Thanksgiving and some random stuff

So Thanksgiving was amazing, I'll post pictures at Christmas. Camilo was in charge of the turkey and it was delicious and juicy and tasty. We also had mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, stuffing, fried rice, canned chicken nuggets (surprisingly tasty...) and pumpkin and pineapple pies. Plus I made banana bars as an appetizer and they turned out well. It was delicious, but the best part was that an American guy who works in Kamsar brought something like 15 bottles of wine! Not even wine in a box, which is the normal Peace Corps Guinea wine of choice. Lest you think we are alcoholics, know this - if I spent my money on alcohol I wouldn't have money for food. That would indicate a problem. But as it is we don't really get enough money to buy alcohol, so it was a welcome surprise to get tipsy at Thanksgiving. Plus the guy is going to have funny stories to tell about his Thanksgiving ("Umm, it was so weird. I was with these poor, slightly dirty Peace Corps kids and they freaked out that I brought $8 bottles of wine...seriously. What a strange group of kids. It was like they were starving or something, they devoured their food and their bodies looked like they were lacking in protein...") Anyway, it was ridiculously fun. I left Boke at 5am and was back in Mamou by 2pm, a fricking miracle. It's nice to be back - funny, but after 9 days it is so much colder here and everything is getting brown. I've been sleeping with socks and pants and a sleeping bag, but it's still hot during the day. I wish it was like this year round! Random story number 1: I figured out what the Guinean equivalent of a lemonade stand is. On our way to Boke there were about 5 places where the military stopped us and asked us for our identification. They normally would harass white people but they leave us PC folks alone. Anyway, we came across another checkpoint, but it was just some enterprising little kids! They weren't armed or menacing or anything, but they'd strung up a string across the road and were asking people for money. We didn't give them any, but I had to admire their ingenuity. Hilarious. 2: At one of the checkpoints our driver was getting harassed. This is normally where I'm happy that I don't speak the local language, cause sometimes it's just better to be ignorant. So the military guy was really yelling at our chauffeur, but then he turned to us and started thanking us for our service to Guinea and was asking us about PC and wanted us to know that he wasn't mad at us, it was just that our chauffeur didn't have insurance. Umm, insurance? I didn't know that existed. Anyway, it was like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. At least it's comforting to know that even the scary military guys know us and like us. 3. Money. Apparently a bunch of my family members were asking my parents what I do for money here. The PC gives us money, but this past quarter it wasn't enough. My house was empty and we were given just over $100 for settling-in allowance. A gas tank and stove ate up a third of that. Anyway, I ran out of money this last time and changed over $100 to get me to this next pay period. Hopefully I won't have to do that again, it was just the expenses from setting up my house that ruined it. Annoying that we all get the same amount of money, regardless of whether your house is full or empty. Some things to know about changing money in Guinea... - it's illegal to change money on the black market. But if one were to change money, the black market is really the only place. Here's why: the Guinean franc is a virtually useless currency. The official exchange rate is just over 5,000 francs to the dollar. Theoretically, one could change money on the black market for almost 7,000 francs. Just theoretically. - there are ATMs here, but they are useless. You can only take out 200,000 francs at a time and even then you get the official government exchange rate, which is crap. - Peace Corps gives us our living allowance and vacation allowance in Guinean francs. Some people take their money out and change it to dollars, changing it back as they need it. We get screwed that our vacation allowance is given to us in Guinean francs, based off the shitty government exchange rate. Changing money to dollars is like a safeguard against the inevitable depreciation of the Guinean franc. - I should have brought more cash with me. Once I heard that there were ATMs here I figured it didn't matter how much cash I had. See point above about why that logic was flawed. A friend was coming back from surgery in the US and brought me $500, which is now sitting in Conakry in the PC safe. I should be using that money for travel and not for living expenses. People who read this who are coming to Guinea - bring cash. You can leave it in the safe in Conakry and it will be fine. - Small bone to pick with PC - we get hardly any money. Our living allowance is less than $100 a month. Ridiculous. For people in small villages it's probably okay, but I like being able to buy yogurt and salad and call Cam and whatever. In other countries people manage to save some of their living allowance. Unless one were to live like a monk here, that's not really possible. One guy I heard about in Cape Verde saved $3,000 over 2 years. That's about the amount that PC will give me to live on! That being said, I'd rather be here than Cape Verde. C'est la vie. Okay, I have a bunch more random stuff, but the internet cafe is closing, so it will have to wait. Hope you all had lovely Thanksgivings.