You may have thought election time was over, but here at Friends of Guinea, it�s just beginning! Don�t worry: the campaign won�t last forever and will be mercifully free of attack ads.

Do you enjoy Friends of Guinea�s award winning web site? Do you appreciate FOG�s role in the gender conferences or in funding other PCV projects? None of these things are possible without the help of our volunteers. FOG is run by volunteers. We don�t function without them.

I�d like to take this opportunity to ask members to donate their time to help FOG. Whether you�re able to donate a lot of time or just a little, there�s a role for you.

The elected positions on FOG�s board are: Secretary, Membership Officer, Communications Officer, Advocacy Officer, Financial Officer and Projects Officer.

FOG has many non-elected member-at-large positions. If you feel you have an area of expertise which you�d like to offer FOG or some service you think FOG should provide, please contact the relevant officer or, if you�re not sure who that would be, feel free to contact me!

Any FOG member who wishes can run for any of the elected positions or serve as a member-at-large. The elected positions we most need to fill are Projects Officer and Membership Officer. The Member-at-Large positions that we really need to fill are Fundraising Coordinator, Aicha/GAAD Coordinator, Membership Renewals Coordinator, and Website Administrator. Actually we�d rather have at least two volunteers to maintain the website, so there is plenty of room for you here.

�� You don�t have to be a member of FOG to run for one of these positions, but you must be a member in order to serve, so if elected we will expect you to join. (What? I can�t believe you�re not a member already!) Ballots will be emailed to members on Dec. 10 and are due back a week later. The deadline for expressing your interest in an elected position is December 9. There is no deadline for becoming a member-at-large, but the sooner we hear from you the better it is all around. If you�d like to learn more about any of the positions or their job description, you can visit http://www.friendsofguinea.org/officerduties.shtml.

�� If you would like to run for an officership or become a member at large, or if you�d like to learn more than is available on the website about the positions, please email me, Brian Farenell, at fogelections2005(at)yahoo(dot)com.

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Change a Young Girl�s Life � Help Support 2005 Gender Conferences

Friends of Guinea is currently raising funds for the 2005 Peace Corps Guinea Gender Conferences. Many PCVs feel that the Girls conferences, now in their 7th year, are the most rewarding part of their service. Photos from previous conferences may be viewed on the Web at http://www.friendsofguinea.org/conference_photos.shtml.

Over the years, Friends of Guinea has devoted the lion�s share of its project support to this unique initiative. Last year, the first Boys� conference was held, as a demonstration project. In 2005, the Girls� and Boys� conferences will be combined into one Gender Conference project.

�� The budgeted cost for the entire project is $8,786.00, which leaves us $3,763.00 still to raise. We need your help to

pull this off. We need someone to serve as a Fundraising Coordinator, and others to serve as members of a fundraising committee. The Fundraising Coordinator will seek out volunteers and coordinate the activities of the committee, help promote the conferences in the media, and keep track of the funds raised, as well as coordinating their transfer to Peace Corps.

�� An ex-pat in Conakry tells us the story of a young Guinean woman named Rama who attended the Girls� Conference about five years ago.� �She was so excited when she returned from the conference that she threw herself into her studies in an effort to achieve the goals she set for herself during the conference.� Last year, she received a scholarship from a university in the US and is now studying abroad.� The work you do, the example you set, does and will change lives.� Thank you and keep it up.�

Former Peace Corps Country Director Kathy Tilford says, �I had the privilege of being the Peace Corps Country Director in Guinea from 1996 to 2000 and I sincerely believe that the Girls Conferences are absolutely the very best thing I�ve ever seen Peace Corps do - and I�m speaking with more than twenty years of Peace Corps experience as a PCV, APCD, PCD and PST trainer. I am absolutely convinced that many of these young women find the conferences a life-changing experience and that in the not-too-distant future, we will see these women in positions of responsibility and power. That would be reason enough to support the conferences.�

Better yet, listen to what the young women of Goual had to say: �Dear Friends of Guinea, it is with great pleasure and satisfaction that we write you this thank you letter about your great effort and the help you provided for us Guinean girls. We sincerely thank you and the Americans from the US Peace Corps.� You provided us with the opportunity to enrich our knowledge because we attended sessions that interested us a lot during this Fifth Seminar for Young Women in the Fouta Djallon. These sessions included gender roles, sexual harassment, excision, depigmentation, sports, unwanted pregnancy, STDs/STIs, HIV/AIDS, etc. We learned about these things by doing different activities like models, skits, discussions with professional women and university students; and we did our own session on how to inform local students.� Now with the subjects we have learned, we can help our families, our community, and our classmates thanks to you � the Americans who helped us and supported us.� Thank you.�

In past years, funds for the conferences have been raised through outreach to family and friends, through auctioning of Guinean cloth, through calendar sales, and fundraising parties. What fun! Contact Donald Parker at [email protected]

to donate any amount of time � everything helps.

�� To donate: http://friendsofguinea.org/conference2005.shtml.

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Lisa Ellis Leaving for South Africa

Peace Corps Guinea Country Director Lisa Ellis announced in the October issue of the Peace Corps Guinea Newsletter that she has been selected as the new Country Director for Peace Corp�s program in South Africa. By the time you are reading this, Lisa will have already left to take up her new post in Pretoria. �aVa offers Ms. Ellis our most sincere congratulations on her new appointment and thanks her for the excellent cooperation she has offered Friends of Guinea during the time she has been at the helm in Conakry. Good luck in South Africa, Lisa. We know you will do us proud.

�� At publication time, a new Country Director for Guinea had not yet been named.

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Projects Report

Donald N. Parker, (Kaalan, �01��02), Projects Officer

projects(at)friendsofguinea(dot)org

Donate to Gender Conferences!

FOG Projects in 2004: This year FOG helped PCVs:

Anne Clayton and community leader Fatoumata Diawara refurbish a health center in Koliagbe, Kindia.
Carrie Mitchell and community health worker Hamidou Mandy translate valuable health messages into the Landouma language.
Meghan Greeley and her community create a library in Koundian, Mandiana.
Wayne Kleck paint educational maps with students and school officials throughout Falessade and its districts.
Kelly Hamblin conduct an organizational development workshop with the Selouma Health Center Staff.

Thanks to everyone who was involved in making these projects happen.

I would also like to remind PCVs that we can only fund PCV projects through the Peace Corps Partnership Program. If you are a serving volunteer with a project that want to have funded by Friends of Guinea, please write on the top of your approved PCPP application that would like to request funding from FOG.� This will alert the Office of Private Sector Initiatives (the part of Peace Corps that runs PCPP) of our interest.� Also please contact me in advance at [email protected] if you are requesting help from FOG.� This way I can give officers a heads up on the project and I can assist you better.�

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Listserv and GPS Report

Marilyn Pearson, RPCV Parent

Guinea List Admin and GPS Coordinator
gps(at)friendsofguinea(dot)org

And now for another fascinating report from the inner workings of the Guinea List! The list, as you may know, is made up of RPCVs, Guineans, and people who are interested in all things Guinean. The list has 313 members and has been fairly quiet this quarter. You can join the Guinea List by visiting www.friendsofguinea.org.

The Guinea Parent Support (GPS) groups are saying �goodbye� to the October 2002 members since their PCVs have just finished their service. A new January 2005 group has already started.� GPS groups are made up of parents, family and friends of Peace Corps Trainees who leave for Guinea at the same time. A group leader from a previous GPS group helps members in each group learn the fine points of mailing packages, phoning, emailing, and visiting Guinea. If you�re in Guinea and your parents or significant others aren�t in a GPS group, have them email gps(at)friendsofguinea(dot)org to sign up.

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Financial Report

Jody Sites (Beyla, �94��96), Financial Officer

finances(at)friendsofguinea.org

I am pleased to report that Friends of Guinea continues to enjoy sound financial health. Here are some of the figures:

Our bank account has almost $9,000.00, and our PayPal account contains almost $1,200.00, which leaves us with a little over ten thousand. Of this, $5,000.00 is left over from last year�s Gender Conference donations, and is earmarked for next year�s conferences.

During the last quarter we spent $7.40 on stamps, $91.50 to fund PCV Kelly Hamblin�s organizational development workshop with the Selouma Health Center Staff, $135.00 for web services, and $173.00 on the newsletter. Woody reports that newsletter cost will go down in the future, because Peace Corps Guinea has agreed to shoulder the cost of duplicating the newsletters distributed to Volunteers in the field. Hats off to our friends in Conakry!

I guess I would observe that we have the potential to fund more projects in Guinea than we currently are, so I would like to encourage PCVs with project ideas to contact Donald (see projects report in this issue).

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Guinea on the Web: friendsofguinea.org

Woody Colahan (Maci, �93��96), Newsletter Editor

newsletter(at)friendsofguinea(dot)org

�� This issue of �aVa? sees the first of a series of articles profiling websites of interest to �aVa? readers. We begin with Friends of Guinea�s own award-winning website, www.friendsofguinea.org, created and maintained (mostly) by Stephanie Chasteen, founder and guiding light of FOG.

�� Recognized in 2003 by the National Peace Corps Association as outstanding among country-of-service groups websites, FOG�s website has a little bit of something for everyone. There are areas for services maintained by FOG, such as the RPCV registry and the Guinealist listserv; news and background information about Guinea including photos, maps, dispatches from Peace Corps Guinea and a bibliography of books relating to Guinea; and a �Prospective Volunteers� section containing Q&A�s, tips on what to bring and what to leave behind, examples of letters written home by volunteers in the field, and even the complete 1998 Peace Corps Welcome to Guinea information packet.

�� Parents and Friends� of Guinea PCVs have their own section on the website, with information on mail and telephone communication with Guinea, information on visiting Guinea, links to the special GPS or �Guinea Parent Support� listservs, tips on getting involved with Peace Corps-related activities, and a link to a list (maintained separately by Brian Farenell) of people who are traveling to Guinea and who are willing to carry letters and small packages.

�� There is a section of links to other Guinea-related sites, including a page called Les 100 meilleurs sites de la Guin�e, which is virtually bottomless and led me to the only site I have ever seen in Pulaar, www.pulaaku.net, unfortunately no longer online the last time I checked.

�� RPCVs may be tempted into FOG�s website by the page of resources devoted to them, including grad school and career resources, various RPCV groups, and of course the Guinea RPCV registry. The �News� section reprints press articles relating to Guinea; �Friends of Guinea� gives a window into what FOG is and does; and� �For Fun� reprints several humorous essays about life in Guinea, as well as scanned copies of old issues of the satirical newsletters put out by volunteers over the years. My favorite part of this section has to be Herb Caudill�s cartoons. He is also responsible for FOG�s �toubabs-in-boubous� logo, and his instantly-recognizable graphics can be found throughout the site. (�Yeah, Herb. Thank God for him,� says Stephanie.)

�� Recently Steph took time out from her Ph.D. research into advanced photovoltaics to chat with me about how the website came to be. Its beginnings were quite humble, she assured me. �In ninety-seven, when I was getting ready to go to Guinea, the World Wide Web was just starting. I put together just this cheesy little thing,� where her letters home to her family could be posted, and maybe with a link to Peace Corps, which seemed fancy at the time (�Ooooh, a hyperlink!�).

�� Bending over the computer, she continued: �The closest thing in here to that original page is here, in Prospective Volunteer Resources. Under Letters from the Field, I still have Stephanie Chasteen�s Letters.�� She simply wrote letters home from Guinea, and her mother posted them on her webpage.

�� Steph said the Web �really took off� while she was in Guinea, and she decided that after her return, it would nice to get a real web page going. �When I went into Peace Corps Guinea, I didn�t feel like I had a lot of information about Guinea � and it was really hard to find on the Internet at that time. You typed in �Guinea,� and all you got was information on Guinea pigs. I thought, well, I want people who are thinking about applying to have more information. I wanted to reach out to people who were trying to understand what Guinea was really like.�

�� On her return from Guinea, Steph began working up the existing website. To the letters, she added photos, a few more links, some news items from Guinea. Adding things bit by bit, �I just gradually reworked and revised my little page.� She even posted the entire contents of the 1998 Peace Corps Welcome to Guinea Packet. �When I got back, I was just real gung-ho, I guess.� Along with prospective volunteers, her other major focus was friends and families of Guinea PCVs, and still is.

�� She insists that the webpage grew by accretion. Although it now displays a really impressive depth of content, �The basic categories are still the same� as when she started. One exception, of course, is the section on Friends of Guinea. Neither the group itself nor the name would come into existence until later, and when it did, she added a new section, including information on the various officers, links for joining and renewing membership, copies of the newsletter, information on past and present projects, etc. �The site has gone through a couple of overhauls. The last one was around the time FOG got started. And when we moved the Friends of Guinea site to a new server, I hadn�t been smart about the way I programmed it, so it ended up being a little tricky.� Steph has applied the lesson she learned in the process to the design of her other, personal website, which now resides on a U.C. Santa Cruz server. She has programmed it so that when her studies are finished and she leaves school for good, she will be able to move it all to another server with a minimum of trouble.

Asked if she had learned a lot in the process of creating and developing the webpage, Steph laughs: �I had no idea what I was doing when I started.� She started out using a �Wysiwyg,� or �what-you-see-is-what-you-get� html editor to design the site. �There�s stuff you can get for like, thirty

bucks,� that is no more difficult to use than a word-processing program. Later she got a more sophisticated editing program when she wanted to fine-tune some of the layouts. �A lot of the stuff I do is really very simple. There are much fancier bells and whistles that people put on websites,� she says. �It�s so funny that I end up being like, �The Web Expert,� because I�ve never considered myself a big computer person at all.�

Since creating her own site and the FOG site, Steph has gotten a lot of other people started on websites. It seems to her that people tend to think it is harder than it really is.

The friendsofguinea.org website and the Guinealist listserv really evolved side by side. �The Guinealist was really my mom�s initiative at first,� Steph remembers. �My mom started gathering up email addresses of parents whose kids were in Guinea, maybe 30 people sharing information and support�this was before PC Guinea had internet, so communication was much more difficult.� There was no listserv or newsgroup, just a list of addresses that Margaret Chasteen used to keep a loose-knit group of email acquaintances in touch. �When I got back, it turned out my college friend David Chaplin-Loebell had started a computer business called Klatha.com, which included web hosting and listserv management. I�d never heard of a listserv before. He set up the Guinealist. I emailed those original parents and it went from there. Klatha.com later helped us set up the online membership form, and the wonderful RPCV registry. I could never have done that kind of programming on my own.�

Buy Stuff, Support FOG (for Free)

�� Support Friends of Guinea by shopping at REI or Amazon! That�s right. By using the links prominently displayed on FOG�s home page, 2%�5% of the money you spend can be donated to FOG, and it doesn�t cost you a thing. This is a modest but steady source of income for FOG, but it could be much more significant if more people knew about it and made a point of using it and telling others about it.

�� Retail analysts expect the growth of online spending this holiday season to double the growth in traditional retail spending. Imagine if a percentage of all your friends and family spent online could be directed to FOG to support projects in Guinea such as the Gender Conferences. Think of it as bouffing in reverse!

Remember that Amazon is not only for books and recordings. Stereo gear, computers, cell phones, kitchenware, clothing and more can all be found there. So have a happy holiday season, buy lots of presents, and help Guinea at the same time.

The Listserv had an influence on the website, however. �It was through the listserv that I got in touch with other people who were interested in forming FOG.� Asked how much work goes into maintaining the website, she laughs again and says, �It�s one of those things like cleaning your room, you know�it happens in spurts, at least for me� She keeps lists of things she wants to do to the site. Steph says the most frequently visited portions of the website are the listserv, the RPCV registry, the recipes, the photos of Guinea, and any currently featured projects such as the Gender Conferences. Parts of the site that she thinks deserve more attention than they get are the humor section (�It doesn�t have to be just functional, it can be fun, too!�), the RPCV registry, and Parents & Friends section. Even though the RPCV registry gets a lot of hits, Steph receives many email inquiries that indicate that people are not aware they can use the registry to look up their old friends. �A lot of people don�t come across the registry,� she says.

The Parents & Friends section could also get more use. �For instance, on the Visiting Guinea page we have a PDF of the visa application form, and specific instructions � that work � on how to get the visa.� Visiting Guinea also has lots of information on vaccinations and travel tips, gleaned from the experiences of other travelers. The section on aifares is a must for any traveler, listing recent prices, reliable agents, as well as the airlines to avoid (Air Afrique) and the ones to bet on (Royal Air Maroc, for a romantic overnight stop in Casablanca).

Steph would like people to remember two important links on the homepage, to REI and Amazon.com. By clicking on these links before making purchases at either of those sites, individuals assure that a percentage (2% to 5%) of the money they spend will be donated to FOG � a commission, paid by the merchant. �It costs people nothing. And when you think about the money they spend when people are doing their Christmas shopping, if they just made a point of going through FOG, it could really help a lot.�

�� Steph reminds everyone that there is a parallel French version of the website, maintained with the help of Brian Farenell. She invites everyone to check the site regularly to see what is new. �A lot of our members say they haven�t looked at the site in two or three years.�

�� Seems like a shame. Take a look for yourself if you haven�t in a while. If you have comments, feedback, or notes of appreciation for Friends of Guinea�s award-winning website, contact Steph Chasteen at membership(at)friendsofguinea.org.

You can view a well-organized photo album of Stephanie�s photos from her recent pilgrimage back to her village at http://www.friendsofguinea.org/pictures.shtml Past and present PCVs and parents of PCVs are encouraged to send in their photos to link to the FOG page!

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Pita Erupts in Rioting

�� On Tuesday November 2, rioting broke out in the Fouta Djallon town of Pita, after EDG, the national electricity company, delivered bills to subscribers reflecting a sharp rise in residential rates. Angry residents ransacked the local EDG office, destroying computers and burning vehicles belonging to the company. Security services fired live ammunition on the crowd of rioters, causing one death and a number of injuries.

�� Military reinforcements were sent to Pita from Lab� and Mamou, and the town was placed under a tight curfew, with soldiers firing their weapons into the air to prevent people from leaving their homes. During the night 53 persons were arrested. On Wednesday authorities refused to allow a public funeral for the civilian killed by police gunfire on Tuesday, described in press reports as �a young student,� requiring that he be buried privately by his family.

�� On Tuesday November 16, a �meeting of reconciliation� was held between prefectoral officials, EDG representatives, local responsables and sages, and representatives of civil society and the Islamic League. At this meeting the Prefect of Pita, Ibrahima Bangoura, announced that 50 of the 53 people originally arrested had been released after having admitted their complicity in destruction of property during the riot. Three were still under detention at the prison in Pita. Mr. Bangoura also formally requested that EDG not collect payment on the electricity bills whose unexpected increases had caused the riots.

�� In the interior of Guinea, electric meters are unknown and residential consumers pay a flat rate. According to Aboubacar Bah, a resident of Virginia who was able to contact his family in Pita, the November bills reflected an increase from 6,000 gnf to 60,000 gnf in the monthly rate. Customers had received no prior warning of this 1,000% increase in rates. Another source of resentment, he said, was that electricity produced in Pita at the Kinkon hydroelectric facility is exported to Mamou, Dalaba and Lab�. �Where is the money from those places?� he asked. �That money is supposed to be for investment in Pita.� Mr. Bah said negotiations between EDG and the community had subsequently led to an outcome acceptable to both sides: a 100% increase in monthly residential rates from 6,000 gnf to 12,000 gnf. �Everything is calm now,� he said.

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Guinea�s Only Private Newspaper Silenced

On November 13, the Guinean Government indefinitely suspended the country�s only private daily newspaper from publication, in a move declared by the Paris-based group Reporteurs sans Fronti�res to be �abusive� and unjustified. RSF notes that closure is the most serious sanction that can be applied against a newspaper, and there was in this case no previous warning from the government. The group went on to dispute the government�s claim that articles appearing in the newspaper were in any way illegal under Guinean law, or endangered �peace, tranquility and democracy.� RSF demanded the immediate restitution of the newspaper right to publish.

�� The paper, Le Quotidien, was banned following the publication of a front-page editorial on November 7, entitled �The Country is Going Badly�How Long until the Uprising? (Le Pays Va Mal�� Quand le Soul�vement?)� The article called for �a revolt against our bad practices, our bad habits and our bad choices� and spoke of the necessity of� �a national leap forward.� Editor Siaka Kouyat� wrote that, �everyone knows that in such a situation, there is only one outcome, uprising. And everyone, in all logic, seems to wait for the President, the first in everything, to give the signal for it.� Mr. Kouyat� was not officially informed by the government of the closure of his newspaper, but learned of it over the weekend of November 7�8, by means of a statement read out on state-controlled radio and television.

�� Mr. Kouyat� visited the Conseil National de Communication, the government body responsible for the ban, but his attepts at explanation met with firm refusal. Since then, he reported to RSF he has received threatening telephone calls from unknown parties.

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Friends of Guinea Secretary, Betty Walker, reports: We went to visit our daughter Dana a year ago April for the week between Palm Sunday and Easter.� We met Dana in Conakry, went to Lab�, and then on to her village, Sannou. People were awesome...so inviting and gracious. Dana�s host mom told us, with our son Craig translating, that we would not have to worry about Dana when she was in the village...they would look after her as a daughter. We ate lots of rice and sauce, were given a live chicken...which the petites cooked for us.� The mangoes were luscious and the rhythm of life so inviting. We are so grateful to have gone to Guinea and experience that part of Dana�s life. Photos at� photos.yahoo.com/eaw_hkw.

Inside Peace Corps Guinea

Our sincere thanks to Lisa Ellis, departing Guinea Country Director, for allowing us a peek inside the Peace Corps Guinea Newsletter, which is distributed to all staff and volunteers. Also to Nancy Fleisher for coordinating the communication between Friends of Guinea and Peace Corps Guinea. Some highlights from the September and October issues:

September: Lisa is back from a Country Director conference in South Africa, where she and other CDs from the Africa region stressed to the Peace Corps Director and Regional Director the importance of assuring safe transportation for PCVs in the field.

G5 COS will be held at the Riviera Royal in Conakry, described as a four-star hotel with a swimming pool and a discotheque. Makes the beach at Kassa sound quaint by comparison.

Lisa addresses the deteriorating economic situation in Guinea, reassuring PCVs that there is no sign of imminent civil strife, and reminding them that their communities need their help now more than ever.

Volunteers are warned away from certain restaurants in Conakry due to reports of criminal activity.

Peace Corps Guinea�s Public Health Guide has been updated with the help of several volunteers.

Medical unit reports a cluster of cases of amoebas and girardia in PCVs from Kankan. Water purification in the Kankan office seems to be good, so volunteers are advised to stick to bottled water when out on the town.

The Medical Officer (PCMO) also addresses the risk of alcohol abuse in volunteers, noting that women metabolize alcohol slower than men and typically experience more rapid progression to alcoholism and its medical complications. She wants volunteers, always subject to stress and isolation, to be aware of the dangers of problem drinking.

Volunteer Adam Watts shares the experience he had of being detained by the Guinean military not for taking pictures of a military base, but just for having a camera in his hands as he rode past the base in a car. Plus �a change, plus c�est la meme chose. PCV�s are encouraged to be as discreet as possible with cameras around government installations, lest they be mistaken for spies preparing for an American invasion of Guinea.

Crisis Corps Director May Angelini recently visited Guinea. Crisis Corps continues to deploy volunteers in Guinea,

described as one of its �longest running and most vibrant programs.�

Enrollment in education trainee Practice School is down slightly this year, probably due to the increase in the cost of transportation.

Peace Corps Guinea�s Small Enterprise Development program is working with the Guinean Office de Promotion d�Investissement Priv� to explore the possibilities of producing shea butter for export to U.S. cosmetic manufacturers. Volunteers in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo and Kenya are already active in promoting this export product. Potential also exists for exporting coffee to the Maghreb.

GAAD Coordinator Victoria Chang bids adieu to Peace Corps Guinea and reminds everyone of the upcoming HIV/AIDS and Life Skills Training in October in Mamou, and of the Girls� and Boys� Conferences in February and March, respectively, of next year.

JET, or �Je t�entends,� the volunteer peer support network, introduces a new monthly column in the newsletter by reminding PCVs that they are all weird; or at least that is how their Guinean neighbors are bound to see them so there is no point feeling self-conscious just because people stare at them all the time. JET members are available to their fellow volunteers to help them cope with the inevitable episodes of loneliness, frustration, homesickness and culture shock that all PCVs know too well.

October: Country Director Lisa Ellis has been named to be the new Country Director for Peace Corps in South Africa. She will be moving to Pretoria around the middle of November. Congratulations, Lisa!

Peace Corps extends a welcome to the new United States ambassador in Guinea, Jackson McDonald. He was formerly Ambassador in The Gambia and Deputy Chief of Mission in Ivory Coast. Last month�s Volunteer swearing-in took place at his residence in Conakry.

In an effort to reduce the risk to volunteers from road travel, PC Guinea has begun to discourage cross-sector projects between volunteers living in different regions of the country.

PCVs are also warned against vacation travel to African countries that currently pose security concerns, including Liberia, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Morocco, southern Senegal, Sierra Leone outside of Freetown, and the Forest Region of Guinea.

Peace Corps headquarters in DC is anxious for all staff and volunteers to be aware that all sexual interaction with minors abroad is strictly prohibited under U.S. law regardless of host country laws or customs.

The October newsletter includes instructions for volunteers submitting absentee ballots in the upcoming election. PC Guinea is working hard to be sure that absentee ballots are posted in time.

The economic situation in Guinea is beginning to affect Volunteer allowances. Tutoring, technical supplies and settling-in allowances have been increased. Living and travel allowances will be reviewed later.

Lab� and Kankan Volunteer computer workstations are to be upgraded, with new laptops, power supply units and printers. Bok� will be looked at in the future.

Organizing is underway for the 2005 Gender Conferences, and the organizing committee is looking for members from among the new group of volunteers.

The Small-Enterprise Development program is still working on finding ways to link local communities with international markets for organic coffee and shea butter.

NRM (Natural Resource Management) Volunteers will meet in Conakry on November 1 and 2 to discuss program planning and development issues at a �NRM Summit� conference.

GAAD (Gender and [HIV/]AIDS in Development) members raised 1.8 million FG at a silent auction timed to coincide with G8 swear-in on September 23. The money will go toward a �GAAD Microfund,� and project proposals from Volunteers are invited. Auctions are planned to be held bi-annually in the future.

Congratulations! PCVs Magdalena Valderrama, Michelle Salmen and Laura Blinkhorn have received approval for SPA (Small Project Assistance) fund grants involving educational camps and a theater group.

Friends of Guinea recently heard from Wayne Kleck, whose World Map project we had the opportunity to fund this past year. The project actually included both a world map at the Negueya elementary school just outside of Dubreka, and a map of Guinea at the Yurokoguia elementary school. The photo shows and his friend Abdourahmane Bangoura in front of the world map. Wayne says, �He and I worked together to complete the map in seven days. We would work from morning until early afternoon each day. He told me the project was a good lesson in paying attention to detail. He ws very proud of the completed map and plans to use the leftover paint to paint a map of Africa at his neighborhood video club. Thanks for funding this fun project.�

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Crisis Corps Opportunities

Ghana: World Education has requested nine HIV/AIDS Educators to work in Teacher Training Colleges (TTC) to assist with the implementation of Windows of Hope curriculum, a peer education program. The CCVs will provide ongoing coaching, mentoring, and support to TTC tutors in the delivery of the HIV/AIDS training program and promote extra-curricular activities (clubs, debates, etc,). These are 8 month positions set to begin in January 2005.

Kenya: The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Mombasa has requested one CCV for a 6 month tenure as a Drug Abuse Coordinator responsible for the management and monitoring of the Integrated Demand Reduction Project, including HIV/AIDS. The volunteer will be charged with the monitoring and evaluation of targeting drug abusers and other vulnerable populations.

Namibia: The National Health Training Center (NHTC) is looking for six CCVs to serve 6 month assignments as Digital Video Conferencing Trainers. Duties: support in-service training efforts on HIV/AIDS; train and provide support in operating video equipment; create a training schedule to build staff capacity; work with NHTC staff to formulate a national plan for use of digital video conferencing to communicate with health institutions nationwide; develop training guidelines/manuals on the use and maintenance of equipment. This project is set to begin in February of 2005.

If you are interested in these or other Crisis Corps positions, visit the Peace Corps website at www.peacecorps.gov, or call 800-424-8580, option 2, extension 2250.

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Aicha Still Going Strong!

Aicha is a magazine written by and for Guinean women, targeted at older school-age girls. Since 1997, Peace Corps Guinea has published 2,500 copies twice a year, distributed free by Peace Corps volunteers throughout Guinea. The ultimate goal is to hand over all publishing and editing to Guineans, for true sustainability.

Aicha needs funding help to continue. Some Peace Corps parents are contributing. Friends of Guinea is gearing up to undertake a funding campaign to support the magazine.

What we need is a volunteer to scan several old issues of Aicha into .pdf files, so that we may start a promotional website to solicit donors. We would also like someone who is dedicated to helping Aicha continue to spearhead fundraising efforts for the magazine. Email membership(at)friendsofguinea(dot)org to let Steph Casteen know if you are interested!

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Free personal Classifieds in CaVa?!

All members in good standing of Friends of Guinea are entitled to one free personal advertisement per year in CaVa?, the quarterly newsletter of Friends of Guinea. These advertisements are limited to 21 words are intended primarily as a way for families and friends to send messages of support and encouragement to volunteers serving in Guinea, although they might equally be used to broadcast other messages. We encourage you to take advantage of this free service by emailing your message of 21 words or less to the Newsletter Editor at [email protected]. Please note that this service is available only to current members of Friends of Guinea, so please submit your advertisement under the name in which your membership is listed so that we may verify your status.

The Hummer: guzzles gas, pollutes the environment, is unsafe and just plain �dummer.�� Buy a t-shirt that says it best.� www.dummer.org.

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Jesse Thyne Memorial Page��

Those who remember the tragic deaths of Jesse Thyne and Justin Bhansali in a road accident just outside of Pita on January 7, 2000, will be interested to know that a memorial webpage now exists on the site of the Fallen Peace Corps Volunteers Memorial Project, at www.fpcv.org/jesse_thyne.htm . Here you can find pictures of Jesse, the ceremony of inauguration for his monument outside Pita, and the Annual Memorial Walk for Road Safety; as well as memories and thoughts by those who knew him. You may also add your own comments to the page.

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Le Griot Nous Dit:

Nathan Whiteside (Macenta, �97�99) was recently interviewed on a small radio program called Center of the Universe.� They discuss his time in Africa, his journey as a healer, and what alternative therapies offer that may be missing from western medicine. You can hear the entire interview at http://www.healingforthesoul.com/archive/interview.mp3.

Annual FOG Board Elections

Lisa Ellis Leaving for South Africa

Projects Report

Donald N. Parker, (Kaalan, �01��02), Projects Officer

Listserv and GPS Report

Financial Report

Guinea on the Web: friendsofguinea.org

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Pita Erupts in Rioting

Inside Peace Corps Guinea

Crisis Corps Opportunities

If you are interested in these or other Crisis Corps positions, visit the Peace Corps website at www.peacecorps.gov, or call 800-424-8580, option 2, extension 2250.

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Jesse Thyne Memorial Page����������

Jesse Thyne Memorial Page��