This is gonna be a long one
So I got a new number a couple months ago I am posting it now because the timing is perfect
011 224 62 87 41 00
Not that it matters since people tell me they can't get thru to me, its either the network or your all a bunch of liars.
So I'm still alive, been doing great health wise, only got sick for a day since Feb. And with everything else? It's complicated and I'm too lazy to write about it.
Last month beginning of May was my IST which lasted about 2 weeks. It was good to see everyone again. Most people complained about the food, but I was eating like a King! well at least compared to at site. The sessions were on average Shitty to OK. There were a few that I liked and found useful. Others that I didn't see myself ever finding any use with. The most interesting sessions were about VS&LS, and there were 2 others but I can't remember at the moment. I did learn how to play spades and hearts while I was there so it wasn't a total bust.
After IST I went to Conakry for my quarterly visit as my vacation. It wasn't all fun though, I did get some paperwork taken care of. But mostly I spent the time in the air conditioned video room watching classics such as Home Sweet Alabama and Transformers. I was going to check out the islands with the other volunteers that were in Conakry but changed my mind. I got 2 years so there's no rush. During our time in Conakry we had some CoSing volunteers from Mali stay at the house and that was interesting. They aren't as cool as Guinea volunteers that's for sure. No offense but we have coups and shit. They have boring sand/mud mosques.
I was suppose to leave with the PAM flight but the UNDP commandeered the plane and I got booted. Those fascists! Wait I don't even know what that means. So anyways instead I rode back in 9 hour bush taxi after waiting for it for 5 hours. At least I had my favorite Indian with me to share the misery. Where we surprised Nick in Faranah at midnight to crash at his place. So all in all I'm actually thankful that I got to ride crammed in a POS getting to Faranah instead of getting to Kissi in under 2hours.
Got back to Kissi the next day, the ride wasn't too bad only took 2 hours longer than it should of since we stopped at every village to pick up everyone. But by then I didn't really care, I was numb to it all so the ride wasn't bad. Stayed in Kissi for about a week before having to go to Kankan for Warden training. Wardens are people tasked with knowing the whereabouts of other volunteers that are their wardees and responsible for getting in contact with their wardees in times of crisis. Funny thing is for Lower Haute which is my region theres 6 people and 4 wardens. Do the math and that means there's 4 wardens for 2 non wardens. But I guess its always good to have redundancies. So if any shit goes down which may happen (this is exciting!)
we are suppose to consolidate at Jess's site, and if things get worse we are suppose to get to Kankan our regional capital. But if we can't get there for some reason, we are biking to Liberia. Sounds really fun so it probably wont go down like that. :_(
After that I got back to Kissi for a week again, I went back to Kankan for the Girls conference meeting and my monthly visit. Which was probably my best Kankan visit yet. It even rained a few times there which helped cool things down, but the 20 mosquito bites I got wasn't fun. As Sajay likes to say Malaria c'est pas bonne pour le sante.
Now since my free internet at UNICEF is gone for the foreseeable future, I'm at my city's only Internet cafe paying 5,000 FG for an hour. Outrageous! I can buy 2 bowls of rice and sauce for that. After I get settled in again, I start my projects, I have 3 in mind at the moment. There's a huge hill of rice husks outside my compound and I trying to figure out what I can do with it. Also me and my site mate are planning on getting out the the villages surrounding Kissidougou to start village savings and loans groups. Also once my NGO gets a computer (I doubt they can) I will start computer trainings for the agents there. The 3rd one which I think might be the hardest yet the funniest is coming up with a plan to see how Pride Finance can start taking deposits from people to increase their capital (like a bank) so that they can give out more micro credit. Since Pride doesn't get 100% of it's loans repayed their capital is slowly shrinking, and there isn't much incentive or methods for getting their money back. And with the current economic situation in the world, Pride will have a hard time attracting funders to increase and maintain their operations. So they have to figure out a way to do it on their own or go out of business. I have a feeling that the head guys over at Conakry don't really care and most likely run away with the money if it looks like Pride is going belly up. Pretty much the norm here in Guinea. Get what you can when you can cuz if you don't someone else will.
Paix out
