Girl's Conference a Success

Lisa has just returned to Dinguiraye after attending a very successful Girls Conference with a young girl that she had the privilege of sponsoring for this event. Here is a photo of the attendees. The Girls Conference is sponsored each year by Friends of Guinea. Training, education, and information is shared with the girls, usually ages 13-20, on topics that help to empower them to take better care of their health and welfare. “These conferences focus on creating gender awareness and serve to encourage the education of young girls in a country where girls only make up 7% of the secondary school population and where only 27% of women in Guinea are functionally literate (compared to 55% of men).” The girls are then encouraged and supported to bring the information back to their villages and share with others.

Thanksgiving a la Guinea

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving, ours was great! (That's Monica, my nearest neighbor in Lansanaya, holding the plate of food.)

I successfully ate myself into a food coma yesterday evening. Who says you can't do Thanksgiving in a third world country. Our director Steve had 4 turkeys, 2 pigs and our Doctor brought the most georgeous giant deep sea fish I've ever seen in my life. The volunteers were charged with side dishes and desserts, but since I got there late because of transport problems (what a surprise!) I found all the traditional foods covered, mash potatoes (we actually had 3 different varieties- skinless, with skin and garlic and uber buttery) corn bread, cranberry sauce, gravy, sweet potatoes, carmeled potatoes, pumpkin pies, pecan pie, brownies, french chocolate mousse. So, for my contribution I decided to whip up my famous (or at least note worthy among Guinea volunteers) guacamole and home made tortilla chips. Well, with all the food, about 14 current volunteers, 3 traveling former volunteers, a staff of about 5 Americans and about 20 Guinean invitees we stuffed ourselves but still left a grand portion un-eaten. Like I said, only a food coma can describe my fullness and bliss. We enjoyed all this food in the home of our director, enjoying his pool (and 85 degree weather) and even watched some football on the projector screen on the satelite AFN chanel. Really enjoyed the military public service announcements too we all now know the importance of not shaking our babies and how to avoid fraud waste and abuse. So it was a great break into an American Holiday from our otherwise very African day to day lives.

Life is good in Dinguiraye, the rains have stopped and the road is repaired (for now) and we're entering a brief "cold season" which doesn't mean anything for the sun relenting during the day, but at night it almost gets a little chilly (probably around 60 degrees) so I even sleep with a sheet. Cherif and his family are doing great, Cherif was recently named captain of the prefectoral soccer team and is leading a winning team in a sponsored tournament against the surrounding village teams. Work is slow starting, but picking up with the school year. Solar cooking marketing is back in the works, and I have several smaller projects going on with people who are interested in starting various projects in the community. And as the school year really starts going (it takes about the first month or so until all the teachers and students start showing up on a regular basis) I'm hoping to start a youth business club. The new group of volunteers is slated to come into Guinea December 4th for 9 weeks of training, and then off to their new respective sites throughout Guinea, officially restarting our now tiny program and getting more volunteers back to work. Cross your fingers for the newbees!

So hope you all had a great thanksgiving and a good busy shopping day afterwards, although I can't say I missed the mall crowds that much as I walked around the local market this evening.

News from Lisa - Back in Guinea!

Recently, we received this email from Lisa:

"Greetings from Kankan, Today I've officially been in Guinea for one month again, but it feels more like a week. I'm doing well, I'm healthy and all my friends and especially Cherif & his family were really happy to see me back again. I thought it'd be a readjustment to go from the hectic Bamako life with traffic pouring down every street and multi-level apartments back to the quiet village with no paved roads at the end of a 80 dirt road, but really, it's going fine. I guess I needed a break from going non-stop, so I've been taking it easy my first month just settling into my new house and looking for little projects to do here and there. Since the political problems Peace Corps made a new rule that no volunteer should live next door to a government official (which definitely included me since I was in a Prefet apartment if you remember) So I
was out of a place to live, but thankfully [the Cameras have worked with Peace Corps to help with my lodging needs.] It's yet another graduation in housing for me, by far the best as of yet. I started in my two room one bath apartment in Dinguiraye, in Bamako I had my 2 bedroom, kitchen and modern bathroom apartment on the 2nd floor, and now I have my own huge 3-bedroom house, a giant salon, 2 bathrooms and a terrace, all tiled floors and electricity (when it comes, for about 12 hours every other day). It seriously makes my crappy college apartments in Greeley look even more terrible. And I live in Africa.

So like I said, I've been taking it easy, there's not a lot of work I could launch into right away, my big projects before I left were the marketing of the solar cooker (which now it is a rainy season like Guinea has never seen before- I'll get to that later), trying to raise funds for a well for a poor village (also delayed because of the rain) and the letter exchange program called "Peace Pals" for the kids, and it's their summer vacation right now. So I've been doing little translation work for Africare, the NGO based in Dinguiraye, and I've been teaching Cherif how to type and use the computer, he's a pretty quick learner. One of my reasons for coming to Kankan was to buy paint because I want to do the traditional Peace Corps project of painting a world map mural on the side of the middle school, which ties in with my peace pals program too. Also I'm developing simple business lessons in French which will be translated into Pular for the local Radio station that gives Dinguiraye updates every evening. With the start of the school year I may start teaching English at the high school, and will hopefully start a youth business club. But around September 13 Ramadon comes once again (I can't believe it's been a year) and everything will come to a standstill for a month while everyone fasts from dawn til dusk, which I plan on participating in again until I go down to Conakry to catch the flight for Michelle's wedding. So I don't know how much work I'll get done during that month either.

Of the 106 volunteers that were once Peace Corps Guinea, we are now 8. Only 3 in all of Haute Guinea (my region) which makes for a pretty ghostly volunteer house. But if everything goes well, we'll get a few more returners over the next two months for a total of around 17 volunteers, and we'll try to get Peace Corps Guinea set up for the new group slated to come in December, so I'll probably be in Conakry in January/February for training. That doesn't leave much time until April, which is the end of my contract, but I'm already thinking about at least extending to the end of the school year which ends in June, especially if I'm teaching English, but nothing's been decided yet.

The rainy season has come, and to make up for a lack-luster effort last year, it's dumping buckets every where this year. This is good for some of the mountaineous farmers, but unfortunately disasterous for valley farmers (rice patties completely flooded and ruined) and for the roads like mine up to Dinguiraye. To make up for all the exhilerating un-necessarily long voyages I'm sure I missed during the 6 months I was in Bamako, I was definitely re-hazed by this last trip to Kankan. The total distance between Kankan and Dinguiraye is 300 km, about 180 miles. Because the first 80 K from Dinguiraye isn't paved, it takes a land cruiser probably 5 hours to do this. It took me 21 hours. Where I went wrong was to leave the day after a massive storm that lasted all night and part of the next day. We made it about 60 K down the dirt road, with the apprentice mini bus driver hopping out to walk across flooded parts of the road to test the distances, fine fine. But then we got to the great flood. The inadequate five quasi-elevated dirt bridges with pipes underneath to control the water flow were completely flooded by a river (that's not even there during the dry season) that had become a massive lake. Almost a kilometer of the road was covered in waist-deep water (I know because I had to walk across it) fast moving in parts. So what did we do? The obvious Guinean solution- just wait a little while, it'll get better. It didn't. We waited 5 hours. It was almost dark when a group of 20 or so young ambitious bare-foot villagers started collecting donations from all the stranded motorists of both sides (it was quite a party by this point with 10 or morecars/trucks waiting to cross on each side- and I think I've told you before how many Guineans and livestock stuff into moving vehicles) and had the drivers wrap the spark plugs in plastic, shut down the engine, and then pushed/swam the vehicles across the inundation to the other side. All the passengers were told to cross by foot as to not weigh down the vehicle in the mud below. So we did, crossed hand in hand because of the strong current in places, and made our way slowly across. Our mini bus was lucky, several cocky semi-truck drivers decided to force their way through the river and got overturned or sunk(no one was hurt, but they lost their trucks to the river). So we made it past the river, the spark plugs still worked, and there was much rejoicing. Until 10km later. Our oil tank had not been as carefully water proofed as the spark plugs, and started making frightening choking sounds. We pulled over and opened the tank to have a look. River sludge glooped out, it was completely full and flooded. So the driver/aspiring mechanic cleaned out the tank- but we had no extra oil. It was dark now, we were still on the dirt road and were 15 km from the main road with a town with real mechanics and oil. The traffic wasn't exactly passing freely from behind us either because of the flood we just crossed. We waited about an hour until a motorcycle passed us and we waved him down. He went into town and brought us back some oil. After an hour of waiting and an hour of tinkering around the engine, the minibus was rolling. So we made the 15km to the village on the main road by around 10:30pm, (80k down, only 220 to go). Now that our bus was working our driver was tired and wanted to spend the night on the road because there are no hotels. After facing an almost mutiny, he reluctantly contiuned only 20 more kilometers. Then he stopped at a gas station and forced us to spend 4 hours cramped in the car all sleeping on each other, including chickens and crying babies. Needless to say, I didn't really sleep. So at 5 in the morning we complained enough that he started going again, only for us to get a flat tire an hour after starting. Losing more time, after repairing the tire we pulled into the next village for a car tune up. We could have made it to Kankan in 3 hours, but it still took us until 10am to get there because the driver kept pulling over every 10k or so to check the engine and try to find more passengers. But we got there, we always get there, it's just the getting there that sucked. Completely. So I'm here in Kankan, I slept all day yesterday and today I'm trying to get all my errands done. I want to head back to Dinguiraye before we get any more rain and I get cut off. "

A Bamako Burger Review*

-by Lisa White

I never expected to serve in two different countries before my original two year contract with Peace Corps was up. I never imagined two experiences in bordering West African countries could be so completely different. I never dreamed I would be fated to write (what is sure to become the most celebrated and acclaimed) food critique on American food in Mali.

As you probably know by now- or actually if you’re fresh meat- as you don’t know, a group of former-Guinean volunteers (“the RefuG-units…yo” as we like to call ourselves- no idea why the name didn’t catch on) were given foster homes in your giant, hot, culturally dazzling country after our own evacuation last January. Others were full out adopted, leaving the embarrassing G-unit name behind and proudly donning the Mali volunteer title. We were all given new homes, new jobs and made new friends. Now that the Guinea program is opening back up, three of us are over-landing back to our original posts. But before we go, our foster CD, the fabulous Kateri, asked for a comparison between the two Peace Corps experiences.

Where to start?

First of all, it’s hard to compare the actual day-to-day experiences because the three of us that are headed back were all in villages en brousse in Guinea, but served our temporary assignments in the surprisingly developed and fast-paced Bamako. Village life without computers, internet or cell phone or even telephone service is very different from Bamako life with Mercedes Benzes cruising the paved roads, people in their best bazin around every corner, almost constant electricity and running water, multi-storey buildings, and of course a nightlife marketed towards ex-pats and tourists with money to spend but nonetheless enjoyed by impoverished Peace Corps volunteers.

As we all know by a thorough reading of our Volunteer Handbooks, the three goals of Peace Corps are to 1) learn the culture 2) teach the culture when you get back home and 3) oh yeah, development work. I was working heavily on goals 1 and 2 while I was in Guinea, which meant my days were pretty relaxed. I spent most days talking and getting to know my community and attending social events with the occasional business meeting for a project. Needless to say, I didn’t keep long office hours- or for that matter, have an office. Was I in for a surprise when I accepted my assignment as a business consultant for two enterprises: a leather artisan and Mam Cocktail (shameless promotion for excellent third-year position here: which both direly need volunteers to help them continue to cross those last obstacles into regular U.S. exporting)? So after loafing around Tubani So in my evacuee clothes for almost two months, having had my fill of margaritas and home-made tortilla chips from the Cactus, I found myself in professional business dress working almost 50 hours a week.

But those are just work difference examples. As you may be surprised to find out, the organization of the Peace Corps administrations in Guinea and Mali I also found to be different. Peace Corps Mali staff would best be described through the phrase of “let not the blame fall on me” while Peace Corps Guinea staff could be described with “let me give you my kidney.” Both organizations have their strengths, their weaknesses, opportunities and threats, but let’s not get into the whole SWOT analysis. A simple true story will suffice:

Setting: PC Mali office, Volunteer approaches an anonymous staff member who holds a key to the room with all the bike pumps and accessories

Volunteer: (in french) Good Morning!
Anonymous Assistant to Deputy Assistant to Chief Assistant of Chief Motor Pool and

Parts (AADACACMP): I-ni Sogoma!

Volunteer: I don’t speak Bambara, sorry, can you speak in French?

AADACACMP: I-ka-ka-nay?

Volunteer: um, en-say...? en-bah? (resumes French) Excuse me, but my bike has a flat tire, and I was never issued a pump, I see you have many pumps. May I please take one, even if it’s only for the day; I need to inflate my tire as soon as possible, my bike’s really important for my life style here.

AADACACMP: (disappointedly speaks French) I’m afraid I don’t have the power to authorize a pump to you.

Volunteer: Even for the day? What if I just take one real quick and bring it back in a few hours?

AADACACMP: You’re going to have to talk to your APCD. I’m not authorized.
Volunteer: (sighs) But you have all those pumps right there behind you. Okay, I’ll be right back.

(returns with APCD)

AADACACMP: she says she needs a pump for her life.

APCD: well, I’m not authorized to give you a pump, you’re going to have to find out who’s in charge.

Volunteer: well, they’re all right there, can’t I just take one for a few hours and return it? I really need to fill my flat tire, I ride my bike to work.

APCD: well, you’re going to need a form for that, and I’ll need to sign it.

Volunteer: Okay, where can I get the form?
APCD: there’s not a form for that specific thing, you’ll have to write one yourself. When it’s finished, come see me and I’ll sign it.

Volunteer: Really? All this for my bike pump?

APCD: I’m just not authorized. Try the equipment manager.

Volunteer: Equipment manager? I thought he was an equipment manager.

APCD: no, no, he’s not authorized, he’s just one of the Assistants to Deputy Assistant to the Chief Assistant of the Chief of Motor Pool and Parts.

Volunteer: oh. (visits equipment manager)

Equipment manager: can I help you?

Volunteer: hi, I need a bike pump. Are you the man in charge?

Equipment manager: yes I am. You are in luck because we have extra pumps, and I will even let you take one for the rest of your time here. Just sign this form, here, here and initial here. Alright, you’re all set. And don’t forget to return it, there’s a fee if it’s not returned.
Volunteer: no problem, thank you so much.

Well, enough comparing admins, lets get to the real meat of this article. As we’ve been so lucky to see more of Bamako in our 6 months here than most up-country volunteers see in their entire service, I figure I owe it to you all to let you know where to find the best and the worst cheese burger.

6. The Express: This cheeseburger was disappointing after the wait. Slopped with that cheap melted swiss-like cheese, a paste of mayonnaise and chopped onions, a really soggy bitter piece of lettuce and done in the traditional Lebanese style with a few soggy French fries included in the burger, I was not impressed, and therefore rank this cheeseburger last. But hey, it’s still a cheeseburger and you live in Africa. Price: 1,900 CFA

5. Adonis: Get the complet- it’s slightly better than the Express and cheaper too, comes with a fried egg, lettuce, that same cheap swiss-like cheese, mayo, weird sweet ketchup not so bad when you add a little salt, those soggy fries, and a huge bready bun. Not the best, but the most filling and cheapest. Price: 1,500 CFA

4. Relax: Now we’re getting classy. This is one of the best Lebanese restaurants in Bamako, when you go in say hi to Bach, the cake maker. This burger is seasoned with a dash of ginger, and topped with fresh dressings, and served on a beautiful sesame seed bun- but still features the soggy French fries and weird sweetish ketchup. Price: 2,000 CFA

3. West African Fried Chicken: Located in Lafia Bougou, not only does this place have almost KFC quality fried chicken, but a surprisingly impressive cheeseburger, made with real American cheese! It comes with a satisfying sized piece of meat, the regular dressings, mayo and ketchup (the good kind of ketchup) on a huge sesame seed bun. Price: 1,500 CFA

2. Broadway Burger: Bet you veterans are surprised it’s not number one! It’s true, Broadway offers a cute atmosphere, and the burger is beautiful, the meat is tender and dressed with fresh lettuce, onion and tomato, American cheese (which makes all the difference!) and comes on a fresh shiny butter-painted sesame-seed bun but what taints this burger is it’s smaller size, expensive price, and an a-hole waitress. Price: 2,750 CFA (comes with a small handful of fries)

1. McCroqueman: Lame rip-off, but hands down the best burger in Bamako. Ask for the Big Mac. These burger patties are big, and full of flavor because they’re actually flame-broiled burger king style. You get American cheese, the regular dressings, and three pieces of bun in Big Mac tradition. This big guy is filling and has a great price and friendly service! Price: 1,800 CFA


*these views are not necessarily shared or approved of by any other volunteer or member of Peace Corps Guinea

Lots of News from Lisa in Mali!

Hot season, still in Bamako, Mali. Today it's 106 degrees, and we're just beginning hot season. The extreme dry heat continues just until the rainy season starts and kills off the heat which usually happens sometime around the end of May, but some optimistic Maliens have sworn that sometimes it starts as early as mid-April.

So, last I left off I was still writing regular emails from the Peace Corps training center, Tubaniso, located just south of Bamako, where all 106 Guinea volunteers were evacuated late January. After nearly 6 weeks and lots of goodbyes to friends who went all over the world to travel, work and live, Me and 11 other Guinea volunteers are now temporary Mali volunteers working on various Peace Corps projects. I'm still a small enterprise development volunteer, and I got a job doing business consulting for two companies, one is Mali's 3rd largest yogurt and juice producer called Mam Cocktail.

Mam Cocktail is one of Bamako's small enterprise's greatest success stories. It was started as a very small business project by a group of about 10 women, and their yogurt and juice was so popular (especially during hot season) that they sold out rapidly every day. So they kept increasing production until they outgrew traditional cooking methods and got help from an American aid organization in buying big professional yogurt and juice processing and distribution machines. Now they've even out- grown their first big machines and have been selling so much that they have a 3-truck fleet of refridgerated trucks that goes around delivering their products all over Bamako every day. They have a night and day production team, and the whole enterprise is headed by the president Madame Diallo, one of the original founders. The company is still very women friendly and employs women on both production and management levels, including several of the original founders. Mam Cocktail requested a peace corps volunteer because they'd like help with production management, marketing, and getting themselves export ready for both neighboring countries, and eventually the states. Madame Diallo is currently in Shanghai as I type this, buying replacement parts for the machines and will be headed to Germany to pick up more European made packaging next week. She is very well traveled, she was in the import/export business before and has seen more countries than I have. So far I've helped Mam Cocktail set up excel sheets to help track inventory and sales day by day, and to eventually start monitoring the sales of their biggest clients. Two weeks ago, I helped them set up a story board for a commercial that sells one of their best selling products- Degue (pronounced De-gay) which is a traditional Malien dessert of cold sweetened yogurt mixed with sweetened steamed millet that has kind of a natural cinammon taste- it's kind of like a much tastier rice pudding. We even wrote a jingle. But they mostly need help with production growth management, which is a long tedious process.

The other business that I visit once a week is a leather artisan named Sorroca Diakite, who makes beautiful leather purses, shoes, and accessories from goat leather and bogolon (painted mud cloth- much prettier than it sounds) Actually, I'm in the middle of trying to get his pictures up on the internet and if you want to see what I've got so far, go to lisa.justfree.com. There's still a lot of work to be done. For him our main goals are to hook him up with people that can help him export, and to help him brand his craftsmenship and market his brand.

All of this work takes place in this crazy third world cosmopolitan setting. Bamako is, as I believe I mentioned, more developed than Conakry. Most all of the city roads are paved, they have sidewalks on major roads, and even started covering some of their open sewers in nice parts of town. There are working traffic lights, cars that aren't in nearly the same state of disrepair as in Guinea, and a large international ex-pat community. There's a big tourism industry here, so I can't be assured that every white person I spot is someone I know like in Guinea. Even Maliens don't act that surprised when I hop on their morning bache (pronounced bash-ay) to work, although I do get the occassional whispered "toubaboo" and unashamed stares of children. Bashes are the more common system of transport in Bamako, because taxis are expensive for either tourists or patrones. Bashes are gutted mini vans or regular vans all painted green on the exterior with bench seating all around the walls of the van. They usually stuff about 14 people into one and people get on and off at different points on a pre-known route. There is always a driver seperated by a thin plywood wall, and his apprentice, a guy usually ranging in age between 13 and 30 who sits hanging out the open or removed sliding van door banging signals on the van to stop or keep going, yelling at all passing pedestrians in rapid Bambara (the local language here) if they want a ride to the market or where ever they're going. Only 125 CFA a ride, which is about 25 cents. That's what I can afford on my Peace Corps stipen. Although it's an expensive treat, I can buy things like real cheese, pizza or icecream any day of the week here. And there are really nice Italian, American, Chinese and Lebanese restaurants. I'm officially addicted to Fallaffel. Don't know what it is? Visit a pita pit.

I'm well situated in a second story 4-bedroom apartment in a nice area of town, Lafia Bougou. I have a guardian and a nice downstairs neighbor from Cote D'Ivoire who speaks immaculant french. I have a balcony, cieling fan and running shower and flush toilet, and a guardien who looks over the building. But for those of you worried that I don't seem to be roughing it any more, I do not have an air conditioner, nor a refridgerator, and I don't make enough money to put furniture in all my 4 rooms, so I bought some cheap bamboo chairs and a wicker coffee table and bed. And I still cook my meals over a gas powered camp stove with 3 small burners, although with the heat I prefer to eat out at a rice bar (200 CFA a plate) readily prepared.

I keep in regular contact with Dinguiraye, and I'm still waiting on word on whether or not I should expect to go back in June. I might get an extension in Mali. But I'm happy and well, coping with the heat and keeping very busy with work. Nine other Guinea volunteers also accepted temp positions in Bamako, so we all get together at least once or twice a week.

a la prochain!

-Lisa

You Tube Video:Schools in Guinea

If anyone is interested - I put together a short video using some of Lisa's picutures from two of the schools she was working with in Guinea. The first pictures were from a preschool that she was hoping to find funding for --you will see that they attend classes in a very run-down, dilapitated building. The final set of images are from the school that Lisa arranged a Peace Pals exchange with a school in Colorado. Click here to view!

Lisa's address in Mali

Here is the latest bit of news from Lisa:
"I got the job doing business consulting in Bamako, including marketing advising for artisan groups, so I'm super excited. I start language training and orientation tomorrow afternoon, it'll be nice to actually be doing something instead of saying good bye constantly."

I'm sure she will appreciate hearing from you! Her address for the remainder of these 3 months is:

Lisa White
Corps de la Paix Americain
BP 85
Bamako, Mali
West Africa