Hello World!

I am in Conakry at the moment and have an hour at an internet cafe. There is so much to share that I won't even come close to pouring it all onto this post. Before anything else I want to mention that I am in very good spirits and sleeping probably around 9 hours a night for the first time in my life. I want to highlight some notable stories and characteristics of life in Guinea.

I live with a Guinean family. This means there are anywhere from 10-15 people sleeping at the house on any given night. It also means that I don't even know everyones names after living there for 3 weeks. There's a lot to elaborate on here but I don't have time and I don't want to miss the opportunity to share this story. My 3-year-old host brother, Papi is quite the clown. One day my friend and I were sitting outside my room talking. Papi had been in and out, yelling things in susu and climbing on us. We hadn't seen him for a few minutes when in he marches plops down on the middle of the cement floor and produces a box of matches and some cardboard. He looks right at us before expertly striking a match and putting it to the cardboard. The match went out and the cardboard didn't catch. Barely disapointed and instantly losing interest he dropped both toys and went off to find some other way to amuse himself. Other times I've seen him enjoying wacking the Casa (stone walled hut with a straw roof, and good ventilation, for shade in the yard) with an intimidatingly large knife.

Things were pretty shocking at first but petit a petit they are becoming normal. Like the conditions of the roads, cafes, the market, etc. Everythings run-down, used and dirty. Bush taxis carry passengers on the roof. I'll be having my first bush taxi experience in a couple weeks so wish me luck. I may wear my bike helmet. I don't have running water and electricity is spotty but usually on for 5 or 6 hours every other night. I try to kill everything in my room that moves but the mice remain invisible and I'm pretty sure they don't sell mouse traps anywhere.

So many things each day are new and different. Like having a conversation with my 18 year old host sister and describing to her what the inside of an airplane looks like or what ice cream is. Or the fact that I'm afraid of the well and always stay a foot or two from the edge and let my siblings fill the bucket. Or how to cut the head off a chicken (which is quickly). Dogs and cats are mistreated here and it's really, really sad. There is no such thing as a trash can or a left-over scrap of food. Everyone yells fote (white person) at me and the others everywhere we go.

I'm starting to come around to the rice and sauce, which is a blessing because I've mostly been eating bread and peanut butter. The pineapples and mangos are delicious. There are still a lot of foods that I haven't tried yet but I'm being cautious, taking it a little bit at a time. I haven't gotten really sick yet and am hoping to keep it that way. On that note I've been stuck with meningitis, yellow fever, rabies, hep a, hep b, and typhoid vaccinations and may still have more to go. I also sit through sessions dealing with everything from foot fungus to Malaria. Bucket baths are delightful and pretty effective but it is really challenging keeping my feet clean! I forgot to mention this before but my bathroom is scary, and belongs in a horror movie.

I got my site announcement!!! I will be teaching lycee (high school) in Yende Milimou in the Forrest Region which is where the elephants are and is supposed to be one of the coolest parts of Guinea. I'm really excited to visit my site in a few weeks.

In my spare time I study a lot, play a lot of spades, sit around with my host family, ride around on my bike, listen to the BBC and get a decent amount of reading done.

Life is good and exciting. We are all learning that pretty much anything can happen in Guinea.

Write me letters! I will be in touch as often as I can.

xoxo