Bad Week

So as I was coming back to site yesterday a dude at a barrage (the barrages are back, not sure exactly why, but they are, and at one, one of the guys actually asked me and John if we supported the CNDD, to which we refused to respond) told me that the Sous Prefet’s son (Mamadou) broke his arm in two places on Friday (he fell out of a tree) and the SP took him to Conakry. He also told me my dog died but then said he was just joking. I did not find it funny.

Then at John’s site his friends told me that all of the Sous Prefets are changing and that there will be a new one in my village and he will be from the Forest region and no one thinks he speaks Pular. Which makes a load of sense, n’est pas? I mean what effective governor speaks the language of their community? ::drips with sarcasm::

So I am sad because it means the SP and his family will be leaving my village. I mean, I realize that there are a lot of SPs in Guinea who are less than liked and I’m sure there are some that are corrupt or never do anything, but Mr. Bangoura is not one of those Sous Prefets. The entire community likes him, he does stuff, he is not corrupt, he is fair and a very nice guy. Everyone here is happy with him but regardless, he will be going away. It sucks big time for me.

I have also been told that Madame Fofana at the health center might not be coming back (which really sucks because I was going to use her as my counterpart to help distribute the mosquito nets I should be getting from Project Palu). Before I left for the fourth of July party in Labe she told me she was going to Kindia for a month, where her family lives, but that she would be coming back. Now I am being told that her volunteer contract with the health center is up and no one knows if she is coming back or not.

In fact the only good news I’ve gotten lately is that my friend Ousmane told me today that he told his family he wanted to do the 10th grade here instead of Conakry so that he can be my friend. He will still have to leave next summer to do 11th through Terminal somewhere else, but it will be nice to have him for the next school year when I want to do a lot of stuff at the school (pepiniere, vegetable garden, World Map Project, English classes, etc…).

Today he was here and hinting that he still needs some money for the taxi to Conakry where he is going to spend the vacance. He said he already had thirty mille but needs 50 for the taxi and really wants to get 60 so that he can eat. This seems reasonable. He wants to leave Thursday so I told him if he didn’t have to go to the fields tomorrow he could come work here and I would give him the rest of his transport money. It’s double the day rate for workers (which is 15 mille), but he is my friend and I am able to give it to him so I’m going to.

We are going to clear/cut back the weeds in my yard to discourage snakes, build a support system out of bamboo for my beans, line the other side of my path with mud bricks that are just sitting in my yard, make a platform out of mud bricks to put my buckets when it rains to collect water, repair a couple of holes in the fence where the goats are getting in, transplant my vegetable seedlings, plant the rest of my moringa seeds in sachets, attempt to deal with the erosion problem in my garden and maybe get a bunch of gliricidia leaves to mix into my dirt. Basically there is lots to do and tomorrow will be a busy day. He will earn his keep. He’s supposed to show up at 9am.

Today he also told me I got fat over the weekend, which means I must have done my fair share of eating and drinking. But hey, that’s what Fourth of July is for, n’est pas?