Roadtrips!

I hadn't been looking forward to making the two-day trek from Kankan to Conakry by myself with all my luggage, so I was delighted to hear that PCV Alana and her dad (who was visiting from America) were planning on hiring a car and were open to hop-ons. People usually make the trip in two parts: Day 1 is Kankan to Mamou, and then Day 2 is Mamou to Conakry. 

We left pretty early on Day 1, and PCVs Adrienne and Andrew rode along for most of the way to Mamou. Alana's dad took the front seat and the four of us rode in the back seat, which was one fewer passenger than usual - Guinean bush taxis generally put two people in the front seat, and occasionally two people in the driver's seat, which is excessive by pretty much anyone's standards but still happens sometimes. 

On Day 2 it was just the three of us, so it was a very comfortable and spacious ride the rest of the way. Here are a couple pictures of traditional medicine supplies, all laid out for sale at one of the gas stations along the way. 

Now I'm at the Peace Corps office in Conakry, catching up on e-mail and working through my Close-of-Service (COS) stuff. I'm done with the medical stuff - they check for everything from tuberculosis to HIV to tapeworms to anemia, so far so good - and this coming week I'll turn in my final reports, close out my bank account, have my exit interviews, and wrap up any other loose ends before I officially "get my R" and become a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, or in my case, a Returned Peace Corps Response Volunteer. Double R!

Speaking of cars and driving, newly-minted RPCVs Michelle, Chris M., Chris A., Zach, Clara, Brittany, and their friend Molly all just embarked on an epic West Africa roadtrip. They're calling themselves the Grey Goose Gaggle and they have a blog: "Armed with only our Peugeot 806, laughable hygienic standards and mad local-language skillz, we plan on taking West Africa by storm. Stay tuned to watch us embark on the greatest COS trip of all time."

The night before last PCV Wiatta and I got up at 5 in the morning to see them off as they packed up and left Conakry. As they pulled away we talked about how we wished we were going with them because they are awesome and we like hanging out with them, but when we think about the realities of the whole seven-people-six-weeks-one-car deal we start to reconsider... They're a good group though, very resourceful, and I hope they have an amazing time out there on the bumpy, dusty roads of West Africa.

"How exactly will all of this fit?"

The Grey Goose Gaggle!

Update (via Michelle): "Got a flat tire, the undercarriage fell off, exhaust pipe broke in half, our one belt broke, and our battery died. But we made it to Kankan! Bamako tomorrow..."

Weekend Update: Saturday

After all the time spent on the road last week it was really nice to have a weekend in Kankan. Saturday I caught up on podcasts and cleaned up my rooms, and then went over to have lunch with Fatoumata, my work counterpart, and her family. It turns out that her compound is really nice - a large courtyard with mango trees, orange trees, banana trees, and palm trees, an overgrown garden and a big covered porch. Fatoumata's worked with Save the Children for years, and her husband is also quite successful, so they have two cars and a well-furnished living room decorated with porcelain knickknacks and family photos. Fatoumata's co-wife and all of the kids were really nice - the younger ones a little wary of me at first, but they warmed up to me after awhile. (It didn't hurt that I'd brought cookies.) Fatoumata and a few of the older girls were cooking an enormous tureen of sauce and several smaller pots of fonio (a delicious couscous-like grain) over small fires beside the main house while her co-wife was looking after a couple smaller kids. (Cooking fonio is a lot more expensive and time-consuming than cooking rice, but some of her husbands relatives are in town, so it was a bit of a special occasion.)

Photo of harvested fonio
courtesy of Ecotours-Senegal

Photo of fonio prepared with onion sauce
courtesy of Intrepid Herbivores

I hadn't realized that Fatoumata has a co-wife - she's well-educated, successful and to me seems very modern and Western, so I guess I just assumed that it was just her and her husband at home. I was thinking about it and can see that there are a lot of benefits to a polygamous arrangement for modern Guineans, especially given that they generally grow up with very rigid gender roles and polygamy as the norm. Since women run the household, having co-wife means that daily tasks are shared, that there's someone to watch your kids if you get sick or travel for work, and that you have the status boost of being married to a man who's wealthy and successful enough to have multiple wives. It's not very romantic from an American perspective, but if you think of marriage as a primarily practical institution it does make more sense, and it's also just how things are for a great number of people. I do think that polygamy is an inherently unequal and unfair system, but I don't think anyone here wants to hear my opinion of their marriage any more than I want to hear what they think about my not being married. (I've never had someone make unsolicited comments on my marital status in a way that made me like them more or think more highly of their opinions; without exception it has had the opposite effect.)

In any case, I was totally pleased to be invited over to a comfortable house filled with fruit trees, kids running around, good food, and pleasant people - they even remembered that Americans tend to be particular about water sources and gave me a large chilled bottled water before I had a chance to get out my own warm canteen out of my bag. I sat on the porch and gave kids high-fives for awhile as they ran giddily around in circles, I watched half an episode of the Ivory Coast version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire with Fatoumata's husband and we chatted about important English is for NGO work (his English is very good), and I ate most of a generous plate of steamed fonio covered with a very good meat-and-vegetable sauce. After lunch all done Fatoumata gave me a ride back to my place (on her way to drop off two big lidded pots of fonio and sauce with her in-laws and friends) and I spent the rest of the afternoon running errands in the market and reading and watching TV shows on my Netbook while impressive-looking storm clouds rolled in from the horizon. Not a bad day. 

Roadtrip!

Last week I went to Conakry for some meetings and a workshop held by Save the Children (SC). It’s a long and bumpy ride, but I was in one of the SC/Ministry of Health cars, so it was a much faster and more comfortable ride than it would have been on public transport – I got my own seat and everything.

The drive out wasn’t so bad. Once we’d cleared the flats of Upper Guinea there were low mountains and rocky cliffs to admire. Everything is excessively verdant this time of year, rivers are full, waterfalls spill over rock-faces, and there’s flooding in some lower-lying areas. (Looking at all the water made me think of the view from the airplane when I landed in Guinea in June – the approach to the Conakry airport starts over the Atlantic and then comes in low over a delta covered in serpentine loops of water and what looked like mangroves and deep mud, and it just goes on and on until you start to wonder if there really is a city and an airport and a runway.)

Aside from the scenery, the most striking thing about the drive was the number of broken-down trucks and wrecked cars, frequent reminders that my borderline phobia about in-country travel is not really so unreasonable.  Thanks to the nice car and good luck we made it to Conakry in about 14 hours, and I was very glad to get dropped off at the Peace Corps office/transit house to stretch, take a hot shower, and get some sleep. The rest of the week was mostly filled with meetings at the NGO Jhpiego’s Conakry office and at the Ministry of Health. The main event was SC’s presentation of the results of the Community-Level Contraception Access pilot project that they’re hoping to expand over the next few years, and it went really well.