Basically been consolidated. They say 'Third time's a charm' and well I am about to embark on my third site of Peace Corps. This isn't to say I'm going to stop the work I was doing in Djibo. Actually, I am going to continue with it in great ways that I am very excited for but I will also be joining up with another organization and finishing my service from Ouagadougou (it's really fun to say Ouagadougou).

Shortly after my parents left from their visit, I got consolidated for my second time during my Peace Corps service. Over the past few months, I have made the most of it. I took the opportunity to visit friends in their sites, help out with their projects or learn more about what they are doing, took a brief trip to Niger and walked among Giraffes, did a couple of guest speaker spots for the new training group, helped plant 20,000 trees and over the past week, biked 221 miles as part of the Sur nos vélos, pour le Faso bike tour, a fundraiser for Gender Equality work done by volunteers all over Burkina Faso. Needless to say, I was a bit worried about biking 30-50 miles a day for five days after not having been on a bike in three months but I found that the hardest thing wasn't the biking but was leaving to return to Ouaga to finish work before deadlines.

But, despite the "bad luck" as my sister refers to it in getting site placements, I was and still am privileged with some incredible work partners in Djibo. And during this time, I received some of the best news of my Peace Corps service related to the enriched porridge flour project I previously wrote about. In short, recognizing a need for an internal source of funding to finance certain workshops, I helped my host organization, the Maison de la Femme, develop a social enterprise commercializing enriched porridge flour in an effort to combat malnutrition. After an exceptionally great start, we approached the head doctor or MCD for my region about hosting a nutrition day in the market. He was thrilled except for one thing: he wanted us to analyze the nutritional content of the porridge flour to make sure it was good for infants 6+ months of age, despite being promoted by the Ministry of Health, the Red Cross' malnutrition team and other nutrition related projects. Originally he said he would have the analysis done for us at the Ministry of Health's National Public Health Laboratory. He said it would take about a month and I didn't have a chance to follow up with him before being consolidated. Two months later however, this still had not been done and when we finally got in touch with him, it turns out their was a cost for this being done and that the health officials in Djibo were not willing to cover.

So here we were. A widely successful project stalled. Six months after making and selling our last batch, we still have brand awareness and people asking where they can buy the enriched porridge flour and why we aren't making it anymore. I didn't want to stop the project and neither did my host organization but we had to face reality: we could not continue until we had this analysis done. Well, it took a little while longer but we finally got in with the National Laboratory (friend of a friend kind of deal, thank you networking) and they agreed to do the analysis for us, for FREE! And the frustration of having the project put on hold for six months turned into a benefit because now we could make a fresh batch, evaluating price increases in our pricing model and compare nutritional values of a packet of flour that was 6 months old to one that was freshly produced to see if their was any decline in nutritional value, thus allowing us to identify a shelf-life. While I have yet to see the exact nutritional values, the analysis was done and the results were very positive meaning we can continue manufacturing and selling the porridge flour.

Even though I can't live in Djibo, I do miss that 130 degree heat, I still have every intention of finishing up my work there, esp. my enriched porridge flour project. With the results form the analysis, we can host that nutrition day, that sent us on the long-time coming analysis results. The nutrition day is the kick-off marketing event for our porridge flour. Not only do we aim to sell a lot of it, but also build/expand our brand awareness, and most importantly, kick off a multi-tiered approach to marketing four to five key public health and nutritional messages, which proceeds will continue to finance through training women vendors to sell the porridge and convey these messages in surrounding villages as well as a series of radio shorts (in local languages) emphasizing the same key health messages.

So I can't say if "Third Time's a Charm" is true as I have yet to start my new posting. I'm also really grateful for my second posting in Djibo. Not only did it give me the opportunity to work with an amazing group of motivated individuals, endure 13o+ degree temperatures (I'll tell you that 60 degrees is now a lot lot worse...) but to have designed and implemented a project that has a lot of potential not just for what it is and does, but because of its sustainability even when I'm not around.

Mom and Dad came to Burkina! And then proceeded to ask me lots and lots of questions about birds which isn't exactly my area of expertise other than to say, thats a pretty bird but I did learn a few things along the way. It was a whirlwind tour, heading to Djibo the day after they arrived. While I was trying to sleep, they kept asking questions which I either had to answer or translate. I guess its only fair because when I was little I asked more then a few questions myself.

I took them on a short walk of about 1.5-2hrs around Djibo the next morning to show them a mud stove, some plastic bag weaving and my association but when its 115-120 degrees, the heat makes it a pretty long walk. But importantly, they learned about fine local cusuine and that just about anything (peanut butter, yogurt, water, juice, etc) can all be served in plastic bags. They also got a great local experience of the power cutting out. Than they got to experience the true benefits of hot season without air conditioning. I just kept saying it would be back on (which happened) but I don't think they believed me. Leaving Djibo, we saw some camels which my mom wanted photos of. This involved me getting out of the car and jogging across short stretches of the desert chasing camels. Sadly since I had the camera, their aren't any photos of me running after camels but I did get the picture.

Then, our adventure took us south to Banfora to enjoy the lush and more touristy part of Burkina. First, the buses that head in this direction are really nice and air conditioned. Which actually isn't so nice for someone like me who has been living at temperatures above 90 degrees for the past few months. So needless to say, I spent five hours freezing and shivering because it was about 70 degrees. But in Banfora we got to see three of the main tourist attractions in Burkina of which the hippos were by far my favorite. We went out in a rikity wooden boat and observed hippos from a distance. They got a pretty good life if all they do is relax in water all day.

Its going to be hot! No, really. And its with those words I kicked off the months of April and May. Granted, I live in the Sahel desert so yea of course its hot. But than came hot season and it got hotter and hotter. I started off the month in good humor. I figured if I didn't complain about the heat, put it in a good light and joked about it, "You call this (115 degrees) hot? I'm freezing! Where's my jacket?!?!" I figured I could survive. Which I did, barely.

I kicked off hot season by going to Potato Festival in another volunteers village. Filled with dancing, music and a vibrant festive feeling, this event celebrates the potato harvest and manages to sell a significant portion of the harvest in one day. I somehow ended the day with a 25kg (55lbs) sack of potatoes balanced on my head. Needless to say, that is an excessive amount of potatoes and the couple who bought it, even after giving about 1/3 of it away, were eating potatoes for the next month.

Returning back to Djibo, I was planning on organizing a nutrition day to market and have a large sale of the enriched porridge flour. That hasn't happened because first we had to talk with the doctor responsible for my entire province. After a frustrating couple of weeks of not being able to find him, we finally got our meeting and while he was dynamic and enthusiastic, wanted the thoughts of 'other authorities' and so he took some of the flour to send to the Ministry of Health's National Laboratory to evaluate it's nutritional content. A preliminary analysis indicates that when used to complement breastfeeding in infants aged 6-10months, 80g of the flour would meet daily recommended values for calories and proteins. We await the official results but if we get the go ahead, the doctor would love to expand production significantly to get the product throughout the entire province. Despite not having produced the flour in a while, a lot of people have asked about it and where, and more importantly when, they will be able to by more. Success in marketing I guess.

But the hold in the enriched porridge flour encouraged me to finally diversify my activities, which I had been talking about doing for some time but hadn't gotten around to. While I'm a big fan of trying things out on a small scale and seeing how things go, it seems some of the projects I proposed were met with enthusiasm by overachievers, in a good way. One of these was introducing members of an already functioning weaving association to a technique weaving with used plastic bags. It is primarily designed to recycle the bags which litter the landscape but also lowers input cost (since littered plastic bags have no cost) and the woven material can be converted into a wide range of reusable bags and accessories. The women wove about 40' worth of fabric in week and now we are working to convert it into actual sell able products. I took a couple day trip to visit another weaving association who has been weaving with plastic bags for a longer period of time and has even arranged to sell some of their work in France and learned new and improved ways to cut the plastic bags so they don't leave small knots in the material. A day after I explained this new technique to the women, they had already started incorporating it. Who knows, maybe after all of this I will end up with a suit made from a woven plastic bags. Now that's style in the 21st century.

Also, in an effort to continue the wonderful availability of mangos throughout the year, I started doing some mango jam making again. I put together a training for other volunteers and organized a training for members of my host organization. I attempted a third training but was unsuccessful since the mango merchants weren't out in time. By all, it received a warm reception and its possible I will do a few more in the coming months.

I also started building mud stoves and will supplement this by introducing fuel briquettes, made from organic and other waste materials designed to cut down on the amount of deforestation caused by using wood for cooking fuel. My success teaching some women to build mud stoves was mildly sedated by the fact that I briefly fainted and fell into the mixture which contained 1/6 cow manure.

And all the while, I managed to do this in temperatures that daily exceeded 110 degrees, and often went above 120. I will never know what the hottest temperature was because my thermometer only goes to 120. Yet, the worst day wasn't because it was hot; it was a dust storm that blew in layering my 144sq/ft house with enough dust, it took me four hours to sweep out. I wasn't able to see more than a couple hundred feet as the entire world around me had turned a Mars-esque red. But, it was the first time in more than a month and a half I had seen a temperature of 95 degrees at 5pm.

Despite the heat, I still managed to do some interesting things and now that its 'cooled' off, I've seen my first rain and things are turning just a little greener, it should make it easier to live, work and play (200km bike ride anyone?) up in the Sahel. And this time around, I don't have to lie to myself that 115 or hotter is 'cold'.

See http://picasaweb.google.com/jabarbour/EnrichedBouillePictures# for pictures.

In collaboration with my partner organization, I have helped them develop a social enterprise focusing on combating malnutrition in my region. The objective of the project is the commercialization of enriched porridge flour, whose proceeds finance malnutrition trainings in small villages and via radio which both promote the product and educate the population on malnutrition. We are developing a local supply chain by purchasing locally grown ingredients, which encourages local agricultural development, and a whole-sale distribution model that promotes economic activities of women and small merchants and also allows us to increase our range of markets.

The Beginnings

I initially presented the idea of creating a social enterprise as a financing tool for my organization which is dependent on external donors, a challenge faced by many organizations on a local level. As a result of this dependence, local capacity building can go unfounded or worse, donor schedules or financing requirements can result in the poor implementation of projects. For example, my organization conducted a funded project educated villagers on woman's rights. The project funded the training for June which is when a significant portion of the population is working to prepare their fields. This conflict of schedules between the receipt of funding and trainee’s schedules reduced the effectiveness of the training because only a limited number of persons could attend. Recognizing that financing matters were a significant challenge for my organization, I proposed the idea of a social enterprise as a way to reduce financing requirements for some of their activities.

In addition to the financing objectives of the social enterprise, we wanted the product itself to address a social issue and so the product of choice is a nutrient rich porridge flour made from local ingredients. It was easy to commercialize and scale production as demand increases, it targets malnutrition and it would be reasonably profitable allowing it to finance various activities of my organization, specifically malnutrition trainings. I researched past work by volunteers including porridge flour recipes, financial information from similar projects, and reviewed a project write-up that detailed a volunteers experience starting a similar project. My counterpart and I identified the materials we would need, initial costs which were low enough, about $30USD, so I could provide a no-interest loan. Profits would reinvested to increase production, invest in production capacity, develop an inventory of ingredients whose price will rise in coming months and finance malnutrition trainings via radio and in villages.

We conducted market research that included listening to the experiences Community Malnutrition Agents, 50 women who conduct malnutrition and enriched porridge flour trainings in their villages. They discussed their work and the challenges they face in teaching villagers how to make enriched porridge flour and discuss malnutrition in general. While other projects have also taught villagers how to make the flour, because it requires transforming millet, peanuts and beans into flour, it requires a significant amount of time and work on an individual level since the milling is done by hand instead of using a mill. This has resulted in a population knowledgeable of enriched porridge flour and its benefits but a low implementation rate of people who incorporate it into their or their family’s diets. We also consulted the Red Cross who has a significant presence in malnutrition work in my region. We discussed porridge recipe types to identify taste and product preferences in the village setting which resulted in the elimination of recipes that included milk powder and dried fish because these were less likely to be accepted by villagers for taste and cost preferences. In the end, we selected a recipe made from 40% millet and 20% of the following: black eyed peas, peanuts and sugar with a small amount of salt. This particular recipe had been widely promoted and preferred for its taste, all ingredients were available locally, it was easy to produce, and we could keep prices low to encourage consumption while still being profitable enough to meet our funding objectives.

Within 60 days of my arrival in Djibo, we conducted market research, purchased necessary materials, and developed packaging, displaying ingredients and directions in three languages, and made our first production.

Production

In the first month, we made three productions totaling 453 packets, each containing 100g of flour which is enough to make about 1 liter of porridge. The first production consisted of 118 packets which was less than expected and resulted in a higher per unit cost. Without a scale, we are dependant on a volume measurement to approximate a weight measurement and since the flour was denser than when we originally measured, we packaged more flour per unit than we should have. We resolved this problem by reducing the size of our volume measurement and in the following two productions, the weight per packet stabilized. I developed and implemented a ratio of packets produced divided by the units of millet (measured by a large tomato paste can) which gives us a standard by which to verify the number of packets produced, producing on average 33 packets for every one unit of millet. In all, the unit cost for the first production was 60.14cfa and in subsequent productions, our average cost per unit has been 55cfa and 54cfa respectively with wholesale prices of 80cfa and retail prices of a 100cfa per packet.

We sold our first production in a matter of days, 63% in bulk and 37% individually. In the second and third productions, the percentage of packets sold in bulk increased to 90% and 91% of sales as we focus more on wholesaling to encourage wider distribution through small merchants and increase the potential of the product to support the local economy.

The first experience marketing the porridge flour was very positive and done in collaboration with one of my volunteer neighbors 27km away. I brought 40 packets to her town on market day and we sold 25 to small boutiques and prepared one packet which we gave out as samples wandering around the market targeting women with small children. We spoke briefly about nutrition and the product itself and what was most encouraging was the discussion related to nutrition that quickly spread around the market. We sold out of the remaining packets and began directing people to boutiques which also sold out. Later that evening when I was back in my town, someone came 27km to purchase an additional 15 packets from me.

I left on vacation for Mali and Senegal and while I left all the materials needed with my counterpart, I wasn't sure if another production would be made in my absence. Upon my return however, my counterpart informed me that they had already made a second production of 132 packets, resolving the measurement problems we had originally, and that all the packages had sold out within a week so he had already purchased ingredients and begun on a third production. However, recognizing increased demand, he increased production by 50%, all of which was done without my assistance, which was probably the most rewarding part of it all.

In all, to date we have made three productions totaling 453 packets, generating total sales of 37,700cfa or about $82usd with a profit of 12,118cfa or about $27usd, a 32% profit margin.

Going Forward: Immediate Future

While our objective is to finance malnutrition trainings, we have to first address a series of upcoming challenges, the most critical of which is a significant rise in input costs. Because there is only one harvest season, agricultural commodities rise significantly throughout the year until the harvest. For example, in 2009, prices for millet, our primary ingredient, increased from a 176cfa/kilo in March to a high of 213cfa/kilo in July, a 21% increase. (See http://www.resimao.org/html/en/region/market_indicators). Generally, prices are lowest in October/November immediately following the harvests. Currently, pay 162.5cfa/kilo of millet but while prices remain lower than the months to come, we intend to develop an inventory of primary ingredients which maintain profitability by offsetting price increases.

Currently, we purchase our ingredients from merchants but our objective is purchase directly from farmers following the harvest. This is when prices are most depressed but traditionally when farmers sell a majority of their harvest. Our plan is to introduce a purchasing model based on fair trade paying pay higher than average prices at the time of harvest which economically benefits farmers while still allowing us to lower the cost of our inputs and put more money towards malnutrition trainings.

The storage of grain is our current financial priority however, should the level of demand increase, as we expect it to as we increase awareness and distribution of the porridge flour, we will experience production challenges. In our last production, the first time I measured times for the production process, a team of about six worked together, in a variety of tasks, to package the flour, add labeling and heat seal the bags. While it only took about 45 minutes to put the flour and labels into all 203 bags, it took an additional two and a half hours to adding labels and heat sealing them. On average, it takes 13 seconds to put the flour into a bag and 58 seconds to add a label and seal the bag. By investing in an additional sealer, we could reduce the total time it takes to package the flour by almost half.

Going Forward: Long Term

Ultimately, the porridge flour represents the first stage of developing malnutrition related income generating activities in my region. While the porridge flour was for my host organization, I recently began collaborating with another association to develop Moringa powder. Made from the leaves of the Moringa tree, the powder offers extensive nutritional benefits and more importantly, can be grown in my region of the Sahel which suffers from a rate of desertification of roughly 6% a year. My work with the association is developing a cross-sector project to promote individuals, families and farmer associations to plant Moringa trees by developing a profitable market for their leaves. This means an environmental benefit of planting trees can also prove to be an economic benefit. The association will purchase leaves and transform them into a powder who will sell it to generate an income to finance their activities, including nutritional awareness. Thus, this one project incorporates three critical fields of development with environmental, economic and health benefits for both the association and hopefully, if scaled to size, my region.

Thoughts on Guinea: Most importantly, I miss my friends. I had spent a great deal of time fostering many relationships. People who were willing to tolerate my, at the time, lack of French skills as I tried to communicate who I was, what I was doing and sit patiently as I asked question upon question. Some of these people may have struggled at times to keep food for themselves but still opened their homes to me and welcomed me as family. With looser family standards than exist in the United States, many of these individuals had friends or family directly affected by the events of Sept. 28 and continuing political unrest. While I was never threatened or harmed in any way, the increase in attacks on foreigners in the capital made it difficult to provide support to volunteers, like me, upcountry, far and isolated from the events that occurred. Further, the military's apparent lack of control, including acts of violence and looting against citizens and foreigners alike questioned the very existence of a functioning government in control of its security forces. In light of all those events, I easily accept and am at ease with the decision to relocate. However, for the friends I made over the past year, leaving is not an option. At a time when the people of Guinea need to see and understand our support for them as they move through this increasingly difficult transition, there are few if any foreigners left. For many, it is easy to see Guinea as the next failed state or the stereotypical story of a dictator's rise to power but to me, they are my friends, my coworkers and it is a place I called home. Returning to Guinea after my sisters wedding in August, I was greeted very excitedly by my friends and neighbors and while it was wonderful to be home in the states, eat ice cream, bagels with lox, spice cake with caramel icing, and see everyone, I returned to Guinea excited for some good rice with peanut sauce. By than, I had spent a great deal of time fostering projects, many of which were finally getting going. A friend proudly presented me some of the mango jam he had made in my absence, a technique I had taught him which he was excitedly exploring to help provide additional food for his family throughout the year. My work helping to start a school focused on educating women in literacy and business activities was finally beginning to move beyond the planning stage, having developed an action plan to use locally available resources to start the project without requiring the need for external financing. I was exploring a small revenue generating activity and protecting the environment by growing shade grown coffee with another volunteer and I had just made plans to work with one of my best friends to explore the food security and commercialization efforts of an agricultural organization and do a three village tour to instruct individuals in the use and construction of mud stoves, a technique that cuts wood used for cooking by 2/3rds. I am not sure I have complete closure for my time in Guinea. I overcame many challenges to have and be comfortable in a life very different than the one I grew up in. I was doing, at least what I think, were many great things. I never got to say an appropriate goodbye to many of my friends and many projects I had spent my time fostering were just hitting the tipping point where they wouldn't have needed me to succeed. I can only hope that in my absence, people take what I taught them and will make things happen in my absence. I certainly took what I learned in Guinea and have been putting it to good use in my new hometown of Djibo, Burkina Faso. Welcome to Burkina After a month spent in Mali, I finally had my new direction in continuing as a Small Enterpris Development volunteer in Burkina Faso. While my trip leaving Guinea was a carsick filled 22 hour adventure overland, we flew out of Mali on an overly conditioned airplane and upon landing, I was still shivering. But I consider 60 degrees cold so I'm sure you wouldn't have had a problem. While Peace Corps is very different country to country, it certainly is easy to pick out the Peace Corps Volunteer from a crowd – the white people wearing colorful West African fabrics. Transferring presented a whole different set of challenges. Usually, when an individual joins Peace Corps, they build many friendships during 'stage' or training; a group of other volunteers who you first meet in the states before flying oversees with. These friendships become the basis of your support network when you first move to your new home, where you each share stories of how terrified you may be to leave your house, the hoard of children who sit and stare at you through your door. I was leaving a place where I had developed all of these relationships for a new place where I knew four people transferring with me. I still am one of the 'Guinea transfers' but I have gone from being a Guinea volunteer, to a Guinea evacuee, to a Guinea transfer to a Burkina Faso PC volunteer. All in the span of a month! I spent roughly a month attending some training sessions, primarily in the local language, Fulfude. I should note that in Fulfude, numbers for counting and numbers for prices are different. If I were to say Noogay as a number, it would be 20. As a price, it would be 100CFA. Sappo as a number would be 10 but as a price, 50CFA. If you haven't figured it out, the price is just the number multiplied by five. I spent many hours with my language instructor trying to pick this up and am only starting to be able to do so in my local market. Why I have to do basic arithmatic in a foreign language just to ask how much some tomatoes or peanut butter is is beyond me. After some training, I had my first experiences traveling around Burkina by this fancy thing called a bus which runs on a schedule. Two very new concepts to me when it comes to travel. I had the privelage of also riding in a Burkinabe bush taxi and was shocked at how empty it felt when it was really full It was a van type vehicle and I felt we could have squeezed at least 10 more people in. I also had my first experience with a courier service when as we were pulling out of the bus station or garre, we realized our bikes weren't on the bus. I basically jumped out of my seat trying to get the bus driver to stop ready to argue about getting my bike on the bus. I just attracted a lot of strange stares from uninterested folks. I was later assured that despite having to make a connection from bus to bush taxi run by two different companies, my bike would make it and sure enough, it did. One of the things I had done in Guinea was invest a lot of time and energy into learning about agriculture in Guinea and in West Africa in general. This was some of what I brought with me and while I was visiting one volunteer, we went out to meet with a small woman's association engaged in gardening. I must say, prior to Peace Corps, the extent of my gardening experience was confined to shoveling dirt and moving rock for my mother, telling her that the tomatoes growing in her garden did not taste nearly as good as the tomatoes you by in the farmers market in Florence, Italy and occasionally walking out to the garden to pick vegetables at my mothers instruction. But, when you live in a culture where upwards of 80% of the population engage in subsistence agriculture, it really pays to learn something about it. Throughout my time in Guinea, I had spent a great deal of time trying to get people to adapt improved gardening techniques, emphasizing water management techniques such as mulching. For the most part, these were all failures. But on this particular visit, I actually helped water some banana trees which are heavy users of water. Needless to say, it was a lot of effort to walk 20' with a full can of water only to be able to water two trees when their were well over 30 trees. With the assistance of the volunteer I was visiting, I explained the benefits of mulching to the women and demonstrated the technique by gathering up dead leaves from the banana trees themselves. Within a few minutes, the women of the group were right their beside us, mulching their trees. After watering both mulched and un-mulched trees, they invited us to harvest rice which by all means is a very labor intensive process. But after about three hours of harvesting rice, they cut us off after a short while because we moved to slow, sitting under the tree playing mancola with small holes dug into the ground and eating rice, we returned to the banana trees. Sure enough, the trees we had mulched maintained their moisture while the base of the un-mulched trees was dry. If you wonder what the significance is, this simple technique allows the women to be more effective. They spend less time watering one plant or area and use the time saved to increase the size of their garden improving their family's food security or use of the garden as a revenue generating activity. More than a month after this visit, I get a message from the volunteer saying on their own initiative, the women began planting more trees and mulched them from the start. This early success I hope was the start of many to come. I finally moved to my new site and home in Djibo, Burkina Faso shortly after thanksgiving. I was fortunate to have a real thanksgiving, the only items missing being mashed sweet potatoes with marshmellows and pecan pie. Djibo is roughly the same size as Telimele, my home in Guinea with about 25,000 people. Unlike Telimele which was green and mountainous, Djibo is flat and on the edge of the Sahel desert. Djibo and Around I moved to Djibo at the beginning of December, 2009. The organization I am paired with is named the Maison des Femmes, an organization sponsored by the government of Burkina Faso to promote woman's rights, health, education and economic empowerment. In many ways, very similar to the second chance school I was working with in Guinea. Needless to say, after two months out of site life, I was ready to hit the ground running, start building projects and get back into the daily grind of going to the market, although the camels in my market are a new addition, finding my favorite place to eat and enjoying the minimum of three hour repose during the heat of the day to relax and read. The biggest weakness I identified with my organization is it's dependence on outside financing, a similar issue facing the host organization I worked with in Guinea. Throughout my service, I have felt financing is a double edged sword. It provides much needed capital where disposable income and credit are scarce but also reduces individuals willingness to invest their own capital or save should they feel they can get some organization to finance their activity for them. At the same time though, financing is often provided and designed to meet specific requirements of the donating organization where the desires of the donor may differ from the specific needs of the recipients, resulting in an inefficient use of capital. The volunteer's site I visited where we demonstrated mulching had two woman's gardening groups; the one we worked with was very motivated to make their garden succeed but had been given funding for fencing from an outside organization. The other group did not have fencing and believed they could only start their garden should someone provide necessary funding and displayed little interest in working around this challenge for themselves. Sadly, so often I have observed that in the absence of funding, knowledgeable and otherwise motivated people proceed with life as it is rather than looking for small steps to take to improve their lives or assist others. In an effort to help my organization have a small but steadier source of income to pay for some activities, I explored various needs of the community and region in an effort to develop a social enterprise and am embarking on a project to commercialize what is called enriched bouille to combat malnutrition. I had the privlage to arrive in time to participate in a meeting of 50 individuals who are community trainers in malnutrition. These, primarily women, have been trained in how to make enriched bouille and how to train others in this technique. Enriched bouille is a flower made from any number of ingredients that provide a source of calcium, protein, salt and sugar which is turned into small balls by adding water slowly and boiled. However, widespread adaptation of this technique is limited for many reasons including the inaccessibility of ingredients in local markets and the time it takes to create the powder from hand, first hand I can say pounding anything into powder is a tedious, time consuming and physically demanding task. What I am doing is helping start a new business – a new product with all the challenges of marketing, developing a strategy, and ensuring that on the financial side, the price attracts low income buyers but is profitable enough to earn money to pay for various trainings in malnutrition and infant health. In addition to the enriched bouille, I am also working to commercialize a powder made from leaves of the Moringa tree, a powder that provides most of the essential vitamins to both infants and expecting mothers. While the ingredients for the bouille are all available locally, the moringa project is more challenging in it involves developing a network of suppliers to plant the trees and harvest the leaves. However, should this succeed, it is a uniquely designed project encouraging individuals to plant trees in an effort to combat desertification and protect the environment, creates an economic benefit for individuals who harvest and sell moringa leaves and brings to market a simple product designed to combat malnutrition. Or more simply put, a positive public health, economic and environmental impact for the region. While I have set my expectations high with those projects, I am also working on smaller projects introducing solar ovens to combat desertification, helping a woman's association create new products by reusing plastic bags, which litter the landscape, by transforming them into thread for use in weaving to make cell phone cases, bags, mats, etc., and hopefully soon, along with other volunteers in my region, have restarted an English lesson radio show. Who thought that when I moved to West Africa I would become a radio DJ? I'm sure there is more I am forgetting and I've only been at my new site a month! I certainly got my wish in having the opportunity to hit the ground running and get projects going. Personal Notes One of my last experiences in Guinea was a 140km bike ride I did to some spectacular waterfalls. Being mountainous, this was about 22 hours worth of biking but was well worth it. I did this with one of my PCV friends and neighbor and while we got some spectacular views of the waterfall, we didn't quite make it to the base of the waterfall as we did not have the time to traverse a small mountain and the river was to filled with water, being the end of rainy season, so we could not ford the river upstream. Since Djibo and Burkina in general is much flatter, I have found my biking adventures to be somewhat easier, although I have not yet gone on one as long as my adventures in Guinea. I have enjoyed biking out and off road to small hills that surrond Djibo and climbing to the top where I am rewarded with amazing views of vast nothingness which is the desert, beautiful in its own right assuming you like rocks and sand. For my first weeks at site, these desert outings were always accompanied by a popped bike tire in which I became very proficient in changing out tire tubes and involving the occasional 3-4km walk back as it got dark because my tire tubes were beyond patchable. In one instance, I was about 8km outside of town and 2-3km from the road when I popped my tire and as I attempted to repair it, my bike pump broke. However, despite these small hindrances to my outings, I discovered some amazing spots where I passed both Christmas and new years camping in the desert. By new years, I had certainly learned from my mistakes made on Christmas where I barely slept because I was so uncomfortably cold at 60 degrees. As we were buying food for our Christmas outing, my neighbor and I joked about the down coats we saw for sale in my market; next morning we really wished we had bought them. As for my living situation in Burkina, I am kindly being hosted by the Red Cross in something similar to a motel or dorm room. My living quarters is roughly 12'x12' where I have a double bed, a guest bed or my couch when no one else is around, two desks and some artisan chairs I picked up during my month in Mali. About 10' or so from my living area in a separate building is my kitchen and store room. As woodless construction, I am able to enjoy both spaces since they stay cool during the day and maintain some warmth at night. Perfect for those chilly 60 degree evenings. I have been accepted well into the Burkina Peace Corps community, even to the point where I was asked to represent Peace Corps Burkina at a regional conference for an organization focused on recognizing and helping the work of West African entrepreneurs and innovators. In many ways, I have felt moving in the second time around was a lot easier. It helped that my French is far superior to what it was a year ago and knowing what its like to be dropped off by Peace Corps, it is much less terrifying the second time around. It is frustrating to have had to leave the work I had done in Guinea behind; I am sad to have left my friends but I am very excited for the new experience and possibilities that await me here in Burkina!

I have a lot to say here so bare with me. My apologies for making this so long but I want to share a lot and have a place where I remember this incredible experience.

I finished my first three months at site generally without incident, although I did manage a lot of cuts, for which duct tape is the only band aid. I did sprain my ankle during the training I am currently attending, and was able to do everything but ice it. Still not sure if that was a serious suggestion or not. It doesn’t exist in my life. But since I last wrote, my work commenced, by which I mean I attended a lot of meetings in Pulaar, which I don’t understand, to begin generating ideas for business training’s. In all, I met with over 500 people from 32 organizations. For every meeting, I was greeted as some kind of hero or celebrity, everyone wanting to shake my hand, feed me and give me more food as gifts. was given enough produce that had I had some way to store it, I never would have needed to buy food for three weeks. About 50 kilos of tomatoes, mangos, pineapples, bananas and oranges after they had fed me plates of rice with meat.

It was very informative, even if I understood very little about what was normally going on but my bike is my primary means of transportation and my site is rather mountainous. It didn’t matter if I was coming or going, I was biking uphill. Not sure how that works in the real world, how its possible to go opposite directions on the same road and bike uphill both ways but thats how I felt. Oh, and I had a goat killed in my honor served with a couple gallons of oil and potatoes. Here, that is quite the honor and seriously, how many other people do you know have had a goat killed for them? I still don’t know if I deserved such recognition. I'm a 23 year old who showed up on a bike wanting to do some good in a foreign place and all I can say in the local language is an age old joke about Bah's and Diallo's. My last name here is Ibrahim Diallo. The Diallo’s say the Bah’s, another common last name, steal and the Bah’s say the Diallo’s steal. In Pulaar, it goes something like Le Bah wujji although Pulaar is not a language generally designed to be written. 

But on my work is as a small enterprise development volunteer which means I am working as a business trainer and consultant primarily to groupments engaged in small scale agricultural production. Further, I will assist my NGO in financing projects, strategic planning and accounting and computer training and lastly, hopefully some secondary community projects such as the Second Chance School (L'ecole de Second Chance) which was started by a former volunteer but destroyed during the strikes of 2007. The school is similar to an American technical school, an alternative to traditional schools which teaches skills for specific enterprises. Needless to say, it does seem like a lot and at times rather daunting and as a PCV, I work 24 hours a day seven days a week, second and third PC goals of cultural exchange but needless to say, it provides me a lot of time to do work. One of the things I’ve realized is probably most important in life is to always be a student. I came to Guinea and could barely speak a word of French, let alone Pulaar. After five months, I can carry my own in French (although I can  speak it and read it, I can’t yet fully write it to great frustration) and can at least make a joke in Pulaar. But more importantly, the needs of those I work with are more diverse than the business skills I bring. They include agroforestry techniques, irrigation techniques, and many more so my biggest asset is not so much what I already know, but my ability to learn and adapt knowledge for the needs of others. And with the luxury of time, what I know learn is not just to serve the needs of others but also for my own intellectual pursuit. 

Groupments generally expressed the same needs. In hindsight, I wish I had approached my conversations with groupments differently focusing less on assessing needs and more on assessing activities. I did assess activities, touring numerous gardens (I have photos which will go up sometime as My Corner Office) and asking about how they sell the produce, trying to determine specific activities of each groupment but what I found was that when people would talk about needs, it quickly turned into a list of wants. Some of this has to do with how development projects in the past have worked, providing materials for little or no cost but it also has to do with a lack of management and a creative thought process that would otherwise allow individual groupments to invest and improve their activities themselves. Often, groupments will attribute this to lack of money but as I watched a lady at a garden pour about 10 liters of water on top of a plant, part of it was a misunderstanding that pouring 5 liters closer to the ground would be more effective and cut the work in half. But the lack of management and proper techniques is vital. Yes, if the groupment was given money or materials they might be able to improve their situation but I toured the facilities of one groupment who had been given about 200 meters of metal fencing, a lot by local standards with only 1/20th of the total fenced space being used. Like the water example above, the material is useless without both business and gardening techniques to properly manage the resources. Thus, in collaboration with other NGOs and other volunteers, I see my job to teach and consult groupments to identify their true needs, finance their needs internally and help them implement the management techniques to make their activities sustainable. 

As a SED volunteer working with gardening groupments, I have developed an great interest in food security, which in Guinea is a substantial problem. Yet, one of the biggest challenges is a difference between economics and agricultural production. Agricultural best practices use the cultivation of multiple crops with intercropping or  crop rotation for soil and pest management. Further, the diversification and cultivation of multiple crops reduces risk of crop failures which would result in a crisis for persons barely above subsistence farming. But, economics encourages specialization as Adam Smith pointed out in his analysis of pin making in The Wealth of Nations. For a groupment who decides to specialize in one crop, they may be able to meet commercialization targets, the point at which it is profitable to transport produce and sell it in larger markets, such as the larger cities. In cities, producers would be able to get a higher profit than they could make in local markets while providing additional supply that would lower prices. Providing additional supply using local produce generates further income for farmers while the lower prices in large cities means it is more affordable for people to eat. Both are essential in food security and economic development. However, this isn't a viable practice for peasant farmers as specialization increases reliance on fertilizers and pesticides, increasing costs while environmentally unsustainable. Thus, as I learn more about this issue from the observations and conversations I have with those around me, I hope to make the commercialization of produce in my community feasible using collective action in addition to the management, finance and agricultural training and consulting I will provide to groupments.

I should state these are ideas for future projects and a lot could and can happen to derail them. But I see it as a vital project, if not for the food security issues but also for the business and economic development of groupments. I should note, that currently, their appears to be an oversupply of produce in the primary market where the groupments sell. This serves as a disincentive for groupments to become more productive on an agricultural basis because they wouldn't locally be able to sell produce that results from increased yields.  Thus, the agroforestry techniques and business techniques only work when paired together. 

One of the needs roughly 1/3 of the groupments I met with expressed was for a storage facility, a costly endeavor for those with limited capital. In place of individual groupments using limited capital to purchase or construct multiple storage facilities, create such a facility using existing space which operates using a membership of groupments, roughly 10-20. Their membership allows them to contribute produce such as eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, etc. once a week. Individually, no groupment could cultivate enough produce for commercial sale but in partnership with others, the idea is that they can. If an individual groupment can only cultivate 10 kilos of tomatoes, it is not financially feasible to transport and sale in a larger market. But if ten groupments contributed 10 kilos of produce, the collective would have 100 kilos (exact commercialization targets are not known at this moment so this is an example) which would ideally be above the point where it is financially feasible for commercial sale. The overhead costs of the storage facility would come out of the profits from the sale of produce, either a fixed price or proportional to each groupments contribution. Than, remaining profits would be distributed to each member groupment proportional to their total contribution to the total produce sold. If you contributed 1/5th of all produce sold, you would receive 1/5 of profits after the facilities expenses are paid. Thus, collective action makes market expansion feasible, provides access to new markets and profits for groupments while providing a solution for food security in larger cities where the food supply is regionally produced on a smaller scale than mega farms. If you want to know how challenging such a project is, consider the fact that those about to leave for University often lack an understanding of percentages, a critical need to the implementation of such a project. 

An interesting side note, I did happen to come across the Sunday Business section from a NYTimes that discussed the desire and hopeful development of local/regional food networks within the United States. Maybe such larger scale cooperative action can be used by smaller organic farmers to meet wholesale needs of larger supermarket chains on a more regional basis. The scale and culture may be drastically different, but sometimes business opportunities or solutions manifest themselves in the same ways, across borders, across cultures. 

But an additional local challenge to food security comes during the month of May, June and July when harvests are not happening, food stocks run low so prices increase and at least for agricultural producers, they begin running out of money until the next harvests. This is especially threatening should smaller harvests occur in any year extending the period in which food is scarce. A community storage facility to gather produce for commercialization would also benefit the members through the storage of staples, such as rice, for the scarce season. This could work in two separate, or combined ways. 

The first of which is all of or part of a groupments profit goes directly to buy rice, stored at the storage facility until the groupment chooses to withdraw it for distribution to their members. The second is individual members of groupments can make deposits of rice in specific amounts, receiving coupons to use to withdraw the rice at a later date. Since the rental fees are already paid from profits of selling produce, it does not require individuals to pay for storage. However, both strategies have considerable challenges and while using both might provide greater flexibility and therefore greater usage rates, the challenges of management and most importantly accounting of both money, produce and rice mean that it would be easiest and most transparent if only one system is used. One concept for management I am considering is having my NGO get involved. Since they are working at various levels of socioeconomic development project and looking for any financing they can get for projects, managing such a food bank could provide them a moderate source of financing which they could than use to provide an assortment of community training’s in business, agroforestry and health. 

Much work needs to be done but if I can be successful, this I feel would be an amazing project. Even if it only came to fruition in a small sense, it would be a great achievement in my efforts to help my community and the people of Guinea in the challenging, uphill battle of development. 

On development, one thing that has bothered me lately is the distinction between developing and developed countries or economies. Development is not a fixed process and it is often complained that their is no roadmap to development. True, but a historical analysis and an understanding of organizational behavior topics such as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs provides great detail of the primary or basic challenges you need to overcome before you can begin focusing on things like education, an investment that will have long term payoffs in the continued growth of any country. What bothers me is not so much the categorization of countries as developed or developing, but the notion that even developed economies can keep developing. We may generally view our constitution as fix document, occasionally amended as a living document, but it forms a basis for our society which is living and when people are without healthcare or access to education, yes, we are developed but development is not fixed, their is always more we can do. 

Back to my work experiences, after my initial meetings, I created an outline of what I wanted to do with the groupments. I left out my food bank concept because I would like to further study what is needed before presenting it to the groupments and authorities. But my general outline for training the groupments was training first in financing projects, introducing financing methods and helping them develop a desired project list with financing requirements and a financing plan, than training them in management, marketing, project analysis, helping them implement their financing activities and new training to meet their specific needs, as outlined by a groupments completion of a needs assessments. The primary financing option I would like to use is a modification of Village Savings and Loan groups or VS&L. A VS&L is a group of individuals, roughly 10-20 normally, who come together and save very little money every week. Here, that might be 500FG which roughly translates to $0.11US. Before I continue, I should mention saving is rarely done and is culturally hard to do. It is customary to give money to friends and family in need, especially when those needs are more immediate than the needs you are saving for. Thus, the general attitude is to spend it and VS&Ls have failed because people wanted to take money out before the alloted time for holidays or celebrations. But, generally people save around 100,000FG, 10 weeks with 20 people, and than subdivide the group into groups of 2-4 people and loan money to a member of a group. No other loans will be given to other members of that subgroup until the original loan is repaid, with interest. The interest is generally lower than what microcredit and micro-finance institutions charge. The social pressure technique of making a group rather than an individual responsible for paying back a loan is widely successful in developing economies  and micro-finance in general. Than, at the end of all loan terms, the money is either used to finance a large project or given back to all members of the group. My intention is to use it as a savings tool to meet needs of groupments, and after the first savings period, when a project has been financed, use it to move into a more theoretical discussion of the benefits of saving.  

Using such a system, it is possible to save larger sums of money and use it to invest in a groupments projects. But, as mentioned before, the cultural challenges of saving money are enormous and so is the history of development. People have an incredible patience to wait for materials rather than use their resources to fund needs. Out of 32 groupments, one identified having received metal fencing, five years ago in 2004. Yet all groupments expressed a need, or at least a desire for fencing. Had a groupment, on average of 20 people, had a system of saving in place where each member contributed 500FG every week, every groupment could have bought 25 meters of fencing every 25 weeks. Thus, for development to truly occur, those in needs are best served using even minimal capacities to meet their needs rather than waiting for the next development project to come to town. It would at least make the process move faster. 

My greatest work related frustration came after I had finished my first meetings with groupments. I had completed preliminary analyses of the activities and needs and begun formulating ideas for projects and training's that would be beneficial to all groupments. I was presenting my action plan to the mayor and representatives of groupments. I should mention, motivation is a serious challenge. Of 32 groupments I met with, representatives from only twelve bothered to show up. As I was doing this in French, which was translated into Pulaar, the cumulative results of the needs assessments were being discussed with the mayor. Next to the various needs, seeds, fencing, gardening materials, fertilizer, etc. the mayor was writing down the names of various development project that gave or otherwise provided at a reduced cost those very items. This coincided with my discussion of the importance of each groupment financing and investing in their activities. Needless to say, I felt to some degree my hard work was being undermined, not only in the physical labor and mental effort I put in to meet with these groupments but also my very presence to sensibilize and teach the techniques to aid groupments in sustainable development. This isn’t to say that I still can’t do something and I still can’t be effective. But to deal with the fact that I gave up so much and face so many challenges to help someone a world away, a task I do enjoy and find very rewarding no matter how hard it gets, it is hard to feel that my work was undermined by others trying to achieve the same end goal as myself to help the people of my community and of Guinea develop.

I occasionally do wonder what I myself am doing and I imagine for those of you who take the time to read this, their is greater curiosity of what I am doing. After all, I am now in a country most people never heard of. Even those who know current PCVs in Guinea sometimes mistake where we are for another place. The greatest story was an e-mail of great concern for a current volunteer when a natural disaster occurred in Equatorial Guinea (sometime a year or so ago, not sure exactly when). But its not just about where I am, its also a lot of what do I do. Sometimes I don’t feel like I do a lot. Most of my meetings only took an hour or so every day, the rest of the day I was left to my own devices. Yet as a PCV I work 24/7; when not working to help in the development efforts of my community, I am a representative of our culture; showing that culture of the United States is more than the lifestyle exemplified by 50 Cent and Akon. But on top of my project related work, their is the work of daily life. It might take me an hour or more just to get my daily water needs (20-30 liters) and I generally am not involved in food preparation, eating with families or at restaurants, a task that easily takes a bulk of women’s time here. So in addition to the work and life related challenges I face on a daily basis, I choose to pass my quiet time in intellectual pursuits, doing logic puzzles and reading. 

While basic needs such as getting water are by far more challenging and time consuming than they were in the United States, I find life simpler with much more time to read and more importantly, time to think about the impacts of what I have read. Not to mention when I am not up to the task, letting my army of petites look through a magazine will send them off to get me water. It is all made even better when they look at the cover and say, THAT’S OUSMAN BAH!, one of my closest PCV neighbors and the first member of my fellow PCVs I met (as a fellow Vermonter, we were placed on the same flight). I can’t help but to laugh at this which makes them not believe me when I tell them that no, Ousman Bah is not gracing the cover of Scientific American. Reading magazines does keep me informed, although usually a month late, with current events, by far one of the biggest things I lack in my daily life but I find that I now have more time to think about what I read. Sometimes, I find I am even able to find solutions from what I read for the very work I seek to do. Other times, I just think more in detail about the challenges the world faces and one of the things I love most about my current job is the fact that I am working to overcome the very real challenges people and humanity faces. I choose to put a name to it, someone I met because I know I can’t change things for humanity and I never set out to do so. Knowing I would face great challenges, I came to make a difference for one person knowing that one person, sharing their new knowledge with others, can replicate it and exponentially expand the effects to others. Thus, one person does have great power to effect change for the better, even when they only set out to make a little difference. But

But while some may feel they never have time to read (I know how you feel, I used to be you), it is incredibly important. And more importantly, I encourage you to read things you don't always agree with. In our day and age, it is easy to always read what we want to hear, what we will agree with. And as a society, we embrace our individual rights and differences but have built a system that strives to bring our varied interests together. It is true, we don’t and will not always agree with one another but the fact that as neighbors, we can live next door and disagree in a peaceful manner is a gift; protected by our rights and way of life not allowed for all humanity. But the very basis of understanding comes from the idea that we ourselves will understand beliefs different than our own. We don’t have to agree but if we expose ourselves only to ideas and opinions we already agree with, we isolate ourselves from a diversity of opinion that would further allow us to identify our beliefs and an understanding that while our approaches may be different, most of the challenges we face, we face together. Most importantly, its not just understanding our common struggles, but building solutions that incorporate the best of all beliefs, building on the capacities of all to form compromises and coalitions for workable solutions. We will always be developing and we have great power over tomorrow; not an unknown of what’s ahead but as a path to build a better future learning what works best from our past. It not just takes an understanding of ideas different than our own, a willingness to accept that someone we disagree with on all most issues might have a better solution to tackle a critical problem humanity faces but most importantly not to accept the way things are but yearn for and know we have the power to build for a better tomorrow.

I realize that was off topic but it is a reality I deal with, the luxury to challenge myself with new ideas and the time to put a great deal of thought into such ideas. But a goat chilling on a roof and the cows living in unfinished houses provide comic relief when things start  to get a little too serious. Haven't yet gotten a picture of the goat on the roof but picture it in your head, a goat on a tin roof. Maybe its harder to think about than I thought, not something you would encounter in your daily life like I encounter in mine. The unfinished houses are an example of how difficult it is to save money. When people do come into money, they will put it into a new house. Often however, the money is not enough to finish the house so the house remains unfinished until more money arrives. But the logic goes, if the person doesn't spend it, than they would be culturally obligated to give it to family or friends who came asking, with the idea that should the person giving ever be in need, they could get money from people they gave it  to, 

One thing I can buy here, although expensive at $4.00 a jar (don’t criticize I make $7.00 a day) is mayonnaise, made in the USA and imported via England. I feel if a product, can be made in the USA and sold via England to one of the poorest countries in the world, I have a hard time buying the argument that companies can only make a profit by outsourcing manufacturing. Henry Ford, a founding father of the modern production line, believed not just in creating an affordable car but making sure his employees could afford the very cars they produced. Employees give their labor to businesses in exchange for wages; their labor helps produce goods which the employees themselves use their wages to buy; money that flows back to businesses which in turn invest in new products to create new jobs. Ok, overly simplified but thats basically how it works. Yet companies like Walmart have guaranteed themselves a large consumer base by paying most of their employees only just enough so they can only afford to buy there. I should note that one of the greatest and sustainable periods of prosperity in the United States came after World War II, when returned GIs went to college and businesses played good wages, ensuring employees could buy the very products they were working to produce. The development of infrastructure further, in particular the Interstate System, what I would say is the best national defense expenditure ever, helped decrease the time between markets. 

What is interesting that education and infrastructure are incredibly important to my work in development; infrastructure providing new opportunities while education provides long term benefits for future generations, economic activity and public health (a 1 year increase in a girls education is a 5-10% reduction in the chance her child will die of infant mortality). One concept of how technology infrastructure, i.e. cellphones, have provided new opportunities is through the income generating activity of telecenters and recharge centers. This analysis is based on a successful battery recharge center but the business runs a small generator that requires about 2 liters of gas to run a day (a 9600FG cost). The generator itself costs about 300.000FG to buy with additional investment of 100.000-200.000FG for chargers, power regulator and plugs. Generally, from one small generator, people create at least 20 plugs and I have seen as many as 50 plugs. If a 20 plug recharge center operates eight hours a day, it has the possibility for 160 charge hours with phones requiring about 2 hours per charge. Thus, if it operates at full capacity, it has the possibility to charge 80 telephones and at a price of 1.000FG per phone, the potential revenue is 80.000FG. Less operating costs, at full capacity, the recharge center would have a net income of 70.000FG, well above the poverty line of 10.000FG a day. Even if they only operate at 50% capacity, the recharge center would net 30.000FG, still three times the poverty level AND be able to pay off the investment costs of the generator and plugs in a reasonable amount of times, making it one of the few businesses that if successful, could pay of the generally short terms of microcredit. This Income Generating Activity, was only recently made available in the past few years as cellular service became widespread. While cell phones themselves are more of a status symbol, few often have credit to use their phone, their market saturation will continue to grow in developing economies worldwide but most importantly is that new technologies provide new opportunities. Yes, the primary benefits will go to international companies who own the cellular networks but in a place such as Guinea where the few informal income generating activities that are successful are widely imitated, new opportunities for economic activities are important for an economy where few formal sector jobs can be found and unemployment is rampant. 

My apologies for the length. But I only get to do this once a month or so. I hope I have given a decent understanding into what I am actually doing and hopefully will post matching pictures of My Corner Office, a lot of gardens, not super exciting I know but I went on a lot of garden tours in the course of my analysis; the viewing and conversations which formed the basis of many of my thoughts expressed here and the basic concepts I have discussed for my work. In all, things are going well and it has been a blessing to come back and be with everyone, to see that they are experiencing the same challenges and successes I am. We all have such different experiences yet we face common challenges and it is comforting to know that I am not doing this by myself.

It took 12 hours to go 60 miles. Walked about 25 times, pushed the car about 15 times, changed one tire and filled the radiator with water about 5 times. This was seven passengers plus driver in a late model, small Mercedes. But I did see a great sunset (the sunset I never should have seen as a result). Also, I got to crank the crank on the hand cranked ferry to cross the river. Guineans LOVED it. I think those two fun elements make up for the other 11:50 minutes that didn't go right.

I use 'chose' as the title because that means things. Just another part of my combination of French, English and PC slang which I realize makes understanding me sometimes rather complicated. My apologies. Just ask me to clarify.

But I am doing great. My site has treated me wonderfully and I am making lots of friends (I can't leave my house without at least four families wanting to feed me) and I've had lots of great conversations about the needs of my community with people from my site as well as other development (extensionist) workers who use my site as a base for their operations. It has created some great ideas for projects, such as a solar dryer project (for food security) that helps preserve the abundant source of mangos and tomatos which no one can possibly eat all of when they are in season. The project idea is to do a business training, A to Z, with high school age kids and have them set up a small enterprise that sells dried products during the off season and use the proceeds to help buy basic school supplies and books for the school. Some of the books they do have include Canadian Geography which doesn't really have a decent place in the curriculum. As for mangos, I have joined the cows and petites in mango hunting. For humans, it involves a 20' pole and climbing the tree, batting at a mango till it falls. I did not have success but fear not, I am frequently given in excess of 20 mangos so I have pleanty, if not too many, for me too eat. Hence the reason I myself made a solar dryer to introduce the technology to my community. My counterpart was so excited and immediately made a meeting for me to explain this and the business opportunities to a groupment. As for my real work, my ONG (NGO) would like me to do a large business training of 50 persons over five days, five people from 10 groupments. Since not everyone will read or write French, it provides a great opportunity to allow for collaborative projects with health or agfo volunteers. Not to mention, thats a lot of material for me to prepare.

So until I went mango hunting, I had managed to avoid issues with petites (small children) that normally plague other volunteers. Such as petites staring at your windows for long periods of time. Than I went mango hunting and overnight, the all of a sudden, the number of petites who know my name grew exponentially and now thing my house is the local hang out point. Luckily they still respect me saying its time for me to repose (rest) and that they need to go. The advantage is, I now get a LOT of mangos and petites now want to search for water for me, although despite the work, I prefer to do it myself.

So despite originally thinking that I would want to cook for myself a lot, I enjoy eating rice and sauce with families and at my rice bar. Peanut sauce is the best although leaf sauce with peanut butter is very good too. Its partly because cleaning dishes after cooking/eating is a lot of work absent running water or a nice dishwasher.

And on travel. I know you all heard about my adventures with the built in AC, a bush taxi missing half the front windshield. And I started this blog about travel as well. Needless to say, it hardly seems safe and rarely seems comfortable. Yet most of the time, once you get into a groove, its somewhat comfortable. Its only if you have to keep stopping and walking do things get uncomfortable, as they did the other day when it took 12 hours for a 3 hour trip. But, our trip was broken up for a good part by a ride in an ONG car, although we had to stop at various points for them to inspect their work. This involved multiple waits although we did stop in small remote town where everyone seemed to be collecting mangos. We were handed probably 50 and some child born this year in that town will not be born in 2009 but will be born "In the Year 3 Portos Showed Up and One Taught us a Funny Dance Called Skinny-Marink-A-Dink-A-Dink" complements of yours truly. Finding ways to pass time along the side of the road is key. It might become a Broken Bush Taxi Olympics, it really is an artful sport and all the pushing up hills is also good sport.

One of the hardest parts is dealing with food security here. I generally get the feeling that a lot of statistics are somewhat hazier than they seem but when someone says that 99% of Guinean's go to bed hungry or don't get enough to eat, the hardest thing for me is to accept a large plate of rice and sauce, even though it is culturally inappropiate to refuse. I was reading some of Dave's blog, on which he wrote something to the sort of "If we all had a little bit of Guinea in us, we'd be a lot better off." While we miss him dearly, as he chose that now is not the right time to deal with the many challenges of Guinea, I do tend to agree with him on that. Granted, we would not be better off if it took us 12 hours to go 60 miles or had cars with only half of windshields, but the culture and the people. If we had the sense of community, the sense of taking care of family and neighbors even making our ends meet was difficult; just one act a day in that general direction would go a long way. Happiness, kindness and hospitality are virtuous cycles and despite facing some of the greatest challenges in one of the most challenging places, the people of Guinea do that well. You never know who is in a bush taxi with you but it is an experience you share, and you make friends and you look after one another. Even if an hour (or 12) you were complete strangers. Imagine getting on a plane and having the plane sit on the tarmac for three hours and having a similar experience, seatmates sharing food, water and inventing new games and conversations just to pass the time in a more pleasant manner.

As for photos, I have augmented somewhat so here is the link: http://picasaweb.google.com/jabarbour/Guinea#

Enjoy the sites and stories of Guinea because so much, the smells and sounds can only be described and left to the imagination.

I have been at site for about 20 days now and so far so good. Little by little I am learning things for myself, like how to search for water which is no easy task. If you want to get fit in 15min a day, just carry a 5gallon bucket of water up a small mountain. I never thought I'd be an exercise guru but I swear by it. It is that all the water I know use in a day because getting water is a lot of work.

I have had very different experiences with work (which I don't really start for three months) but I have sat for 5 hours waiting for a meeting that never happened and than a demonstration of farmers learning how to craft plows to be pulled behind cows. They learn how to make their tools of locally available resources which is great and using a plow to prepare the land means it takes less time to prepare the land and less time securing food source is a great step for development. With my first observations I have thought a lot about development and I will write on this later but their seems to be a discrepancy between projects that get funded and projects that actually work. The challenges of dealing with wants versus needs and the challenge for a need to measure and quantify how development funds are spent.

My site is beautiful. I have had the chance to do some hiking, faire trekking, and get a good panorama of my site but also explore the sites, sounds and smells of my market (marche). I eat rice and sauce every day from one lady with a rice bar but have access to a wide range of vegtables and pasta. Looking into getting a chicken to slaughter and prepare for myself, maybe a small fette when some other volunteers visit. As for now, I am writing from Kindia, 4 hours south of my site where I came to get supplies and visit with other volunteers. It was a true bush taxi experience with the drivers side of the windshield missing, the other half supported by bamboo, the chauffer took the muffler off half way through and we got out and pushed the car up a hill. I apologize to my and any mother who pictures me or anyone riding in such situation. But I arrived without any problems, really. Than when I did arrive, I was taken in a private car with another volunteer to visit another volunteer. The cars battery died and despite AAA not being here or anything of the sort, the battery was jumped far faster than it would take for AAA to arrive. Its amazing how an informal infrastructure exists when no formal one does.

I was talking with some friends here and we were commenting how a great high can become a quick low. Talking about it always brings up the idea of "are you bipolar?" and the answer is no, we're PC Guinea. But its true, any little thing can make or break a day and yet in a second, minute whatever that all can change. It means even the smallest success, like me being able to carry my water all the way without setting it down is a success. But when you are relearning everything you know on how to live, in a new language and new culture, thats just the way it is. And in that light, I don't focus on the meeting which I waited 5 hours for but never happened, I focus on getting to see the farmers craft the yokes for the plow with traditional tools and sitting with the blacksmiths, blowing air into the fire to help them forge their tools, talking with a friend who was involved in the project about the positive effects the farmers will get from producing food easier, knowing how to make/repair their tools and the long term effect it will have in their development and for the development of future generations.

Hopefully next time I can share some pictures, the internet is slow and I didn't have a lot of time, but one of the best things is to share everything that I experience because no matter how normal it may seem to me, I know it is strange, bizarre, interesting for all of you.

Part President Obama's inauguration speech was quoted during our swearing in ceremony in recognition "that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task." And my difficult task now begins.

It's called the hardest job you'll ever love, something about the PC experience that I will learn why as my adventure really begins. Their comes a time when most PCVs are terrified and in tears, when you are finally moved to your site and the Peace Corps car is driving off into the distance. For me, that happens in a few days. And while I was settling in and adjusting to the community where my training was held, I had the support of 28 other PCTs minutes away. Now, it is just me in my town and my nearest neighbors are anywhere from 1.5-4 hours away. Learning where things are, the food, the water, exploring the markets, everything I shared with other PCTs I now only have myself. In anticipation, my emotions about moving to my site waiver between excitement and terror; excited for what I will learn and what is to come yet terrified that my journey is so unknown.

Often, I no longer know why I joined Peace Corps. I am so wrapped up in the experience that I forget why I pursued this experience. But even on the hardest days, I have not questioned myself being here. It has never been something I grudgingly accepted, and while I don't know the road ahead, every daily challenge I overcome, every small reward satisfies my spirit when I give it all to the hardest job I assume I'll love.

So in my last few days with my host family, I had the recurring thought that the only good rooster is one cooked for dinner. Contrary to popular belief, rooster's do not wake up with the sunrise, go cock-a-doodle-doo and than go about their day. They actually repeat the cock-a-doodle-doo for at least a good half hour to make sure you get up than random outbursts to make sure you stayed awake. Great alarm clock if it wasn't so early.

So I started reading a few other G17er's blogs and realized I've left out some important details. How am I enjoying life Guinea, what am I going to do for my first three months at site and just general details about my life in general. As for the first question, I enjoy life in Guinea. Its day by day and about to get very different but when I told a lot of you I was going to do Peace Corps, you said it fit me and it does. The big problem is I'm not sure if by the end of my service if it will have cured my travel bug or if it will just leave me itching for more. As for what I'm going to do in my next three months, officially, its nothing. Seriously.

As you can well imagine, life is very different here (I bet you don't get woken up by roosters at 5am) yet in many ways, I find it relaxing. It could be the pace, its perfectly okay to pass a day just making and drinking tea, which isn't my favorite beverage but making the tea sure is fun. But for me, it gives me a lot of time to think and reflect. Granted I'm missing out on a lot of information on what’s going on in the world but at least I can reflect on my immediate world, which still has a lot going on, especially since its so new. And each day poses challenges for me to get what I want/desire or for me to adapt to basic life. I love cheese but it’s very expensive and also I lack a means of refrigeration. Yet, now I know how to make cheese out of powdered milk which is readily available. Problem solving skills and adaptability at its best. And I enjoy this. But for everything that is relaxing, their is something that is more difficult, such as gathering water, washing clothes, cooking; all of which involve more labor and more time. For example, washing clothes involves at three buckets of water, one with soap and two to rinse. I've already shared the adventure from my well to my house at site, up a small mountain, over a fence, through some gates and since I can only carry one smaller bucket, I'd need to fetch four just to wash one week’s worth of clothes. But life in this manner does take on a certain rhythm, all of which must be completed before midday because after that it's to hot to do anything other than rest, preferably in the shade of a mango tree.

But, life here is also day by day. It is very easy to have a great day followed by a day in which every thing frustrates you. I'm really not bi-polar, I'm just a PCV in West Africa. And life is a challenge. Especially when I am in a climate which despite having adjusted somewhat, I still find uncomfortably hot most of the time and I use a language where I still can't read a book designed for 6 year olds. Overall, I am happy and say things are great but there are the days when I miss the conveniences or ease of every day items from home (which I now consider luxuries) and most importantly, the people I rely on. So yes, some days are easier than others and not having a rooster wake you up earlier than when you really want to get up certainly makes a day easier. But there are things which I have no control over. I don't even remember all of these things because they just need to be laughed at and shrugged off, otherwise they make days harder. To quote a fellow G17er, "if we didn't laugh, we'd cry." Laughter is an amazing tool that helps alleviate anxieties and disbelief of what’s actually happening and allows you to not think about something until it’s over when it is actually really funny. Like bush taxi rides are hysterically funny for no reason other than to prevent us from thinking about riding in a 15-20 year old Peugeot that has no original parts and whose door may or may not swing open so it has to be held shut with little more than a rubber band. I say they're really not that awful but it is very possible ten years from now I'll look back on them and ask myself, you did what!?!?

Being finished with training I do believe will make things easier. 7 hours of classes in 90 degree heat is exhausting, leaving little personal time to enjoy things such as reading, observing and writing. I will also have my own personal space which is important to me but fellow G17ers helped make training fun and understand the triumphs and tribulations of every passing hour and day in PC Guinea. So when I say I believe it will be easier, it is said for some reservation as I really have no clue as to what comes next.

As for what I am doing in my first three months at site, when I say nothing I mean it but it’s actually a lot harder than it sounds. Because doing nothing still involves learning about my community, its culture, needs and resources all while practicing French so at the end of three months I can begin my real work. The first three months is really about integration. Find a family who will feed me when I want to eat, find petites who are so excited that they get to be the one fetching water for the porto, learn my way around town, meet people, make friends who have endless patience with me and who want to be friends with me, not friends just with the American. I also have to work on explaining why I actually want to come from America to live in their town when there are a lot of people who would much rather go to America. So while I'm not allowed to do work, learning is work and right now, is the most important work I could do.

Peace Corps is an opportunity I cherish, even on the hardest days. I've always been driven by curiosity, even from a young age when I took anything and everything apart. It drove my parents nuts, not because I was curious but because my curiosity left a mess in it's wake. For a long time, I thought of things, especially school, as a means to an end. Something I needed to do so I could do what I wanted to do. And I never defined what I wanted so I never new exactly where I was going. And now I am here. Constantly learning and exploring, I am challenged mentally, intellectually and physically and for the first time, I feel like what I am doing is not a means to an end and it certainly is not the end. So although I can explain the work I am here to do and the adventures I live each day, I am at a loss to explain what I am doing.

So in my nice long essay of happenings, I left out a story from my site visit, a story that left me wondering what just happened.

I am in what is called a cluster of volunteers. There are five of us who are considered 'neighbors,' a loosely used term to refer to the people who live closest to me, such as 20-30km away in a 1.5 hour bush taxi ride or someone who lives 140km away in a 3-4 hour bush taxi ride. But during site visit, we were all to travel together back to our training site so we gathered on the last night at one of the stagaires houses in the largest city in our cluster. That night, the daughter of the family that volunteer is living with, as well as the president of the organization the volunteer will be working with, drove two hours to saluate here. Now you know how important it is to saluate but she insisted that all five of us go visit her farm and not only that she would provide us transportation in an NGO land cruiser (highly preferable to a bush taxi) not only to the farm but the two hours back to our training site as well. So the next morning, we head out to the farm where we spend the next five hours on a tour of the facilities and fields, learning about the mission, business, agroforestry tools in use and philosophy of what turns out to be a training plantation. Basically, Guineans can come for free, work in the fields in the morning using organic and non-technology intensive agro-techniques and receive agro, business and computer trainings in the afternoon. The plantation sells its produce which covers most of its costs while the remainder is covered by outside sources. Not only were we amazed by all of this, seeing everything us SED and Agfo volunteers had been learning in action, we were amazed at the ability of it to be successful and the premise of Guineans empowering other Guineans. Not only that, the hospitality was amazing. We were welcomed openly, provided food and the owner was eager for us to return. When we asked for her contact information and she handed us a business card, a rare occasion here, we were somewhat star struck. Plus, we got to eat lots of pineapple, always a delight.

I realize I wrote a giant post yesterday so I will keep it short today but, I have posted a slide show of my photos, I promise more will come but if the slide show is not visible, the link to the photos is: http://picasaweb.google.com/jabarbour/Guinea?authkey=6Ypj7fzaiB8&feat=directlink#

So I completed training and apparently I can speak French which is somewhat of a surprise for me. Not that I am fluent in it by any means but I have the next two years to work on that. As for my current state, I feel it is very surreal, expecting to wake up from a dream, be back in Vermont or New York City and say, "damn, what an adventure!" Than I wake up, or rather am awoken by a rooster crowing five feet from my door at 5AM, attempt to fall back asleep but the rooster still crows so I wake up and its 75 or 80 degrees at 7AM. And no matter how long I spend scrubbing my feet to try to clean them, they are covered in dust the moment I step outside. I realize it's the perils of wearing sandals but it is just to hot to even consider wearing shoes, let alone socks and shoes. Not to mention when I'm using three buckets to wash my clothes by hand, the fewer clothes to wash the better.

But the last time I wrote, I was just about to visit my site. Throughout this whole adventure, one of the hardest things for me to do was to try not and have expectations. Not that I didn't want to think about things that lay ahead but more so, I am coming into a culture I don't know, a language I don't speak, a town that until I was told I would be living there I had never heard of so what can I expect? If expectations are built on past experience and my past experiences are defined by my history in my culture, how can I develop a realistic expectation for something which I am learning so much about but which I still know so little? Although, I did expect to be somewhat terrified, have difficulty communicating and at least have an adventure. Simple expectations are easy to meet. First, bush taxis are a lot more terrifying and uncomfortable looking than they actually are, even when they don't really operate on a fixed schedule but, that may just be myself forcing laughter at bush taxis in general. The ride to my town was beautiful, although four hours on a dirt road did turn me a little red. There are giant mesas (a mountain/rock formation) which are cool and savannas (picture the movie The Lion King, even though I have yet to see major wildlife) which extend for almost the entire drive.

I get into my town (name omitted for safety reasons) and I have a wonderful little market and the office of my organization is right in the center of town. Now, let me go into a little detail about my market. One, dried fish is everywhere. Usually in the states, I love fish. Some tuna, some salmon, some swordfish, grilled, pan seared, or sashimi and I would be in heaven. I have yet to develop that taste for fish here so the dried fish kind of creates an unwelcoming situation for me. Now imagine my market is the equivalent of a supermarket. It’s really not but it’s where I go food shopping so the comparison works. Now imagine you are browsing the aisles of your supermarket, picking what you want off the shelves and as you go about your business, cows mingle all around with a 4' bar hanging horizontally from their necks. The bar is designed to prevent cows from eating crops in the field but little is done to keep them from stealing produce in the market. Every time a cow walks or shifts its head, it runs the chance of knocking you down. It makes for an interesting shopping experience to say the least. And if its night, the lack of light allows for the distinct probability that one might just walk right into a cow. That being said, it takes some getting used to but with the exception of the fish, it really is quite a wonderful market.

As for my house, I mean this in a positive manner when I say it could have been built by Habitat for Humanity in the States. My house has tiled floors, a nice front porch, a foyer which enters into my living room, bedroom and storage room across with my bathroom off my bedroom. My house has fixtures for light bulbs and a bathroom that includes a toilet, shower and sink but my electricity and water are not actually hooked up to anything that would make them function. But my house is very spacious for one person and I never thought I'd be getting a housing upgrade when I joined Peace Corps and moved to West Africa but it does needs some work before it will feel like home. But, if you send me a catalogue with some cool furniture that I might like the designs of, I can have it custom built for not too much money so... I might have some cool looking furniture sometime soon as well!

As for logistics, such as water, I mentioned that despite my nice water using furnishings, I must gather and carry my water from a well. By the time I got to site, I had been taking French for a month and figured I had getting my basic needs (such as water) down. So I ask for some assistance in getting water and it passes through a few people without ever getting done (over two hours) and I am beginning to wonder am I really this dumb that I can't even ask for water? And if so, how on earth can I actually accomplish business trainings? So the next day, I give up on asking for water and ask for some assistance showing me to the water source. This worked so much better and somewhat alleviated my concerns about my ability to communicate. Anyways, it is a journey to get to water, through a few yards, over a fence, through two gates and down a hill. Maybe 1/3 - 1/2 of a mile away is my well water (water used for bathing and cleaning but NOT for drinking). And when I say hill, imagine a small mountain complete with roots and rocks for a couple hundred feet. So I show up at the well and this porto (white person in Pulaar) is a very curious site but I do my Pulaar salutations and everyone laughs. Anyways, the hike back with a bucket of water is rather hard but at least I know where my water is now. Anyways, the next day, another trainee arrives to stay with me and we both head down to get the well water. One porto showing up at the well was a woah moment, two showing up and people started asking what is this world coming to? Anyways, their isn't really a line, rather a lot of people waiting around but they love our Pulaar greetings so our buckets are filled and than we attempt to carry the buckets on our heads, thinking this is how its done locally, it must really be the most convenient. So as we attempt to put 24 and 40 pounds of water on our heads respectively, everyone laughs. As people realize we are actually going to carry our water like this, they laugh harder. Laughter is contagious and laughter uses or at least induces core muscles making it incredibly hard to balance a large bucket of water on your head. Not something you usually would learn from experience but I can say I've been there done that. But, since this is a lot of work, water conservation becomes a good exercise, seeing how many times I can reuse the water before I use it to flush my toilet.

But on site visit I also had time to ponder some serious things as well. Generally taking notes while eating rice and sauce (leaf, think spinach, or peanut) at my new favorite restaurant. One of the activities we were asked to think about during training was an Income Generating Activity ("IGA"). This is another story but our IGA of selling peanut caramel was so successful that I wanted to make more of our product to sell in which I failed miserably and learned the hard way that my cooking skills don't quite translate to regional cooking methods and that when you earn a good profit, sometimes the rest of the day is best spent drinking tea.

But that aside, one element of business in Guinea and IGAs here in general is that much of the IGAs are agriculturally based. The seasonality of agricultural IGAs never allows supply and demand to naturally balance; rather the market is flooded with supply which lowers the price all suppliers can get for their products than when the season is over, all of the supply is taken away, even if demand remains. This reduces the profit possibilities of the product when it is in season but because it is labor and skill intensive to extend the season, even if just by a couple of weeks, an extended season for greater profit is rarely if ever achieved. Now there are other IGAs as well, including local production of soaps as well as the selling of goods not produced domestically. There are a decent number of goods available at my site but all the boutiques sell these same exact products. Despite my brief experience, I'd hazard a guess that the number of items available in my village is less than the average number of items available in a typical grocery store, roughly 30,000.

Because of the economic situation, demand for goods is limited. Their may be a need for more goods but most people cannot afford them so it is not profitable to supply them. When 30 or so boutiques offer the same type of product and in close proximity, the market is flooded with supply of goods, diminishing the profitability for the boutique owners. Simply put, the problem is that if there are limited IGAs for people to engage in, lots of people will do the same IGAs. This drastically increases the level of supply and without an increase in demand; the positive economic benefit is reduced. In reality, there is a great deal of trade that does go on but we will make the assumption of a closed economy just so I can make my point. If their is X amount of money circulating in the economy of say 100 people and only one person is selling a product that is in demand, more of the money will flow to that one person. However, if a majority of the 100 people sell the same product, X amount of money will be divided amongst a larger portion of the population, doing very little to develop or improve individual economic situations. By working with one family in this small population to increase their portion of the wealth spurs demand for new needs/desires, demand that otherwise wouldn't exist in the community, creating new opportunities for IGAs. For IGAs to be successful, they have to be differentiated to provide economic opportunities based on supply and demand, ensuring a more balanced market.

Basically what I am getting at is: 1. an economy needs diversity to better adapt to supply and demand and 2. some wealth disparity is necessary to help an economy develop and grow. After all, things that are part of our every day lives, maybe more yours than mine right now, were developed because of demand from nation states or wealthy individuals (cars, Internet, jet engines, cell phones, computers, etc.) These may be all tech related but the initial demand for all of these goods came from wealthier individuals or institutions/governments but the demand for these goods helped create jobs that generated incomes for more persons which further spurred greater demand for other goods and services, a cycle that created new IGAs.

The problem lies in you can't build supply without demand but you can't get demand for a product or service that is not economically possibly within a community so the question is where and how do you start to diversify to provide a broader range of IGAs? I would love your input so PLEASE e-mail me with suggestions, thoughts or questions.

I realize this was long and I hope I didn't bore you switching from my adventures to a more “I have this thought and I want your feedback mode.” But what I've shared is not nearly all of what’s happened in the past month so their is more to come (including pictures I promise) and I hope to get this all up before I leave my access to internet for another month. But life is a journey and adventure about what you do, who you meet and what you think along the way. And so far, this journey is still good with plenty of stories and thoughts to share. After all, as humans we have spent thousands of years developing oral and written communication and after all, that’s only good for sharing information and last time I checked, I was still human.

Danc, bon nuit et bon chance!

I found out my site, and this is how the conversation goes. Current Volunteers in Country "You're the volunteer going there? You are so lucky, its beautiful." Me: "Have you been? What can you tell me about it?" Current Volunteers in Country "No, I haven't been, thats just what I hear."

Well apparantly I am going to a beatiful place in Guinea. I'm not going to post the name just yet online because if someone found this, came to my town and asked where the white person (fote, tababu, etc etc) is, I stand out which than poses a safety threat for me. But pictures will come.

But, I will be working with a local Guinean ONG (French for NGO) that does business trainings working in both French and Pulaar. Now a note on the French. When I took my mid-training language test, I tested into Intermediate Low, or level 4. I need to be at level 6 and I started at level 1, Novice Low. Lets just say when that happened I was ecstatic, for once in my life I was actually learning a language. Than I had to sit through a full day of sessions taught in French (today) at the counterpart workshop and understood maybe once every 10 words. On top of that, I than had to give a presentation to 28 other stagieres, a few volunteers and about 30 volunteer counterparts (including mine). In a nutshell, reality really brings feelings of accomplishments down to earth. But, on the good side, my understanding is my counterpart and village have had a volunteer before and he was super patient with my inability to speak or understand. Its a good thing I have some time to work on that.

First, happy holidays and new year to all from Guinea.

As many have you heard, either through the news or through my father posting (thanks dad), Guinea recently experienced a change of government. This happened right before christmas which disrupted our plans to come to Conakry which is why I got to come for new years. I am safe and at no point was I ever in any danger. I am at my homestay two hours from Conakry and other than celebratory gunfire for a couple nights, nothing really happened. As for celebratory gunfire, like most of my life right now, it was a very new concept and one I didn't really think anything of Christmas eve when we had a giant slumber party at the Peace Corps Bureau (our training site) but it was certainly harder for me the next night when I was back in ma maison. I just pretended like my mosquito net was bullet proof, put on some music and fell asleep to the pop-pop-pop of gunfire very close to my window. Things seem to have returned to normal, but only time will tell so I love news from home since I don't have easy access to information but, like I said, I am safe and am still cranking away on my adventure to become a full fledged Peace Corps Volunteer.

My Daily Life:

As a PCT, my life consists of being woken up to the sound of prayer call from the Mosque at 5AM, being kept awake for the next two hours by the sound of water being fetched, petites (little kids) running around, goats and roosters. I really thought roosters were the cute chickens who lived on farms, went cock-a-doodle-doo once with the sun-rise and than just spend the day meandering around the farm. Now, I wish roosters were born at 5AM, went cock-a-doodle-doo once with sun-rise and died shortly there-after to become that nights dinner. Harsh I know but after a month (and probably many more months to come) of a rooster keeping me awake for two hours in the morning before I actually want to get up... lets just say if it happened to you every morning you'd understand. I get out of bed around 7AM. By this time its already about 80 degrees. Their really isn't much temperature variation. It stays between 80-95 degrees just about every day, even at night. I get ready for school, greet my family (a greeting goes: 1. "ca va?" 2. "Ca va, merci. Ca va?" 1. "Oui, ca va merci. Avez vous bien dormi?" 2. "Oui, merci" Translated literally all it means is, "its well?" "Its well thanks. Its well?" "Yes, its well thanks. And did you sleep well?" "Yes, thanks." I generally repeat this conversation absent the avez vous bien dormi part another 100-200 times during my day.

My breakfast is 1/3 of a french loaf of bread with honey and peanut butter and tea. School, or PC training starts at 8 and consists of language classes, technical (Small Enterprise/Business) trainings, cross cultural, cross sector and medical sessions with four sessions, with at least one being language a day. For lunch, I generally eat a bean sandwich (french bread with black eyed peas) or an egg sandwich (french bread with two eggs and two cheeses). At the end of my day, 5PM (17:00), I return home where in my broken but coming along French I try to communicate with my family, look at the amazing night sky and am fed dinner which is almost always rice with leaf sauce, fish sauce or peanut sauce. If you are interested in trying, I'd say leaf sauce is the easiest and its just a large bowl of rice with liquified spinich-esque greens. So far, the food is good, its just getting used to the same things over and over thats the hardest part. My day generally ends with a bucket bath in which I've mastered the technique of using as little water as possible because its generally colder than I would like which cools me down cause its still 80+ degrees but is still cold to the point where it is somewhat of a shock and I am in bed and asleep by 10.

Saturdays are a special day which I usually go for a 2 hr bike at 8AM and than swimming again later in the afternoon. Sundays are my study days and chores. As for chores, that is my laundry which involves three buckets, a washboard and an hour or so of manual labor. And than my life repeats. BUT, I would love to add a special feature to my Sundays which is phone calls from home. My dad posted the contact information and I suggest using Skype or at least a phone card. I've already gotten some letters and packages and I always love more. Good things to send are candies like M&M's, magazines such as Time, Economists, anything newsy and worldsy, notes, letters, photos but I'm not super picky. If it is a letter or a package, I will love it. We got to Conakry for New Years and had a giant celebration of packages and we were the happiest people ever.

Below are some pictures from my adventures in Guinea. The top one is from a bike ride outside of Forecariah, not really sure where exactly so its "laba" like all other directions. The second is of my house (I have a small but comfortable room with a bed and mosquito net, a small desk, chair, and my bike) and the third is of our "Christmas Coup 2008" flip chart. (Flip charts are a big part of PC training so thanks to one of our volunteer trainers, you know you are a PCV when your response to something is to make a flip-chart). You get bonus points when the flip-chart is made to gun fire.

I hope this answers some questions about my life in Guinea. I have many more as well as many more stories but not a lot of time but I would love a letter, a package or a phone call (Sundays. 011-224-62-06-2580) or any other day (if it works) 011-224-65-23-9942. Just remember I am 5 hours ahead of you. Use Skype or a calling card. When you get to dial the number, just start by dialing the numbers written above, I have included all neccesary prefixes to call from the states.

Au revior from now and I hope to talk to everyone soon!

This is still John's father. John now has two cell phone numbers. Try the original one first - 011-224-65-239942. If that does not work, try 011-224-62-062580. He just has one phone, but can swap sim cards depending on which one gets better service. Sundays between 11 and 3 EST are still good times to call him. We use calling cards that we got at CostCo, which means we are paying between thirty-five and forty cents per minute.

Things seem to have settled down. They are still in stand fast mode, which seems to mean they can't move about and are supposed to stay prepared to evacuate. He hopes that since they were not able to go to Conakry on Christmas Day, they might get there on New Year's Day. That would mean he would have access to email - and a hot shower.

We learned how he does his laundry. It involves a trip to the well on Sunday mornings and three buckets. Basically it is a wash cycle followed by a rinse cycle and a second rinse cycle.

Food consists of rice and beans, rice with something like spinach sauce, fresh bread with peanut butter or mayonnaise, egg sandwiches, black-eyed pea sandwiches, oranges, and bananas. As best we can tell, everything seems to cost about twenty cents. He will correct me if I am wrong.

Full Disclosure - this is John's father doing this post with his permission. Mostly. You might have heard the president of Guinea died and the military took control. This created some uncertainty, but so far not much more. It meant that John was not able to go to Conakry, the capital, on Christmas Day which meant that he did not have access to the internet which is where I come in. It also meant that he went to bed to the sound of celebratory gunfire on Christmas Eve and awoke to the same on Christmas morning. It also meant that he was not able to purchase a cell phone as planned on Christmas. Nor was he able to get the latke recipe we sent by email.

However, the Peace Corps provided everyone with a cell phone and he has a phone number. That is the good news. The lesser good news is that he remains almost impossible to reach. We hope this is temporary due to high call volume because of the coup. He is able to call out, but we rarely are able to reach him. He says the cost of a call to the US is a day's wages so it is far cheaper if we call him.

To reach him by phone, call 011 224 65 23 99 42. Don't dial 1 before it all. The 011 indicates it is an international call. The 224 is the Guinea country code. He suggests that Sundays between 11 and 3 EST are good times to call. It is a five hour time differential. 11:00 AM EST is 4:00 PM in Guinea.

First, important piece of information is I will not be posting most likely until Christmas when we return to Conakry from our homestays. Second, the PC compound is above which is where I have been staying since I arrived. Now you know why I don't feel like I am actually in Guinea. Third, I have links to other blogs of PCTs in my group (G17) which have more pictures than I do. We are leaving Conakry to go to our homestays where I will fully be immersed in the culture and language. I am more excited for this because now it will really feel like I am in Guinea. Homestay is about 8-9 weeks where I live with a family and have 6-8 hours of training a day, technical, language, medical, safety and security etc. As a SED volunteer, part of my training will be working with in a group with a local business (with the assistance of my language trainers) to do some consulting work as well as a small group project involving an Income Growth Activity (IGA), which is a Trainer Directed (TD) activity. These will be my first business projects in a long time which I don't get to rely on powerpoint to present my final results but are designed to immerse me in the Guinean economic culture so I leave training not only with the technical language required to discuss feasibility studies, accounting, marketing etc. but I also leave with a good understanding of what I will be doing for the next two years. Going over everything in training, I call it my Peace Corps MBA since we do microfinance, marketing, accounting, feasibility studies, general strategy and more.

On the MBA note, a story I shared with some before I left was about a former SED volunteer who worked with a Guinean baker. The baker was losing money because his village required him to sell bread at a fixed price and he couldn't make a profit at that price. The volunteer worked with him to reduce the sizes of his loaves so they could be sold at a profit. This strategy was also employed by General Mills when they faced rising commodity prices as commodity prices increased worldwide. Two situations worlds apart that employed the same strategy to maintain an economically viable business.

It will be different outside of Conakry. The normality's of life I am used to, a flush toilet, a real shower (with hot or at least warm water because hot showers are not ideal here), etc. will not be available to me at my homestay. I will use a bucket to bathe in and I'll leave the details at that. I will be with a family who has at least one member who speaks French but no English when I speak very little French yet I will integrate into the family as best possible, trying to help with chores even when cultural differences might not find it appropriate for me to cook. Further, apparently everything I do will be hilarious. When I, 'fote' (me), does something, it is the equivalent to Funniest Home Videos, just I will be a reality version on 24/7. Don't get me wrong, as much as it will be a challenge, I am very excited for it. When you hear from me next I will have many more adventures and a much clearer picture of what John in Guinea is all about. Au revior et bon chance.

"Si tu crois que l'education coute cher, essaie l'ignorance." ~ UNICEF

I'll leave you to figure it out.

I have been in Guinea now for a full day. I arrived very tired but excited and happy (thats me keeping a positive attitude). But, I also have yet to experience Guinea as I have been in the PC compound since we arrived (we have been here just under 36 hours at this point).

Their are 28 other fresh faced Peace Corps volunteer. We were an amusing site arriving in Africa, 29 "fote"(pronounced fo-tay which means white person) with an average of 3.5 bags each trying to figure out our way through Dakar, Senegal to make our connecting flight to Guinea than arriving, most of us having been awake for 30 some odd hours being greeted by PC staff and current volunteers super excited for our arrival.

The people I am with are great. Generally I'd say the PC attracts people with similar intellectual interests and curiosity of the world which to be in such a large group with people so similar is unique. What was nicest for me was to go to PA for my staging, meet everyone and finally realize that their were other people with the same interests, anxieties and excitement as myself yet we were so diverse and come from all over the U.S.

I tried posting yesterday and had put my postive thought of the day up (which was we all arrived safely with all of our stuff) when the power went out and I lost all I had written. Since than, the power has gone out 10+ times and its c'est la vie. Its amazing how quickly we adapt to new situations.

If I ever post, e-mail, write etc. about a frustrating situation, the greatest thing is I have an amazing support network in the other volunteers. Frustrations might be caused by the littlest things but accomplishments can come in the smallest things as well (not that anything has frustrated me yet but its a good heads up).

I am going to Guinea, West Africa as a Peace Corps Volunteer ("PCV"). It is my choice and I am excited for it but conceptualizing life in a new country, new language, new culture is very challenging. To my loved ones, family and friends, your support means the world to me. While leaving for Guinea would be so much easier without you, because I wouldn't have to leave you all behind, having you and your support will make my time abroad so much easier.

I am going to Guinea to serve as a Small Enterprise Development ("SED") Peace Corps Volunteer. What that supposedly means is I will be conducting one-on-one and group technical consultations for local entrepreneurs. The skills used in technical consultations will include basic accounting, feasibility studies, business planning, proposal writing, budgeting and managing credit. You'll have to read my future adventures to find out what I am actually doing.

Many people have asked me "Why Peace Corps?" Yes, I signed up to make a difference but I do not expect or hope to change the world. If I can make a difference for one person, one family, than I feel I have succeeded. René Descartes in his Discourse on Method wrote that "It is useful to know something of the manners of different nations, that we may be enabled to form a more correct judgment regarding our own..." and a big part of my choice to do Peace Corps is for the experience and education. Descartes only encourages us to explore other knowledge to better understand what we know because what we know defines who we our. I do not believe my pursuit is more noble than anyone else's, but it is the pursuit I choose and I hope it will be the experience and education of my lifetime.