Heres are some more pics
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Leaving Conakry
Today is our adoptation cermony, where each of us will meet our host family. It is the start of the next step towards service. No longer will we be living at the compound, with access to sometimes running water and slow internet. Our training will take place in Forcariah which is about 100km from Conakry. We will be living and training there for about 9 weeks. So this will probably be my last post for awhile and I expect to have access to internet 1-2 times a month so the posts will be slowing down from now on.
Heres are some more pics
Heres are some more pics
Monday, December 8, 2008
Pics
The Peace Corps building.
On the road from the airport to the Peace Corps compound. 
This is the view flying out of Dakar enroute to Guinea.Holiday
Today is Eid al-Adha and we are going to the market this morning to buy supplies to make food since the holiday means the staff won't provide it. I might get a shirt from the market just because it gets so hot sometimes and the fabrics they use here are much more cooler. Last night we played Mafia and everyone sucked including myself, but it was really fun. Yesterday we have the 2nd session of cross cultural stuff, and then a nice "how to" by current volunteers on how to do laundry with a washboard, how to use the water method, techniques to squatting for eating and shiting, and etc.
I have a bunch of pictures but I upload them later.
I have a bunch of pictures but I upload them later.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Downtown in Conakry
Yesterday after breakfast we had the medical orientation with Dr. Tryon(sp) he told us all the things we needed to know when it comes to being healthy and what to do when sick, and where to find information. We got our med kits and malaria nets, he also showed us how to assemble and break down the water filtration system (2 plastic buckets with a filter). Afterwards we had the RSO for Guinea come and he gave us a talk about security and tips to keep in mind. Usual common sense stuff like dont walk around with stacks of cash cause you'll get jacked. Then Cliff from USAID came by to tell us what projects and groups were happening in Guinea. Lunch was then eaten and it was good. The remainder of our training day consisted of language level placement and some cross cultural material. I was placed in Novice Low for French, no surprise there. We closed traning for the day and went into downtown Conakry for dinner at a resturant there. The drive was awesome, almost as good as the first one from the airport to the compound. The city is was alive, people playing futbal in the streets and life happening everywhere. The food at the resturant was the best we had so far, probably the best we will have for a really long time. In terms of food, living conditions, indoor plumbing, electricity, and access internet (although those last 3 have been going on and off regulary). The way we have been living these past few days is not the norm and it will most certainty be the easist we will have it.
Today the plan is survival language traning in french after breakfast, with sector meetings afterwards, then preperation for home stay (living with host family during PST), and maybe if I'm lucky, a bunch of needles in my arm.
In 2 days if all goes according to plan, I will be living with a host family and will have to say goodbye to the luxury of the Peace Corps compound. That being said, luxury is a little misleading because by American standards it is indeed poor living, but its not that bad. Well I'm late for lunch. Peace.
Today the plan is survival language traning in french after breakfast, with sector meetings afterwards, then preperation for home stay (living with host family during PST), and maybe if I'm lucky, a bunch of needles in my arm.
In 2 days if all goes according to plan, I will be living with a host family and will have to say goodbye to the luxury of the Peace Corps compound. That being said, luxury is a little misleading because by American standards it is indeed poor living, but its not that bad. Well I'm late for lunch. Peace.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Day 2
Just back from a 630hr morning run with both couples, and it was a trip. The neighbourhoods around the compound are relativily safe and it was fine except for the bad air. Figure its a good idea to get in shape, you don't know when the ability to run fast and far will come in handy. Yesterday, Dec 5th, we had breakfast which was a baguette and hardboiled egg with a banana. Then did pre-service training, breaked for lunch which was rice and sauce with chicken, then we started our medical and language interviews. Makan was my french interviewer and he was an awesome dude, he laughed everytime I answered I used Spanish for words I didn't know in French. Medical was no big deal, weight, BP, etc. Then the fun started, we had Shannon come from the US Embassy to give a talk and answer questions about Guinea. Then we had dinner which was beef, salad, and fries. Then most of the group went out to the beach bar, the beer was terrible and I didn't have more than 2 sips. We then ended the night trading horribly bad and unfunny jokes from our youth. We talked about better stuff but I'm late for breakfast and gotta run. Oh and instead of going to bed after the group died I came to the computer room to do nothing basically and slepted at 200hr. Yup I went running at 630hr so I'm on running on about 5 hours of sleep.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Time difference
I noticed after I posted my last entry it says posted on Dec4 when its Dec5 here, so my blog thinks I'm still on California time. So for now just and 8 hours to whatever timestamps. I'll try to figure out how to edit the time zone I'm in so its not confusing.
On the other side
So I was going to post an entry yesterday, but when I was almost finished typing, the power cut out and wiped my entry out so I gave up. Not that I'm that lazy but the internet here is really really slow so it was fustrating. But its a new day so i'll give it another try. Its 715hrs local time as I sit here typing this, which is amazing considering that I never wake up this early in the states. Probably the malaria drugs or just the exictment I feel, or maybe a little of both.
Note: When referring to the time, I am talking about the local time of where I'm at.
I arrived in Conakry yesterday about 22 hours ago and the drive from the airport to the Peace Corps compound was one of the most amazing things. I was stepping into another world and as one of my fellow volunteers put it, "I feel like we are in movie." I wish I could have captured more of the drive, but we were moving fast thru the streets and the of traffic in a developing nation is chaotic. Dirt roads, no lanes, no lights, no rules basically. I did manage to snap a few shots but they dont capture the full experience. After we arrived at the compound we put our bags into house and grabbed any bunk that was open. We sat with the current volunteers that had come to welcome us at the airport and help train us as they regaled us with stories. Its nice to know they are there to tell us the real experience of living in Guinea. Then at 1230hrs we went to lunch which consisted of rice, fish, yams, other vegatables I couldnt indentify, bananas, and oranges that were colored yellow. Whats the big deal right? Sounds like your typical Korean meal right? Nope not even close, but on the other hand it wasnt all that bad. After I ate my rice, the Peace Corps director Dan tells us to chew the rice softly in case of rocks. I guess I got lucky or I just shallowed my rocks in any case it wasnt that bad of a meal. After lunch we had a little break and I decided to nap before our orientation and welcome meeting that was at 1430hrs. The meeting was basically introduction of staff, general info, Q&A session, filling out forms, and just preparing for the next day which would be the first day of our training. When the meeting closed we had free time for the rest of the day, as I was saying before, I used this time to try and post an entry. Then I sat around and talked with people until dinner. Which was salad and spagetti, I ate some much I felt like throwing up. A bunch of people went to the beach bar after dinner but I wasn't feeling so good after eating so much spagetti. I just hung out with my Group 3 peeps (Juliann, Mary, Dave, Nick and me) and played cards (Fluxx) and lost every game. Then we played a stupid game called "I have done..." as a game it was dumb but as a way of getting to know other people it was the opposite of dumb. Then the beach bar people came back and called us losers and lame for not going, but turns out they were the ones that joined us to play with us. It was 2300-2400hrs when everyone called it a day and we went to sleep.
That was pretty long, but theres more. That was only Day 1 in Guinea but Day 4 since leaving home, so I got 3 days that I should write about.
On monday I caught the 630am AA flight to Dallas, which went smoothly, at Dallas it was a different story. I and my fellow travellers were held up and had to sit in the plane on the runway for an hour because of air traffic at Philly. Then after we took off we were in luck since we got a strong tailwind which cut down on our flight time, but ended up in a holding pattern waiting to land for 45mins. At Philly I got a shuttle to my hotel which ended up taking longer than it should have, about 1 hour longer since the police decided to block off the streets to my hotel so the shuttle had to drive the long way around. So it was around 7pm local time when I checked in, I saw 2 of my fellow early arrivals; Jessica and Dorian as I waked in. After dropping off my bags I went down to have dinner with the girls. Another early arrival (Scott) came while we ate. After dinner we went walking around looking for dessert. I was thinking cupcakes, but I guess they were thinking beer. We found a bar a few blocks away and had a nice time. Afterwards we decided to stay up and wait for a delayed early arrival (Nick) but midnight came and went with no news of Nick so I went to bed. He came in around 130am, turns out he was my roommate, and told me of his terrible day with airlines then we crashed. Next day or Day2 or 12/2/08 we met up in the morning to go get breakfast, we meet another who came in earlier in the day (Sasha). So the six of us went and got some decent breakfast before coming back to the hotel, losing Nick but picking up Ian and John who hand just come in. We went walking the streets to see stuff and we saw stuff. Turns out Obama was in town and was meeting the governers only a block away so we waited outside to see if we could see him, but all we got were frowns from Secret Service and blank looks from police. We then decided to go to the Whole Foods because Dorian and Jessica wanted to buy brewers yeast. And of course it wasnt where they thought it would be. On the bright side we did get to see more of Philly even it was mostly bars, lingerie shops, and strange glass art on the side of brick buildings. We went back to get ready for our registration.
Which consisted of paperwork, icebreakers, history of PC, anxieties, aspirations, policy, logistics, and etc. It was led by Kate and Ryan and it was sometimes informative, sometimes fun, sometimes boring, but all necessary. During the boredom, I decided to do some demographics.
G17 - 29 people 14 males 15 females. 3 older people(40+) and 4 minorites including myself. Rest were white. I forgot how the agfo and health groups broke down, but my SED group has 13 total. Oh and I counted 8 people wearing glasses. Nerds! After the meeting ended a bunch of people met up to go out to eat, but I passed, ordered some pizza and finished up my paperwork and went to sleep.
It breakfast time and I want to get some food before its all gone and I'm in need of a shower so I'll make Day 3 brief.
12/3/08 - 630am wake up time, checking out, loading buses, yellow fever shot at clinic, ride to JFK. Get to JFK check in, eat lunch, do some drugs, got on the plane to Dakar at 520pm. Arrived in Dakar around 6am the the next day and then caught the flight to Conakry at 830am and arrived at 9 something am.
Ok that was really long but
Note: When referring to the time, I am talking about the local time of where I'm at.
I arrived in Conakry yesterday about 22 hours ago and the drive from the airport to the Peace Corps compound was one of the most amazing things. I was stepping into another world and as one of my fellow volunteers put it, "I feel like we are in movie." I wish I could have captured more of the drive, but we were moving fast thru the streets and the of traffic in a developing nation is chaotic. Dirt roads, no lanes, no lights, no rules basically. I did manage to snap a few shots but they dont capture the full experience. After we arrived at the compound we put our bags into house and grabbed any bunk that was open. We sat with the current volunteers that had come to welcome us at the airport and help train us as they regaled us with stories. Its nice to know they are there to tell us the real experience of living in Guinea. Then at 1230hrs we went to lunch which consisted of rice, fish, yams, other vegatables I couldnt indentify, bananas, and oranges that were colored yellow. Whats the big deal right? Sounds like your typical Korean meal right? Nope not even close, but on the other hand it wasnt all that bad. After I ate my rice, the Peace Corps director Dan tells us to chew the rice softly in case of rocks. I guess I got lucky or I just shallowed my rocks in any case it wasnt that bad of a meal. After lunch we had a little break and I decided to nap before our orientation and welcome meeting that was at 1430hrs. The meeting was basically introduction of staff, general info, Q&A session, filling out forms, and just preparing for the next day which would be the first day of our training. When the meeting closed we had free time for the rest of the day, as I was saying before, I used this time to try and post an entry. Then I sat around and talked with people until dinner. Which was salad and spagetti, I ate some much I felt like throwing up. A bunch of people went to the beach bar after dinner but I wasn't feeling so good after eating so much spagetti. I just hung out with my Group 3 peeps (Juliann, Mary, Dave, Nick and me) and played cards (Fluxx) and lost every game. Then we played a stupid game called "I have done..." as a game it was dumb but as a way of getting to know other people it was the opposite of dumb. Then the beach bar people came back and called us losers and lame for not going, but turns out they were the ones that joined us to play with us. It was 2300-2400hrs when everyone called it a day and we went to sleep.
That was pretty long, but theres more. That was only Day 1 in Guinea but Day 4 since leaving home, so I got 3 days that I should write about.
On monday I caught the 630am AA flight to Dallas, which went smoothly, at Dallas it was a different story. I and my fellow travellers were held up and had to sit in the plane on the runway for an hour because of air traffic at Philly. Then after we took off we were in luck since we got a strong tailwind which cut down on our flight time, but ended up in a holding pattern waiting to land for 45mins. At Philly I got a shuttle to my hotel which ended up taking longer than it should have, about 1 hour longer since the police decided to block off the streets to my hotel so the shuttle had to drive the long way around. So it was around 7pm local time when I checked in, I saw 2 of my fellow early arrivals; Jessica and Dorian as I waked in. After dropping off my bags I went down to have dinner with the girls. Another early arrival (Scott) came while we ate. After dinner we went walking around looking for dessert. I was thinking cupcakes, but I guess they were thinking beer. We found a bar a few blocks away and had a nice time. Afterwards we decided to stay up and wait for a delayed early arrival (Nick) but midnight came and went with no news of Nick so I went to bed. He came in around 130am, turns out he was my roommate, and told me of his terrible day with airlines then we crashed. Next day or Day2 or 12/2/08 we met up in the morning to go get breakfast, we meet another who came in earlier in the day (Sasha). So the six of us went and got some decent breakfast before coming back to the hotel, losing Nick but picking up Ian and John who hand just come in. We went walking the streets to see stuff and we saw stuff. Turns out Obama was in town and was meeting the governers only a block away so we waited outside to see if we could see him, but all we got were frowns from Secret Service and blank looks from police. We then decided to go to the Whole Foods because Dorian and Jessica wanted to buy brewers yeast. And of course it wasnt where they thought it would be. On the bright side we did get to see more of Philly even it was mostly bars, lingerie shops, and strange glass art on the side of brick buildings. We went back to get ready for our registration.
Which consisted of paperwork, icebreakers, history of PC, anxieties, aspirations, policy, logistics, and etc. It was led by Kate and Ryan and it was sometimes informative, sometimes fun, sometimes boring, but all necessary. During the boredom, I decided to do some demographics.
G17 - 29 people 14 males 15 females. 3 older people(40+) and 4 minorites including myself. Rest were white. I forgot how the agfo and health groups broke down, but my SED group has 13 total. Oh and I counted 8 people wearing glasses. Nerds! After the meeting ended a bunch of people met up to go out to eat, but I passed, ordered some pizza and finished up my paperwork and went to sleep.
It breakfast time and I want to get some food before its all gone and I'm in need of a shower so I'll make Day 3 brief.
12/3/08 - 630am wake up time, checking out, loading buses, yellow fever shot at clinic, ride to JFK. Get to JFK check in, eat lunch, do some drugs, got on the plane to Dakar at 520pm. Arrived in Dakar around 6am the the next day and then caught the flight to Conakry at 830am and arrived at 9 something am.
Ok that was really long but
Monday, December 1, 2008
Off to Guinea soon
It's midnight and my flight to Philly is in about 6 hours, but since I usually sleep at 2-3am these days I'm just going to stay awake. I'm pretty much all packed and set to go. Even though I was thorough, its a certainty that I left something out or there something I haven't even thought of taking. But no worries, my packing list is below, I posted it so to give future PCV's an idea of what to take. Since I relied on other PCV's packing lists that have gone before me as a resource. I figure I should do the same. Also as a way for me to having a inventory list of what I took with me in case both or one of my bags get lost en route to Guinea.
Luggage
1 External Frame Backpack
1 Large DuffelBag
1 CamelBak
Books
Larousse French/English Dictionary
Essential French Grammar
2000+ Essential French Verbs
Electronics
1 Cd/mp3 player
1 Cd case + 25 Cds
2 Headphones
1 Digital Camera
2 4gb SD cards
2 8gb flashdrives
1 Sanyo Battery Charger
8 NiMH Eneloop's AA Batteries
48 AA Batteries
72 AAA Batteries
1 Petzl Tikka Xp Headlamp
1 Maglite LED flashlight
1 Wristwatch/Alarm
1 Fr200 Shortwave
Misc
25 Feet of Rope
1 Swiss Army Knife
1 Knife Sharperner
1 Duct tape
1 electric tape
2 Nalgene bottles
1 Bike helmet
1 Mess Kit
2 pairs of glasses
1 pair of sunglasses
30 pairs of earplugs
40 ziplocs of varying sizes
1 Lint Roller
2 Travel Locks
1 Money Belt
1 Saptula
1 Large bottle of hotsauce
2 Bags of Jerky
Clothes
1 Belt
1 Sweater
2 Shorts
3 Undershirts
5 T-Shirts
1 Longsleeve shirt
1 Swimsuit
6 Pairs of Socks
2 Pairs of Dress Socks
14 Boxers
1 Pairs of Jeans
2 Pairs of Khakis
1 Tie
2 Button Shirts
3 medium towels
2 hand towels
Shoes
1 Sandals
1 Sneakers
1 Running Shoes
1 Dress Shoes
1 Chaco Sandals
Stationary
12 Pens
12 Pencils
2 Pencil Sharperner
4 Notebooks
5 Notepads
1 Day Planner
Toiletries
3 Toilet Paper
1 Nail clippers
1 Deodorant
3 toothbrushes
2 toothpaste tubes
25 razor heads
4 soap bars
2 Shampoo+Conditioner
3 kleenex packs
8 Hand sanitizer
I'll try to post before I fly to Guinea during/after Staging but no promises.
Luggage
1 External Frame Backpack
1 Large DuffelBag
1 CamelBak
Books
Larousse French/English Dictionary
Essential French Grammar
2000+ Essential French Verbs
Electronics
1 Cd/mp3 player
1 Cd case + 25 Cds
2 Headphones
1 Digital Camera
2 4gb SD cards
2 8gb flashdrives
1 Sanyo Battery Charger
8 NiMH Eneloop's AA Batteries
48 AA Batteries
72 AAA Batteries
1 Petzl Tikka Xp Headlamp
1 Maglite LED flashlight
1 Wristwatch/Alarm
1 Fr200 Shortwave
Misc
25 Feet of Rope
1 Swiss Army Knife
1 Knife Sharperner
1 Duct tape
1 electric tape
2 Nalgene bottles
1 Bike helmet
1 Mess Kit
2 pairs of glasses
1 pair of sunglasses
30 pairs of earplugs
40 ziplocs of varying sizes
1 Lint Roller
2 Travel Locks
1 Money Belt
1 Saptula
1 Large bottle of hotsauce
2 Bags of Jerky
Clothes
1 Belt
1 Sweater
2 Shorts
3 Undershirts
5 T-Shirts
1 Longsleeve shirt
1 Swimsuit
6 Pairs of Socks
2 Pairs of Dress Socks
14 Boxers
1 Pairs of Jeans
2 Pairs of Khakis
1 Tie
2 Button Shirts
3 medium towels
2 hand towels
Shoes
1 Sandals
1 Sneakers
1 Running Shoes
1 Dress Shoes
1 Chaco Sandals
Stationary
12 Pens
12 Pencils
2 Pencil Sharperner
4 Notebooks
5 Notepads
1 Day Planner
Toiletries
3 Toilet Paper
1 Nail clippers
1 Deodorant
3 toothbrushes
2 toothpaste tubes
25 razor heads
4 soap bars
2 Shampoo+Conditioner
3 kleenex packs
8 Hand sanitizer
I'll try to post before I fly to Guinea during/after Staging but no promises.
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