Apparently a year has passed since I left the US. Im marking the anniversary by spending three weeks where I got started in Guinea Forecariah. Im helping train a new group of volunteers that got here at the beginning of the month. For all there friends and family that may be reading theyre doing really well and I know I can speak for the other volunteers and say that all their energy
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For a long time I've had absolutely no desire to go to Europe. So it's surprising to me that I'm now in Spain for the second time this year. How on earth did I get hereTwo days ago ...330 AM Leave Bamako with about 10 other volunteers800 AM Get to Casablanca Take fellow volunteer Julie to the train station to meet up with my friend Zak in Rabat Your mother is looking for you Polic
After three weeks and four cities I'm headed back to Guinea. Of course there are a few speed bumps and pit stops along the way. When I got to the airport they told me I was two days late for my flight and out of luck. As person after person failed to find me in the system I calculated all the money I had on me even in Guinean Francs and wondered if it would be enough to buy another ticket.
The following are exerts of emails that I sent out during my time in Mali.October 9 2009Ok so here's the deal. Yesterday I left Guinea. We can't say we were evacuated but that's what happened. I'm currently just outside of Bamako. I'll be here for 24 weeks. It doesn't look like we'll be allowed to go back to Guinea. But there's no final word yet. You may be seeing me really soon. I don'
11 February 2008Yesterday for dinner we went to a restaurant and ordered hamburgers. We got hard boiled eggs covered with a thin layer of ground beef swimming in a pool of oil and cold french fries. We opted to make our own dinner tonight and made pancakes with chocolate sauce mexican eggs salsa guacamole and garlic bread. A little random but amazing.12 February 2008Yesterday we went shoppi
The rainy season is finally here There's no more school so all the college and high school students come back to the village for the vacation. No more ridiculously hot weather. And my favorite no more relying on a well 15 minutes away for all my water. Now it's delivered to me straight off my roof. Far from being a vacation time everyone is working more than usual. Practically everyone
24 February 2008Abdelrahmane just told me that heaving breathing outside my window every night was sorcery and that when he hears he runs away. Scared out of my mind I kept asking him questions After about 20 minutes and thanks to the EnglishPular dictionary that some missionaries made I learned that ldquobird of sorceryrdquo means owl in Pular. This revelation made me feel better until
Sorry for the late entry everyone and it won't be a great one at that ... I have to run and get to the taxi stand. I went down to Conakry for the 4th of July and gorged on lots of American style food but was asked to leave immediately afterwards to show the new Country Director my village. We've have a great staff here in Guinea and the new director and his wife are only adding to it all.S
Ok kids here's the deal. I'm still hanging out in Guinea 18 months down 8 to go. A year ago I started fundraising through Peace Corps to renovate the elementary school in my village. This thing was built by the French back in the day when colonization was still in style. In the 50 years since then no repairs have been made. So basically it looks like a bomb hit it. If it were in the
Irsquom going to try to be as respectful as possible while writing this however Irsquom sure that at some point Irsquoll fail. For this I apologize to whomever I offend.A year and half ago if you asked me I would have told you that hardline feminists annoy the hell out of me. They still do most anyway. That is to say women who said the only reason they wanted Clinton for president was
24 March 2008Irsquove been having some bad days and getting disspirited. I often feel like my French is getting worse and that Irsquom not learning any Pular. I always feel like Irsquom not doing enough and often that Irsquom doing nothing at all. I was horrified when I realized in one week Irsquod finished reading 3 books compared to the 5 I read in the first two months.But then t
Disclaimer The contents of this page and all links appearing on this page do not represent the positions views or intents of the U.S. Government United States Peace Corps or Peace Corps Guinea. Kindly do not republish anything found on these pages without explicit permission of the author.I wake up at 730. I rush out of bed. I have to meet someone at 8. I quickly get dressed and run up t
The following are exerts of emails that I sent out during my time in Mali.October 9 2009Ok so here's the deal. Yesterday I left Guinea. We can't say we were evacuated but that's what happened. I'm currently just outside of Bamako. I'll be here for 24 weeks. It doesn't look like we'll be allowed to go back to Guinea. But there's no final word yet. You may be seeing me really soon. I don'
The following are exerts of emails that I sent out during my time in Mali.October 9 2009Ok so here's the deal. Yesterday I left Guinea. We can't say we were evacuated but that's what happened. I'm currently just outside of Bamako. I'll be here for 24 weeks. It doesn't look like we'll be allowed to go back to Guinea. But there's no final word yet. You may be seeing me really soon. I don'
Saturday around 6 PM I said goodbye to my Dad and hopped the train to the Barcelona airport. My flight with Royal Air Maroc Royal Moroccan Airlines was scheduled to leave around 9 PM. However when I checked in they told me the flight was delayed an hour. After I got through security I saw on the monitors that I was now leaving around 11 PM. After grabbing something to eat the little TVs
After three weeks and four cities I'm headed back to Guinea. Of course there are a few speed bumps and pit stops along the way. When I got to the airport they told me I was two days late for my flight and out of luck. As person after person failed to find me in the system I calculated all the money I had on me even in Guinean Francs and wondered if it would be enough to buy another ticket.
I know I know ... what the heck am I doing in Spain Three weeks ago my Dad managed to call me it is possible and informed that I'd be meeting him in Barcelona on the 16th. Why Barcelona The Catalonian capital was chosen to host the 33rd World Convention of Narcotics Anonymous WCNA. So here we are along with about 50007000 NA fellows.So this week thousands of recovering addicts from
After getting the last seat on two different flights I arrived in Barcelona on Sunday. My baggage didn't quite make it but I didn't expect to make it myself let alone my bag so no big loss. My Dad got here a couple hours later and together we took the train into the city. We headed to our simple but gorgeous hotel. One it's most attractive features is that it is right in the middle of Las R
That's right today 35 of us we're sworen in as Peace Corps Volunteers in the beautiful country of Guinea. We've officially started our 24 months of service Crazy stuff. I'm really excited and nervous at the same time to be off literally in the middle of nowhere for a good while.We're chilling for awhile now but I'll be off to my site for good on the 15th. This means a couple of things for
Tuesday 23 December 2008 The death of General Lansana Cont the President of Guinea for the past 24 years is announced on the radio. Wednesday 24 December 2008 The military takes over Guinea. They celebrate by shooting into the air throughout the night. We were scheduled to go to Conakry for Christmas but for safety reasons we stayed in Forecariah. We had a Christmas Eve party at the offi
Irsquom going to try to be as respectful as possible while writing this however Irsquom sure that at some point Irsquoll fail. For this I apologize to whomever I offend.A year and half ago if you asked me I would have told you that hardline feminists annoy the hell out of me. They still do most anyway. That is to say women who said the only reason they wanted Clinton for president was
24 February 2008Abdelrahmane just told me that heaving breathing outside my window every night was sorcery and that when he hears he runs away. Scared out of my mind I kept asking him questions After about 20 minutes and thanks to the EnglishPular dictionary that some missionaries made I learned that ldquobird of sorceryrdquo means owl in Pular. This revelation made me feel better until
Due to the lack of appropriate medical facilities in Guinea I've been whisked away to Senegal for my midservice check up. Despite all the fun forms and doctor visits I'm choosing to see this as a second vacation.First things first the moment I got off the plane I was greeted by sliding glass doors. I'm travelling with another volunteer from Guinea and we took this as a sign that Dakar would
Typically Amazing Travel StoryBecause there are no taxis that go from my Regional capital to my site I thought I'd try taking a taxi to my prefecture capital first and then to my village. I got to the taxi stand at the late hour of 9 AM and became aquainted with 3 girls from the prefecture capital who had just finished Terminale we run on the French education system here which means everyone g
22 April 2008 Random NotesMy boss was here for a day a is was wonderful. I was able to vent all my frustrations and worries. She calmly reassured me that they were all normal and I'd been handling them the best I could. She said she picked me for my village because I was a little more outgoing a little more prepared both of which surprise me. I don't care if she said that about all the vol
After three weeks and four cities I'm headed back to Guinea. Of course there are a few speed bumps and pit stops along the way. When I got to the airport they told me I was two days late for my flight and out of luck. As person after person failed to find me in the system I calculated all the money I had on me even in Guinean Francs and wondered if it would be enough to buy another ticket.
I just heard someone mention off hand on the radio that Senator Obama won Indiana. As with the entire election this is nothing short of a miracle. The impossible can happen. I know everyone's tired of hearing about the election but please indulge me a little because this story needs to be told.On November 4th at 10 PM about 20 men and myself gathered in my mayor's living room. I must emphasi
Ok kids here's the deal. I'm still hanging out in Guinea 18 months down 8 to go. A year ago I started fundraising through Peace Corps to renovate the elementary school in my village. This thing was built by the French back in the day when colonization was still in style. In the 50 years since then no repairs have been made. So basically it looks like a bomb hit it. If it were in the
Disclaimer The contents of this page and all links appearing on this page do not represent the positions views or intents of the U.S. Government United States Peace Corps or Peace Corps Guinea. Kindly do not republish anything found on these pages without explicit permission of the author.I wake up at 730. I rush out of bed. I have to meet someone at 8. I quickly get dressed and run up t
24 March 2008Irsquove been having some bad days and getting disspirited. I often feel like my French is getting worse and that Irsquom not learning any Pular. I always feel like Irsquom not doing enough and often that Irsquom doing nothing at all. I was horrified when I realized in one week Irsquod finished reading 3 books compared to the 5 I read in the first two months.But then t
I know I know ... what the heck am I doing in Spain Three weeks ago my Dad managed to call me it is possible and informed that I'd be meeting him in Barcelona on the 16th. Why Barcelona The Catalonian capital was chosen to host the 33rd World Convention of Narcotics Anonymous WCNA. So here we are along with about 50007000 NA fellows.So this week thousands of recovering addicts from
The rainy season is finally here There's no more school so all the college and high school students come back to the village for the vacation. No more ridiculously hot weather. And my favorite no more relying on a well 15 minutes away for all my water. Now it's delivered to me straight off my roof. Far from being a vacation time everyone is working more than usual. Practically everyone
Hanging out in Guinea for more than 9 months now. Things are going relatively well I'm still healthy and Ramadan is almost over alhamdulilah Last Saturday I took a taxi directly from my village to the town of Kissidougou. The ride ended up being 19 hours. We broke down a couple times and had to stop to break the fast at sunset. But even then it shouldn't have taken that long. When I ta
After getting the last seat on two different flights I arrived in Barcelona on Sunday. My baggage didn't quite make it but I didn't expect to make it myself let alone my bag so no big loss. My Dad got here a couple hours later and together we took the train into the city. We headed to our simple but gorgeous hotel. One it's most attractive features is that it is right in the middle of Las R
11 February 2008Yesterday for dinner we went to a restaurant and ordered hamburgers. We got hard boiled eggs covered with a thin layer of ground beef swimming in a pool of oil and cold french fries. We opted to make our own dinner tonight and made pancakes with chocolate sauce mexican eggs salsa guacamole and garlic bread. A little random but amazing.12 February 2008Yesterday we went shoppi
Apparently a year has passed since I left the US. Irsquom marking the anniversary by spending three weeks where I got started in Guinea Forecariah. Irsquom helping train a new group of volunteers that got here at the beginning of the month. For all there friends and family that may be reading theyrsquore doing really well and I know I can speak for the other volunteers and say that all
Saturday around 6 PM I said goodbye to my Dad and hopped the train to the Barcelona airport. My flight with Royal Air Maroc Royal Moroccan Airlines was scheduled to leave around 9 PM. However when I checked in they told me the flight was delayed an hour. After I got through security I saw on the monitors that I was now leaving around 11 PM. After grabbing something to eat the little TVs
Sorry for the late entry everyone and it won't be a great one at that ... I have to run and get to the taxi stand. I went down to Conakry for the 4th of July and gorged on lots of American style food but was asked to leave immediately afterwards to show the new Country Director my village. We've have a great staff here in Guinea and the new director and his wife are only adding to it all.S
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