I'll be pooping in Guinea

Hey everyone, sorry for the long delay since the last post. Internet in this country is difficult for a PCT to get a hold of. At the training center there’s one wireless router which at any given point 35 PCTs are trying to use to upload pictures to picasa or facebook, which makes it impossibly slow for everyone. If that doesn’t impede our access to the new world there’s usually a blackout (they happen everyday in this country) which knocks out the internet, or they just turn it off for no reason because the last ‘Stage’ of trainees abused the privilege and were antisocial. Anyway I should talk about something more interesting than the internet, which by the way I kind of don’t miss every much at all except for the fact that I literally have no idea about anything that has happened in the news since I left the US, rumors speak of healthcare…

Last week on Friday we convinced our LCF (language and culture facilitator) Jeeba, to take us to a place near Sangalkam called Lac Rose or Pink Lake. It’s supposed to be Pink due to the salt content and apparently it was supposed to be beautiful so we begged her to take us. Despite it only being 8km away the transportation was a bit more extensive than one would expect. We walked to the main road and got on an Alhum or an Alhumdilliah which means “thank god” and is written across the front of these huge rickety vans. These Alhums were purchased probably back in the 1960s and are everywhere. In the US they’d probably be approved to carry 20 people. They are also tricked out with stickers and photos all over the front windshield and other windows, tassels and flags attached to the mirrors and bumpers as well. Either way we had to take an Alhum down the road a few miles, get off, take a taxi down another road a few miles, get off, take another Alhum a few miles down a new road, once we were in the Town of Lac Rose we took another taxi to the actual Lake. The lake wasn’t actually Pink but I did get to see camels! And then we discovered that the ocean was right there as well. After walking 15minutes through the nicest sand ever we got to the water and it was very fun and relaxing. 3 Alhums and 2 taxis in the dark later and we were back in our Homestay Village.

a mural we painted at the local health post

Alhum ride to Lac Rose

Me and a Camel!!! at Lac Rose

The Beach at Lac Rose (lake isn't pictured b/c it was ugly)

awesome jelly fish at the beach

We’ve been at the training center since Saturday, they gave us Easter weekend and Monday off, which was the most amazing time ever. As a trainee class is constant and never-ending, I go to bed exhausted most night, so having the weekend off was great. In summary of the weekend…we just ate a lot. We discovered this restaurant here in Thies called Big Faim which is a Eng-French of Big Hunger, which is exactly what their amazing Cheeseburgers get rid of…if you’re ever in Thies it’s a must. Class started again yesterday so days have gotten long again. We’re learning a lot of interesting stuff. The best part is later this afternoon we’re going to find out our site placements. In other words that means I find out exactly where I’ll be living for the next 2 years! So I’ll finish writing this post after I find out. Until then….

PELLEL KINDESSA!!! Kedougou, I’m going SOUTH way south, in fact so far south that my squatter (toilet) as I was told by the country director and 5 other current PCVs, my squatter is actually in Guinea, that’s right another country. Apparently my compound where I’m moving in far far south and ridiculously scenic Kedougou is right on the Senegal-Guinea boarder. I’m very excited because my site is apparently also at the foot of the mountains and next to the scenic Kedougou waterfalls, it’s going to be amazing. My Ancien or the PVC who I will be replacing when I move in, in late may wrote up a very nice site description and I’m very excited to get to visit it soon. In fact next Saturday a couple other PCTs and I will be going to stay with my Ancien for a Volunteer Site Visit. So I’ll post pictures and more information about my town then. Until then here’s a few tid-bits of what I know now. My town population is 1040, they speak Pulaar Futa which comes from Guinea and makes sense since it’s so close. The town is open to doing a wide range of different projects so I’ll have some flexibility which is also exciting. I will not have electricity or running water and my 1 room thatched roof hut has no windows, but according to my ancient I will have a pretty “sweet” shade structure out back my hut. My town is 7km further down the road from our country directors old site, which he described to me as the end of the world, so I’m 7km past the end of the world, and also according to him, 4WD vehicles can’t really get down those 7km very well at all…so I’m remote, but the region is apparently gorgeous and I cannot wait to get to see it next week. Here’s a couple of photos from the site placement event we had today. They blindfolded all of us and then shuffled around a ground mural map of Senegal, when we were told to open our eyes we were all standing on our sites and next to our neighbors. It was a lot of fun. There’s some pictures of this too.

Look for the green arrow at the bottom of the country

me squatting over the Guinean boarder on the map ground mural

Site Placement FUN!