Christmas

well, ive been living with my host family for more than 2 weeks now and it's going pretty well. my host dad is about 30 yrs old, my host mom is 23 (like me!) and they have a baby girl (18months). i have my own room in their house, and they share a room, and there are two other rooms which house various other family members. i really have no idea as far as specific family relationships b/c everyone calls everyone brother/sister, or says their cousin is their wife when they really arent. we all share a bathroom, but i really hardly ever see anyone go in it but me. i think they might go outside in the woods a lot or something. the bathroom consists of two concrete slabs, one with a drain (the shower) and one with a hole (the toilette). when i want to bathe i have to haul some water from the well to fill up my big bucket, then pour it over my head with a little cup. anytime i go to the bathroom i have to pour water from my bucket down the hole to make sure it is clean. pretty crazy huh? drinking water is a bit more complicated to get, since i cant drink the well water. i have to walk about 1/4 mile to the pump, pay the people who run it the equivalent of about 1 cent, and then physically pump it out of the ground into big yellow gasoline bidoons. i then have to carry a 20liter bidoon on my head back to the family compound while all the children laugh and yell FOTAY FOTAY FOTAY (white person). it was cute at first but by this point i really want them to stop. mon/wed/fri i have agroforestry classes in my village, and tues/thurs all the agfo people take a bus to another village about an hour away to have class with the small enterprise developement and public health people. those days are really fun b/c we learn about the most outrageous stuff, sometimes really silly like std info which we all learned in middle school/highschool, or they have another class on malaria, or how to not get raped. basically tues and thurs are a lot of preventative medicine classes and also things that relate to the whole group, like how to give a presentation in french to a bunch of guineans. i had the best experience the other day b/c on the way back from one of our core sessions (the ones we have together) we got the bus to stop in the market at a store with a generator powered refrigerator and i got some chocolate milk yuuuummmy. seriously i am a dairy obsessed person, and i never fully realized the extent of my love of dairy until i came here and there is absolutely none available. no cheese, no milk (reeeeallly hard to find someone with a fridge or the money for a generator), no yogurt...everyday with my host fam i eat rice b/c that's what they eat but with some sort of fish sauce or peanut sauce, which pretty much grosses me out so i just eat plain rice. basically, im really freaking hungry all the time. PLEASE:) send me care packages. if you do, this is what i want: any sort of boxed macaroni and cheese/pasta and cheese which is a just add water sort of thing. velveeta and ezmac rate really high on my list. ohhh, and powdered drink mix ( bleach water is super nasty), i also really need a soap dish since all they have in the market is the bar soap,and there are no shelves in the "bathroom." oh, and some jolly ranchers/other candy that will do well in a package for one-three months in transit. maybe some instant oatmeal packages and instant grits packages (cheeze flavored for the love of god!) they have eggs here for pretty cheap but it is interesting b/c women sell them from a bowl on their head or on the ground which has been sitting out in the 98 degree heat all day long. if anyone wants to be a super good friend some OLIVE OIL would be great too, and/or a nonstick frying pan (scrambled eggs are a bitch to make here b.c over half of them sticks to the bottom of the freaking pan. it is funny, i am really hot all the time and sweaty and gross but that doesnt bother me. being away from everyone i know and love is hard too, and i miss everyone (esp POPPA BEAR and his damn good cooking!!!) but the really hardest thing here is the freaking food situtation. there just arent any options b/c of the electricity situation, they really dont sell anything refrigerated. i was talking to my host family the other night and i asked where i could find butter. they didnt even know what that was!!! i said margerine and they understood, b.c they sell that in little bags in the market, but it tastes really wierd. for cooking they use palm oil which is DEF different than any other veggie oil ive had and not in a good way. so not to add one more negative thing, but when i first got to my village i got SUPER sick and thought i was going to die. i called the doctor in conakry asking what i should do b.c i was really scared for my life. thank goodness my host dad has a cell phone (another super interesting thing about being here is the cell phone availability, more in a sec.) anyway, the doc told me to start taking cipro ( a super highly potent antibiotic) and i was back to about 90% in a couple days. ok, so about the cell phones: even in the smallest little towns where there are hardly any stores there are at least 3 "tele-centres" which sell phone cards for about $2.50 a piece. cell phones are hugely popular here b/c land lines are not even an option. they can also be a huge status symbol, and people with money sit around on their porch all day playing music videos on them while the whole family gathers around. they are able to charge them b.c about once every 3 nights there will be electricity which runs from about 8pm to 7am. to send a text in country it is only about 2 cents, and only about 10 cents to send one out of country. for this reason, im thinking about getting one here just to have that in case of emergency. anyway, im in conakry now for xmas and one of the guys in our group had a satellite phone and he let everyone call home for about 3 min each just to say merry christmas which was really nice b/c i got to talk to my dad (who, btw is in a ski resort in colorado lucky dog!) but it was hard talking to someone from home too b/c it made me miss it even more. what i would do for some fried turkey right about now (or ANY meat for that matter) oh btw im officially vegetarian in Guinea. meat=sketchy! OOOHHH sooo excited, someone just came into the computer room and said there would be a brunch at the country director's house. i wonder what that means hmmmm eggs/bacon??? YUMM!!! im sooo hungry. if you take anything from this letter take that i really want a care package with food:) i really love you all and would do the same ifyou were hanging out in africa for 2 yrs:) haha! i know i volunteered but help an african sista out! haha:) for real though, i love all yall and miss everybody especially today on christmas. i hope everyone is bundled up and having a wonderful time with yalls families. happy new year:) i wont be able to write for a while (until feb i think) so please send me letters and love. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND HAPPY NEW YEAR:)

in case yall forgot:

Sarah Provost, PCV
Corps de la Paix
B.P. 1927
Conakry, Guinea
West Africa


***make the package/letter as official looking as possible, and write somewhere on it "Dieu regarde Vous" (god is watching you) to deter thieves. PEACE:)