The First Lady of Guinea

I am in Conakry now, doing all my Close-of-Service stuff, and I came across this photo from Save the Children's "Race for Survival" event back in October.

Save the Children and Mme. Djene Kaba Condé

The First Lady of Guinea (in the light green shawl) invited us to stop by and greet her while she was visiting Kankan, so of course we went. Outside in the courtyard of the house there were a bunch of very intimidating-looking security guards with big guns, and a bunch of little kids who gawked at me entertainingly, and inside everything was very calm and quiet and fancy. Everyone was really nice and the First Lady, who has her own philanthropic foundation, seemed legitimately interested in Save the Children's work in Guinea and Mali.

It was a neat morning - not every day one gets to meet a First Lady. 

Tour de Kankan, Part II

These next five photos were taken by Stacy, on the mango-lined street (another landmark) that runs from the Totale gas station over to the market. (The last two are my personal favorites.)

The rest of these pictures were taken by me. A couple weeks ago I bought fabric from the fabric vendors (up close in Stacy's photo above and from a distance in mine, below) and they're nice ladies.

No one seemed to mind that I was taking pictures - I tried to stay in the background and make it obvious that I wanted a view of the general market scene and not anyone in particular, which may have helped. It was a pretty normal day - crowded, noisy, too many motos, lots of trashfire smoke and a wide variety of smells, ranging from frying fish to old meat to fresh soap to moto exhaust. 

Those are the towers of Kankan's big mosque (another landmark) in the background above, but the real reason I took this photo is that the "new" Senegalese restaurant is on the second floor of the building in front of the mosque, right where the palm trees are. The "Peace Bakery" below is right next to where Katie K. used to live - sometimes it's hard to get a photo without someone strolling (or moto-ing) into the frame. 

And that concludes our brief tour of Kankan. I have more photos to upload, of New Years and my neighbors, but those may have to wait for next week and the Peace Corps office's (comparatively) fast internet. 

Tour de Kankan, Part I

Like many people, I've always wanted to take a bunch of photos of the city of Kankan, but have been hesitant - I don't want to get yelled at by cops or people who don't want their photo taken or who demand money for photos. The other day, though, I tagged along with PCV Stacy as she went to get some photos printed at a little place on the second floor of a building right downtown, and I took some pictures from the comfort of the front and rear landings. 

The pictures aren't anything special, but they show what a typical street loos like - dusty, mango trees here and there - and in one you can see part of the main roundpoint by the Totale gas station, which is a major ladmark. 

After the photo place, Stacy and I walked toward the market, along murky drainage canals brimming with trash (very typical of the Kankan experience) and past a giant pile of refrigerators and freezers (less typical but still interesting). 

More to come, just as soon as they finish uploading... 

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! 

Malarone!

All Peace Corps Volunteers, Response or otherwise, must take medication to prevent malaria while in Guinea. Since mephaquin (AKA Lariam) didn't sit particularly well with me and antibiotics in the -cyclin family(like doxycyclin) have been known to make me break out in hives, that leaves me with Malanil (AKA Malarone. It's expensive, but I haven't had any noticeable side effects and, since I really don't want to get malaria, I do my best to make sure I take it every day.

Malanil

For awhile my pills came in a bottle, and sometimes it was hard to keep track of whether or not I'd taken it. When they started giving me boxes of blister-packed pills I thought it was unnecessary packaging, but then I realized that blister-packs are really handy for labeling, and I haven't had any did-I-take-it-or-was-that-yesterday issues since. 

Friends & Amenities

I have some nice photos from Christmas and News Year's Eve that I would like to post, but the internet connection I'm currently using can't seem to upload or download anything, so that will have to wait.

With everyone out of town on their year-end holidays, the generator on my compound hasn't been turned on in over a week. This means no wifi, which is fine, there are cyber-cafes downtown. It also means that the water pump isn't turned on, which is more of an inconvenience. The water tank went dry nearly a week ago, and my personal water buckets ran out a couple days after that, so I'm back to fetching water from the nearest pump, just like I used to do when I lived in a village.

Happily, I still have a decent amount of electricity, thanks to the solar panels having been cleaned two weeks ago. The panels had been caked in such a thick layer of fine, red dust that they had all but stopped functioning, but now they're back to providing about eight hours of electricity every day, which is fantastic. (City power, which comes from giant gas-fueled generators, comes on about every third evening, for six or seven hours at a time.)

Hopefully my at-home internet access and running water will return next week, and in the meantime I'm enjoying the quiet afternoons, totally free of the roar of the generator. Happy New Year, everyone!