So Long Guinea

Hi everyone. On Monday, October 19th, PC gave the official word that, due to instability and unpredictability, we would not be returning to Guinea. We completed transfer and close of service procedures last week and have gone our separate ways. I am actually writing this post in Minneapolis, MN, USA where I arrived Tuesday evening!

A number of G16ers (my education group who came to Guinea in July 2008) were offered positions as teachers in Liberia, a country also along the West African coast, just south of Guinea. Liberia will not be ready for the PCVs they requested until January, so I, along with ten others, are lucky enough to get to spend the holidays at home this year. Our new positions will last until our original close of service date, July 26. Some of us will stay until October to help complete the training of two new education groups — one for Sierra Leone and the other for Liberia. If Guinea stabilizes and reopens by then, we would also have the option of doing a third year of service back in the country we now call “home”.

Liberia will be very different from Guinea in some ways, the biggest being that it’s an English-speaking country, but from what I hear, it will also be similar. The infrastructure is supposed to be even worse than in Guinea due to the war. Electricity exists only in the capital, Monrovia. The part that most excites me about Liberia is its President: Ms. Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson! The women’s movement is supposedly big there, and I can’t wait to see for myself.

Dioulde, our APCD/Education Director for PC Guinea, kept us well-informed of the situation in Guinea while we were in Mali. School started on the 19th, which is good news because there was some talk that it wouldn’t start at all this year. It was very sad to say goodbye to the PC Guinea staff who did so much for us while we were there. Those of us going to Liberia will be seeing Dioulde and the training manager, Ousmane, again as they will be working for PC Liberia, at least for a few months.

That’s it for now. I’ll write again in January before we take off for Liberia. I’ll leave you with a quick story about my last couple days in Bissikrima.

My Mom had sent white t-shirts, fabric paint, glue, and rhinestones so that my girls’ group and I could decorate shirts. I was saving them for the school-year, but when I got word Saturday, October 3rd that I’d be getting picked up for evacuation on the 7th, I decided we’d have to do them on Monday and Tuesday. So the girls came over Monday, and a couple boys happened to be hanging around as well. Abel, who is very artistic, was helping the girls with the writing. Since they rarely have the opportunity to do anything requiring creativity, they just stared at the blank shirts for a while before requiring that I make an example. Since Rachel’s birthday was coming up on the 17th, I decided to make her a shirt that said “BIRTHDAY GIRL”. So, what did all the girls want to write on their shirts? “HAPPY BIRTHDAY [their name]” or “HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALISON AND [their name]“. Just like that. In English and everything. So Abel wrote it out for them, and they attached rhinestones and sparkles.

I told them they’d have to come back Tuesday after the front dried so they could work on the back. I also told Abel he should make one for himself, which he agreed to do. When I looked over at his work a while later, I saw the outline of fist holding up the middle finger. “ABEL!” I said to him, “Do you know what that means?” “Yes, Mme,” he told me. “The football [soccer] players do this to each other during the games sometimes.” “Yah, but it’s not a nice thing, Abel. I don’t think my mother would like it if she knew that’s what you were drawing on the shirts she sent.” “Mme,” he sighed, as if this were the most obvious thing in the world, “It’s for battling my enemies.” I bit down hard on my lip to try to keep from laughing. Abel, best student in the 10th grade class, thinking he’s some kind of thug in the non-existent gang-world of Bissikrima. Absurd! But I let him carry on because I couldn’t trust myself to continue the conversation any further without giggling.

I hope to see you all while I’m home (until January 9th). Happy Halloween!

My Number

My number while I’m in Mali is 011 223 76 85 08 10. We’ll be here for at least two weeks.

Back in Mali

Hi everyone. Just wanted to quickly update. Due to recent events in Guinea, all of PC Guinea has been evacuated to Mali where we’ll stay for 2-4 weeks while PC determines whether or not we can return to Guinea. We were informed last Saturday and had a few days to pack before we started getting picked up Tuesday. I had a tearful goodbye in Bissikrima. I have a feeling with the elections coming up, we won’t be headed back. In any case, we’ve all arrived safely and hopefully I’ll be able to better update you sometime in the next few days.

Mail

Please don’t send any mail until further notice.

News from the Bush

Hi all. I know the news from Guinea has been grim, so I just want to reassure everyone that things are very calm up-country. In fact, there has not been even a hint of a problem in Haute. I can’t detail our security, but I will say that we are in excellent hands with PC. I’m not worried about my safety, only about the Guineans whom I’ve come to love in the 15 months I’ve been here. The Guineans I’ve spoken with over the last few days have expressed feelings of sadness and hopelessness. It’s such a small, close-knit country that it seems everyone has a friend or neighbor whose family was affected by the violence this past Monday. Yesterday and today were declared public holidays to mourn those who were killed at the demonstration. Dadis is calling for an international inquiry into what happened, and the African Union has given him until October 18th to officially announce that no one from the CNDD (his party) will run in the elections.

On a more light-hearted note… Nick, one of my PCV neighbors, and I were coordinating our rides to Kankan for girls’ conference last week. He was to call me when he was leaving his site so I could make sure that our taxi was ready when he and his girls arrived. I received the following phone call from him, “Hey Alison! Just want to let you know we’re moving… Well, the engine’s not on, but we’re rolling.” Typical bush taxi. Apparently they were pushed quite a while before the engine would start. It had me laughing.

Take care at home, and enjoy the Fall scenery. So long from Guinea!