There you have it. I can't believe April has come and gone so quickly and here I am back in Conakry. well this month I spent out anywhere and everywhere. I went on a pretty nifty 'tournoi' and visited nine different districts within my community on my bike. It was awesome, I got to meet a lot of people, got to learn a heck of a lot and also went to go talk about Malaria with elementary school students. I dont have direct photos from my tournoi, i wish I did, however while I was hanging out I have some candid moments of my village to share.

Here are my neighbors coming back from the water pump.
check out that Leesville Loonies shirt.

My cat. "Poo-tay," it means sweet potatoe in Pular cause it's my favorite thing to eat here and she seems to like it too.

My namesake at the waterpump.

This little girl is so cute when she's not annoying. LOL.

Another neighbor at the water pump.

Another neighbor who is absolutely adoreable.

Another neighbor who loves when I take pictures.

That slab of meat is a porcupine. And it's riding on top of our taxi to Conakry.

This right here is the porcupine's head. Isn't he just the sweetest thing you've ever seen?

So things have been going well, bout to head out to Sierra Leone for a week to relax and lay on the beach and well I need a break. I'm excited and preparing to go home in July. Thanks mom. And well as soon as I get back I guess I'll have more pictures to put up.

As far as work goes I've got my hands full my last visit to all the schools went so well that I'm scheduled to do the same thing twice before school ends, so we will see how that goes. I'm excited to do it and also looking forward to visisting even more schools that are out in the middle of nowhere. Gotta love it. Miss home, i plan on eating some awesome food when I get back and relaxing.

Yay pictures!

So basically its been like forever, the internet does not work in Labe, Here are some recent pictures of the year that i had on my camera. Things are going well in the village and I'm really learning a lot about my level of patience. I really thought I had more patience. Anyway I miss home lots, and no there are no mangoes yet. Work is so-so, I've realized that I can't really help anyone that is not willing nor interested. I have not stopped trying but just have a better attitude if others choose to disregard my opinions.



I know I look a nerd, but I went to the river with my host sister to do my lanudry and we went kinda rock climbing and there is also a place where there is waterfalls in the rainy season. Below I am attempting to do my laundry at the river. I found a pretty decent sized rock to beat my clothes up against so they are pretty clean.

This little boy is one of my many neighbor kids. he's so cute but he is forever running around with no pants on, like seriously but some pants on. LOL. But he's still so cute.

Here I am at my host brother's center d'informatique. I spend some afternoons here talking with the class in English and answering questions and such.

I just got that complet made the other day and I was very excited because its so cute and comfy and then I wore it to the market later that week.

This is one of the three cats, the last one that I acquired. His name is Ya-ma-coo. It's Pular for hot pepper. I found her at the health center one day and she kinda hopped in my bag and followed me home one day.

My little guys here are oh so adoreable. The white one in the back was the first one I got this year, my neighbor gave her too me. her name is Poo-tay. That's Pular for sweet potatoe because that's my favorite leaf sauce.

The one in front is Ban-terra, that's manioc in Pular and he is pain in the butt but also very sweet.

Here is me and my friend Abdoul, he's a student trying to learn English so I help correct him when when he comes by my family's house.

Up there is my host brother Ila and my host mom sitting drinking an orange. they didn't know I was taking pictures like a detective that day. She is so happy because he is trying to help finish building the house.

My neighbor, well my host family's neighbor, yeah well she's my neighbor, Dioulde and she's a sweetheart and she's already engaged and like 15 years old. I thought this was a cool photos because you can also see the avocadoes hanging from the tree.

That's me and my host brother Ila, I told him i could kick his butt in soccer. I tried and failed. LOL. But it was really fun to play again i haven't played since high school.

That's me trying to be cute pointing out Guinea on the map. In case some people were having trouble finding it it's in West Africa! West!

Yo, there he is again and not wearing pants but i still love him.

This is the water pump and the little girl is another neighbor, and the thing on her head is a peice of fabric so she can put that big bottle of water on her head to carry it back to her house.

These are more kids in my neighborhood. Sometimes they are cute when they aren't annoying but ultimately I love 'em.

PiCS From Bamako

So Bamako was pretty amazing, we headed there for Christmas 2008 and it was an awesome time. here are pics mainly from Dogon Country. This village is famous for it's "houses on the cliffs." No one lives on the cliffs anymore but back in the day people lived on cliffs and the rest of the land was forest. Eventually they moved lower down and explored the land. nowadays no one goes up to these cliffs and is basically not allowed by outsiders to go up there. But it's fascinating to see these houses up there and you wonder how the heck did they get up there in the first place? Anyway this place was beautiful and like over a 60 km hike in the mountains.

Yay me and Jess, first day on the hike singing Disney classics. Those kids there are asking for our water bottles all day, well actually througtout the entire trip.

These next four pictures are from this other malian village that follows the Niger River, there entire community participates in the making clay pots and such. It's pretty amazing, there are those who make the coloring, those who shape the clay, those who burn the pots, dip them in water, etc. Mostly the women. I remember seeing men, actually a group of five men and they were sitting drinking tea and ALL the women were working.

Pirougue ride.

Goat in a bag?

This is how they straighten the Mali fabric, they bang it with large mallots until it's smooth and shiny. Those things are freaking heavy! the next few photos are Dogon Country again.

dude, camels!

More clay making, this women was doing an awesome job and totally undisturbed by us videoing, and taking photos while she worked.

Here's some finished projects from the clay sculpting community.

Here I am under this shape of some kinda sort of whatever. I dont know what you call this. And below is me and Astrid with our private jet. Just kidding, the plane to kankan.

Mid-Service Reflection

Its been a while, I have spent much more time in the village than I normally do but well worth it. Everything has been going well and things seem to be picking up. I just recently started to come out of my shell. LOL.

February was pretty interesting; I took a tour of my village and visiting the outlying districts to do a malaria presentation. I went to look for mosquito nets to dip with insecticides because we all know as soon as rainy season starts, everyone will fall ill with malaria. I didn’t have the best turnout however I helped train some health agents who will be able to dip mosquito nets in their respective health posts throughout the rainy season. I really enjoyed this tour because I finally got to visit all the districts and also there are some pretty amazing views I hadn’t known about.

After I finished my tour we had a food distribution at the health center sponsored by an American NGO. I love helping out but it was just so exhausting watching the bureaucracy here and knowing not everything is being distributed fairly. We gave out corn flour, sugar, salt and oil. Like after a while I didn’t mind that people were lying about how many times they had come to collect their share however it was very hard to accept my counterpart giving out sacks to military and community officials. I had taken some of the ingredients to show my neighbors how to make a corn meal that is supposed to be really good for growing babies, whom of which are often malnourished.

Beforehand I was cooking with my host mother, now I’m cooking for her. LOL. I don’t know why I hadn’t started sooner but I guess now I feel more comfortable now that I live there. The other day I made peanut sauce and rice, all alone. My neighbors got a good kick out of watching me cook outside. (They think Americans, or well at least that I, don’t know how to cook.) So I got to start the fire myself and everything so it was pretty cool. I made some American dishes for my host family, I had made them scalloped potatoes, spaghetti, French fries, pancakes and the other day I made sugar cookies and I shaped them into little hearts. Yeah kinda lame, but they were so cute and delicious.

One of my neighbors, a young girl in elementary school comes by my house sometimes and helps me cook or she’ll make gateau with me. The other day we made dried gateau and it was so good. She is probably one of the few little girls who speak French fairly well.

I am now the proud mother of two little kittens. My neighbor gave me a kitten, and then like 3 days later one of my friends gave me a kitten as well. I liked the second one so much but now I adore them both they are so cute. I named one Poo-tay, which is sweet potatoe in Pular. The other one is named Band-terra, which is manioc in pular. Both names are a type of leaf sauce, well my two favorite sauces here. So when I tell my neighbors about my cats they get a good kick out of it and tell me, ‘no, no, that’s what they eat.’ Oh silly me.

Believe it or not, I've lived in my village for 14 months now and I know i'm going to miss it so much. I can't think about leaving my friends, my family and my work (again, but this time) for a second time. Permanately. I'd like to think I'd come back and visit or even spend a vacation here but I'm very doubtful, I'm sure I'll go back to the busy American lifestyle and eventually fall out of contact with everyone. In this case I'm really hoping that I am wrong.