Prefet's Visit

Well, today was a whirlwind. As promised, I showed up at the SP’s house at 8am to commence the cooking. We didn’t actually start until nearly nine. I mostly just helped Madame Fofana with this beef-onion-potato stew which was actually DELICIOUS (I even ate a tiny piece of beef just to try it, but the potatoes were friggin’ amazing).
She made it by first boiling potatoes, then peeling them, slicing in thirds, then frying them in oil and a little water with a couple of pieces of onion which she later tossed out of the marmite (pot). Then she used the same oil to lightly fry the chunks of beef, then added a bunch of water and let it boil for a long time. Oh, she seasoned the beef before frying it with piled (crushed) black pepper and garlic and a couple of Maggi cubes (a must-use in every Guinean dish, it’s just MSG I think…I forget why MSG is supposed to be bad for you). So she let it boil for a long time until the liquid started to make a sort of gravy, then she added a bunch of chopped onion to it and let it boil some more, then finally threw in the potatoes.

All this was done on a three-rock “stove” with firewood. Basically, three rocks hold your marmite over three sticks of firewood that meet underneath the marmite. This is the standard way in which cooking is done here and is the basis for one of our AgFo projects: mud stoves, which basically improve this design by enclosing the rocks in mud to allow the use of less wood, create less smoke, and cook faster. We have plenty of cow poo (necessary ingredient for the mud) in my village so eventually I am sure I will be building some mud stoves.

So they gave me the covered calabash (sort of a wooden bowl) with Kola nuts on a bed of uncooked rice and told me what I would say to the Prefet when I presented it: “Monsieur le Prefet du ::Name of Prefecture::, ko saadi, ko toli.” It means something like, “eat this.” I don’t really know. It’s Pular. Once they told me this I spent the rest of the time saying it over and over in my head so I wouldn’t mess it up when it was show time. I was really nervous about messing it up, even though I knew the Prefet wouldn’t care (he is a cool dude, I’ve met him before), I knew my village would care and wanted to make them proud. So I nervously said it again and again and the ladies kept telling me to practice with them over and over so I wouldn’t mess it up. I did not mess it up. However, I did forget that the Sous Prefet told me that once I presented the nuts, the Prefet would do a cheek-kiss thing and so that ended up kind of awkward but now I know!

Let me take a petite repose here and explain who the Prefet is. The Prefet is a government-appointed position. I’m not sure how many Prefectures there are in Guinea but I would guess about 40, maybe. It is located in a bigger city and is comprised of several Sous-Prefectures, in one of which I reside. Actually now that I think about it, the Prefet might supposed to be elected, not appointed…hmmm…I know the Sous-Prefets are appointed and the Prefets right now are appointed with the new government (all are higher-ranking military officers). I don’t remember if they were appointed or elected with the last government or not. Hmm. Anyway. The Prefet is in charge of his Prefecture. Granted, I don’t know EXACTLY what they do, but I don’t know exactly what a mayor does in the States, either, so it’s kinda like that (although there is also a mayor in addition to the Prefet). It’s kinda complicated! Anyway, my Prefet is new (the one we met at site visit stepped down to take the job of head of the gendarmerie in Conakry, or so I hear) and he looks like Laurence Fishburne.

The Prefet didn’t show until about noon, I think. I don’t really know what time it was. But it certainly wasn’t ten. There was a lot of pomp and circumstance (read: music, dancing, introductions) and everyone in the village was dressed in their best outfits, all the elders and the women’s groupement were there (the women’s group was all dressed in the same complet – cute!). I was very confused most of the time and people were just pulling me this way and that. I sat in the palm frond enclosure thingy with the Prefet, the Sous Prefet, the President of the CRD, other important people. It’s kind of awkward to be treated differently than everyone else, but I ended up glad to have a chair because it was hot and the speaking went on for awhile. I’m not sure exactly what was said. There was a lot of “Vive le CNDD!” The CNDD is the new military government headed by now-President Moussa Dadis Camara. The Prefet delivered his address in Pular, so I REALLY didn’t understand what he said, but the SP told me at one point he was talking about me, and he motioned towards me, but I don’t really know what he said. Man your first few weeks at site are confusing and awkward! But as some PCVs advised, just perfect the art of the “smile and nod”.

One kind of interesting thing is that when the Prefet and his wife and the Secretary General and everyone sat down in the thingy, some people danced in front of them until he threw money at them. I thought that was kinda interesting. Also, they kicked up a lot of dust, but the Prefet was just like, “C’est pas grave” and covered his mouth with a cloth. He also had the Sous Prefet’s son Mamadou sit in his chair with him. Like I said, he is a cool dude.

After all the speaking, we went to the SP’s house to feed the Prefet and the other important people and outside the door there was lots of music and dancing. I danced in the hall a little bit with some of the girls and then Madame Fofana had me sit at the table and that’s when I ate the bomb potatoes. I was like a little kid the whole time, wide-eyed and polite and smiling everywhere. Every now and then the Prefet would catch my eye and see my goofy face and smile. I think smiling is key. I think I wrote that in one of my essays on my Peace Corps application.

Anyway, after food Madame Fofana had me go dance for the Prefet with her, which felt very silly but I did it anyway. Basically the two of us just danced in front of the table for a couple of minutes, much to the amusement of all the Guineans. The Prefet asked me how long I would be in Guinea and I said, “Deux ans, Inshallah!” and he laughed and then he got in his SUV and left.

Then I sat with Rama and Madame Fofana for a bit until Madame Bangoura called us into her room and we ate more of the stew (by this point I was pretty full but I took a few bites, anyway) with our hands from a plate on the ground.

After all this I felt pretty good, pretty accepted by my village and went strolling through the market, where several people called out salutations to me (by name, too, not just “porto”!) and one lady made me wait while she peeled an orange and gave it to me to drink. I only bought four cans of sardines for the dog. There really isn’t anything in my market that I want to buy.

No vegetables, no eggs. Those are really the only things I need, plus dog food. That’s why I will have to regularly visit John’s site to stock up on that stuff.

OH the other thing was I finally asked Madame Fofana if she knew Mr. Diallo, who is the guy that Balde wrote the note to about the water and she didn’t but she asked this other dude and he knew him and took the note. Then when I was at home, the dude showed up with Mr. Diallo and I explained that Balde had sent the note with me, then he read the note and said that after the market was over he would come get me and I would see his house. I was like ok!

Then I took a nap on my couch. And had the weirdest Mefloquine (Malaria prophylaxis) dream I’ve had in awhile. It was all Peace Corps people and we were in Guinea and we were watching them make charcoal (which they do by burying wood in a big pile, covering it with dirt and setting it on fire) when all of a sudden there was an explosive volcanic eruption that filled the whole valley with lava and kept on rising and rising and killed all of us. At one point as we (me and Ashley) were running up the top point, she said something like, “Nikki (I think Nikki from LA, which is weird because she wouldn’t know Nikki) said Ben already posted a picture!” And the caption said something like, “Where’s Jean Claude van Damme now??” Bizarre. In the end it was me and Ashley hanging on to the very top pillar of the Peace Corps house and the lava came up and burned us to death. I woke up very hot and disturbed, like my legs were on fire! Very vivid. I hope to not experience death by lava in real life.

Anyway soon after that Mr. Diallo came and I went over to his house and was given a bajillion oranges (I don’t think I will EVER have to buy oranges!) and ate about seven of them while I was sitting there. He said that he would send someone every day to get me water and wash my floors. Finally the water problem will be solved! Yay! Although I think washing the floors every day might be excessive. But maybe he didn’t mean every day for the floors. Point is, I will need to buy some more bon-bons to give whenever they come.

A little before 8, he and two of his kids (I think they were his kids? Familial relations are very indistinct here) walked me back home and I was so full of oranges that I didn’t eat any dinner. Plans for pasta thwarted again!!

My big plan for tomorrow is to wash my hair (long time coming!). Saturday I want to go up to Ian’s site for a visit.

One last thing, today I noticed that there are white worm things in my puppy’s stool. It makes me really regret not going to the vet in Conakry, who had de-wormer and all kinds of good stuff and waiting for Boke, where all he had was the Rabies shot. I don’t really know where to get de-wormer now. Maybe there is a vet in Labe who will have it, or maybe I can get Kate to get it when she goes to Conakry for her monthly regional capital visit…or maybe even Kristine (APCD) will bring me some when she comes to visit at the beginning of the month. Next time I’m in reseau I will call her and ask.

All-in-all it was a very good day full of good food, good friends and good news (except for the worm part).