Finally headed back to site

Today Camilo and I did more work than either of us has done in so long we don't want to admit it on the blog. We finished our Girls Conference Proposal and Budget - a major coup since we thought it would take much longer. We even managed to get some information together to send out to the current PCVs on the mail run leaving tomorrow, so hopefully we'll get quite a bit of interest.

It will be fantastic to have this conference - one year from now we will have lost all the institutional memory about it and it's always harder to start something from scratch. Basically, each PCV gets to bring one girl from his/her village for a 4 day conference. Each day will have sessions dedicated to topics like: nutrition, study skills, women and Islam, HIV/AIDS, etc. We are even inviting some of the successful local women in Mamou (including the infamous Madame Diallo and some of my other friends) to have a panel discussion about the difficulties in trying to be successful and still be a Guinean woman. Anyone in the US who has ever thought it was difficult to do it all (including me) really does have no idea. Most of the women I see have arms women at Equinox pay $150/hour to aspire to.

We are hoping to get the proposal approved soon and then it will be on the Peace Corps Partnership page, where you can donate if you would like!

I'm trying to think of other interesting things that have been going on, but am coming up short. I have my routine of school and night classes and special classes at my house and it's all been going well. My house is still lovely and mouse-free.

Oh, a funny thing...my guard is back. Did I already write about that? He was gone for about 3 months and just got back. With a wife. Apparently he went to the village and didn't return until he found someone to marry. They had their first fight last week - it's too bad I don't speak Pulaar cause it sounded interesting! The poor girl can't be more than 20 and must be so bored. She has no friends and nothing to do. I'd love to befriend her but have been so busy at school that I just want to relax and clean when I'm home. So our interactions are limited to the basic greetings and pleasantries.

The PC Director from Washington will be here in Guinea from April 11-14. All people from my group are heading to Conakry on the 13th to have dinner with him before he leaves. The next day we are headed to the islands off the coast of Conakry for our Close-of-Service (COS) Conference. It should be really fun. I'm hoping to have some third year leads by the end of it...but I need to be back in the US by Memorial Day 2009, because my friends Farrah and Harris are getting married! (Paparazzi names are Harrah and Farris. Camilo calls them that on accident all the time.)

Okay, it's 11pm and I have at least a 10 hour travel day ahead of me. My next blog posting will probably be in a week or two, depending on when I make it to Labe.

For a funny story about devil possession in schools, see Cam's latest blog entry. Kind of like hysteria in the Victorian times. www.africami.blogspot.com

Thanks to everyone who emailed me about Eve. Getting work done on Girls Conference today reminded me that it's my responsibility to live up to the ideals that she and I discussed at length. I'm hopeful that they will get the suspects in custody soon - pictures are at wral.com. Two men tried to use her ATM card at 2 different machines and were caught on surveillance cameras. One of the pictures is really clear and I sincerely hope this matter is laid to rest quickly. Your thoughts and emails were appreciated more than you know.