more life in africa

first of all, thanks becky for putting all those pix up of matt and kristin`s wedding. geez i feel far away now... IST has been a really great experience for putting everything in perspective. i can talk to all my friends and hear about their problems and successes and get new project ideas. most of yall already know, but i started teaching an english class 3x/week. i do it from 5pm-7pm monday and thursday, then saturday i do a review of mon and thurs at the same time. I am going to begin work soon with a real life african ¨garden club¨ or what they call a ¨groupement dàgriculture,¨ and will give lessons on things like crop diversification for food security, proper spacing between plants for better yields, composting, organic pesticides made from neem leaves, live fencing with nitrogen fixing trees (which put nutrients back into degraded soil), and nutrition in general. I am also going to work with my Chef Cantonnement Forestiere to create a tree nursury of 5000 trees to reforest some deforested areas around my village. I am also interested in starting an environmental education class in the elementary school and have them create their own school garden and tree nursury so we can have hands on classes and teach which trees do what for the soil, or how to use leaves as green manure. anyway, for all yall wondering, that is what i hope to accomplish in the next two years. i listen to the bbc (on my shortwave radio) every morning and night as i eat breakfast (oatmeal with powdered milk and cinnimon-plz send splenda!!!) and night as i eat dinner (usually bananas with peanuts, supplemented by things i get in packages haha). the rest of my life in my village usually consists of me spending a lot of akward time sitting with my neighbor family (who has finally learned i do not like fish heads floating in a palm oil sauce poured over rice) while the mom cooks aforementioned meal. sometimes i go to baptisms which are a lot different here, less ceremony, more socializing, usually culminating in a goat having its throat slit. the other guests always have a good laugh trying to get the toobaboo (¨white foreigner¨in malinke, the local language in my village) to dance. wild. there are a lot of moments in the village i wish my friends/family could see me b/c yall are never going to believe my stories when i get home. i am regretting now my past life of exaggeration haha. anyway, i never really know what yall want to know about my life here, but IST lasts for another week so email me while yall can and say hi or whatever. I MISS YOU ALL!!!!

IST

Today my brother, Matt, is getting married. I am in Africa. Last night I called him to wish him luck, and my whole family was together and put me on speaker phone. That definitely led to a little bit of an emotional breakdown, and I had to quickly get off the phone before I lost it all together. At least I am at In-Service-Training so I am with all my other Peace Corps Volunteer friends who can give me some support and act as my surragate (sp?) family as I really feel the distance between me and my biological family. I am about to go to a meeting but more later today... GOOD LUCK MATT AND KRISTIN!!!! i love yall sooooo much and wish you the best on this adventure of love:)

PLEASE SEND ME:

http://www.safetycentral.com/hanwatmisfan.html

***any of the fans on this page with LOTS of lithium batteries

http://www.cvs.com/CVSApp/cvs/gateway/search?page=1&Query=contact+solution&ActiveCat=65

***any of these 3.5 or 4 oz bottles would be great, and can you send like 3 or 4 so i can keep one at all the places i travel to a lot (conakry, kankan, kissidougou etc)

and SPLENDA and GOLDFISH and RAW ALMONDS (not grilled or salted or anything) and CHICKEN IN THE POUCH and SUNFLOWER SEEDS (no shell)

geez i love yall :)

check out my friends' blogs too:

tckinguinea.blogspot.com
lizzieinguinea.blogspot.com
alloflifeisaforeigncountry.blogspot.com
www.travelpod.com/members/kylejesw

oh, and i just finished reading this on my friend Katie's blog:

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

--Mark Twain

yea, what he said.

my outhouse building on the left and my hut on the right. the fence is around the whole bathroom and hut area to create a little private area for me away from the prying eyes of curious children.

the view from the "toilette" room looking at my "shower"

the inside of my "bathroom"~i was standing in the "shower" looking at the "toilette" room (if you walk b/t the half walls/shelves, there is a hole in the concrete floor which covers a pit, like a well, which is where i squat when i need to use the bathroom). the room where im standing slopes so when i pour water on my head from my bucket, it drains outside.

so, as most of you know, i am on my once per three month visit to conakry. it has been an amazing trip. it started off with a free ride on the 15 person World Food Program jet from Kissidougou to Nzerekore, then Nzerekote to Conakry. Since I got here friday i have had the best time i have had since i got to guinea. i never know what to write on this thing other than the pictures speak for themselves. it is so hard being alone in my village, but so amazing coming together with some of the coolest and craziest people i have ever met- my fellow volunteers. their stories make me feel like im not alone here, and snap me back to reality, which i sort of lose touch with after a couple of weeks alone in the hut. my in-service-training is in two weeks so ill finally have a chance to see EVERYONE, not just the people in my region, but people i havent seen since i was sworn in as a volunteer a couple months ago who are in Basse-Cote or Fouta (the other 2 regions of guinea where volunteers are placed). yesterday i finally got a chance to visit the islands- as im sure you've seen in my pictures. they are beautiful and so far removed from the dirty and polluted streets of conakry. i really felt like i was back in florida. oh i miss jacksonville soooo much. OH i want to thank Kristin and Matt sooooooooo much for the awesome care package i got, OH and Dad too because i got another one from you when i got into conakry a couple days ago. i love yall sooooo much and miss yall. i cant believe im missing the wedding but ill be there in spirit haha! i really need (want) someone to send me some contact cleaning solution- no rub disinfectant stuff. i brought 3 huge bottles but i need a couple of small bottles to keep in Conakry and Kankan and Kissi because i visit those places a lot and dont want to lug around my massive bottles. it would be AMAZING!!! and SPLENDA!!! the food here (as yall know) is really bland and so ive been putting a lot of sugar on everything (salt too haha) and im terrified of getting diabetes (not to mention my expanding waist-line haha). that would be AWESOME!!! and as always, goldfish or salty/cheezy crackers/ lowfat pringles, whatev. i love yall so much and am sorry im such a needy person haha. in the peace corps i have literally lost all shame i might have ever had about begging for anything i might be successful in getting. being here does that to everyone. 22 more months...

write me snail mail:) just do it!

random staircase in my village- no one knows who built it or what it led to, but someone said maybe it was the italians. wierd.

a pig doing what he does best- this was taken in Jess's village where there are lots of pigs b/c it is about 1/2 christian (my village is about 100% muslim so no bacon for me)

one of 3 mosques in my village

Jess on a visit to my village. There are so many of these crazy boulders and rock formations all over the area.

a three hour tour;)

jetsetting in style haha!

our runway take two

our runway

us on the boat going home- starting from left and going clockwise- melissa, jim, me and julie- the people in the background are random people who got stranded on the island and hitched a ride with us...

some kids playing in the water on the west side of the island

our beach- sorry that last one didnt show up (hmmm?)

our beach

our basically private beach in a paradise i had no idea existed. AMAZING and untouched. this is the africa i LOVE!

me julie and melissa (who, with amy in the background, was messing around pretending to be african haha) -- this is us in the pirogue/canoe thingy we took to the islands. yes, the lifejackets are necessary, seeing as we are in the middle of the freaking atlantic ocean in a canoe and weather reports dont exist here, but sharks do...

sailing: guinean style :)

there are a lot of these boats off the coast of guinea and i thought it looked pretty with the sunset in the background. i took it as we were riding back to shore in our "piroughue" or smg like that (not sure of the spelling but it is like a big canoe)

The ISLANDS - starting me and going clockwise: Amy (my roomate from Philidelphia), Melissa (my closest neighbor to my village- 27kms away), Jim (a ex p.c. volunteer from Guinea-Bissau who took us out to the islands b/c he remembers what it was like to make a 200 dollar/month salary haha), Julie (another Agroforestry volunteer who lives in Basse-Cote region and was in conakry to have a cavity filled) and Zach (my 2nd closest neighbor who lives 75 kms away from my village)

my straw roof:) and no, it doesnt leak, but there are lots of ants who sometimes fall on me when i sleep if i dont put my mosquito net up haha

my front door...all that wood stacked outside is for the fence we are going to build around a tree nursury (for reforestation) because the cattle and goats are all loose so we have to build fences so they wont eat the seedlings

my hut continues...

my bookshelves i had made and my desk where i read yalls letters:)

more of my hut

inside of my hut (which i painted)...oh, and i sewed that bedspread myself!

my hut after i painted it

Regional Capital Visit

hey hey hey again. im using pretty much the slowest computer ever invented so you'll have to bear with spelling errors b/c im not going back to fix them. im in my regional capital right now for our once per month visit. there are 12 of us here and last night we had a really fun (some might say too much fun) st patties day party. no green beer here, but we made up for it will a lot of green costumes. im trying to think of how to sum up the last month (which was my first month alone in my hut in my village). it has been really hard not seeing all my new friends (which made our reunion very exciting!) i havent done a lot in the way of working yet, but work here involves a lot of social relationships so the first three months is really just building a foundation in that which means working a lot on my Malinke skills (the local lang in my village). my biggest news is that unfortunately my camera was stolen recently. i was in my second closest american neighbor's town and we were walking back from going to use the internet at the UNICEF building and i must have not zipped my purse up all the way because my camera wasnt in it when i got back to my friend's house (i had it at UNICEF i know b/c i took a pic of another friend there doing her hair up guinean style). anyway, it is pretty awful because i lost all the pictures i took after site visit and also the pictures of the men rethatching my roof (really cool process) and i also cant post any pics of my new and improved hut: i painted the exterior a brownish orange color and the doors black, the roof is all new and clean looking, and i painted the interior a hot pinkish red color which looks awesome with my bed spread i sewed by hand (a lot of time to spare here). another cool accomplishment im sort of proud of is my 30 mile bike ride to my friend Melissa's house (uphill both ways of course haha). i have to give a shout out to my dad who ive gotten two kick ass packages from , as well as Mimi (thank goodness im up to date with my pop culture now, im starving for news...and GOLDFISH hahah YUMMMMMM!!!) and Lisa who's V-day package really made my day:) i love all yall out there reading this and i miss you all!!!! well, i need to save time to check my email so until next month...

this is what we like to call "a good looking bush taxi"...even so it broke down 3 times during our hour long trip home from the coast. t.i.g. folks, t.i.g. haha:)

another pic in my future photography series "view from the hut"

another pic in my future photography series "view from the hut"

three languages of "forbidden to urinate here"

yup, cows in the middle of the road...and this is the MAIN HWY in guinea

our pirates and ninjas party in Kankan after site visit

this is in the city of Kankan, my regional capital...this man is holding some sort of musical instrument i thought was cool, and in the background you can see liters of petrol (gasoline) being sold out of empty glass bottles.

i took this picture in a town called Kissidougou...the further west you go in Guinea the more you can see the influences of Islam

see the thatch hanging down on the top? this is the view from the doorway of my hut...yes, that is a cow wandering by...they are EVERYWHERE in the east, hot drier part of guinea where my village is.

HUT TIME!!!

my hut...i def have my work cut out for me when i move in in a week...new paint (a hut should be BROWN not BLUE!!!), a garden, flowers...the roof is new though, so that is def a plus;)

some of us holding guinean flags in mamou for the african cup (soccer)

toilettes being sold on the side of the road, guinean style

my host family house

the vultures who are all along the coast here

my bathroom in my host families house (i forgot to turn it counterclockwise but u get the idea)

my host gma's money

counterpart workshop

hey yall:) im in a big city in the middle of guinea doing a workshop where we meet our guinean counterpart who works for the gov in the sector which we are assigned, mine is agroforestry. i actuallyfound out today that i have two, one man and one woman. we are staying in a hotel in the foothills which is really pretty and most impt, NOT HOT haha. im using a foreign keyboard so typing is slow and there is no exclamation pts. i dont have time for an individual email to all of u bc im on a little 15 min break, so poppa bear, if your reading this, the second cheapest way to call over here is to buy a calling card at wallgreens or cvs. it is super easy or so ive heard and a lot cheaper than just using ur long dist plan w/ cingular. call me ASAP (after 5pm my time plz so ill have my phone on) and tell me what adress exactly u sent the package to, b/c if u sent it to the embassy which matt told me ill prob never get it unless i tell one of the admin people to intercept it immediately. to everyone else: if u send anything, letter or package, plz use the adress ive put on this blog several times. anyway, a lil more about here... super excited b/c there is a generator at this hotel, which doesnt mean a/c, but does mean that when they turn it on after dark we have light. there is also running water, but dont get excited, it is FREEZING cold haha. also, no toilettes, still just squat holes, but they flush...i dont really understand the logistics but ill try to explain it in person when i come back. if either jeff or steph is reading this, i still havent forgotten that u said youd come visit and im holding u to it haha. matt too, u better come and bring kristin too. on sunday we take a bush taxi with our counterparts to our sites for a 3 day visit b/f we return to our training village for 2 more weeks. after that we have a couple of days in conakry to buy stuff for our huts, yes, i will be living in q circular mud hut with thqtched rof hahaha. i have to buy everything i will need except food, like moving into a new appt haha. well, time is running out and i have SO MUCH MORE TO SAY/EXPLAIN. ugghh, frustration haha. well, i am healthy and relatively happy and thriving right now, but well see how it is when i have to leave all my new friends and be in my hut alpne for two years haha. I love all of u and think about all of yall all the time exclamation haha. bye for now till conakry:)

if u want haha

ok a lot of people have been asking me what to send in care packages, which i would LOVE YAY so here is a list:

*2 cent stamps american
*small individually wrapped condiments like ketchup, mayo, RANCH (or ranch dry mix is better), butter, jellies and soy sauce
*plastic poofball loofah thing
*soap dish
*toothbrush cover
*CINNIMON
*curry
*bacon bits-damn muslim country haha
*reeces mini cups mmmmm haha
*SEEDS for flowers (dry hot climate), corn, chives, brocolli, cauliflour, spinich or ay leafy greens, any berries
*salt shaker
*travel sized toothpast and disinfectent no rub eyedrops
* nail polish remover
*orbit bublemint bubblegum in the big plastic 60 piece pack(pink package)
*crystal light energy individual packs with caffeine (pink)
*small plastic spray bottle
*cereal bars
*fake cheese products that will stay good in transit up to 2 months


****please put these or at least food in tupperware containers or ziplock bags since i need both of these, and it will also keep the rats and ants away. ohh, and if u need padding please pad with tampons (any type or size) rather than waste space with paper...i need these and hard to find.

***make package as official looking as possible. write in red sharpy. put red crosses on outside (discourages stealing)

I love all yall and wish i had more than five min w-o people breathing down my damn neck to use the internet hahah. i will try to write more this weekend b-c im in a big city doing a workshop with my gov counterpart but i dont know if ill have time. ohhh btw i kave a phone now, please call: 011-224-64-48-59-88

if u dont want to send a package or call I LOVE SNAIL MAIL: adrees is same as for packages:

Sarah Provost, PCV
Corps de la Paix
BP 1927
Conakry, Guinea
West Africa


I will tell u more after we get to see our huts in our villages next week. love yall peace