Kankan Farewells

 My last round of good-byes in Kankan started with PCV Michelle's going-away party. Ethan, her replacement, happened to be in town for his site visit, so it was really more of a Farewell-Michelle-and-Welcome-Ethan celebration, and, because Michelle's host family and work partners really love her, it was really good party. Three were chubby babies, ladies singing and dancing, plates of meat and bread and fried potatoes, and lots of amusing photos of how Michelle is very petite and Ethan is very tall.

There was also this little kid (one of Michelle's host brothers) who was really, really into arranging and re-arranging all the rented plastic chairs, and we thought it was great when he lined them all up in the courtyard, so we took photos and told him how cool he was. He was very pleased; it was adorable.

 

A few days after Michelle left Kankan, it was time for me to say my own good-byes. I gave my nicest buckets and little decorative coffee mugs to the lunch lady down the street who has always been kind to me, and gave most of my clothes and sheet and towels to the ladies next door who washed most of my laundry. I brought my stove and gas tank and things over to the Peace Corps house for one of the new Public Health Volunteers, and I gave most of the rest of my things to the guards at the Save the Children office. Finally, I bought tea, sugar and kola nuts for the office staff and the guards, as a little farewell gift.

On the day that I moved out of my rooms I put on my best complet outfit, made from indigo fabric given to me by my Senegalese host family, and posed for photos with pretty much everyone at the office. There were a couple guards who weren't in that day, and I realized too late that I don't have any pictures of them, which makes me sad - they were really great, always helped me out with whatever I was trying to find or fix or move.

Adama, Adama, and Fatoumata

Save the Children, Kankan, Guinea

Everyone repeatedly complimented my outfit and told me that I should dress like this all the time, and said they were happy to see me looking like "a real Guinean." On behalf of the office Fatoumata and Adama presented me with a bunch of fabric and wished me all the best, saying that they hoped that I would be blessed with safe travels, good health, much happiness, and a handsome husband. (Adama said that last part and then she giggled a lot.)

Fun fact about indigo: It turns your skin quite blue when you sweat. Like Smurf-blue, and you really have to scrub to get it off.

Once I'd said my office good-byes I went over to the neighbors' house, where my friend Halimatou lives. They've fed me, helped me find tailors, and always been happy to have me over to hang out, so they're the closest thing that I had to a host family in Kankan. They fed me rice with Guinean leaf sauce (not my favorite - look at all that orange palm oil! - but I appreciated the gesture) and we took a bunch of photos and they told me to call when I get to America and it was all very bittersweet.

Pular Ladies in Kankan

Halimatou said that they had a good-bye gift for me but that it wasn't ready, so she'd bring it by the Peace Corps house later. The gift turned out to be more fabric and a really cool orange dress that, miraculously, fits perfectly, and I will try to get some photos of that up soon. 

Weekend Update: Sunday

Here's a blog post that I wrote last summer but has been sitting around in my draft folder ever since:

On Saturday evening it started raining, and it rained all night long. By Sunday morning the thunder and lightning had subsided but it was still raining steadily and so laid around reading, took my time making breakfast, and then puttered around, watching TV and going through the newsletters and paperwork that Peace Corps sent out and wondering if it was just going to rain all day long.

It did stop raining by late morning, so I finally got dressed and sunscreened, picked up some tea and sugar, and headed over to visit Halimatou, a young woman who invited me over last week. I've seen her a few times, hanging out with the ladies who sit on the corner, selling roasted peanuts, fried plantain, fried fish, and shiny little packets of cookies. I stop by there pretty regularly to buy roasted peanuts, and occasionally some plantains, and a few of the women speak Pulaar. My Pulaar isn't that great, but Halimatou  was sufficiently impressed/entertained and so she pointed out her house and told me to come by on Sunday for lunch, so I did. I brought some tea and sugar with me, we hung out on the porch, chatting about this and that in Pulaar (and, when I was stumbling with my words, in French) and drinking sachets of extremely cold water and watching the little kids enthusiastically but inefficiently draw water from the family's well-maintained pump. Sarah, the other Response Volunteer in Kankan, came over too, and stayed for what turned out to be an extremely delicious lunch.

Me and Halimatou

They gave us a ridiculously large plate of steamed rice and a small vat of amazing peanut sauce - the kind that's rich and savory and full of vegetables and fried fish balls. The fish balls were the good kind, too, made from fresh fish pounded with peanut meal, onions, garlic and spices and, best of all, completely free of the wiry little bones that most people don't bother to pick out before pounding everything up. It was the best peanut sauce I've had since I arrived in Guinea, and I happily accepted an invitation to come back again next week.

White Elephant Wallet

Since I'm catching up on photo uploads, this is the wallet that I got from Michelle at our Kankan Christmas White Elephant gift exchange. 

It wasn't a real White Elephant - there was no stealing and swapping of gifts - because no one wanted to take gifts away from people who seemed really happy with what they chose, like I was with this wallet. Michelle had it made by one of the local artisans, and it has that little map of Guinea. So cool! 

Last Week

When I arrived in Kankan there were five Peace Corps and Response Volunteers in Kankan proper, but as of today I am the only one left. A few months back Katie K. had to go home for medical reasons, and then, in December, people started to COS (Close-of-Service). Sarah J. left in December, and then last week Kenny D., followed yesterday by Michelle. This is my last week on Kankan; next week I'll be in Conakry, filling out my COS documents and making sure that I get all the many kinds of clearance (Medical, Financial, Property, Administrative, etc) that one is supposed to have before leaving the country as an RPCV (Returned Peace Corps Volunteer) or, in my case, an RPCRV (Returned Peace Corps Response Volunteer).

Photo courtesy of Michelle

Happily, I am still not alone - pretty much everyone at the office is back from their holiday break, the daughters from the Sidibé family down the street are back from Conakry, and PCVs Sara T. and Yé don't live too far from the city of Kankan and will be by this week. Also, the trainees (known around here as stagiaires) that will replace some of the departing PCVs in the region are out on their site visits right now, and will come in to visit Kankan at the end of the week.

So, the coming days will be all about wrapping up loose ends, saying good-byes, giving farewell gifts, packing things up, and just generally getting ready to hit the road. I hadn't been looking forward to making the rough, dusty, two-day bush taxi trek to Conakry by myself, with all my baggage. (It wouldn't have been the end of the world, but it wouldn't have been a day at the spa, either.) Luckily for me, one of the PCVs has family visiting and they'll be headed back to Conakry this coming weekend and offered  to let me ride along. It will still be a rough, dusty, two-day drive in a rented bush taxi, but there will only be a few us in the car, instead of the usual nine (plus babies plus sometimes chickens), so I'm pretty happy about it. 

Kankan Christmas!

Here are a few photos from the wonderfully festive Christmas celebration at the Kankan house. Stacy and Carolina made the fireplace, and then Carolina and I made the Christmas tree, with a little help from pretty much everyone. 

I'm not sure why my hand is so shiny here - maybe glue? Or oil from baking cinnamon rolls? In any case, our Christmas Eve feast was magnificent, the gift exchange was fun (I got a really cool wallet from Michelle!), and, much to my delight, when we woke up Christmas morning all the stockings were filled with little candies and treat and nice things.  

 

Kankan Christmas, 2013

Most people are back from the holiday break, so the office power, water and internet are more or less back to normal, which is really, really, really nice. So, I'm off to read some e-mails and upload some more photos. Happy New Year! 

Christmas Stockings!

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and I will be celebrating with seven other Peace Corps Volunteers in Kankan. We're going to do a White Elephant-ish gift exchange, and cook a big dinner together, and lounge around and, electricity permitting, watch movies on the projector and listen to Christmas music.

As I type this Stacy and Carolina are decorating the Kankan house, and if it's anything like Halloween and Thanksgivukkah it should all turn out very festively. My contribution was making stockings for everyone out of fabric from the market and the edge of one of my nice white sheets. I was working on them out on my little patio area the other morning and a girl came over to watch me sew. After awhile she asked if I was making things for a dress and so I tried to explain about Americans and stockings and Christmas and, translated from the French, it went something like this:

"Well, so, in America when people celebrate Christmas they have these things. They are like socks but you don't wear them on your feet, like normal socks. People put them on the wall, near a little place for a fire if they have a little place for a fire. And then.... the story is that a big man comes in the night before Christmas and puts things in the sock things. Like oranges or candy. In the socks. Americans like it. You see?"

This explanation earned me a bemused smile, and she told me they looked very nice. (Once again, I strongly recommend this David Sedaris story about explaining Christmas in other countries.)

Sewing Time

They all turned out pretty well, I put everyone's names on them and am hopeful that come Christmas morning they'll be full of little bags of peanuts and green oranges and weird little candies and all the other things that qualify as stocking stuffers in Guinea. More photos to come, as internet permits.

In the meantime, I hope everyone's enjoying the holidays, where ever you happen to be. Merry Christmas!

UPDATE: Here's a photo courtesy of Michelle's iPhone:

Christmas in Kankan!

House-Warming!

A couple weeks ago a few of us went to Diankana, a village not too far from Kankan, to see Sara T.'s new house. Stacy, Sarah J. and I even brought her a very classy and useful housewarming present - an assortment of CakeTreats and a Hazelnut Nescafe packet, wrapped in a dishcloth and wrapped in plastic twine. 

Happy Housewarming!

We all cooked dinner, watched a movie (Lars and the Real Girl, which I think is kinda adorable but which some people found "kinda creepy") and just generally had a good time. Happy Housewarming, Sara! 

New Senegalese

Last week, Sarah, Sara and I all had lunch at New Senegalese, so-called because it is the newer of the two Senegalese-run lunch places in Kankan. It is generally delicious, and probably the best place in town to get chicken with yassa onion sauce. They also serve what Guineans call riz gras, or oily rice, which is rice cooked with some spices and oil, fish, and some vegetables. (In Senegal the call it ceeb u jen "cheb-oo-jen", which is Wolof for "rice and fish.")

Riz gras, AKA oily rice

That particular day the riz gras happened to come with a piece of bitter eggplant, which has kind of grown on me, a piece of manioc, a piece of normal eggplant, and a hot pepper. Delicious!

The Good Disco

Volunteers who live out the village come in to Kankan to check mail, go to the market, and hang out with other Peace Corps Volunteers. One of the places where we all wind up hanging out is Le Bon, a small local bar that's conveniently located, equipped with a TV and fridge that works when the power's on. As far as the bar goes, the clientele is composed of local Christians, foreigners, and Muslims who are flexible with the whole no-alcohol things. There are some guys who just come to hang out, and they drink soda or energy drinks and watch TV when the electricity's on. There's also a "nightclub" (a room with big speakers) that plays music some evenings, but I've never actually been in there. 

We all met up there the other day after work, to enjoy cold-ish beers, roasted peanuts, peeled oranges, and some English conversation, and I took some pictures. Le Bon offers a variety of beers, all well-priced but none of them particularly good. (They also sell liquor in small plastic bottles and little plastic packets but it's pretty terrible stuff.)

Me and Katie B. 

Me and Stacy M. 

Shrey and Sara T. 

Emily and Chris N. 

Snacktime! 

The PCVs of Kankan

While ordering beers someone laughed and said "You know you're in Guinea when instead of asking what kind of beer they have or how much it costs, you just ask for whatever's coldest."

I suppose you also know you're in Guinea when your standards for what qualifies as "cold" expand to include anything that's noticeably cooler than room temperature...