiting us and he bought us a chicken for our one year anniversary. Since it was not market day it was really hard to find a decent sized chicken and we all decided the chicken was a little small to feed all three of us and we needed another one. Chris-Heijn went to the doctor's house because he has massive chickens (he is the only one who is smart enough to realize the benefits of feeding your chickens) and he refused to take money from us but gave it to us for free because of our help at the health center and since we are like part of his family now. So since now we had a giant rooster, we decided to keep the smaller hen as the first edition to our chicken coop, which sits behind our house under a mango tree surrounded by corn and is not quite finished. We killed the big rooster, and made fried chicken and fries which was phenomenal, and tied the other hen up to the post of the "in progress" chicken coop. I started feeding the hen, she was really pretty, and giving her water, and talking to her so she would be happy and want to lay me some eggs. My joy was short lived, a couple of nights later in the middle of the night I awoke to a very scared-sounding chicken scream, woke Chris-Heijn up and told him I thought something was eating my chicken and he needed to go save her. He was not very happy about the idea and told me he would rather not walk through the corn field in the dark to rescue a chicken that was probably being attacked by a snake or monkey or dog or bush rat... who knows. We do supposedly have a black mamba that lives in our village... So the next morning he went out to survey the damage, and all that was left was the foot still tied to the post, and cleaned to the bone, and the bone of a wing. I at least hope whatever ate it had a good meal. So that was my only traumatic moment for the past 6 weeks, I will now spare you my lack of english skills and include some of the pictures we have taken recently which will give you an idea of what we have been up to lately.

It's green! I am working in my garden behind our house trying to get seeds planted before the storm hits. My garden is now surrounded by corn, taro and potato plants.

Local farmers organizing and planting a bananas and coffee with the use of Chris-Heijn's expertise.

Giving a presentation on the importance of vaccinating children on market day at the health center.

The doctor's wife just had a baby, so this is the morning of the baptism, lots of women came and made riz gras, bread, rice and sauce and small "cakes". We ate very well that day.

We are at the Dame de Mali, behind us you can see the rock face resembles the silhouette of a woman. It is the 2nd highest point in Guinea, just 20 km from our village. We climbed to the top and on a good day you are suppose to be able to see to Senegal.

One of the villages we went to on the polio vaccination drive sponsored by UNICEF. We walked around with a cooler and the polio vaccine (just drops in the mouth), and administered them to all children under 5.

Well, we have finished our final major training session and are now free to really start working on our projects at our sites. We decided to head to Conakry first for a much needed vacation before heading back to our sites. Some other volunteers joined us for an early anniversary celebration on the Island of Roume just off the coast of Conakry. We stayed for two days and one night and had a great time. There was one crazy storm, lots of waves, and some excellent food. The second morning I was walking around the little village looking for some sort of food when I was invited to join the family of one of the hotel employees for an early lunch. It was rice with a spicy red sauce and a large chuck of freshly smoked shark. The mother was smoking three more large sharks over a fire of palm fronds and coconut husks. I ate under a mango tree as the rain started to fall and had one of those "how did I get here" moments. When I finished I offered to give a little money for the food and my host said, "when I come to America I will eat with your family". We agreed by handshake and I headed back to find the others to catch our boat home. It was a great trip with good company. Enjoy the pictures!

The port in Conakry. These boats or pirogues are both water taxis and fishing vessels.

Amy and Katie laughing because the chances of us actually making it to the island in this little boat seem slim. There are also some other volunteers and a few hitchhiking Guineans in the back.

Local boys putting on a show for us on the way out of the port.

This is one of the other larger islands we passed on the way out. We stopped here for a couple minutes so the captain could drop off a couple of groupers for his family.

This is the view from the deck of our "hotel". The view and the food was what made the experience fantastic.

Our Guinean host cooking us a lunch of grilled snapper, fried bananas, and french fries. It was probably the best thing I've eaten since being in Guinea.

This island is host to drum circles and traditional guitar (kora) lessons for musicians around the world.

The smiles are because we have just spent the last few hours playing in waves and breathing fresh ocean air.

One of the locals in the middle of his daily dance/workout routine.

Amy, Joseph, Katya, Ashley, Katie, and Jake all uncontrollably laughing as we try to avoid tipping the boat. We ran out of gas on the way back and Katya (our crazy Russian) was suggesting that if things go bad we can always write a book about it. The water is so filthy close to Conakry that we decided we would rather just continue to drift and wait than swim for shore. Katya further entertained us by starting to drink gin to calm the nerves.

Joseph looking a little disappointed as he is being splashed with each oncoming wave as we are towed into port.

Our Guinean boat captain graciously offered to carry the women into shore after noticing the look of fright on our faces when confronted with the prospect of putting even one foot in the water on the Conakry side.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!!

WE LOVE YOU BOTH!!!AMY & CHRIS-HEIJN

Hello All! We are currently in Mamou for our In-Service Training. We will be here for two weeks practicing local language and going into more depth on technical skills. We will have access to a computer for three weeks because we are going to Conakry for a week afterwards, so send us emails! Below is a compilation of what we have been doing lately in our village, best told through pictures...

A community meeting held on a Sunday, to determine the needs of the village. We waited 4 hours for the meeting to start because nobody arrived on time.

After the meeting there is always good food. Chris-Heijn eating communal style with the village leaders.

The staff of the health center. I don't know the woman on the far left, the very pregnant woman is the doctor's wife, next person don't know either, then a matron, me, the head nurse who I always work with and then another matron. The head nurse treats all the patients, the matrons clean and help administer vaccinations and help with births.

The pump for water is a long walk down a hill from the health center, so they are always short on water. Sometimes they wait a whole day after a birth to clean the birthing room, so ChrisHeijn had an idea to store bidons full of water. We convinced the CRD to buy 10 bidons and give a little money for kids to carry them up once a week, so now the health center has a weeks storage of water and can clean each day.

The start of the World Map Project at the school.

Finally starting to paint after drawing the grid and outlines.

Painting.

Nearly finished, we still need to write in a few more countries and oceans when we return.

My 9th grade class on Earth Day.

Earth day I did a community trash clean up. I thought it would just be a small project with the middle school students walking from the school to the marche picking up trash. However, after I did my presentation at the middle school about why it is bad to throw trash on the ground we started walking down the big hill toward the market picking up trash. On our way down I saw in the distance the entire primary school, and lots of village people coming our way to join us. It turned out to be a huge event with everyone in the village helping pick up trash.

One of the many trash piles we burned that day(unfortunately burning is the only way to dispose of trash at the moment).

This is the type of trash can we designed out of empty rice sacks to put around the village. Sustainability!

Teaching the neighbor how to make a mud stove. Mud stoves save wood by trapping the heat and decrease the need to chop down trees, saving the forests. Deforestation/Desertification is a huge problem in our region. It is also then less work for people because they don't have to find as much wood.

The cutest baby goat ever! Look at his coloration, I really wanted him, but he would eat my garden.

For those of you who remember, it's Marley! This is a veiled chameleon, the same type I had as a pet in college. They have started coming to our well for water because it is the end of the dry season and there is no water anywhere else. The locals are terrified of them. They thought we were going to die when we picked it up.

The newest delicacy at our market, fried bugs.

Every market day they kill a cow and sell the meat. We bought a kilo. Check out the tail and hooves, they sell it all and eat it all. The head is sold separately and is quite the delicacy.

Just before the rainy season the villagers reroof their huts. We were invited to help because it is quite the social event. Everyone helps and then eats afterwards.

The roof nearly finished.

This is where we receive your phone calls. For some reason this is the exact spot of reception, if I move 10 feet to the left, no more.

Today we explored parts of Labe, our regional capital. Here are a few pictures. We are spoiled with unusually fast internet access today, so enjoy.

Waking up to gray skies was a pleasant escape from the heat. Typical side street.The road into the main market (the bridge is currently under construction).Talk about recycling, these women are selling peanut butter out of paint cans. We could actually still smell the paint.

Thank you to all of you who sent letters and/or packages. We were like kids on Christmas morning bubbling with anticipation to hear news from home and to eat some American snacks. Kevin, your redfish drawing is now the first piece of artwork hanging on our wall. Keep them coming. Sadly we only received a fraction of the letters that we know you all tried to send. Sometimes people here tear open the envelopes in the hope that there is cash inside. I think that there is a better chance of letters arriving in a larger priority type envelope because it will still be delivered after being torn open. We know because we received a book and letter from Margaret in a torn open priority envelope (by the way, if you did send money we didn’t get it but we are enjoying the book). Please do not be discouraged from writing. Mail run day is our favorite day of each month.

Our Projects

Amy has been teaching geography for a few weeks now as a secondary project. She just had a breakthrough because word has gotten around that the kids are more receptive to her teaching style. The two other teachers (yes, there are only two for a combination of numerous villages) asked her after school if she could please teach them her methods. Teaching here is a little different than in the U.S. Amy had one class with 88 kids in a room for about 20. Somehow she continues to engage the students without any books or standard teaching materials and she does it all in French.

My breakthrough was at a recent community meeting. At around hour three of listening to everyone argue over the day/time for the next meeting I decided to voice my opinions. The frustration here is that they meet to supposedly discuss the solutions to their many problems related to agriculture and the environment. Instead they talk about meetings, only complain about problems, or say things like “we need more money” or “we need to protect the environment”. Nobody knows what they need money for (trust me, you can’t buy much of anything within about four hours from here) or that environmental protection means doing something about extensive deforestation and massive reductions in crop yields due to soil degradation. The education level of the people in attendance is incredibly low. I would guess that 80%-90% cannot read or write in their own language, let alone the national language. So I took a deep breath, stood up and gave brief explanations or solutions to some major issues. I followed with a demonstration in which I timed myself filling a tree nursery bag (it took me two minutes with soil, seed, and water) and then explained that if everyone in the room had been doing the same thing for the preceding three hours we would now have somewhere around 2,700 new trees. I explained that these trees could provide food and money, in some cases add nutrients to the soil, and begin to address deforestation. I also explained that the bags I was using were trash collected in the surrounding towns and the seeds were from trees in the village. The point being, it’s all free and readily available but we must work instead of just talk. There was a moment of silence followed by translation from my broken French into Pular and then people looking to the community leaders as if to confirm that this was all true and not just American magic. Finally, I was thanked for being so direct and given loud applause. I thanked everyone for their attention and excused myself to go eat lunch with Amy. On the way out I noticed that my heart rate was significantly higher than normal and my hands were shaking. I wasn’t sure if I had just offended the most influential people in the community and if we needed to head home and start packing. Two days later I was walking in the woods looking for more seeds when I came across a newly built enclosure. I went inside and discovered 20 women from the meeting all filling what turned out to be 550 tree nursery bags. They invited me to join them and I got to practice Pular for a little while. This whole series of events reminds me of a phrase I hear often here, “seeda, seeda”. It means something like “little by little”. We are definitely learning to appreciate these little achievements.

The most fun and simultaneously tedious project we are working on is the “World Map Project”. There is a booklet with instruction on how to draw/paint a large world map using a grid format. We got permission to paint the map on a wall of the primary school that is also conveniently visible from the market. We bought the paint and a level in our regional capital a month ago and had them sent up on the mail run. I painted the blue ocean background while precariously perched on an old truck tire held in place on the downhill slope by two rocks and Amy. We have since decided that the tire is a bad idea so I ventured into the forest again to build us a ladder. Keep in mind that the nearest Home Depot is somewhere on the eastern coast of North America. Amy is painstakingly drawing each tiny island in the South Pacific while I am continuing to draw the grid. It’s a lot of work and a half mile from our house by hilly trail but also very satisfying because we get to see our progress and the puzzled looks on the faces of the people who walk by. The goal of this project is to inspire people (mostly kids) to learn more about the world beyond their village and to want to educate themselves. We all take maps or globes for granted because we see them as early as elementary school but the concept of the outside world is limited to the large town 100km from here or maybe Conakry, the capital, for a lucky few.

Well, I have been sitting here in a shack near the market hiding from the sun and writing this blog. It’s Saturday, market day, and I have had literally hundreds of kids stop and stare in at me. Some will wave back if I wave or say hello but most will simply stare. Others will even run away if I move more than a finger or toe. Amy was frustrated with this a few weeks ago and so I said to her, “it’s kind of like you or me watching a Planet of the Apes movie and then going to work or the store the next day and there is an ape dressed in your type of clothes and talking to you.” I don’t know about you but my response would be, “what the *&% (insert your favorite expletive here)!!!

As you can imagine we have lots of free time in the evenings. Without movies, happy hours, chicken wing nights, and other common American night-time diversions I find myself doing a lot more leisure reading. Here are a few recommended reads:

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid – Bill Bryson

A story about growing up in the U.S. in the 1950s. It is laugh-out-loud funny on nearly every page.

A Long Way Gone – Ishmael Beah

A disturbing account of the life of the author as a child soldier in Sierra Leone. Hollywood couldn’t create a more gruesome, vivid, and tragic story.

Mountains Beyond Mountains – Tracy Kidder

The story of a doctor who comes from humble beginnings to tackle some of the most challenging epidemics in the third world. This book makes you wonder why you are reading a book and not out helping, educating, or empowering people to help themselves.

We have now been at site for a month and life here is starting to feel somewhat normal. There have been ups and downs, days where we just want to read books, watch an American movie on our mini Ipod and be transported to Sonny's Barbecue for an all you can eat buffet. There are other days or even moments, when we are amazed that we are living in such a wonderfully foreign place. I had one of those moments when I was riding my bike to the health center the other day. One of the larger males sat on the edge of the road making sure the others crossed safely. And as I passed, I saw a female with a tiny hairless baby holding on to her chest watching me. Those are the moments when I think to myself, "Oh yeah, Im in Africa" and I feel renewed.

Our community has been very welcoming. Every couple of days our neighbor brings us rice and sauce. The little kids are always swarming our porch and trying to peak in our house and get us to come and play. Chris-Heijn taught some of them how to juggle oranges one day. Everyone yells greetings at us as they pass by our house or as we walk to the village. Our mayor is always trying to give us gifts. One market day, he bought us a rooster to eat which of course was still alive and we had to carry it home with us. We didn't want to prepare it that day so we tied it to a mango tree behind our house. The rooster crowed all afternoon and then began again at 4:00 in the morning and continued for an hour until Chris-Heijn went out and untied him. We could hear him running off into the distance. Later when we were ready to prepare him, Chris-Heijn enlisted the help of the petites (children) and 5 kids chased him down for us. Needless to say, we had plenty of motivation to kill and eat him. Oh, but what a process! First, Chris-Heijn had to step on its feet and slit its throat. But, the first knife was too dull so I had to run and get another knife to finish. After bleeding it, and after it had stopped flapping, we poured boiling water over it and plucked its feathers. Next, we built a small fire and singed the body to get the small feathers and hairs. Then, Chris-Heijn cut out the guts, feet and head which we gave to our neighbors who were happily yelling in Pular upon reception. After all that, we enjoyed a nice dinner of chicken and rice but we have yet to eat chicken again.

On the flip slide, we spent the first couple of weeks dispelling the rumor that we were bringing lots of money or American magic. Our white skin is like a dollar sign. And people think we are just going to start giving out money or gifts. However, I don't think they even know why they want money or what they would do with it. We have discovered as foreign aid can be, it has caused many problems and disillusions to Guineans. For example, a foreign agricultural organization created a garden where Chris-Heijn has now started a tree nursery. They fenced in a large piece of land, dug a well and built a water holding tank with a pump and hoses to make it easier to water everything. The women here in charge of the garden (they are called the agricultural groupement) have planted a few gardens around the well but the rest of the land and the pump sits unused. Many foreign aid organizations just give money and resources here, but most don't stick around to educate people on their use so they just sit around unused or misused. There you find the biggest need here, education.

I went to see the college here which is 7th - 10th grade and has four diffferent classes. I only saw one teacher and the principal. The principal was outside writing names of students walking in an hour late. The one teacher I saw was reading a piece of paper and having the students copy what he read. He was still doing the same thing an hour later when I left. The 7th grade class had 64 students in it who were copying from the board a history lesson that another student was copying from the only book. The other two classes had no teacher and were just sitting there or walking around and leaving. So, I told the principal I had been a teacher in the U.S., and wallah! I am the school's new geography teacher. I start on Tuesday with only a copy of a book for myself and a chalk board not to mention many of the students do not speak French. I am excited though beause this is an opportunity where I might be able to make a difference. If anything, I hope to teach them to think independently and learn to search for new ideas. In Shallah! (said frequently by the locals meaning God willing!)

Hello everyone. It’s Chris-Heijn reporting from Guinea. I don’t really know where to begin. So much has happened in the last two months and our lives are so incredibly different. We just had a ceremony this morning to officially swear in as Peace Corps volunteers. We actually took the same oath as the Vice President of the United States. It definitely makes you feel special. It also makes you realize that the Guineans have high hopes for all of us. I hope we can live up to their expectations and make some positive changes in this country. We are supposed to spend our first three months at our site integrating into the community and learning the local language. We’re not supposed to begin any large projects until after that time. We have been given the tasks of assessing the needs of the community, developing community maps, and meeting all of the officials. I also plan to start a tree nursery so that the seedlings will be ready to transplant by the beginning of the rainy season.

Due to limited internet time I want to tell you about some of our more interesting Guinea moments.

View from the seat of our first bush Taxi (notice the windshield)

Bush Taxi Experience

A bush taxi is a taxi that you take to get from any of the regional capitals to the smaller outlying villages where most of us are posted. They are generally 30 year old Peugeots shipped over from Europe that have been welded in so many places that they look like faded and crumbled tin foil. The windshields are usually broken, it most likely doesn’t have mirrors, and the tires are usually flat or close to it. The engines don’t come on with the turn of the key. The cars either have to roll backwards down a hill or are pushed to start. Then they violent jerk into forward motion. Keep in mind that this is the rule, not the exception for bush taxis in Guinea. Now, imagine maybe a Toyota Camry that has been gutted and then outfitted with three rows of the filthiest bench seating possible.

They are like school bus seats with no padding left. This all what you see just when you walk up. Oh, keep in mind that you have already been waiting out in the sun for four hours this morning and you were in the same spot for five hours yesterday but the taxi driver decided not to leave because he didn’t have enough people. So now you are ready to go and the driver says you should claim a seat in the second row by the window because it’s the best. You follow his advice and climb in. After watching him stack somewhere between 600-1000 lbs. worth of luggage onto the roof you notice lots of people crowding around the car. A woman then tells you that you should trade seats with her and her daughter because her daughter will most likely vomit on the ride. At this point you are in disbelief because 7 people are trying to climb into the car with you and pushing to try and make space. Everyone gets in and the car is pushed to a start. Just then 7 people coming running up to the taxi and state that they too need a ride to the next town. The driver gets out and spends 30 more minutes packing luggage onto the roof. After that 5 of those people attempt to climb into the car. Somehow, miraculously, they squeeze in and the remaining 2 jump on the roof. We now have a grand total of 15 people (including the driver) in a car the size of your average sedan. There also happen to be a half dozen bags inside and a few chickens either in the car or tied to the roof rack. At this point we finally get on our way. The driver has to stop every thirty minutes to fill up the radiator and he gets angry at you if you try to step out of the car to stretch (most likely because he realizes that if you get out you may never be able to squeeze back in the sardine can). Your bladder has been shaken to the brink of losing control and you’re not sure if you have feet anymore because you stopped feeling any sensation in that region 2 hours ago. Finally, 4 hours and 120km later the car stops on the side of the road and the driver tells you “this is the town you’re looking for”. You stare at him confused but are so excited at the prospect of getting out that you reach through the window and open the door from the outside. You nearly fall to the ground as you try to regain your balance as if you were a newborn calf. The driver gives you your bags and takes off. You are left standing in the dust in the middle of nowhere (it’s actually a medium sized town by Guinean standards) and some children are staring at you from behind a nearby tree. You realize you’ve made it to your new home. Moments later you realize that this is only a 3 day visit and you are going to have to take the same ride back in the very near future. You are on the brink of tears (or maybe hysteria) and then your Peace Corps assigned counterpart from the village shows up and you have to keep your composure.

Bush Meat

Last weekend we returned home to our host family early one day. Our mother was discussing the contents of a plastic bag with one of the neighbor kids. We walked up and saw a large hunk of meat/bone hanging out of the bag. Our mother looked and us and then told the kid she didn’t want it. I asked the kid what it was and he said “viande de brosse” (bush meat) and called it (what sounded like) “chakal”. Our mother asked if we wanted to try it since she was sensing now that we might not be scared of it. Amy and I looked at each other, nodded, and said “sure”. I continued to ask the kid more questions while our sister immediately threw it in a pot over the fire to add to our rice and sauce. After a short conversation we agreed that it was “like a large dog that lives out in the bush” (we think - jackal). Anyway, we ate jackal for the next two days. Not something I would have imagined doing, and actually enjoying, just two months ago.

I read a quote the other day that conveniently fits with our current eating habits in Guinea. The book is “A Walk in the Woods” by Bill Bryson. He is discussing some of the rigors related to his experience hiking the Appalachian Trail.

“Hunger, too, follows a defined pattern. On the first night you’re starving for your noodles; on the second night you’re starving but wish it wasn’t noodles; on the third you don’t want the noodles but know you had better eat something; by the fourth you have no appetite at all but just eat because that is what you do at this time of day.”

Just exchange rice and sauce with noodles and you get some insight into our daily routine. I have lost 20 lbs. and Amy has lost about 10 lbs. We are very excited to get to our sites where we can cook for ourselves.

I thought I would add in a couple of pictures since CH was talking about meat...

We were driving to Mamou for our counterpart workshop, and our driver pulls to the side of the road next to a market with a meat stand (pictured above, notice the vultures). The driver gets out of the car and buys a couple slabs of meat, then ties them on the side of the landcruiser (pictured below) and we continued on our way. We ate the meat with noodles for dinner that night. The next night we had chicken. There were 60 people to feed, which in the states would involve going to Sam's to buy prepared food in bulk, here it involves 5 Guinean women outside slaughtering and cleaning 30 chickens behind the compound. You really begin to appreciate the time and energy that goes into a meat dinner, or any meal here for that matter.

A couple of weeks ago we went on a visit to our future site and stayed for 3 days. We are in the Fouta Djallon region of the country. It is the mountainous part of Guinea, less humid, much cooler, down to around 50 degrees at night which is wonderful, and beautiful. When you arrive in the village all you see is a dirt crossroads and a couple of little huts, the village is hidden and spread out through the hills. Most of the people speak only Pular, the younger kids and more educated are the only ones that speak French. It is a very conservative village, mostly all Muslim, the men wear long robes and little bonnets and the women where long skirts and scarves. Everyone seemed very nice and welcoming and curious about the white people in town. Definitely different from Forecariah. The kids in Forecariah see you from a mile away, starting running after you and yelling foute. We were sitting on our front porch in the village and eventually noticed a group of about 10 kids sitting at the top of the hill staring at us, we didn't even know they were there. In Forecariah those kids would be in our laps and holding our hands.

We should be installed in our village by the end of this week.

Our Village Fouta Djallon Region

Here is a compilation of photos from our training in Forecariah.

The last couple of weeks have consisted of sensabilizations (presentations to the community), learning a bit of Pular, and french level tests. Chris-Heijn gave a presentation to the local farmers on improved gardening techniques and composting in the garden they had created, all in French I might add. I presented to a classroom of high schoolers the concept of Family Planning to prevent Aids/Stds and unwanted pregnancies. If you notice in the pictures of the school, it is like going back in time. Small cement classroom with wooden benches in chairs. This is a private school, so it is slightly nicer than the public schools. If you look on their desks all you will see is notebooks, no books, not even at the private school. They learn from copying down whatever the teacher writes on the board, basically rote memory, no hands on activities or visuals. As an example of how this affects what they know, of my brothers told me, I can describe to you what a polar bear is and where it lives but I don't know what it looks like. They draw and write down all sorts of chemistry experiments in the notebooks, but never actually do one. The most suprising overall for me is there are almost no books in this country. At the market they sell a few used textbooks and some random used french reading books, but even they are hard to come by. We bought a few simple science textbooks that had lots of pictures in them to give our family, and they happened to be the right grade level for our brother, Pepe and sister Mariama. They were so excited they started jumping up and down, singing and proceeded to look through the textbooks all day and carry them with them to school everyday! Used science books! For all the teachers reading this, a good story to use in the classroom to remind our U.S. students how lucky they are, but they probably can't even imagine this.

I have had about 8 sessions of Pular and can barely greet someone in it, tell them my name and that I am married. It is hard, for instance there are 3 ways to say I and two sets of numbers, one for counting things and another for counting people. French on the other hand is much better, Chris- Heijn and I both passed our language tests, and CH for coming here with barely any French can now hold a good conversation in it.

So our training is now over, and today we swear in and will be official Peace Corps Volunteers... the real part begins.

Peace Corps Training in Forecariah

Happy New Year from Guinea!

We are in Conakry for the day to celebrate, use the internet and pick up letters and packages (Thanks Mom de Vries, Mom Urban and Aunt Betty and Natalie) . It was like Christmas for everyone with all the arrived mail! We were not able to come to Conakry for Christmas because of the Coup, so the last post was a letter I had written my mother (thanks mom and dad). As for the political situation here, the transition has been very peaceful and positive, most Guineans are excited and celebrating, and it is hopefully a step forward for the progress of Guinea. If you have any more interest in the topic, give us a call or email or check out the http://www.bbc.com/ website, they have great up to date information.

So much has happened since we have been here that it is hard to know where to begin telling you about it. We have decided to put up a bunch of pictures and give little descriptions with our small slot of internet time. Let the fun begin... Our first few minutes with our new family at our adoption ceremony. The ceremony involved lots of dancing, a shared meal, and lots of speeches that we didn't understand.

Our new home/room. Amy is wondering which hole is the toilet and which hole is the drain for the shower. The bed is actually pretty comfortable when the temperature dips below 85 degrees at night. You can see the bucket that we use for bathing just behind Amy's right leg. We use a small cup to pour the well water over our heads. The yellow container is carrying pump water back to the house which we then filter and add bleach to before drinking.

This is our brother Sadjo teaching me how to do laundry. The first time he let me wash two items of clothing and told me I was not doing it right. The next time he let me wash everything, but watched and laughed, and kept correcting my form telling me to put more soap on and use more force. Needless to say, washing is quite the workout and I am pretty sure our clothes are cleaner than any washing machine could make them. Our National Geographic walk to school everyday from our house. There is always smoke in the air from cooking and burning trash. We pass women sitting over fires cooking rice, bare breasted chopping wood and lots of kids yelling Bonjour, i Kena or Foute. My first tree nursery. I did an environmental education program with one of the local schools teaching the kids the importance of different tree species (in French, sort of). We re-used water sachets(bags of water sold in the market) to plant the seeds. The kids are now partially responsible for the nursery. I meet them every other day at the school to water and maintain. Me with Abdul(the agroforestry trainer) at our community garden. The farmer behind us was very interested in our techniques and ended up copying us shortly after (making a difference already!). I spend time here at least every other day after classes.

For our health classes we do a lot of hands on learning with the local community. One of our classes was on breastfeeding and child nutrition, and three local mothers came with their babies. We taught them proper breastfeeding techniques, weighed their babies and taught them to make bouille, which is rice, bananas, fish powder and veggies boiled down to make a nutritous weaning meal. This picture is of me helping weigh one of the little ones who actually was underweight and so we talked with the mother about how to bring him to a healthy weight and have been monitoring progress for the past week.I took this picture on one of our runs to the small river outside of town. Another volunteer (Paul) has been joining us for our runs. This is the larger river where we go on the weekends to relax, play soccer with the locals, or go for a swim.

Our first Guinean outfits made by a tailor in the market. We look a bit silly but it's comfortable and the locals seem to appreciate it.

There is so much more we want to share but only so much time, take a look at the other volunteer's blogs for more pictures and perspective. Happy New Year!!

It is hard to know where to begin, but a good word would be primitive. We had our adoption ceremony which consisted of lots of dancing and meeting our families. We were so happy because we got one of the cutest families. The mother is probably 40 and has 7 children, the husband is deceased, but she has a new husband (who does not live where we do). The oldest son is in his 20's and the youngest daughter is 10. There are 4 boys and 3 girls, and the 17 yr. old daughter has a 10-day old infant who lives here with us. On our way home from the ceremony, we had to bring all our luggage about a mile, and one of the brothers was trying to roll a piece of luggage. At one point, the 10 yr. old daughter told them to let her take it and they placed the 50 lb. bag on her head and she walked happily home with it. Getting to our house involves walking down a dirt road, veering off onto a smaller path through trees, small "compounds" (a few small houses with fire pits, chickens, goats, a well) and weaving our way past all the kids yelling "Foute" which means "white person."

Our Africa mom and all the children speak French, and are very intelligent, always studying. The first day they were teaching us Susi and asking for help with their English. They are all very clean, keep the house very clean and seem to understand hygiene. (Many other families are not as well versed.) Our food has been far superior to other volunteers, breakfast: hot tea, a baguette, hard boiled eggs, peanut butter, honey and a pineapple. Dinner is usually rice and spicy sauce with veggies and meat. I can hear the kids practicing English outside right now with a chalkboard. Overall, they are all so nice, welcoming and grateful.

The other night we sat out on the porch with the mom and all the kids and gave them some of the gifts we brought (AB hats, lotion, Simpson puzzles and lifesavers) and they were so excited. It was fun describing the flavors of the candy. We all crowded around a small table under the one light bulb (electricity only comes on every other day from 6pm-12am) and the little kids put the puzzles together while the mom and older sons helped answer questions for our French/Guinean culture homework.

As far as the house, we have a brick wall around our compound, a long cement house, a goat house, a well, fire/outdoor kitchen and a front porch. Our room is 12x12 with an "Asian bed", a table and a window. Our toilette is a door in our room that opens to a small drain and a hole in the floor with foot steps. It is so hot here that taking a bucket bath isn't too bad, it's refreshing. Our bath water comes from a well, and drinking water from a pump which we put through a filter and add a couple of drops of bleach to it. Although, we can also get bottled water from the market.

The market is mostly local vegetables and meat with fabric and some other random items. Definitely are missing lots of food from back home, good stuff to send: oatmeal packets, mac and cheese , gatorade powder, desserts :).

It is very surreal to be here, but I feel very comfortable and the Guineans are so friendly and excited we are here. Our days have been very busy with french class, health, safety and culture classes. I think I am over my fear of shots. We had lunch at the PC training building yesterday and while we were all eating we took turns going to the front of the room and getting shots in both arms from our PC doctor. (He is Romanian, and very funny and good humored and very good at giving painless shots).

Thus far I have not gotten sick. Chris-Heijn had an upset stomach, but that is it. We have been running a bit, one of our brothers took us on a run, a tour to both rivers here (a small creek and a river 1/2 the size of the Mississippi.) Very pretty rolling hills with palm trees and other crazy trees, dirt roads and rice fields.

We now have a cell phone which is posted on the right of our blog under our address.

This is the main road that leads to the airport.

The front of the Peace Corp compound where we are currently spending our days.

Amy and I during an ice breaker session with other trainees, current volunteers, and staff. This is the roof of the compound which looks over a beach and the ocean on one side and the city and a Mosque on the other.

As of December 9th we will be leaving Conakry to live with our families and start our official language, cultural, and technical trainings. Our ability to communicate with those of you outside of Guinea will be greatly reduced. We will not have internet or phone access until around Christmas sometime. We will make every effort to update our blog as soon as possible.We have been having a fantastic time and are looking forward to the next stage. The Guinean staff makes every effort to ease our transition into our new lives (they have been very patient and friendly).

Some of the things that will change on 12/09:

1. Food will be rice and sauce eaten (with our right hand only) out of a shared bowl with our families.

2. We will switch to the water method (this is a complicated process using a bucket, a plastic tea kettle, water, our left hand, and a small hole in the ground all of which is suppose to replace toilet paper).

3. We will be speaking only French and Susu.

4. "Shower" is no longer a word in our vocabulary. "Shower" now means a shallow bowl, a cup, and around 1-2 gallons of water. It's also suggested that we wash our clothes at the same time.

5. I'm sure there are many other changes that we can update you on in the near future.

Enjoy the pictures. They are courtesy of two of our fellow volunteers Ben and Sacha.

After a day in Philidelphia for orientation and the start of our immunizations, including the first malaria pill, and a quick flight across the Atlantic we are in Guinea!

The welcome at the Guinea airport by the PC staff and volunteers was awesome, they came and helped with our bags, brought us bottled water and loaded us into a small PC bus and 4 land cruisers. Quite the spectacle. Driving to the Peace Corps compound was like jumping into an African movie, women in colorful outfits carrying baskets on their heads, children running around, dogs, chickens, crazy cars.

The PC compound is a great transition and its own little world inside of Africa, internet, air conditioning, bunkbeds, running water, sort of like a tiny college campus. We had one meal of rice and fish (barracuda, which Chris-Heijn ate the head) and vegetables (eggplant, sweet potato, tomatoes, peppers), and we had another meal of pasta, part of easing us into the total African lifestyle. The big transition will be in a couple of days when we go to our families. For now we are enjoying the little luxuries, and going through a bit of orientation for training.

Our training group consists of 29 people, some just out of college, a few in their 40s and/or 50s, a few around our age and another couple. Everyone has been very friendly and we have had many interesting conversations about everyone's previous adventures. We are surrounded by a lot of like minded people.

We are now off to have breakfast, have language interviews and get a briefing on training, we will keep you updated.

Only two more weeks and we will be on our way to Guinea. The map below shows our journey. We have a two day orientation in Philadelphia, then we fly from JFK to Dakar, Senegal (8 hours) and Dakar to Conakry, Guinea (2 hours). Not too bad of a travel plan for going to Africa.

View Larger Map

Our packing is in progress, meaning we have everything we are bringing scattered over an entire room and have yet to start figuring out how it will fit into our bags. I am sure you are wondering what you pack for two years in Africa, it is like packing for an extended camping trip; headlamps, pillows, sleeping bags, coffee press, spices, water bottles, toiletries, bike helmet, towels, writing paper, ipod... The most interesting purchase we made is a solar charger for charging camera batteries and the ipod. We can plug any small a/c or usb electronics into it, pretty amazing green technology.

We have an address!  I put it on the side of the blog page.  We should have decent internet access for the first two months of training, but when we go to our post letters will be more frequent than internet.  It does take 3-4 weeks to receive mail so don't be discouraged, patience is a virtue.  Please write us and we will write you back! 

Lately I have had many questions as to why we are going into the Peace Corps, so I thought I would expound upon my thoughts.  To begin with it is a complicated decision with many reasons, no one more important than another.  I see the Peace Corps as a way to develop a better understanding of the world, learn another culture, learn about living a simpler less materialistic life,  understand another way of thinking, learn more about myself, learn another language, teach Africans about Americans, teach Americans about Africans, be an environmental educator, educate women on health and reproduction... Overall I think education and understanding are the underlying themes, because I think it is through these ideas that we have hope for our rapidly globalizing planet and whatever progress small or large I make at least I am working toward the idea of a better world.  And even though I don't know what our specific projects will be or what we will be able to accomplish, I know that we will have an eye opening, life changing experience.

We had a Halloween Party last weekend in St. Louis before we left. Everyone got into the spirit and dressed up, carved pumpkins, and roasted marshmellows over the bonfire. Thanks especially to my Mom and Dad who let us turn their house into a haunted house completely lit with candles, and luckily we managed to keep the house from burning down.

On our way to Marco Island, we stopped in Tennesse with Mike and Pam who graciously welcomed us into their cute new house in the rolling hills next to a beautiful lake.

We then stopped in Brooksville, FL to stay with Kevin who took us out on his boat to a crystal clear spring where we jumped in and swam with the manatees which was incredible, and to see the famous Weeki Wachi mermaids. The weeki wachi mermaids are amazing, it is an underwater theatre built in 1947 on a crystal clear spring and women dressed as mermaids swim underwater for an hour breathing air from hoses while enacting a play. Needless to say they are in great shape.

Now we are on warm and sunny Marco Island enjoying our last few weeks with Jill and Ewout. I hope everyone went out and voted today!

We only have about a month left before we begin our African Journey, so I thought I would go into a little more detail on what we will be doing.

Before I begin on Guinea, I have been reading interesting information on Africa as a whole. Africa is quite an intriguing continent. One great resource I discovered was a National Geographic Special Issue magazine entitled: Africa Whatever you thought, think again. It was published a couple of years ago and is composed of articles written by scientists, researchers and aid workers who have spent a significant amount of time in Africa. The theme is summed up by one line from the editor: "My hope and belief is that Africa can be a model for the world in finding a balance between the needs of people and the needs of wild places."

A brief history on Africa... Africa, as many of you know, is known as the 'cradle of humankind', since humans have inhabited this continent longer than any other. Because of this, many microbes have had the time to evolve into human diseases which is one reason diseases are so prevalent in Africa. On the other hand, many big animals have been able to survive side by side with humans for millions of years which lends to the reason why there are so many big animals still living in Africa. Seeing as humans have inhabited Africa the longest, you wonder why there is so much poverty and economic instability in Africa. The modern world came about when plants were domesticated and people did not have to move from place to place. Only a very small amount of plants and animals in the world are able to be domesticated, and most are not native to Africa. However, Africa does have an abundance of natural resources such as bauxite, diamonds, oil, and forest products, but western nations and corporations have taken advantage of these and all the profits that are created. These challenges make Africa an interesting place to explore science and economics.

The articles in the National Geographic include a scientist who flew 70,000 miles over Africa documenting the wild places and creating a database for scientists to work together in saving the wild places of Africa, various Africans trying to start movements against corporations who are taking their natural resources, and a profile of young Africans in Nairobi who are taking steps through education to bring Kenya ahead in the world. Overall they are stories of struggles and challenges, with underlying messages of hope for the advancement and preservation of Africa, it's cultures and wild places.

Guinea, West Africa fits into this picture in a couple of different ways and it is probably best explained by describing what Chris-Heijn and I will be doing there. As a health educator I will be working with a local health clinic educating women on child nutrition, HIV/AIDS, sanitation, and pregnancy prevention. One of the biggest problems with Africa, and the rest of the world for that matter, is population growth. More people means less resources for everyone to use, and Africa has one of the highest birth rates on the globe.

As an agroforester, Chris-Heijn will be working with local farmers teaching them how to incorporate trees into their agriculture practices. Currently farmers are cutting down the rain forests to plant crops, and this is causing desertification. Remember Guinea is on the edge of the Sahara desert, and by cutting down the forests the soil erodes away and the land becomes useless for agriculture, like a desert. The Sahara desert has a large impact on the amount of dust in the air, and sometimes these dust particles come in masses to Florida and the Caribbean causing red tides and lower air quality. A bigger desert is not beneficial. Chris-Heijn will be teaching them how to keep the forest and be able to grow their crops so that desertification is prevented. Amazing how the whole world is connected!

Lastly, I received a well-known adventure travel company magazine last week and was suprised to find that Guinea is one of the newly featured countries for travel. Since Guinea has been closed to tourists in the past, it is a relatively untouched place with lots of potential for eco tourism. It is interesting to look at the itinerary, the website for the trip is: www.mtsobek.com/mts/gui.

So since we were supposed to leave for Africa in September and are not leaving until December, we have found ourselves with a space of time to fill. Luckily we both have wonderful parents who are always willing to take in their nomadic children.

We have been in St. Louis since August, and during that time Chris-Heijn's parents have been up to visit and we have found jobs at the local winery.

Now all those of you who live in Missouri are aware of the many wonderful things to do here, but to outsiders the word Missouri brings images of corn fields and back country folk. Therefore when CH's parents visited we wanted to show them what Missouri is all about. And while we do have many corn fields, we thought it much more exciting to introduce them to the King of Beers. Thanks to my Dad we had ourselves a private tour of the brewery...

Budweiser fashion: hats, headphones and eye protection, beer making is quite the endeavor.

Yes, it is what it looks like. For those of you who have been on the regular brewery tour, and have only imagined tapping and drinking from one of the giant beer vats...here it is, we stood in a room chilled to 40 degrees and drank from the vat a cold unpasteurized Budweiser!

In addition to being known for beer and Clydesdales, Missouri also has its share of wineries. It is actually the second largest producing wine state in the United States, after California of course. My parents happen to live in wine country which led to Chris-Heijn and I finding jobs at the newest local winery (it opened 8 weeks ago), Chandler Hill Vineyards (www.chandlerhillvineyards.com). It is an idealistic setting overlooking the vineyards and hills, very reminiscent of California. Not a bad way to spend our months before Africa, serving and drinking wines and fantastic food. We even took a couple of work pictures...

Do we look posed? We were actually working which explains the empty glasses.

Belly up to the bar! I light the candles every day. (j/k, a gnome does it, actually they are electric, but I get that question at least once a day).

So other than becoming wine experts we are researching Guinea (a great book and easy read: The Dark Child an autobiography by Camara Laye who grew up in Guinea) and beginning to gather together essential items for the trip to Africa. Our plan is to leave Missouri at the end of October and begin our journey to Marco Island, FL where we will stay until we leave. We will stop and see anyone we drive by, and will be down in the Keys to visit at some point in November. In the meantime start dusting off your writing utensils and stationary...

GUINEA, WEST AFRICA!!!

Orientation Dates: December 1-3, 2008

Dates of Service: December 2008 - February 2011

Chris-Heijn's Job Title: Agroforester

Amy's Job Title: Health Educator

From what I have read, Guinea is going to be a true Peace Corps experience, mud huts with thatched roofs, no electricity or running water. Guinea is officially a French speaking country but from 1958 until 1984 Guinea was under self-imposed isolation with a highly centralized government control. This means Guinea has very little development, a strong local culture, most people speak local languages as opposed to French, and it is considered one of the poorest countries in the world. It is suppose to be a beautiful country with many rivers and waterfalls referred to by some as the 'Switzerland of Africa', and has thus far been undiscovered by tourism because of its history. I have found a couple of websites that have great pictures, but there is not a whole lot of information on it, mostly on guinea pigs. I have included a map of Guinea on the side of the web page with a list of links under it for more information on Guinea.

Comte de Sanderval, a French explorer, described Guinea as follows,

"Country of rivers. I was taken by your brilliant clouds, ribbons that cut across cotton, your immense green spaces, so powerful and not hostile. I climbed your welcoming mountains and looked at your grand rivers populated with alligators. I penetrated your smothering forests. Where sacred dancing finds its frenzy, elsewhere still, I encountered your handsome robed men overseeing their herds. And above all, I saw lightning and the thunder and gray curtain of rain tumble."

So I finally get to write something about the Peace Corps! As most of you know we were suppose to leave for PC in September, but something did not work out (we don't know exactly what because of course they never tell you anything). We have been going back and forth with our placement officer, and finally today we received an email that we have been INVITED to the Peace Corps! Of course we don't know what country we are going to yet or when we are going, although we think it is November, but we do know that we will find out whenever the mail person delivers our invitation. Therefore if we talk to you in a week we may actually be able to say, "Absolutely we know what country we are going to it is XYZ!" I may actually call all of you just so I can say those wonderful words that I have been longing to say since September of last year.

In the meantime I have been keeping up on Peace Corps news, and ran across this article which I thought was interesting...

Peace Corps to Pare Ranks of Volunteers

Despite Bush's Goal of Doubling Program's Size, Tight Budget Forces Cuts

By Christopher Lee

Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, August 22, 2008; A15

The Peace Corps, the popular service program that President Bush once promised to double in size, is preparing to cut back on new volunteers and consolidate recruiting offices as it pares other costs amid an increasingly tight budget, according to agency officials.

The program, which has a budget of $330.8 million, is facing an anticipated shortfall of about $18 million this fiscal year and next, officials say. Much of the gap can be attributed to the declining value of the dollar overseas and the rising cost of energy and other commodities, officials said. That inflates expenses for overseas leases, volunteer living costs and salaries for staff abroad, most of whom are paid in local currencies.

Those factors "have materially reduced our available resources and spending power," Peace Corps Director Ronald A. Tschetter wrote in a July 22 letter to Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), a member of the House Appropriations subcommittee that funds the program. "Tough budgetary decisions must be made now in order to ensure a financially healthy agency next fiscal year," he added.

The agency estimates its foreign- currency-related losses at $9.2 million for fiscal 2008 alone, spokeswoman Amanda Beck said yesterday.

In part, the program is caught in the political standoff between lawmakers and the president over the federal budget. If, as seems likely, Democrats delay final passage of the spending bills that fund the government until after Bush leaves office next year, programs such as the Peace Corps could be forced to operate at current funding levels indefinitely, administration officials said.

Beck said the agency could experience another $9 million in losses in fiscal 2009 in a "worst-case scenario" in which the agency has to operate under a year-long continuing resolution.

But that scenario is very unlikely, McCollum said yesterday, noting that her subcommittee has signed off on the agency's $343.5 million budget request and its Senate counterpart has approved $337 million.

"It's only going to be a short amount of time before a new budget gets through, and the Congress is committed to moving Peace Corps in an upward direction," she said, adding that the agency should ask for short-term supplemental funding if it needs it.

Beck said the "best course of action" would be for Congress to approve the president's full budget request.

In a July 21 letter to Tschetter, McCollum wrote that she had "serious doubts" about the agency's plan to close regional recruiting offices in Minneapolis and Denver by Jan. 1.

"It is my goal to see a growing number of highly qualified, diverse and determined Americans of all ages committing themselves to serve our country as Peace Corps volunteers," she wrote. "Achieving this goal will require . . . a strong nationwide recruiting presence."

Tschetter described the closures as "mergers" with other offices in Chicago and Dallas that are part of a move toward a "field-based recruiting model" expected to save $1.5 million. Thirteen people will be reassigned to other jobs in the agency, officials said.

The tight fiscal climate also means an anticipated scaling back in new volunteers next year by 400, wiping out planned growth and leaving the overall number of volunteers at about 8,000, according to Tschetter. Volunteers serve for 27 months and are paid a stipend of about $2,500 annually.

Managers at Peace Corps headquarters in Washington have been asked to cut their budgets by 15.5 percent. The agency even plans to stop providing copies of Newsweek magazine to volunteers in the field, something it has done since the 1980s. (Newsweek is owned by The Washington Post Co., parent company of The Washington Post.)

"It just seemed like an extravagance," Beck said. "Everything is under consideration, including the director's travel."

Kevin Quigley, president of the National Peace Corps Association, a nonprofit group of former volunteers, said, "I worry about what the [budgetary] implications are for the next president, who we anticipate will have plans to expand Peace Corps."

Established in 1961 by President Kennedy, the Peace Corps provides skilled volunteers to other countries while promoting mutual understanding between Americans and people of other nations. About 190,000 volunteers have served in 139 countries since its inception.

The 8,079 volunteers today number the most in 37 years but are far fewer than the goal of 14,000 by fiscal 2007 that Bush set in his 2002 State of the Union speech.

Expanding the program remains a popular idea.

Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has pledged to double the size of the Peace Corps by 2011. Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), his Republican counterpart, has praised national service and said there should have been a stronger national push to encourage people to join the Peace Corps and other volunteer organizations after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

We finally made it to northern Maine where we visited Chris-Heijn's grandparents and then continued on to stay with the Berce family(Chris-Heijn's aunt and uncle). The sun decided to come out for two days so Uncle Ned organized a camping trip to Deboullie mountain/lake. Amy and I drove out to the site with Brandon and Elsie(cousins, got camp set and did a bit of late afternoon canoeing/fishing. On the way we had to cross a flooded thoroughfare that made Amy a bit nervous. The area had just received 8 inches of rain in the previous two days. Our first night was down in the 40s but we kept warm with a roaring fire, plenty of beer, and a bottle of tequila. The next day we were joined by Uncle Ned and Aunt Carol for a hiking trip to the top of the mountain(where we climbed the aging fire tower). For our final night Ned, Brandon, and I headed into the woods with waders, fly rods, and more beer to fish for trout on the remote Black Lakes. It was a fantastic trip. Thank you Berce family for making our visit a great one!

After our camping adventure in Maine we decided to head home through Canada instead of back tracking through Maine. After yet another night camping in the rain in Quebec(we have seen three days of sunshine in the last two weeks) we decided to speed up our trip. We stayed just outside Montreal the next night and then drove for 24 hours through two provinces and 6 states to home in St.Louis. Here are a few of the pictures from the trip:

Bathing in Long Lake at the Berce house, Spud thinks I'm crazy.

No, we didn't fly back to France. The old city in Quebec could have been any number of towns we visited in France.

Crossing the border at Niagara Falls.

Amy in the mist. Look closely, you'll see a tourist boat nearing the falls.

If you are not receiving emails when I update our blog, email me at amyurbandevries@gmail.com and I will add you to my list. Also, thank you Uncle Mike for the great book Ishmael, you have inspired us to add a part of it to our blog. Read the book if you have not already, it makes you think...

Here are a few more pictures from the road:

Eastport, ME on the Bay of Fundy, home to the largest tidal fluctuations in the world. This boat was floating in the same spot only two hours earlier.

Home of the "Old Sow", a whirlpool created from strong opposing tides and currents. It is featured in one of the Blue Planet videos.

Cobbscook Bay, our most beautiful campsite along the Maine coast. We were right on the cliff edge with nobody else near us. If we hadn't eaten already we could have feasted on mussels and clams easily collected at a low tide from the bay below.

Below you will find a slideshow with some of the pictures from our travels from Florida to Maine. Starting in the Florida Keys at the beginning of June we drove North to Aunt Diane and Uncle Steve's in Mt. Dora for a couple of days of boating. We continued to Georgia and spent two weeks in Blairsville preparing for our wedding. A fun wedding weekend, then over to France and back, and then continued our way north. We stopped in Annapolis, Maryland to stay with Margaret and her family, toured Washington D.C. and had a fabulous blue crab feast on the Bay. After a grueling drive to Manhattan we stayed with Ana and Nico in their small but cute apartment in New York, did lots of walking, but ate great food and had a fantastic time. From there it was Connecticut to Aunt Tobin's where we learned to milk a goat, and then we continued camping up the coast to Maine. We are currently in Acadia National Park doing many beautiful hikes, swimming in lakes and the ocean and enjoying the cool weather. I will try to keep you more updated on the next leg of our journey. If any of you have pictures from our trip please email them to me and I will add them to the slideshow. Thank you to everyone thus far for your hospitality and the good times and if we have not visited you yet, we may be knocking on your door soon!

*******UPDATE*******

I am adding this picture on August 13th because it is more relevant now considering the Olympic Games are in progress. We got the chance to see two Olympic athletes answering questions from the crowd prior to the New York Half-Marathon while visiting Nico and Ana. Dathan Ritzenhien is the 2nd place finisher from the U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon and Catherine Ndereba is the top Kenyan female marathoner nicknamed "Catherine the Great".

Riding horses in the Carmargue wetlands

Preparing to go canyoning in the Gorge du Verdon Amy jumping through one of the thousands of fields of lavender.

Chris-Heijn paragliding in Moustiers Ste. Marie

Amy relaxing on the beach in Nice just before sunset.

We have attached a slide show of pictures from the wedding to the blog below (Photos by Ewout de Vries). Click on it to make it larger. Thank you to our family and friends who helped make our wedding weekend fun and memorable!

Shivering at the base of the mountain.

About halfway to the top the pace started to slow and the pain started to show (notice the gap between us, we were not talking anymore)

Relaxing at the top. From here you can see 3-4 states depending on the visibility, today was a 4 state day.It's 10 days till our wedding so we thought we should get a little exercise and burn off some of those calories we have been consuming in the form of good beer, wine, and Mom's home cooking. We got to the base of the highest mountain in Georgia (Brasstown Bald) at about 8:00 am and the temperature was 50 degrees. Ewout and Jill joined us to take some pictures and give us water and encouragement along the way. From the entrance of the park it is about an 1,800 foot elevation change and 5 kilometers to the top of the mountain. Brasstown Bald rises above all other mountains in Georgia for a total height of 4,784 above sea level. It was an incredibly scenic and exhausting run with only one section of about 50 feet that levels out to near flat. We finished the run in a respectable, but definitely not blistering, total time of 44:05.

All photos are courtesy of Dad (Ewout Rijk de Vries).

Descending to 100 feetSwimming around the cable reel on the bowPeering out of the wheelhouse Matt and Chris with 2 speared black grouper

This past weekend we dove the Thunderbolt wreck off of Marathon in 120 feet of water. It was the first deep dive either of us has completed and was incredible. A brief history... the Thunderbolt was commissioned as a U.S. Army cable laying boat in 1942 and then used as a lightning research vessel by Florida Power and Light. In 1986 she sank in the Miami Harbor, and was brought to the Middle Keys to serve as an artificial reef. Chris-Heijn and I did this dive as part of our advanced certification, so we were guided down by our fantastic dive instructor Mike, and required to do math problems at depth. We descended through brillant blue water with 80 feet of visibility, and swam through and around the vessel spotting moray eels, 600 pound goliath grouper, lots of arrow crabs, schools of fish and encrusted coral. As we were touring the wreck, Matt was busy spearing two 38 pound black groupers, which we happily enjoyed for dinner that evening.

5:30 am prerace strategy meeting

one of the many baton exchanges on US 1

3rd place finish in Key West

The Keys Ultramarathon was a 100 mile race from Key Largo to Key West with all the proceeds supporting prostate cancer research. Overall, 7 individual runners finshed the 100 miles, 15 individual runners finished the 50 miler, and 17 relay teams finished the 100 miler. We were on a relay team of 6 people which involved us passing off with a slap bracelet, piling into a car filled with food, water and beer, and honking and cheering for runners on the way to the next handoff. Despite all the heat, driving, and mishaps (such as running an extra 2 miles because a pedestrian bridge was closed and one of our team members rolling over a car at an intersection) we had a fantastic experience interacting with each other, other teams and finshing in Key West 3rd place overall ready to celebrate.