Fall Plans

Hey Everyone! As Labor Day approaches, and I regretfully have no day off from Guinea, I thought I would update you with all of my plans for the fall. September is shaping up to be a busy month, with a lot of traveling (Guinea style) around the country. I hope to make it back to site by the end of the month still in one piece.

During the second week in September, I am off to Pita to see my honey for a couple days. Then, we are headed to Mali-ville, in northern Fouta, to go to Potato Fete. Yes, Potato Fete. From what I gathered, it's a couple day event when we will hike up a mountain and celebrate the potato harvest with music, dancing, and of course, potatoes.

From there, I plan to jump around the Fouta from Labe to Pita to Mamou and back to Pita - a week hopefully filled of successful meetings, un-broken down taxis, and time with Reid.

The plan is to then head to Conakry for my quarterly visit. Every three months, we are allowed a trip to our national capital for medical stuff, admin stuff, free internet, and cheese. Yes, they have cheese in Conakry. Mmmmmmm.....

Then, I am off to Kissidougou to visit another SED volunteer and see her work with the Federation of Artisans there. Oh, and to get my first glimpse of the Forest and to eat pork, which I hear the Christians allow down there.

From Kissi, I am back to site for the beginning of October, where I plan to sleep Ramadan away. I have heard that nobody does much work then, so what else should I do when everyone is cranky and hungry from not eating or drinking all day? I am really excited to experience my first Ramadan, and even more importantly, the end of my first Ramadan in late October.

I hope all of your falls are as jam packed as mine! Enjoy the changing leaves and take a deep breath of cooler fall air for me. Talk to you all soon!

Ps - here's a map to get a feel for how much land I plan to cover (in bush taxis!).

There has been an amazing new development in my family's concession and on my street corner in Siguiri. LIGHT! One day, I came home from Mandy's after dark, and upon walking into my concession's courtyard, I realized I hadn't tripped or stubbed a toe yet. Why? Because, I soon noticed, I could see where I was going! I was used to stumbling up to my doorway in the African darkness, but no more!

A single light bulb hung awkwardly with many exposed wires, changing my life after sunset. I now have no new black and blues on my shins and feet. I haven't fallen down the steps while brushing my teeth outside. And I can now easily drain my pasta's boiling water into the corner outside without fearing third degree burns. It's a new world for me.

After asking around in my broken French and even more broken Malinke, I learned that the tailor's mysterious husband has a new generator that is powering multiple family's homes.

This generator has changed my life in more ways than one. Another day, I approached the corner outside my concession and saw a new, but not-yet-functioning ice-cream machine. I thought to myself, "Wouldn't that be heaven?!" But I tried to not get my hopes up. I asked if they were planning to have ice cream one day, and they said they did - by Saturday, it would be running. Well, Saturday came and went, and I thought to myself, "Oh well, they meant A Saturday, not this Saturday. Maybe a Saturday sometime before the end of my service? Hopefully, but don't hold your breath, Amy." I was wrong! I could have held my breath! By Monday, it was up and running, dispensing a sweet-powdered milk flavored, COLD (in fact, FROZEN) substance onto a stale cone. Sweet frozen heaven! All powered by the generator Allah sent into my life.

It's a new world up in the Sahel!

And get this! We may be able to run a wire into my window and I can power 2 lightbulbs and a FAN (maybe)(inshallah!). But still, I won't hold my breath.....

Photos!!!

I am attempting to upload some pictures. Let's see how many I get done!

From Pita in July:

Reid's House (Can you find Reid in the picture?)

Me by the waterfall where we had a breakfast picnic

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From the Haute White Trash Trailer Bash:

G-11 decked out to party (check out Eden's fake gold tooth!)

The party was amazing - Haute welcomed G-12 with all we got! At first, we weren't going to tell the G-12ers that we had the themed party, hoping they would make it to Haute, see us in our White Trash costumes, and think we were all actually like that. But, we let them know, and they were able to take part in the theme. My vote for best costume goes to Julie who was a pregnant Walmart employee with her baby's daddy, Drew. You can't see my shirt in the above picture, but Bob Dake convinced me to wear a cut-up t-shirt saying "Jersey Girls aren't trash... Trash gets picked up." Yes, I made fun of my Jersey roots, but.... yeah, no excuse.... Anyway, it was a great night!

By the end of September, I will have time in Conakry to upload more pictures - check my Flickr website then!

Work Update

For those who are interested in the "real" purpose for me being here:

Work has definitely been kicked up a notch. Before I left Siguiri for In-Service Training (IST), I was still trying to figure out what the people of Siguiri needed, small business wise, and what I wanted to do with my energy. With Small Enterprise Development, there is no formula. I can't just go to a classroom or a health center everyday and have work to do. Since I arrived in Siguiri, I have been focused on meeting people, getting to know their needs, and basically just trying to create options for projects. It's basically a process of making your job up as you go along, which is actually a whole lot more difficult than I ever thought possible!

But recently, I have really narrowed down the wide net I had cast and taken a specific direction with my work that I has made me really excited. Here are a list of my projects for the next two years, as of right now (yes, I have given myself actual position titles to make it sound better to all of you):

Assistant Editor, Aisha Magazine, a young woman's magazine focused on women's empowerment and education

This will take a bunch of work, which will include finding software to use for publishing (maybe Adobe!), raising funds, collecting submissions, having the group of girls at Aprofig choose which submissions to include and have the girls type them up, going to Conakry to focus on layout (unless we get our act together in time to train the girls to do this on their own), get it published out of Conakry, and distribute around the country to young women. Sound like fun??

Organizational Consultant, The Federation of Groupements of Artisans of Siguiri

Ok, what do you get when you put together a woodworker, a fabric dyer, a jewelry maker, and a photographer in the same room? Yes! You get the Federation of Artisans of Siguiri! I have been working closely with their President, Bangali Silla, for the past few months, and their board and I have finally come up with an action plan to strengthen their organization. Right now they are an unorganized mess, without an office, without many members, and without many organized thoughts. But we are going to change that! Here is what our action plan looks like right now:

Step One: Recruiting new members. This will include making a brochure, having informational meetings throughout Siguiri to explain the benefits of being a member, and then have one final meeting for those who are interested about how to become a groupement and how to join the Federation. From there, I can work with individual groupements to get their official papers and truly become a functional member of the Federation.

Step Two: Needs Assessments (done at the same time as recruiting). This will be a period of figuring out what the Federation can truly offer its members and what resources it has to do these new things with. We will use Fiona's Needs Assessment model to choose the three most pressing problems facing groupements of artisans in Siguiri, and then the Federation can devise real plans to help.

(These two different steps are critical: the first widens the Federation, and the second deepens it. What a great idea!)

Step Three: The Exposition! Ths is a "maybe" step right now. If we get our acts together, I would love to help organize an artisanal fair, where all members can market their products to the people of Siguiri. Hopefully this will increase sales, and it will sure be a lot of fun, with lots of music and a soiree!

That's it so far, folks! Let me know what you think! I will write more soon, hopefully, as more and more projects become more and more concrete.....

but for now, I am off to the rice bar!

finally a sophomore

This past week, the new stagiers have arrived up country for their site visits, making our group from January not freshmen anymore. I left Denver exactly 7 months ago, yesterday, and it's a great feeling to not be a newbie anymore. I can't really believe I have been here that long, but the G-12ers (the new group) make me feel like an old expert on all things Guinean. We show them around Kankan, telling them which rice bars to go to and which place serves the coldest beers. It's quite a new experience to not be the one taking advice from your elders, but to be an elder yourself!

It's also been great reminiscing about my site visit so many months ago. I remember:
-tearing up on the porch of my office when my counterpart told me he was going home for the night and I was to be left all alone.
-feeling thrilled to walk out of town in the direction of Mali and see the sign that I was 70 km from the border
-almost dying on our crazy taxi ride back to Forecariah, and then pushing the taxi up the hill in Coyah
-being so afraid I wouldn't have food and wouldn't know how to get any, but then food (in ample amounts) would just show up
-not feeling confident in my Malinke salutations
-buying bottled Coyah water in Siguiri, even though there was a pump right outside
-being so impressed by Keelin's ease in crazy Siguiri
-crossing the Niger for the first time in a pirogue
-feeling like I had finally arrived in Africa
-my first Haute party :) and the morning after :(
-not knowing how I would ever actually be comfortable at site

And now look at me. I have started referring to Siguiri as "home." My work has been established, and I am settled. To the new stagiers, I probably look like Keelin looked to me 6 months ago. It's a great confidence booster and a reminder of how far I have actually come. I really love this job.

On another note, our monthly party theme for tonight is "White Trash Trailer Bash," and Bob Dake, one of our resident Southerners has taken charge in all the planning. He even helped me out with my costume, which you will all see pictures of one Guinean day sometime soon (aka, six months from now). The new stagiers are going to experience what the Haute is all about tonight, and they will soon understand why we all pride ourselves on being Hauters, the toughest, wildest region of all (sorry, my Fouta and Bas Cote people).

I will be writing more very soon. Bye guys!