I went back to Pita after I last wrote to spend a few more days with Reid doing nothing. We celebrated my birthday with a box of wine and a chicken. Guess who killed the chicken. ME! Finally, I did it and didn’t chicken out. (Wow, that was a bad joke). It was harder than I thought it would be – I learned every animal has a real desire to stay alive. But I wasn’t too traumatized to eat the tasty chicken.
My Birthday Chicken
I then went back to site before my mailrun day (see previous entry for travel stories), and I spent my real birthday in Siguiri. I was pretty scared to spend my birthday alone at site. Nothing feels more lonely than being alone on your birthday, I’d imagine, but my friend, Ibrahima took me our for a really fancy dinner at Djoma, the nicest restaurant in town on the top of a hill. It was really sweet, and I got to eat delicious meat brochettes and a salad and drink a coke. What a treat!
Then, the next day, I celebrated once again with the missionaries in town. It was their son’s birthday also, so I shared a cake with a 5 year old. It was really sweet of them to invite me over to celebrate with them – it made me feel at home… well, not quite. But it definitely made me feel less far. And that’s all you can ask for here in Africa sometimes.
So, after a joyous birthday, Reid arrived in Siguiri a few days later. Although he got sick from Haute, we had a great time swimming in the pool out at the gold mines, drinking beers, and meeting my people. Everyone was excited to finally meet the man I had talked about for months, and they welcomed him with gifts of rice, coffee, a hat from Mali, and fruit. We ate a lot of ice cream and Reid found me a meat man to buy brochettes at night. It’s funny – I go to Pita and find him a bean lady, and he comes to Siguiri an finds me a meat man. Reid was a bit overwhelmed by the Malinke energy, but he got along well with most of my family and my friends, especially my kids. We played monkey in the middle and had tickle fights and my kids fell in love with him. Everyone was sad to see him go, but we had to head down to Kankan for the Halloween party!!!
Halloween was a blast – I was an angel, and Reid dressed up as Bob Dake, a fellow volunteer that is more like a caricature than a real person. I love Bob Dake, and I love Reid, but in very different ways. I didn’t know who to kiss all night! It was a great night of dancing and drinking – you have to love a party in Haute! To see pics, visit my Flickr.com page over there-->
Bob Dake and His Angel
Unfortunately, Reid got a phone call while in Kankan that his house had been broken into and he had to run back to Pita with Peace Corps to assess the damage. Most things of value were taken, including a solar battery charger, CDs, protein powder, mayonnaise – everything. So, Reid is now planning to move sites, although we don’t know where yet. I will keep you posted.
After that, we all met in Mamou for Life Skills, a training on HIV/AIDS for volunteers and a counterpart from site. I brought my friend, Moussa, because he talks so much and loves to be the center of attention, so I figured he would spread the knowledge well. He is energetic and loves to be right, so I thought he should go around spewing true information if he is going to be going around spewing something. I didn’t really think it out though. I didn’t take into account my own sanity during the conference. His loud, aggressive character definitely got on everyone’s nerves. In the end though, he proved to be a great counterpart, performing well in our skits and writing songs about condoms and such. It was great by the end, and I do plan to return to site and work with him to educate the population on HIV/AIDS.
Me and Moussa, my Counterpart for LifeSkills
After Life Skills was finally over, I came down to Conakry to hang out for a few days before flying to Dakar for a beach and city vacation with Reid. It’s going to be great – I can’t wait! In a few days, I will be sipping cold drinks and eating wonderful developed world food on the beach! Yes, Senegal is the developed world to me now…. It’s sad.
I will be sure to write more after the trip.
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