A
Letter from Lansyana
The family of PCV Jesse Fleisher shared with us last
fall a letter they received from him describing his
life in Guinea. We encourage all of our readers to
pass along any accounts they might wish to share of
their own travels to Guinea, or of the experiences of
their Volunteer friends and loved ones.
It’s September and it’s raining. I have just picked
the first tomato from my garden….
I had to stand on a chair this morning to pick the
okra behind my hut, and I have discovered a fabulous
waterfall near my village. I am content, and for the
moment, stationary.
Alas, I have been traveling during much of August for
various Peace Corps meetings, and each time I come
back here for a few days, I find my garden choked with
weeds, and vegetables which have rotted or grown hard
from want of picking. It must be torture indeed to
take a farmer from his fields before the growing
season is done, and I understand more and more the
attachment to place which farmers and other earthy
people seem to feel so strongly. Although my travels
away from Lansanaya have been useful and work
oriented, I can’t help but feel that time away from my
village is wasted time. I always feel like I’m missing
something important, some little detail of culture
that I’ll never see, or some opportunity for
meaningful work that will slip through the cracks. I
also know that my time here in Lansanaya is limited,
and I want to absorb as much of the essence of this
place as I can before moving on. I may never again be
part of an African family, or belong to a village
community, or live in a hut, and I can feel myself
missing it before I even leave.
In any case, seeing new places appeals to me too, and
the first of my recent travels was to the eastern
Guinean city of Kankan, where Peace Corps has a
regional office/flop house…This is where I’m supposed
to go to do banking, re-supply my medical kit, shop
for “fancy” items and do office work. In travel terms
though, Guinea is to West Africa what Gabon is to
Central Africa. There are few if any tourists, almost
no modern transportation infrastructure, and getting
there is always way more than half the fun. “Voyaging”
is nearly always adventurous, uncomfortable,
difficult, comical, frustrating and interesting all at
the same time.
On this occasion I tried to set off by bicycle, but
heard a pop and hiss before I even left the village
and had to abort my departure. My bike is an old Trek
which has seen many a Peace Corps volunteer before me,
and which was pulled out of the “old” (as in recycled
or used only for parts) bike shed when I arrived in
Conakry…. When I peeled the tire back from the rim and
extracted the inner tube, I discovered that it already
had eleven patches of varying sizes and colors
decorating its exterior. When I halfway re-inflated
the tube and stuck it in a bucket of water, I found to
my dismay that the new hole was right where the
inflation valve met the tube, a nearly impossible
place to patch effectively. Nonetheless, I took the
tube to the village tire patch guy, and he went to
work on it with great optimism...Lansanaya has at
least two varieties of rubber trees…It was with a
small vial of this locally extracted latex that the
man glued a small piece of rubber (cut from another
tube) over the hole in my tube. It seemed to have
worked well, so I paid the guy and was happy all the
way back to my hut, until I had fully remounted and
re-inflated the tire, repacked my bags on the back of
the bike, put on my helmet and gloves and sat down on
the seat—at which point the tire immediately popped
and deflated again, and I came to the realization that
I would not be biking to Dinguiraye after all. That
was a Sunday.
“Plan B” involved waiting until the next morning
(Market Day in Lansanaya) and riding to Dinguiraye in
one of the many bush taxis which I knew would be
coming to drop off people and goods. I waited all day
in the market, and made a rookie mistake in that I
trusted someone else’s assertion that I should wait
for one specific “good” car and driver which would be
leaving “just now.” My four months in the States have
apparently made me a little rusty in the African
public transport department, and thus it was that I
didn’t leave Lansanaya until nearly 6 p.m. that
evening (in the aforementioned “good” bush taxi).
I don’t know how many people and goats were packed
into and on top of the Toyata minibus, but we didn’t
make it more than 2 km out of Lansanaya before we got
our first flat tire. I barely flinched as we followed
the usual flat tire routine of getting everyone out of
their entangled sitting positions and unloading the
spare tire from its inevitable location under
everyone’s luggage and goats. The special surprise
came with the discovery that one or more of the lug
nuts had broken or were stripped to the point of being
useless to hold on the tire. This necessitated the
shared distribution of the remaining lug nuts among
the four tires, all the while using a tire iron/lug
wrench that was so inexplicably short that it provided
no mechanical advantage whatsoever. By the time these
operations were completed, an hour had passed and
darkness had fallen fully. If I hadn’t needed to
travel, I would have just walked back to Lansanaya and
tried again in a week when the Market Day brought cars
again.
Instead, I clambered back in the taxi with everyone
else, and we rode another 2 km before a loud pop and a
lurch announced that distributing lug nuts had been a
short term solution at best, and that the next
redistribution of lug nuts would make the situation
even worse. At this point everyone got out of the taxi
and dispersed into the night. Two people took their
stuff and headed back towards Lansanaya, a couple more
opted to stay with the taxi, and the rest of us set
off on foot and without flashlights in the direction
of Dinguiraye, some 21 kilometers distant. I ended up
walking the whole way with George, a traveling
“dentist” from Ghana. He carried a glass fronted
wooden case filled with fake teeth and other dental
prosthetics. In his bag he had some scary looking
tools, a half empty bottle of lidocaine, and some
syringes. He was afraid of the dark, so we walked fast
and made it to Dinguiraye at 1:30 in the
morning—blistered, dirty, and really tired.
The PCV there was out of town and hadn’t left a key,
so I was forced to wake up my Nigerian barber friend
who groggily let me share his bed in the tiny room
that he rents as his home. A few hours later, I got up
again and went to the gare (taxi gathering area) in
order to get a place on a big, yellow American school
bus, which was the only vehicle going to Kankan. Its
only modifications seemed to be the addition of a roof
rack for baggage, the addition of an internal roll
cage to support the weight on the roof, the removal of
all safety equipment (like fire extinguishers, maximum
capacity signs, etc.), the addition of numerous Bob
Marley stickers and, finally, the addition of multiple
stereo speakers which were bolted to the ceiling along
the length of the interior. No African taxi would be
complete without music blasting the whole way.
When we rolled out of Dinguiraye at about 8 a.m., I
was amazed to find that by all reasonable standards, I
had my own seat!…Amazing! Alas, my euphoria lasted
only about half an hour before the terribly rocky and
muddy road south of Dinguiraye took its toll on the
bus. Tire problems again, and jacking up a top heavy,
overloaded bus is no easy task. Whenever these things
happen, there are always several groups which form.
There are the people doing the work, the people who
watch the work and give a constant stream of advice,
the people who refuse to get out of the vehicle, the
people who sit down in the road, and the people who
immediately curl up and go to sleep in the grass. I
opted for the grass, and sat observing the bus and the
apparently ineffective attempts to find the correct
tools to change the tire.
I noticed that in addition to Bob Marley stickers, the
bus also featured a number of Titanic stickers, which
I hoped wasn’t a bad sign, and one large decal of
Rambo above a painted message on the rear bumper.
Instead of helpful messages like “I stop for all RR
crossings” or “Our drivers are friendly and courteous”
or “This truck makes wide right turns,” buses and
trucks in Guinea usually just say “Bonne Chance” (Good
Luck)—as in Good Luck Passing Me, Good Luck Not
Breaking Down, and Good Luck Not Plunging Off the
Mountain.
The next time we got a flat tire, I noticed that the
dashboard of the bus was decorated with a strange
assembly of Cocacola beach balls, some Bollywood
actresses and a signed photo of a famous Muslim cleric
pinned up above the driver. To make a long story
short, the trip was slow, the rainy season landscape
was beautiful, the music got repetitive, and by
midnight we were in Kankan, having stopped at every
little place along the way to buy food and pee in the
bushes. The bus dropped everyone off at the edge of
town, and thankfully a passing taximan said he knew
where the Peace Corps house was…
Kankan is the home of the opposition to the current
President (Lansana Conte) and thus has no electricity,
but the PC house has an array of solar panels on the
roof and a diesel generator for emergencies. There’s
also a mini-water tower which we fill whenever the
municipal water supply is on, and which provides about
a day’s worth of water when the city pump is off. Talk
about luxury. This house also has a shed full of bike
parts, a storage room for people’s stuff, a seed bank,
a library of technical books and a bed furnished
garage….A spankin’ new laptop computer w/ printer, a
powerful HAM radio and a digital “World Space”
satellite radio (which gets NPR!!!) completes the
luxury scene. Too bad it takes 16 hours (and then
some) to get there…
It was a good stay, and the trip back to my village
was a multi-part affair involving long bush taxi
rides, an unplanned 3 a.m. arrival/stay at a
Volunteer’s hut along the way, and finally a
motorcycle adventure all the rest of the way to
Lansanaya. I love the feeling of coming back to the
village.
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Listserv Notes & GPS Notes
Marilyn Pearson, PCV parent
listserv(at)friendsofguinea(dot)org
Listserv and GPS Notes
Marilyn Pearson, PCV parent
listserv(at)friendsofguinea(dot)org
The Guinea List continues providing updates and
information about current Peace Corps related topics.
Membership on the list is hovering at 307. After the
storm of the Regional House closing discussions, this
last quarter has been fairly quiet! To join the list,
visit the Friends of Guinea website at
http://friendsofguinea.org.
A new Guinea Parent Support (GPS) group of parents,
family, and friends has formed for the July 2003 batch
of Peace Corps Trainees that left for Guinea on July
7th. They are sharing information, tips, and getting
questions answered from parents from previous groups.
There are a total of 137 members in three different
GPS groups. There is also a general Parent listserv
that is not dependent on a specific departure date.
To join a GPS listserv or for more information,
contact gps(at)friendsofguinea(dot)org.
Project Notes
Project Notes
Cherif Diallo, Projects Director
projects(at)friendsofguinea(dot)org
Since our last newsletter, several important things
have happened concerning our cooperation with Partage
Quebec Guinée, the organization which collects books
in French and sends them to schools in Guinea. Friends
of Guinea has raised $300.00 so far on behalf of PQG,
and we are about to organize a vote to decide whether
to add another $300.00 to that sum and to donate the
total to PQG.
Adam Trotta, a PCV in Lelouma, Guinea, has organized
the building of a library for the local high school.
When he saw the article on PQG in the last issue of
this newsletter, he contacted us and we forwarded his
request to PQG. They agreed to provide his library
with about a ton of books, to be sent there in a
couple months.
Friends of Guinea is currently working on making
contact with the Guinean community living in the US
and Canada in order to enlist their support for
Partage Quebec Guinée. We think PQG is a really good
organization to partner with. They have the books, and
have arrangements to ship them for free, but need some
help to maintain their daily operations. So far we
have received some encouraging results, and it seems
that there may be several Guineans willing to donate
money to the PQG project and to others of its kind.
For the next few years, FOG is thinking about focusing
its fundraising efforts towards projects that deal
with environmental preservation and restoration (e.g.
planting trees), education (building libraries,
schools), and health issues. We welcome your input on
these matters and on anything related to our
priorities as an organization.
Current PCVs working in Guinea are highly encouraged
to follow the example of Adam Trotta and to contact
FOG about their projects; FOG will do all we can to
provide them with assistance.
Financial Notes
Jody Sites, Finances(at)friendsofguinea(dot)org
As of the beginning of August we are almost $560.00
dollars ahead of last quarter. We took in $270.50 in
membership dues and donations, $300.00 in pledges for
Partage Quebec Guinée, and $326.50 from a cloth
auction we held to benefit the Girls’ Conferences
which are our major initiative at present. Against
this we spent $338.79 for expenses related to the
production and distribution of the newsletters in
February and May (an average of $169.40 per
newsletter) leaving a net gain of $558.21 for the
quarter. Our new Membership Director, Megan Wilson, is
doing a great job of reaching out to remind people to
renew their membership, thus boosting membership
payments. Thanks Megan!
Advocacy Notes
Advocacy Notes
Brian Farenell (‘95–’97), Advocacy Director
advocacy(at)friendsofguinea(dot)org
This report is going to be a bit different than
others. Rather than telling you what I’ve done, I’m
going to ask for your feedback.
Friends of Guinea is a relatively young organization,
so a lot of what we do as officers has been
continuously refined with experience.
One challenge I have as advocacy director is that my
role is less well-defined than the others’. The
financial officer collects dues and crunches numbers.
The newsletter editor collects information for and
puts together a fine publication. The advocacy
director’s job is to advocate; but for what? And how?
FOG is linked to Peace Corps Guinea. I see my job as
being an advocate both for the Peace Corps and its
volunteers and for the well-being of Guinea and
Guineans. But how to transform that interest into
concrete action is not always self-evident.
I am on many different listservs. One of the big ones
is the National Peace Corps Association’s (NPCA)
advocacy listserv. The other major one is the listserv
of ADNA, whose full name I forget but which is a
coalition of dozens of non-governmental organizations
whose work encompasses Africa, either partly or
entirely. In addition to FOG, other members of ADNA
include groups like Amnesty International, Friends of
Liberia, Oxfam and Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors
Without Borders).
Via ADNA, I am informed of dozens of issues each
month. Some of which touch on pan-African concerns,
like HIV-AIDS and trade policy. Some of which affect
Guinea’s neighbors, especially recently. Almost none
of which concern Guinea exclusively.
Both the NPCA and ADNA send me several alerts each
month. The NPCA’s alerts tend to regard Peace Corps’
funding or legislation concerning the PC.
ADNA’s alerts will sometimes urge me to contact a
Congressperson about a particular issue. But they also
will ask me if FOG will sign on to a letter drafted by
another member organization addressed to President
Bush (and often to cabinet members and/or
Congressional leaders). Basically, these letters go
something like this:
“Dear Mr. President, We are concerned by such-and-such
an issue because... Therefore, we strongly urge you to
take this action immediately. Sincerely, [List of all
the organizations who agreed to the letter]”
Although I receive dozens of requests each year, the
FOG board has been understandably reluctant to affix
the organization’s name to such sign-on letters
without consulting of the membership. Since these
letters are typically in response to breaking events,
the decision to sign on or not to a letter usually
must be made within a few days, thus making such broad
consultation unfeasible. As a result, FOG has only
signed on to one such letter, in the earliest days of
our organization, which concerned blood diamonds.
So my questions to you, the members, are these:
•Should I be an advocate solely for Guinea-only
issues? Only West Africa-specific issues? Or should
either of those be supplemented with pan-African
issues also affecting Guinea like AIDS, trade policy,
refugees, etc?
•Whatever you answered above, to what degree should I
inform and involve the membership at large?
•Would you be interested in an advocacy-only list for
FOG members?
•Are there any other issues you think I should be an
advocate for? How would you prioritize those issues?
•Would you be interested in serving on an advocacy
advisory committee? Do you have any particular
advocacy interest (like education, AIDS, environment,
etc) which you would be willing to help out with? Like
all officers, I am looking for volunteers to assist
me, in any way and to any degree they feel
comfortable.
•Should sign-on letters be approved the membership at
large? Only by the board? By a future advocacy
committee? And by what percentage? I don’t anticipate
that we would be doing something like this on a
regular basis but I would like to have a process in
place for when such a situation arises.
•Do you have any other suggestions?
I desperately welcome any feedback on these questions
as well as any other thoughts you might have on
advocacy. Please send your comments to me either by
e-mail at advocacy(at)friendsofguinea(dot)org or by letter at
P.O. Box 2612, Glens Falls, NY 12801. Thanks.
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