I'm assured my parade will happen after the rainy season...

And I'm back. The blog is back. I'm in Conakry, after a crazy 35 hours or so of travel. Also, I think I look like the kind of person that people on planes start conversations with - I had interesting conversations with an Indian man (who has the EXACT same taste in books as me) from MKE to ATL, then with the guy who collects the carts at the Paris airport and lastly with a French Canadian guy who assists with environmental research on the ride to Guinea. I ate approximately 5 dinners during my travel time and they were all delicious. Thank goodness I'm here and can't access any more ham and cheese sandwiches, my body couldn't take any more!

I got off the plane all smiles, ready to greet Camilo, Jan and Ousmane. My smile quickly faded as I realized that no one was there to greet me! Turns out our inside connection at the airport no longer works there, so there's no way for people to get in to the baggage claim. But Camilo busted out his Susu and paid a little bribe (which we pretty much NEVER do, but he was worried that I wouldn't be able to take care of all my stuff alone...and he was right about that). I was so relieved! Since I knew they hadn't forgotten about me, I had immediately worried that they'd been in a car wreck or something...I am my father's daughter. Anyway, they had come prepared with a banner and everything, which they rolled out once we got back to the transit house. My bags arrived with no problems, except I wrapped a bottle of Absolut Raspberry in a skirt and a plastic bag and it leaked a little...no harm done, though. The bottle didn't break and the skirt can be washed. It would have been tragic if that bottle had bit the dust on the trip, you all know how much I love the raspberry vodka and Sprite combo!

So far I haven't seen too much of Guinea, but it looks exactly the same. Rainier (I'm looking forward to the dry season already!), but other than that the same. The transit house is clean - shocking, since it's always been a disgusting place. When you have volunteers who can't pick up after themselves for 20 straight years without a great cleaning, it shouldn't be surprising that it gets gross. Kind of like my grandparents' house after they'd lived there for 50 years. Things just tend to accumulate. Anyway, today we ate some yassa poulet (I was reminded that I don't like chickens that haven't been subject to genetic modification) and I organized my stuff...I'm leaving a lot of my junk food here in Conakry so I won't be tempted to eat Skittles and fruit snacks for dinner. Today hasn't been a day of accomplishments, since the office is closed and I slept until 1:15pm. Oops. Looks like it won't take me long to get back into the routine of having little work to do!

Tomorrow I'm headed to the markets to attempt to remember my French and buy some stuff for my house. We are leaving Tuesday to head upcountry and are spending the night in Mamou, so I'll get a chance to stop by and see everyone. I hope they will be as excited to see me as I am to see them!

Keep the emails coming, I'll be checking it a couple times a week...assuming the email in Timbi is still working. Oh, and we heard that the elections that were scheduled for December are pushed back to March, so I'm not sure if I can still go back to Mamou at Christmas or not. I guess I'll wait and see if I like Timbi - perhaps I'll decide I want to stay there, or maybe I'll hate it and want to get back to Mamou as soon as possible. As it's been for the last year, I have little to no control, so there's no use worrying about it...