Mayonnaise, red oil, and sardines... I am graced by having at least one of these ingredients in each of my meals. Guineans LOVE their mayonnaise and red oil... unbelievable. Every morning I'm given a super oily salid with mayonnaise and sardines. No matter how many times I try to tell my family that I don't need 21lbs of oil in my salad or that 6 spoons of manyonnaise is more than enough.... and yet they still insist on giving it to me.

Of course, don't get me wrong, I am not complaining... quite the contrary.. my host family is awesome.... and funny... ok... check out the situation. I'm doing the first three months of my service (January - March) in this town called Forrecariah... and...

I am living in this family's house... they've given me a room with a bed, desk, chair, and some sticks protruding from the side wall that doubles as a closet; oh, and I have a window that looks out onto our 4 hectare front yard... hahaahah.... ok.. my front yard is the public dirt path. The house is made out of cement and mud... or just cement... or just mud.. I don't know but its definitely not brick or wood. There are no ceilings and the roof is tin. The house is so hot we can fry the red oil and sardines I eat everyday. Ok... now.. the family

I live with a bunch of people... and I'll describe the ones that I know... its Guinea so there's a bunch of people who sleep in the house who I don't know... but I found out later on that its another brother, sister, cousin, wife, etc.... The mother of the household, who's name is Fatou Kaba, is a widow; thus there is no male father figure... makes for interesting dynamic, especially for a male peace corps volunteer. The dead husband's mother lives within the house... I call her my second wife (i swear its funny in french). Now, there are 2 boys... Fiston and Ibrahima... I'm not quite sure how they're related to the family... one of them is a friend of the family from a neighboring village and the other is the son of a military guy that drives a nice 4x4. Fiston is 18 but looks like he's 12, Ibrahima is 17 and looks like he's the jigalo of the neighborhood. I preach my "use condoms or thingy will fall off talk" all the time with these guys... but between my bad french and their "gotta get it" attitude, I don't know if I get the point across. Now... the 3 girls that live with us... we'll start with Fatim... she's 18 and could be the horniest girl since Debbie...who did Dallas. The other sister is 13 and her name is Yari... she's very intelligent, but way too talkative; I confess there are times when I want to slap her silly (socially acceptable by the way). There's another girl, and I think her name is Marie... she makes my breakfast so I try to be nice to her... I think she's 17.

So that's my house... everyone is a lot of fun, we usually sit on the stoop... which is really wooden stools that are about 10 inches from the ground and just talk trash most evenings. Its really loud, but thankfully my sejour at the lovely University of Maryland has well prepared me for the experience... I can sleep through a hurricane. Everyone tells me my family cooks well, but I still haven't developed a taste for Guinean food; but I have another month or so we'll see if I come around.

.... oh and my 18 year old sister has been asking me to marry her. makes for a very interesting living situation... oh... and my mom is the queen B of the neighborhood... she runs the show and doesn't take any BS. Kinda cool. Except when she's mad at you...and then your scared.

French is !$%#&^ hard!!! I don't understand anything and the food is horrible. I'm trying to poop but I have to have something in my stomach to poop. Its the end of February and I am starting to appreciate linguists and my colon a whole lot more. Its also hot. Really hot. And muggy. I'm actually really enjoying it because I have a sick sense of comfort... but I have to admit that life without air conditioning is a bit hard. You just don't stop sweating. I will be a sweat drop by the time our training is over.
Fortunately... I really haven't had too many illnesses. My host sister is in love with me... which would be hilarious if I didn't have to always be like... "Yo... get off me;" other than that uncomfortable family situation, I really can't complain. We've been asked to "discover" our neighborhood (like columbus discoverd America?... i don't get it)by our trainers, but truth is no-one really is quite sure about anything... nobody knows their real age and actually how they're related to each other. Everyone calls each other sister or brother, ma or pa, regardless of how close they seem to be in blood relations.

I want to say that I've seen some wild African stuff... but it would be a lie. I don't see lions, bears, and stuff... but I do see a ton of people who carry stuff on their heads... its pretty crazy when you see it at first but by now its gotton old. The bare breasts though... that never gets old. Ok... yeah... I was smiling when I wrote that last line :)

January 11, 2006 - Genesis... ok...maybe that's going too far
Went to Philly to NYC to Brussels, Belgium to Dakar, Senegal to Conakry, Guinea in a 4 day span. Oh, and I'm a Peace Corps Volunteer or Trainee (if we have to be technical) .... and will be one for 27 months. Why am I doing this? I've been vaccinated for something like 8 billion diseases in a 2 day span ... why? Where is this country Guinea anyway? My head is spinning with all sorts of questions and no sorts of answers... for the moment. At the same time, the lust for adventure is pulling me further and further away from home.
Our first week in Guinea was viscious... we stayed overnight in the Country Peace Corps House, then we were shipped for 3 days to Mamou which is right smack in the middle of the country and a torturous bus ride. The place where we stayed has made 80% of the new peace corps voluteers sick. After our stay in Mamou, we were fluent in French and SouSou (local language)... oh wait ... that comes later... like never... oh yeah, throughout this ordeal, I'm not understanding a single word uttered from a Francophone... or even Anglophone for that matter... I'm more confused than normal... why are there so many black people....

Finally, we end up in Forecarriah... our training site for 3 months. And get this, on our trip into the town... we saw the WuTang sign on the side of a building... talk about twilight zone weird... would have never expected that.
The first day at our training site begins with a ceremony for us; during this ceremony we thank the organizers and the leaders of the community for a good 1 1/2 hours... after that we get assigned to our host family by a naming process.. very extravagant and public. I get assigned to a family of women... yes... its a widow and 2 daughters. We had lunch as part of the ceremony before we left for our new homes... the conversation was silence and I immediately realized a problem that I would face all the time Guinea; people will constantly think or say "What's wrong with this black guy?... he doesn't speak french, he looks guinean, but he doesn't speak any local languages? In this part of the world.. when someone says they're American, they expect the big, white, blond hair, blue eyed english speaker with lots of money.... I'm about to disappoint a whole lot of people.

Ok... Mois de Karem... Month of Ramadan... sucks... don't let anyone tell you otherwise. This year it fell from September 24 through October 24. As Guinea is a Muslim country and doesn't completely separate religion from government... everyone participates in the fasting (without water and food from sunup to sundown) lest they be called infidels like those ... those... those Americans!
Since all the take-out joints were closed during the day... i figure i might as well join in on the fasting... and to my surprise... the first day went pretty well... as did the second and the third... its when you get into the 10th day when it starts to hit you ... by the 30th day I was ready for it to be over. But I completed the fast, so according Islamic creed, my sins have been purged for the year (whether its this years' or last years' I don't know... it could be cool if you could designate years... like if you were especially naughty during 1997... or even for the future... if you knew you wanted to do especially meanie things during 2112... but I digress).
My town is pretty active normally... but during this past month... it was pretty dead. especially after 12pm ... because everyone is so tired from the fast. activity continues again after 4pm but its a pretty weak attempt. Its a pretty boring time to be in a Muslim country... and especially Guinea.
But of course, I did not slow down my activities during this month so I continued to do my 60K a week of biking to villages and around town trying do some follow ups on project work. Needless to say, I was really tired by the end of the day. Its really difficult to get anything done during the month of Ramadan... and if someone misses an appointment or forgets to do an errand... well its ok... because its the "mois de Karem" that did it. And everyone always pardons people for their mistakes. Pretty incredible actually... Guineans are a naturally kind people but the amount of nonsense they pull and get away with during this month is ridiculous. Oh... and everyone always tries to get marriage ceremonies one week completed before Ramadan; the newlyweds have to live together for 7 days after the marriage so the wife can learn the ways of the husband... that's how it was explained to me... i think its just so they be like Marvin Gaye and "get it on."