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

our classroom:) gotta love the PC haha!

the view from behind my host family house

SEEDS

oh oh oh! i forgot. if you are planning on sending a care package if there is any way you can send some seeds too that would be great. i would really LOVE some seeds for broccoli in particular, several different varieties if you can find them. cauliflower would be great too, and spinich/other leafy greans (CRAVING arugula). alright, that is all haha! bye again:)

my host mom and baby sister

my room with my host family. see the mosquito net and my big map of guinea over my desk?

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:)

the beach we walked to yesterday in Conakry

the beach we walked to yesterday in Conakry

view from a restaurant in Conakry (the water is the Atlantic Ocean)

a scene in Conakry

me on the beach of Conakry near our transit house...a bar is on the left

sunrise (view from the roof of the transit house)

some boys at the private elementary school across from our transit house (view from roof)...there were a bunch of them all smiling and waving to us and yelling "photo"

the view of the ocean from the roof of the transit house

one view from our transit house roof during sunrise

Senegal

flying over the Strait of Gibralter

Finally Here!

Well, i finally made it to Guinea. it was a long adventure...let me tell you about it...
First, i woke up last saturday and packed my two fifty pound suitcases + massive purse +masssive backpackers backpack into the car w/ my dad and drove to the airport in jacksonville, fl. then i flew to philadelphia where i took a shuttle to the holiday inn in the historic district. when i was checking in, a girl came up to me and asked if i was in the peace corps. i said yes, and she introduced herself as another volunteer and helped me take my bags upstairs. this was just the beginning of everyone being SUPER NICE. during staging (sat,sun,mon) in philly, i met a ton of people (37 of us in our group), we played a lot of getting to know each other games, and learned a lot of general information about the peace corps, and specifically about safety. monday, we woke up at 6:30, and got ready to go to the federal building at 7am to get our yellow fever, mmr, polio shots and malaria meds. we walked back in freezing cold temperatures, and left for NYC around 1130. it took FOREVER to get there...well maybe only three hours. then we tried to check our bags, but it was too early to check in for our 615pm flight. we worked it out eventually and boarded the plane as planned. long plane ride in the dark. no sleep. in belgium, we waited for a long time for our next flight, which would land in Dakar, Senegal. that one was overbooked, so really full, but it was fun flying over the sahara desert for hours. i was scared for the landing in senegal, but we made it safely, and after about an hour sitting in the same plane, took back off for Conakry.

i need to skip a line here b/c this is where the world changed. crazy airport. ask me about it next time you see me...i will be able to give a better description of it in person. oh, and about the drive through the capital to the peace corps house.

today was long, but nice to be settled, at least for 5 days until saturday when we go to our training sites. we will be there for 3 months b/f we are assigned to our separate villages. one thing i have to say about conakry is that while we are having our orientation in guinea, they are feeding us really well and giving us an endless supply of bottled water. the scenery is beautiful!!! we walked to the beach today and it is great, with mountains coming out of the water in the distance, and the sun setting. kids were playing soccer and there is a bar right on the beach. some of the guys started to throw a football with some of the Guinean kids on the beach, and after the came over to us and started to talk to us in french, malinke, peul, and fulani. it was wild. they kept saying "we love america" over and over and smiling. it was really strange in a good way. tomorrow we do our language test interviews, and i think we also go on a tour of the city. i am so happy i came and that im here i want all of yall to see what im seeing! well, computer time is limited, so, hopefully pics soon. au revoir and wish me luck + safety:)

*instead of writing comments, please just send me your thoughts in an email or facebook message. anybody can read this so i want to be able to control a little more what goes on this page:)