i'm in guinée!

Hello everyone!

I am so overwhelmed with impressions and things to tell so I'll just start somewhere. Getting off the plane we walked into a wall of wet, hot, smoky air at sunset and passed through a gauntlet of cheering PCVs and trainers who were there to greet us. It was so great to have a happy welcome crowd, made the whole chaotic rural airport thing easier to handle. We loaded ourselves onto a few very packed vans and set off into Conakry. Wow, that was a sight. There are no street lights, no stop signs, no sidewalks, no traffic laws. Tons of people were walking along the edges of the road and everywhere there were people selling food off a table as they made it using the little fires and gas stoves right there, stalls of shoes and clothes and oranges, streets lined with tin-roofed shops and houses, women with babies on their backs and baskets on their heads, people everywhere and the night lit only by firelight. I know this is completely inadequate in describing the images I have. It was post-apocalyptic surreal. Truly hey, yup, I'm in Africa!

My fellow PC people are pretty great. Lots of friendly happy world travelers. So far it's been like camp, we're up at this training center in the mountains, have classes and they serve us food (excellent fruit, lots of good rice and potatoes, and more palm oil than my body knows what to do with), the rest of the time we talk and go to bars (dancing to Backstreet Boys remixed, baby!) and generally have a great time. There are monkeys in the trees and goats, chickens and scrawny dogs running around with complete freedom. The Guineans I've met are all friendly and smiling, and the PCVs who are already here really have nothing but good to say about their time in the country. I'm stoked and looking forward to what's ahead. I'm not going to have internet access again until mid-February, we're moving to a new site tomorrow to start living with our host families. I'm excited about experiencing real Guinean life but nervous about finally having to get by only with French. The accent is so different here and I have to accompany anything I say with pantomime. You ever tried communicating "I slept through dinner but is there anything left to eat and by the way I'm a vegetarian" using only hands and facial expressions? It's tough but I found out it can be done. Bye for now!