the real world; Peace Corps Guinea

I am writing from a plush office inside the Peace Corps compund in Conakry, Guinea. At the moment, I am very thankful and proud of our Government. The compound is extremely well organized, staffed by talented, multi-lingual Guineans, complete with western Medical facilities, a general Medicine MD, and a tropical disease Specialist.

I arrived in-country yesterday after a long and uncomfortable, but very tolerable flight from JFK to Dakar, Senegal, and a short and far less comfortable flight from Dakar to Conakry, Guinea. The other P.C. volunteers (PCV's) that happened to be in the Capital showed us around, and took us out for a beer at a bar on he beach near the compound. Truly-- it was great. If yesterday was indicative of Peace Corps service, I would advise every able bodied man and women in the U.S. to sign up immiedietly. However, as you might guess, they followed our lovely excursion with some less lovely details concerning medical problems, saftey problems, and personal hygene.

*note...we have been given a very stern warning by the PC staff to be careful in our blogs not to say anything that would appear to denegrate the local culture, or that might color Americans perceptions of Guinea in a negative light. This policy makes sense; when reading this blog, please, to the extent possible, control for your American cultural assumptions and values in order to consider Guienan culture and lifestyle as an entity unto itself, rather than something to be compared to America or evaluted in an American context.

Tha being said, I shall give you some informative or amusing cultureal tid-bits I have picked up thus far. (most of these come from a few cultual training sesions, seeing as I have only been outside the compund once in the last 36 hrs.
-Guineans love Americans. American humanitarian organizations have made huge strides inside Guinea and many Guineans have been taught by P.C. voluneers or worked with them. Obviously, there are bad apples, but I encountered far fewer hostile people walking around than an average american might encounter on the streets of New York City.
-Toilet paper in the villages is considered an unnessacary expense. The standard method for cleaning up after a toilet break is euphamistically refered to as the water method, which involves one's left hand, and some soap and water.
-People rarely go a full sentence in the same language. In Guinea, the School system runs on French. But french is a second language for almost all of the students. So adults (who on averyage did not attend high school), speak the french they learned in school (a long time ago), combined with the local language(s) they speak with their family. Imgaine a school system taught in a language that is the native tounge of neither the teachers nor the staudents. Though I suppose the alternative is to have a country where every person can only comunicate with the other 20-50 percent of the country that speaks their language.

I have many more already, but other volunteers need to use the computers to tell their famlies they arrived safely.

Truly, Guineans seem like special people. Obviously there is a selection Bias in the Guineans I have meet thus far (educated, French speaking, most work for the U.S.), but from the Man I sat next to on the plane to the Compound Staff to my brief walk around, I have a very favorable impression.

I miss everyone, and
I hope to post again very soon.
best,
Conor

P.S. thank you to all the people who emailed me recentely to wish me good luck or say goodbye. I feel very supported-- truly. For the next 3 months I will have frequent internet accress, though only for a short time each session. So please, email me with questions or just to say hi, and I will do my absolute best to email back.