I hesitate to update

but still can't find much news online about Guinea, so here goes...

Things are bad. There is a lot of protesting today and it's travelled upcountry. Mamou has a lot of gunfire and tear gas explosions and protesters. We can hear it all even 4k from town. Right now I'm at the school next to the missionaries and I can even hear it from here. That's not to say this has never happened before or that I feel unsafe. I still feel perfectly safe up here at the missionaries and I know that it was similar in June, although I'm told the level of violence has escalated since then. But I don't feel nearly as confident that PC will continue here as I did before. I would love nothing more than to continue my service and welcome the next group, but we'll have to see how these next days pan out before we'll know whether that's a possibility. The last strikes ended with the President saying he would meet the demands after the strike was called off. But that happened (yesterday, I think) and the people aren't willing to do that again, since the demands weren't met the last 3 times. Apparently the President released all the union leaders who were arrested and offered to meet with them, but they refuse to meet with him until the head woman comes out of her coma and can join them.

If you read French, check out these web pages for news...

http://www.aminata.com

http://www.guineenews.org

They have up-to-date information. And probably enough French-English cognates that you can get an idea about what they say. I'm having a really hard time finding information in English. Stupid Anglophone countries don't pay attention to the Francophone ones!

Okay, I finally found an article about yesterday on irinnews.org, a UN news page...

CONAKRY, 17 Jan 2007 (IRIN) -

At least three people were killed in demonstrations against Guinean president Lansana Conte that rocked Conakry and several provincial towns on Wednesday, and a late evening meeting between strike leaders and the president failed to bring an end to the crisis.

Guinea’s powerful unions called a nationwide strike a week ago. Union leaders said they orchestrated Wednesday’s march because Conte "ignored" a written demand delivered on Monday that he retire the current cabinet and appoint a new prime minister to take over all his presidential powers.

A meeting late on Wednesday between union leaders and president Conte ended acrimoniously, according to Rabiatou Serah Diallo, head of the National Confederation of Guinean Workers (CNTG). "He threatened to have us killed if we didn't call the strike off," she said. Click here for her exclusive interview with IRINOn Wednesday evening, a banner reading “End the Conte regime, we want change” was still hanging in Kaloum, Conakry’s government district, after peaceful protests there in the morning that turned violent when riot police broke up the crowds with tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition.

One demonstrator died of gunshot wounds, and at least six others were critically injured in demonstrations in Kaloum that continued throughout the day, witnesses and Conakry-based diplomats said. One man was also shot dead during separate clashes in the lawless Bambeta Cosa suburb of Conakry, residents said.

Marches in the provincial towns Mamou, Kankan, Fria, Nzerekore, Pita, Labe and Kindia were also broken up by armed police. In Labe, 250 km northeast of Conakry, demonstrators sacked government offices, and one was killed, according to residents.S

peaking on Guinean national radio, police superintendent Mansou Mansare denied that the security services were responsible for the deaths and said they were there to "protect the marchers".

Previous skirmishes in Conakry between youths and police have been confined to the sprawling city’s remote suburbs, mostly Matoto and Bambeta Cosa, and none has reached the centre before. There were no demonstrations in the city centre during two city-wide strikes last year.

The unions accuse Conte of having presided over the mismanagement of the mineral rich but impoverished country’s economy, and allege the aging president is now too sick to deal with the country’s chronic problems, a claim backed by foreign observers.

In a statement read on state television on Tuesday evening, Conte said he needed more time to consider the union’s demands that he change the government, but did offer to cut the cost of fuel and to force foreign mining companies to keep their revenues in the country.“The solution to the strike is in the hands of President Conte and the institutions of the republic,” CNTG's Diallo said on Wednesday, before the meeting with Conte. “We will continue the fight until our demands have been met satisfactorily.”

Conte seized power in a coup in 1984 and has been returned to power in successive elections since 1993 that have been widely criticised by the international community. Donors and human rights groups feted the growing strength of civil society's opposition to Conte’s regime while protests were peaceful, but warn that civil strife in Guinea could threaten progress made in neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone which both experienced devastating civil wars until 2003.

So that's what happened yesterday. Here's the link to irinnews.org's information about Guinea...

http://www.irinnews.org/frontpage.asp?SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=Guinea

I'll try and update as soon as I can. Things will calm down tonight again. I'm also going to try and remember to ask the PC if it's okay that I'm updating and whether or not I can report on what PC is doing, but know that they are on top of things and know where every single volunteer is and have a way to get them safely out of their sites, if that becomes necessary. So please don't worry about us, it's the people we work with and for who you can worry about.

PS - I hear that Friends of Guinea emails are blowing up and that everyone is super-worried, hence my hesitation in updating. Please try your best to understand that PC is doing everything they can to make sure we are safe and that all volunteers are currently safe. I'm not a parent, so I don't totally understand, but I know that parents sometimes worry about their children unnecessarily...try and keep a sense of perspective about it - we are all fine and safe and just getting a little bored with nothing to do and no school. The PC is a great organization with every possible resource to take care of us even in a worst-case scenario, which this situation is not.

By the way, I slept until 11am today!!! It was amazing. But slightly embarrassing to be greeting the guardian at the house at 11 when he got up to pray at 5...