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.

Happy holidays

So yeah, believe it or not I’m a year into my service and it’s so weird looking back on everything I was experiencing when I first got into country. What a difference. So much has changed yet I’m still Kim. So what did I do to celebrate my one year anniversary. Nothing special, I went out biking to this district. I fell pretty bad, but its ok. It was pretty funny. I went and watched tv, well it was the local news here in Pular and I had a meeting in Pular which I totally understood. but in response to the meeting I got a chance to interject four or five phrases in Pular. Score.

Things have been going pretty good. There was the fete of Tabaski that just passed. It was really awesome to spend it with the family here. So Tabaski celebrates by praying at the mosque in the morning and dressing very nice. Kids walk around and ask for money. I forget what they say, it’s in Arabic but it’s expected to give like “cent franc” if you got it. There is also the sacrifice of a goat which an elder usually does and the idea is after the sacrifice is done, the goat is shared amongst the community for those who can not afford to eat. I tried to get a more accurate reason as to why the holiday is celebrated but it was extremely hard to get a reason other than “because it’s in the Koran.” Ok.

I’m a grandmomma, my cat had five kittens last Monday. I haven’t seen them left because I left for vacation Sunday and my family called me Monday to tell me that they found my cat had mulitipied. LOL. No, I knew she was pregnant but just didn’t know how far a long so I’m really bummed I missed it. I was actually looking forward to being there for that. I just can’t wait to get back and see them all. I already gave them away but I just don’t want anything to happen to them, but Neenee Moussa (my mother cat) will be an awesome mom. As soon as I get back she’s going straight to the vet!

So work is going pretty well. I’m working with an awesome counterpart. This guy is like the awesomest old guy I’ve met here. So he’s been very set on getting the pump fixed at his school. And I completely agree. There’s the school, the health center and the market yet the nearest pump is in the middles of nowhere. So I was like cool but it needs to be fixed within the community. So we went and did sensibilizations in the market and at the schools. (And by WE I mean I prepared all the materials in French and he presented everything in Pular) hey it makes sense if the audience only knows Pular. But it worked out really well. And we are almost at our goal. I think more than half way there and it’s pretty exciting. I hope that it gets fixed by February. (crosses fingers.)

Well happy holidays, it kinda sucks not being home for the holidays yet again, and knowing most likely will not be home for the holidays next year as well. LAME. I hope everyone has an awesome Christmas and Happy New Years.

Pics like id forget?

No i didnt forget this timeor last time the cyber cafe closed for prayer and the transfer never finished.
So long story short, i had other pics but didnt put them on my key cause I needed work documents and my key was full so that got set aside. When I go to Conakry Ill be sure to be better equipped. Anyway these are from the fete at the end of Ramadan.
Miss you.

Aww, its been forever.

Blog
November 2008.

I can’t really put into comprehensible words how I feel about the presidential election. All I can say is that I am very happy with the results.

I stayed up half the night anxiously awaiting the results. I’m four hours ahead so by the time the polls closed it was way past my bed time. So I didn’t get to sleep until shortly after McCain gave his speech. Like around 4 or 5 am here.

I honestly don’t know where I’ve been the past couple of weeks. October was ok.. Kat came to visit from kankan for a couple of days and it was really nice to have a visitor. Something or someone attacked my cat. I left Moussa, my cat, out during the day (which isn’t out of the ordinary, she likes to play with lizards and such) for a couple of hours and when I came back I found one of her eyes swollen and bloody. I was really sad but mostly angry at myself for leaving her outside like that. I took her to the vet (yes there are vets here) and well she is slowly recovering.

Work is still very frustrating. I told my counterpart that I wanted to visit all the villages by bike, he thought this was funny. I was not joking. I have made it to so far to 5 out of the 8. Yes of course I’m going to be tired, bikes do that. It’s just frustrating he won’t even allow me to try. (it’s cause I’m female.)

So the other day I decided to give EVERYONE that made me furiously angry another chance. Like the kids in my neighborhood that come everyday to stare at me and my cat and knock at my door nonstop. Yeah, everyone. So the kids come everyday and ask me for stuff so often that now my name is Kadiatou Okkran (which is my guinea name + the word for give me in Pular.) Cute, right? I kindly tried to explain to them that my name was not “Kadiatou Give me” and that they should learn my name before asking me for something. I spent about twenty mintues, to no avail and left to go get some water.

The other day I made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, they weren’t the best but the kids really liked them. I made them about the size of a dime and this one girl ate half and saved the other half for her brother. Now I don’t know if she was just being really nice or the cookies really sucked and she couldn’t finish it. (I think she was being nice because later they came back and asked for more cookies.)

I went and played with them this game kinda like jump rope and double dutch. (maybe I should show them that.) And they were less annoying. Afterward I went to the pump and they actually helped me carry my bidons full of water back to my house. [these bidons hold 25 liters of water.] they never did that before. So sometimes they are ok.

The vaccinator I work with who completely ripped me off, when I asked him to help me get furniture made as hard as it was not to yell at him, I have decided to forgive him. (yeah 3 months later) It takes times for wounds to heal. Besides I really can’t stay mad anymore and it’s partly my fault for not asking around beforehand. However I must admit I was in the habit of telling him how much of a jerk he was (IN PULAR) and that he was not a nice person and a bunch of crazy things because I was upset. He thought I was joking but it did make me feel better to tell him how much of a jerk he was.

The Pular. It’s better. I need to get out of the habit of responding in French but the comprehension is better. I don’t have a tutor. So I’ve been working out of a workbook and just practicing with the family or at work. I asked my host brother if he could teach me insults and bad words in Pular but he refused. O moyya!

I had wanted to teach English but I don’t thinki have the patience or the desire anymore. It’s really time consuming and it’s difficult to make sounds your mouth isn’t used to making. So maybe not for me.

Oh and my birthday was unlike any other. I really thought it’d be great but no, no it was less than great. I spent half the day in tears because NOTHING went as planned and partially because I was also homesick. I know nothing ever goes according to plan here but I was hoping the birthday fairy would help me out.

I haven’t learned any new dishes or anything. I’ve been inda just laying low in the village. Trying to spend more time exploring the village and less time annoyed at retarded people.

I’ve been cooking less and eating with a family every day, just dinner. I usually make lunch for me and the cat. The oatmeal cookies was the first time baking in a month.

So lastly I’ll talk about this village I went to today. It was about 8km, that’s a little over 6 miles. And I met with the President of the community, teachers, as well as other respected members of the community. I went to the school and did a short presentation and just asked questions about their community. There’s no health center, no mosque, no pump and no marche. The doctor at my health center goes once a month to do vaccinations and to do consultations. Can you imagine getting sick and walking six miles to go to the health center? Yikes! When I asked them what their needs were, they expressed interest in a health post. I’d have to agree with them. And a pump at the school. They asked so nicely that I would have liked to give them money right then and there out of my pockets, if I had it. Out of all the villages I have visited so far this one seemed to be the poorest. By the way, on my way out there I saw a huge monkey, how neat is that? And I was trying to keep an eye out for snakes.

update

So after the holiday we had a huge party and were able to eat meat again. So I finished the month and had fasted for two weeks which was hard but much glad its over and people feel like doing suff and working again. Its kinda like everyone shut down for a month.

I met some really cool people during the vacation but they have gone back to Conakry, sad face. Oh well next summer. I found some waterfalls in my village. Amazing waterfalls that are about a 25 walk from my house and even closer than my own market. I didn’t bring my camera so of course no photos but the most interesting part is that this is the Gambie river that passes through my village. Pretty ipressive; so they gave the name of this point Gambie. I also scales a mountain, it was an hour trek but it was really nice and there were filed of fields of crops. Also there was a beautiful view of the village from up there, and yet again I didn’t have my camera.

Things are going good with work. I don’t want to say too much because its very aggravating talking about it and Im feeling happy now. Im starting to like little kids a little more which is pretty good. I liked them before but not when they come to my house to stare at me and now I guess im used to it.

My host family is doing ok. They are very awesome, I think sometimes I can be annoying cause I say the same ten Pular sentences every day with nothing better to talk about. Cest comme ca, Ka I cant fing the question mark.

K. Hope all is well I don’t have much time In town so catch up sooner than later. Miss ya, luv ya.

Inculded pics from the fete after Ramadan and some of me in my village.