Live from Labe Part 2

Is there anything more attractive than a group of 30 Americans in Guinean clothing? Nope. Enjoy.

Okay, so I left off with the Embassy Angel of Beer. After passing out upstairs around 1, a guy from the Embassy showed up and dropped off 2 cases of beer, Jif peanut butter, jelly, microwave popcorn and Stove Top stuffing. Incredible - I woke up to this wonderful treat. We went to the Country Director's house and popped some of the popcorn as a before dinner snack. And last night I made the stuffing and went around feeding everyone during our 80s party!

Anyway, since everyone was pretty much passed out when the beer arrived there was plenty for the next night. It was a really fun time. Sunday we said our goodbye's and all headed to our regional capitals. I'm in kind of a funny position because my regional capital is going to be Conakry instead of Labe, but I'm in Labe now anyway. So we loaded up all our stuff - the car was packed full with about 5 feet of stuff packed on top as well. Guineans are resourceful - you wouldn't even believe how much stuff they put on the roofs of cars. Then we headed out - we stopped in Mamou for lunch and also dropped my things off at my house. Sadly, it was still empty - the Proviseur was supposed to make sure I had a bed, table and 4 chairs. Luckily, the PC called him and I think it's fixed now. It was kind of funny, cause my house was completely empty except for chicken feathers on the floor. No idea where those came from - I'm going to bleach my floor the first day I'm living there!

We got to Labe, drank cheap wine, had some pizza and I passed out at 10pm. I also realized that having a cell phone brings back a classic drinking activity - the drunk dial. Now I can call friends in country and also home - I called Abby and Rebekah from Conakry and sent Abby a text last night. This could get expensive and dangerous, but also funny. Yesterday I went to the big market in Labe with some friends and we bought a lot of stuff - cups, bowls, knives, spoons, buckets for water and washing clothes, etc. Luckily I was with a volunteer friend who likes to bargain, so he did a lot of it for us. He's also really close to my site, so I'm going to send him vegetables by bush taxi and he's going to help me bargain for big stuff when he comes to visit. Small price to pay, if you ask me.

Last night was our affectation party - the theme was 80s and I found a silver prom dress with a giant bow on the front to wear. It was spectacular. We drank and danced until after 2am. We also ate chwarmas - I'm going to eat another one in a minute, which will take my chwarma intake to 5 in the last 24 hours. Gross. But they are so good! And Ramadan started so it's hard to find food. For the next month I need to be careful not to eat in front of people. Plus, people get really grumpy since they aren't eating or drinking for the whole day - lots of people don't even swallow their spit!

Today I have nothing to do and it's really nice - hopefully I can go watch a movie at the volunteer house and take a nap. It's really fun and relaxing to be here, but I'll be ready to go by Saturday - I'm the last person to get dropped off and will be spending lots of time in Labe! The first person left today, another one leaves tomorrow, and then we have 3 days of groups of 3-4. It's sort of sad to say good-bye to all the friends I've made over the last 3 months, but I came here to be a teacher and PC Volunteer, not to hang out with Americans. Plus I'm probably the least isolated volunteer in country, so I'll be seeing plenty of people.

School is supposed to start on the 3rd of October, but I'm told the earliest it will start will be a week after that. That's good with me, since I don't even know what grades I'll be teaching - hopefully 12th and Terminale. My school has 3 English teachers, but I don't think they are native speakers, so the admin wants me to teach Terminale and get them prepared for the Bacc (the exam to get into university). That should be great, I loved my Terminale class in Forecariah and it's nice to be able to teach more sophisticated English. Plus I'm terrible at drawing and a lot of 11th grade English involves drawing people and things on the board!

The Fouta is a nice place - it's really lush and cool and rocky. I think I'll like hiking and biking around the area and Devon, the neighbor I mentioned earlier, promises to show me around and introduce me to people. He's a really interesting story - his girlfriend was in last year's training group and he ended up moving here to be with her. Then he was invited to join PC - that's the first time someone's gotten into PC from in-country since the 80s! So now he's a business volunteer and is actually working on a project in Mamou, so I'll see him and his girlfriend a lot. She was ridiculously helpful and nice during training - hopefully I can be that way with the group next year.

Friends - don't be surprised if you get texts from me, cause it's really cheap. I don't know how much it would cost you to send me texts, but I'll try and find out.

I'll write again soon - let me know if you want to know anything about what I'm up to. It's getting to a point where some stuff is really routine and I no longer think it's funny/interesting. Wouldn't want to bore you all with the blog...