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