The Update. Life is BUSY!

Hey everyone! I returned from Kankan safely, after a few days of partying American style and talking on the phone. That’s all I did the whole time. Partied and talked. Sometimes I even did them at the same time. What a weekend, huh? I will post pictures some time next week when I get to a computer that has anything better than Windows 98 and a crap internet connection.

By far the best part of the weekend was talking to Reid. I didn’t realize how much I missed him, and how hard life is without him. Although site is perfect, it would be perfect-er with him here. Luckily, after many hours of talking on the phone, we worked out a plan to see each other NEXT WEEK in Conakry. I will have to be there for a meeting, and we are both allowed to take our quarterly visits there. So, one week from tomorrow, I will get to see Reid! I absolutely can’t wait to see him – I am worried that I am not going to be able to leave him again and come back to site after our visit.

Ok, enough of the mushy, love stuff. I know that’s not why you people come and read my blog. Here’s something else to chew on….

Things are going well in the hottest part of the hottest part of Guinea, although my health has had some major threats recently. I have battled dysentary (thankfully it’s not the hookworm that Keelin has), and I am currently battling an annoying staph infection because I scratched my mosquito bites. People warned me, I knew it would happen, but scratching the bites just felt so good! It wasn’t worth it though – I know now – because staph is no fun, believe me. My cuts aren’t healing, and my lymph nodes are swollen and sore. The most annoying part is the fly issue. All of my open, unhealing wounds attract flies like nothing else, even though they are covered by band-aids! I seriously feel like one of those starving African kids with flies all over their bodies that you see in charity ads on TV, although I don’t have an extended belly or anything – just the flies. This is a lesson for everybody – don’t scratch your mosquito bites or flies will never leave you alone and staph is no fun.

Anyway….coming back to site a couple days ago was difficult. Kinda like returning to work after a long vacation at the beach. I just felt unmotivated and lost. When the PC vehicle drove off, I nearly cried. I didn’t want to be back in Siguiri, even though it has treated me so well. But since Tuesday, I have tried to get back into the groove of things. I had a fingernail painting party with the girls in my neighborhood, I have spent time reading with Aisha, I visited Aliou (our SED trainer), and I have gotten back to work at ADRA. Things are slowly falling back into place.

Today and tomorrow are devoted to getting a rough draft of the Food for Progress grant together. Ask me more about it if you are interested. It is super exciting, but it may only be super exciting to me because I am a nerd. Saturday, I am biking the 3 hour trip to Niandankoro to pick up my stove that should be at Melinda’s and then biking the three hours back. It will be a day full of sunscreen, chugging water, and sore derriers from the bike seat! Sunday, I am heading up to St Alexi with Rob to introduce him to the gardening groupement and eat chicken. They gave me a chicken last week, but I wasn’t sure what to do with it, so I told them to keep it and we can prepare it and eat it together! Seriously, was I going to bike home 3km with a chicken strapped to my handlebars? Maybe next time. On Monday, I am going to do a grand tour of town with the president of the Federation, Bangali. We are going to do “how are you doing” visits to all of the groupement members I have worked with so far. It’s basically just to say hi and to show that I am still invested in our work together. I am really looking forward to it, although I know it is going to be exhausting. Finally, I have Tuesday to myself. I have so much stuff to get done – laundry, packing, cleaning, etc – before my trip to Conakry. And Tuesday looks like it is going to be my first day off since Kankan, and my last day before Conakry. The next day, I am off to Kankan to get to Dabola to get to Conakry. Yes, it is a two and a half day trip to Conakry. You can make it faster, but there is a PC car passing through Dabola which will pick me up there, and there arent daily cars to Dabola from here, so it turned into a 3 day trip. Living in the northenmost prefecture of the easternmost province rules.

I am quite the busy young lady, aren’t I? Who ever thought my Peace Corps experience would be so busy that I wouldn’t have time to read or write letters or get bored?