Hello again, I ended up returning to Boke (my regional capital) earlier than I expected due to transport issues in/out of my village. Luckily this means I get to upload pictures and post here again.
So, after leaving the other day, my closest neighbor Teale and I took off towards Bintimodia first in a Peace Corps car, then in a bush taxi for the last 15km or so off the main road. The bush taxi was missing most of the non-essential internal parts of a car (door covers, window crank handles, a window, upholstery, a dashboard, etc) but it was road-worthy enough to get us all the way to my village without any problem. The road had some major ditches and potholes (it is a dirt road), and at some points it was barely wide enough for the small re-assembled 1970-something Renault to make it through, but the driver knew how to make his way around, no problem.
Upon arriving in Bintimodia, we went to my principal's house, the guy whose family is to show me around town and meet people, but unfortunately he wasn't informed that I would be arriving this week for a visit so he was out of town on business (he's actually here in Boke, but I haven't yet been able to get ahold of him). His wife showed me my house, and introduced me to a geography teacher from my school who took me around to meet the sous-prefect (big government official in the area), the older members of the community, the head of the women's group, the Imam (highest religious position in the village), and a few other important community members. Everybody in my village is amazingly friendly, welcoming and nice. Everyone who has any power whatsoever told me to come to them with any problems and they would help me solve them, and the Imam gave me his blessing (literally) to work in the community, for my health, the wellbeing of my loved ones, etc etc. He was an intimidating dude, but I think I'm on his good side, so...awesome.
My house is a freaking palace (relatively). It used to be the old Sous-prefect's house, but when they got a new guy 4 months ago they built him a new house and saved the old house for my arrival. It is a concrete house, it has one large bedroom plus 3 smaller rooms that are probably meant to be 2 bedrooms and a storage room - but in my case will probably become a guest bedroom, a kitchen and a storage room. I have an indoor bathroom with a pit latrine (basically an indoor outhouse) and a small tiled area that I think has a drain for bathing (which involves a bucket of (usually cold) water, a large plastic mug, and creative ways to make a mug of water rinse as much of your body as possible). I also have an outdoor structure that is covered which would usually be used for cooking by Guineans (who generally cook over an open flame) but since I plan on having a small butane stove, I will possibly retrofit it as a chicken coop (yes, I plan to have chickens - and maybe a goat). Pictures of my house will hopefully soon be up on facebook, probably starting near the end of "Guinea 2". The only drawback to my house is the fact that the roof leaks in a lot of places. There is a space between the roof and the celing, so for the most part the inside of my house doesn't get wet - except for a couple of walls in the living room - but I talked to the people in my village and I think they're going to work on fixing that before I arrive in October.
I live next-door to the hospital which has 4 employees (I'm amazed my village even has a hospital), and near the school. My school has 8 teachers (I think that includes me). My house is on the main road (the only road that leads somewhere outside of Bintimodia) and is about a half a kilometer from the end of the road where there is a broken bridge. One can take a small boat across this river to reach the dirt road that leads to Kamsar. I plan on canoeing my bike across so I can bike the 20 km or so to Kamsar (where there is internet, refrigerated drinks and foods, and the only concrete, chlorinated swimming pool for several hundred miles). There are also vast (like, several thousand acres) rice fields around my village which are beautiful. At night there are fireflies all over the place. My village has no electricity, but a couple of the houses run a generator at night to watch TV (which half the village goes to watch). I have a water pump across the street from me, so I don't need to go very far to fetch my water.
Bintimodia has a couple of small boutiques that sell some candy, some essentials (candles, matches, sugar, tea, oil, cigarettes, etc) and phone cards. My village seems to have bread on a daily basis (baguette-style bread is the only bread I've seen here - but most parts of Guinea get it at least once a week), but I think it might come from a neighboring village. Market day is Saturday, which is when vendors from all over my region set-up shop in Bintimodia to sell anything from dried fish to soap. I'm not sure how big my market will be, but I'm not worried because I can probably get anything I want in Kamsar when I make the trip there.
My bike will be very useful because the only day that cars leave my village is Thursday. I wanted to leave my village for Teale's site on Monday, but it took me (and the 4 most important men in my village) 4 hours to find someone willing to drive me the 11 km to the nearest village with taxis. In the future I will be able to bike this distance and then catch a car to wherever I'm headed.
I've really enjoyed my time in the northern Basse Cote, I am a big fan of Boke, my regional capital, and I really like Bintimodia. One of the main complaints I've had in Forecariah has been the food (there is bony, spiny fish in almost everything, and even when there isn't the food just isn't good). However, everything I've eaten this past week has been amazing. There are bean sandwiches here in Boke that are very good (usually contain cooked beans, spagetti, some fish, some palm oil, some mayo, and some onions). The rice and sauce here (basically the only thing Guineans eat on a daily basis) is delicious. I am looking forward to finishing training and moving up to this part of Guinea. That being said, the hospitality of my family in Forecariah has been amazing, and they've really gone out of their way to accomadate me.
Hmm, ok, I still need to talk about the past month. But I think I will still leave that up to Tim to summarize my paper journal. I miss you all, feel free to call me sometime to chat with me, my phone number here (if you're dialing from the states) is on my facebook. It costs me nothing to receive calls, and information on a good calling card is on www.friendsofguinea.org. My address is also on facebook.
Also, leave comments on here with any (ANY) questions or comments you want to leave me. I will respond to them in future posts. Won tina, o'oo.
{Travel} India 2013
12 years ago
