Well I made it!! In two days I will be sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer. I survived two of the craziest months of my life. There have been many ups and downs while here in Guinea and we are just getting started.
Let’s start with site visit. The three days that I was at site was literally the hardest thing I have done thus far in country. After leaving the safe comfort of friends who have now become my family in Mamou my homologue (counterpart if you wish) and I got into a taxi. But this was not any normal American taxi. Oh no, this was a Guinean taxi. Let me explain. It was a Neon, ok picture an old beet up Neon and now cram (and yes I do mean cram) 8 people in it. YEP, four in the front and four in the back. And these are grown adults we are talking about. SQUISHED!!! So once we all get in we start the 33 K to my village. 33K that doesn’t sound very far, now does it. It should only take about 20 minutes. Well it doesn’t. Our little car breaks down not once, not even twice but 3 times, lord only knows why. But we eventually make it to my village in one piece. After a brief tour of my town with my homologue she asks if I would like to nap. “Well yes I would!” I responded in French. So she took me to my new apartment! It is a really cute one bedroom, small living room and then a Guinean master bath (basically the squat whole is in my room, walled off of course). My village is really small but cute none the less. It is about 2 miles long on the main road (only paved road) up country into Haught Guinea. I live on one end in my apartment while my work is on the other end of town. And since I’m on the only road into upper Guinea I am petrified to ride my bike. So I will be getting a lot of walking done. Which is good, I guess.
OK so the best part about my village is my apartment. I am going to spend the next two years turning it into my Little America and I can’t wait! I live on the second floor of someone else’s house but there are two families that live in my compound. One family is older and then there is a teacher and his wife and kids in the other house. They are all great people and I am very excited to get to know all of them. As of now I’m not exactly sure what I will be doing over my next two years but I have three months to find that out and I will share more about that once I get to know it better.
Otherwise as a business volunteer, the Peace Corps thinks it is a great idea to have us try to create a business and sell something. So we broke up into our little t
eams and had to brain storm this brilliant idea on how to make a profit in Guinea, one of the worlds poorest countries. Sounds easy, piece of cake. My partner and I thought to ourselves, what do we have that Guineans want? AKON! If you haven’t heard of him, don’t be ashamed, I hadn’t either until I got to Africa. (He is a singer, that I think was born somewhere in Africa that now lives in the states). So we scrounged up some music and burned them onto CD’s and called it a day, fully thinking that this would be the cats meow. Well on project day we hooked up our ipod to our speakers and put our sign up right in the center of town and sat waiting for the flocks of teenagers to come and buy up our American made CD’s. Well the crowds did come, but we forgot to take into account that people don’t have a way to play our CD’s here in Guinea. So we only sold three but we had another Guinean dance party with the locals all day! Oh silly Americans with their fancy technology.
So here are some things I’ve noticed myself changing
1.I am always dirty.
2.My nails are always cut short. In the states, my nails were always kept long, but here they must be cut for sanitation purposes.
3.I carry a knife. Believe it or not a Swiss army knife is now always in my pocket. They are just so handy! You can use it for just about anything. Who knew?
4.I haven’t brushed my hair in about 3 days. I wash it then go to bed, wake up and pull it into a pony tail. Crazy!
5.I don’t ware makeup. That’s right, haven’t touched the stuff since I left Philly.
6.Haven’t seen my reflection in about 2 weeks. But I really don’t care, and I do find myself avoiding reflective sunglasses because I really don’t want to see myself. If something was up, someone would tell me. I hope!
7.All of my cloths are getting kind of baggy!!!!
8.AND I’M BLONDE
My laptop battery is about to die so I’m going to make this quick. Thank you to everyone that has sent letters and packages. You really don’t know how much it means to receive those things. I will be facing the hardest three months starting a week from today and getting even a little card means the world. I know how busy all of your lives are and even reading my blog means a lot to me but if you can find yourself the time to just jot down a little bit of news or a funny story that happened to you I will truly appreciate it. Hearing stories of back home means a lot!
Let’s start with site visit. The three days that I was at site was literally the hardest thing I have done thus far in country. After leaving the safe comfort of friends who have now become my family in Mamou my homologue (counterpart if you wish) and I got into a taxi. But this was not any normal American taxi. Oh no, this was a Guinean taxi. Let me explain. It was a Neon, ok picture an old beet up Neon and now cram (and yes I do mean cram) 8 people in it. YEP, four in the front and four in the back. And these are grown adults we are talking about. SQUISHED!!! So once we all get in we start the 33 K to my village. 33K that doesn’t sound very far, now does it. It should only take about 20 minutes. Well it doesn’t. Our little car breaks down not once, not even twice but 3 times, lord only knows why. But we eventually make it to my village in one piece. After a brief tour of my town with my homologue she asks if I would like to nap. “Well yes I would!” I responded in French. So she took me to my new apartment! It is a really cute one bedroom, small living room and then a Guinean master bath (basically the squat whole is in my room, walled off of course). My village is really small but cute none the less. It is about 2 miles long on the main road (only paved road) up country into Haught Guinea. I live on one end in my apartment while my work is on the other end of town. And since I’m on the only road into upper Guinea I am petrified to ride my bike. So I will be getting a lot of walking done. Which is good, I guess.
OK so the best part about my village is my apartment. I am going to spend the next two years turning it into my Little America and I can’t wait! I live on the second floor of someone else’s house but there are two families that live in my compound. One family is older and then there is a teacher and his wife and kids in the other house. They are all great people and I am very excited to get to know all of them. As of now I’m not exactly sure what I will be doing over my next two years but I have three months to find that out and I will share more about that once I get to know it better.
Otherwise as a business volunteer, the Peace Corps thinks it is a great idea to have us try to create a business and sell something. So we broke up into our little t
eams and had to brain storm this brilliant idea on how to make a profit in Guinea, one of the worlds poorest countries. Sounds easy, piece of cake. My partner and I thought to ourselves, what do we have that Guineans want? AKON! If you haven’t heard of him, don’t be ashamed, I hadn’t either until I got to Africa. (He is a singer, that I think was born somewhere in Africa that now lives in the states). So we scrounged up some music and burned them onto CD’s and called it a day, fully thinking that this would be the cats meow. Well on project day we hooked up our ipod to our speakers and put our sign up right in the center of town and sat waiting for the flocks of teenagers to come and buy up our American made CD’s. Well the crowds did come, but we forgot to take into account that people don’t have a way to play our CD’s here in Guinea. So we only sold three but we had another Guinean dance party with the locals all day! Oh silly Americans with their fancy technology.So here are some things I’ve noticed myself changing
1.I am always dirty.
2.My nails are always cut short. In the states, my nails were always kept long, but here they must be cut for sanitation purposes.
3.I carry a knife. Believe it or not a Swiss army knife is now always in my pocket. They are just so handy! You can use it for just about anything. Who knew?
4.I haven’t brushed my hair in about 3 days. I wash it then go to bed, wake up and pull it into a pony tail. Crazy!
5.I don’t ware makeup. That’s right, haven’t touched the stuff since I left Philly.
6.Haven’t seen my reflection in about 2 weeks. But I really don’t care, and I do find myself avoiding reflective sunglasses because I really don’t want to see myself. If something was up, someone would tell me. I hope!
7.All of my cloths are getting kind of baggy!!!!
8.AND I’M BLONDE
My laptop battery is about to die so I’m going to make this quick. Thank you to everyone that has sent letters and packages. You really don’t know how much it means to receive those things. I will be facing the hardest three months starting a week from today and getting even a little card means the world. I know how busy all of your lives are and even reading my blog means a lot to me but if you can find yourself the time to just jot down a little bit of news or a funny story that happened to you I will truly appreciate it. Hearing stories of back home means a lot!
2 comments:
Corinna! Wow congratulations!!! I can only imagine how hard it is, but in the end it will be well worth it. Thank you for keeping all of us updated on your journey. We are so proud of you! Love, Mike, Amy, Alexia, & Kevin. Cannot wait to hear about next experience.
Corinna you are doing a very noble thing, and always remember that when times seem low or you feel lonely. It takes a very special person to uproot herself from friends and family to give to the greater good. I wish I had your courage and strength. When you come back, Me, You and Lori need to do something together! Your are going to do great things!
Jess
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