I find myself stuck downtown in the rain so I have decided to bore you with one of my current moral dilemmas. A mere year in Guinea has sufficed to convince me that no one, myself most certainly included, knows anything about anything. Its a liberating realization. It has allowed me first to stop pretending I know anything and feeling guilty when I don't, and second, to stop trying to fit Guinea/Africa into broader theories of development or international relations and instead just let it wash over me. The factors governing how cultures interact and develop seem to me so unbelievably complicated that parsing, grouping, prioritizing, or even understanding them seems better suited to poetry than to action plans and white papers. Even language constrains understanding. How many development experts or academics speak Puular? Using French as the default language has class and cultural implications and effects that govern who you talk to, about what, and what priorities they are likely to have. I bring these things up by way of introduction to a different idea; I am seriously uncomfortable anytime I feel like my presence is contributing to the process by which we make little Americans out of Africans. There has never been such a thing as a pure culture, or a pure environment. Genes and cultural traits have been mixing since time immemorial and I do not mean to suggest that the influence of one culture upon another is inherently negative. I think fear of cultural mixing comes from the mistaken belief that our cultures are distinct entities, and therefore endanger of being diluted. It would be more productive to look at cultural groupings like an assembly of twigs in a river bunched up behind a submerged rock or fallen tree. Some rivers flow faster than others, and whatever is holding the twigs in place can be different sizes, but on a long enough time scale an river will cycle out most of the twigs and new ones will take their place. However, I see significant differences between the cultural exchange occurring now and how I perceive cultural exchange to have taken place in the past. Today the power differential between peoples is so vast that the river analogy no longer applies. A few centuries ago I imagine villages and and people groupings and even emerging nation states spreading culture through the standard conduits of war, technology, language, etc....and people adopting the technologies and mannerisms that improved their lives and casting aside those that did not. Even among dominated or colonized people the occupier never exerted sufficient control over the interior to physically snuff out indigenous culture, nor did they have the tools of mass communication necessary to suffocate the native culture through images and broadcasts and the like. Today the economic power differential between the west and Africa is so vast that perhaps for the first time, one people group is succeeding (unconsciously) in eradicating a native culture and replacing it with their own, as opposed to the old model of mutual, if often unequal, exchange.
The anecdotal evidence for this is abundant. Young people don't just have the reformist urge common to young people everywhere, they actually want to be French or American. In one of Rachel's (my second closest neighbor) classes a tenth grade student wrote the following in an imaginary letter to an American penpal-- "I wish my ancestors were slaves so that today I could be American" This is a result of his ignorance of slavery, not just his desire to be American, but this type of sentiment is not uncommon. Take skin bleaching. Beutiful African women rubbing poison on their skin to look whiter...to me these are signs of cultural dominance. Even traditional family values are being subverted to psudo-western ideals--mostly those shown in 50cent videos. I would even posit that the nations yearning for democracy is a product of Western cultural infiltration. Why do some Guineans want democracy? Is it because they feel like they will have a voice, their 'human rights' are more likely to be respected, and they think that democartic institutions will lead to less corruption and more economic development? Maybe. Or do they link who and what they see on TV in Democratic countries with the idea of democracy, or perhaps because Western dominated institutions have been pitching democracy not only as a cure all but also as a pre-req for aid. Maybe. Probally some of both. But if there were democratic elections in Guinea they would almost certainly break down along ethnic lines and I am unsure if that type of democracy would truly be a stable platform for development.

My questions are the following; given the present geo-political situation, is it possible for America to offer aid and/or advice without overwhelming the recipient countries with American culture?

How does an aid worker of any type actively encourage the preservation of indigenous sources of meaning while being honest about their own ideas? Eg; Being white, educated, American, and comparatively affluent gives me an undue amount of influence when it comes to discussing certain topics....yet, my opinion is no more valid or likeley to lead to happiness then their own. How then does one engage in those converstations?

It is possible that this entire discourse is demeaning and does not give the people around me enough credit for being perfectly capable of filtering information for themselves, and I hope thats the case. However, I do think that the current wealth and ubiquitousness of western ideas is overpowering those filtering systems.

Feel free to weigh in. I'm off to lunch...

Bless the Rains down in Africa

The Good news is that my American Corn germinated yesterday, and its going to blow my neighbors mind. Guineans only grow field corn which you have to dry and burn before you eat it. When I take my corn right from the field, slap some overpriced Lebaneese fake butter on it, and pop it right into my mouth, they're going to flip. THe other good news is that the narco-rebels that were supposedley massing on our norther border were just a rumor. I could go on like this for a while, there has been nothing but good news in my life for quite a while...Except, the swimming hole that magically appeared behind my house once the heavy rains started is almost certainly filled with shistosaniasis (awful disease, i think its the next biggest killer after malaria). I've already swam in it so we'll just hope for the best. Almost immiedietley after my last entry Madeleine came and visited! She got here a few hours before I flew back in from Kenya so some freinds picked her up at the airport at 3am in Conakry, I was a bit worried, but she got out of the airport in no time and was spirited off the the PC Conakry house. I can't put words in her mouth, but I thought the trip was extraordinary. Guinea is gorgeous right now, I mean make you want to dance outside and convert back to paganism gorgeous. There are waterfalls everywhere, and more shades of green than you have ever seen in your life. We went hiking in this canyon near a village called Dookee with a few of my Friends, and at one point in the middle of a hike we repelled down a hole in a mountain side into a cave with a river running through the bottom of it. Everyone stripped down and jumped in this underground river and swam through the cave until the river bursts out of the side of the mountain in a waterfall. It was surreal.

Eventually we made it up to my site in the Fouta Jallon and spent four days greeting people and taking it in. I was worried we would be bored, but actually we both agreed that we would have liked more time to do nothing in the village. Maggie got to ride in an awful Bush taxi, eat a few plates of rice and sauce, and sport some Guinean clothes. As with Scott, having a visitor was wonderful and helped me look at this country with fresh eyes. Maggie was a fantastic traveler and put up with her one bout of Guinea sickness like a champ. I don't want to say much else because I hope to be able to convince her to write a blog entry, but it really was a wonderful trip.

Of course on the way out of the country the customs guy searched her bag, found her American money, took it, and told her she wasn't allowed to leave the country with it. But like a true Guinean she caused a big enough scene and eventually shamed them into giving it back. Guinea is a magical place sometimes, but almost as often it can be a real pain in the ass.

Since she left I have been living the life au village. My friend gave me some land in the middle of his family's field so I planted a bunch of American seeds that will probably not grow and convince everyone the white people should just stay out of the field, but Inshaullah we'll have some delicious carrots and beans and corn and tomatoes in 60 days or so. We are deep into the rainy season at the moment and every night the skies open up, but I like it. Everything, people included, are really vibrant. Even the cows which looked like they were going to keel over and die in April now make half hearted charges at you when you walk by as if to say....now that i'm well fed i'm putting you on alert...were taking over soon' The rain on my roof is great when it comes to lulling me to sleep, but it does drive a rather lot of critters into my house. I threw out an entire litter of baby mice living in my oatmeal the other day...I wasn't really that mad about the mice, the lost of the oatmeal was devestating.

I also walked into my bucket bath area, took my towel from a peg, and a snake dropped to the floor. I freaked out, ran out, grabbed by 10 year old neighbor and told him to arm himself and get into my bathroom stat. SO there we are, backs against the door to my latrine, huge pieces of wood in our hands, ready to do battle. I give him this manly nod like 'it will be an honor to battle this monster toghether', he nods back his readiness, and I kick the door open with the wood raised in front of my face. Yeah, it was my belt.

That one made the rounds of my neighbors in a hurry.

I have lots of plans for the next couple weeks (including the first step in launching my mango empire...have I told you about this yet? I'll wait a little but until I see how my plan to take over the world is progressing.) In all seriousness, I am definetley taking steps to see if exporting mangoes or mango products would be a viable business. It would be a great way to use a presently wasted resource in Guinea. I am in labe to price out wood for a huge solar dryer. I would like to form a co=op with some women in Fatako to start selling dried fruit. I'll keep you posted.

I am in Labe until Saturday morning, and can be reached at the following nummber...62874067

please call! I am going to recharge my phone asap.

I love you all, and I'll talk to you soon!
Con