End of Orientation

Today was our last day of orientation. Tomorrow the staff will be off because it is Tabaski, so we have a free day to spend with the volunteers. We are on our own tomorrow and Sadiki (Adam) said we were going to make pizza with Laughing Cow cheese, which is the only affordable cheese you can readily find here. Also the country director (Dan) invited us all to go swimming in his pool tomorrow, which will be great fun!! We are also going to dip all our mosquito nets in bug poison.

Every day we have had hard boiled eggs and fresh french bread for breakfast which has been nice. We have also had a lot of spaghetti and french fries! Last night we went out to a restaurant called Africana in downtown Conakry. The food was similar to what we have been eating - meats, spaghetti, french fries, salad, bread, etc... We had baobob juice which reminded me and Sadiki of Jamba Juice because it kind of had that chalky taste and is thick. Ciara (AgFo Hoe!) said there must have been condensed milk in it.

The ride there and back was CRAZY! There are NO traffic rules here at all. No stop signs or traffic lights (well, a couple). People play soccer in the middle of the street in traffic. There are people EVERYWHERE and a lot of them want to wave and smile at the fotes (white people). People hang out outside in the streets. Everyone honks to try and get their way. Fender benders are a regular occurrence. There's traffic jams on all the major roads. The drive made it clear that Guinea is a very poor country. No one keeps up buildings and some neighborhoods look like war zones. I think I will be happy to be living in a small village in the bush where it is nice and green, calm and clean.

Today I had my first experience washing my clothes. You basically just do it in this big bucket with a wash board (or without) and this chunky soap you can buy everywhere. Dude, it's hard work. Respect your washing machine. I don't even know if I really even got it clean, but we'll see once it's dry. The nice thing is that we have a dryer here at the house so when it is working (Inshallah) you don't have to hang your clothes out to dry. Today it was working so hopefully my clothes will be dry soon. They are practically soaking wet when you put them in, though, so it takes awhile.

The water goes on and off here, as does the electricity. When the electricity goes off, it comes back on a few minutes later, but the water can be out all day. It has made some of us wish we just had pit latrines here because the toilets get WAY more foul than a pit latrine when there is no water. Although yesterday they put out big water buckets so when there isn't water you pour some into the back of the toilet and flush normally.

I have had a shower every day. A COLD shower. We have hot water, but at the end of a hot, long day a cold shower is very welcome.

Last night we had a dance party. Everyone got out their iPods and played all the new dance songs for the volunteers and put a headlamp on "flash" so it was like a strobe light. Too funny.

Tonight I ate a few small pieces of fish at dinner. It was pretty good (L'pouisson est bonne), but weird to eat meat. I know that I have to start building up my resistance for homestay though because my family will probably make me meat, though Ousmane and Cice (in charge of training and homestay) said they would tell my family that I don't eat meat. I think I might be able to eat fish regularly but goat, pork and beef are not going to work out. Maybe some chicken.

I am so excited to go to homestay on Tuesday because it will be an authentic Guinean experience. We are insulated here at the compound, even though Dan (country director) said that they were sorry that due to budget cuts this stage did not get to have orientation at a more "comfortable" location. Pretty much the whole group said we would rather be here. The only really foul thing has been the toilets when there wasn't water.

I still feel bad/ill sometimes but I have found that when I start to feel that way I just need to have some rehydration salt in my water and I feel much better. I have actually started to like the taste of it, which is bizarre because the first time I tasted it, it was really bad. I actually think putting flavoring in it makes it worse!

All our stage does is laugh. We are a group of people with great humor, though Katie (fellow trainee) said, "Well if we didn't laugh, we'd cry!!"

And my final thought: as we were driving back through Conakry on the way back from the restaurant, I remarked, "Ï'm still not having that 'holy shit I'm in Africa' moment." And Sadiki said, "Just wait until you're taking a shit next to a rhino."

P.S. there are no rhinos in Guinea, but we do have hippos :).