March, 2003
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Volunteering at the time of independence |
| Volunteering
at the time of independence: Guinea I and II by Susan Whitelaw
‘63–’65
Ed. note: Susan Whitelaw, a new member of Friends of Guinea, was a member of one of the first groups of PCVs to work in Guinea. She shares with us the following memoir of her time there and adds the following: "At the 40th Anniversary of the Peace Corps Conference, in Washington, DC, in June, 2002, a number of RPCVs from Guinea I and Guinea II got together for a wonderful weekend of sharing memories and catching up on news. We were particularly pleased to meet volunteers from the 90's who were able to give us updates on what is happening in Guinea now. A highlight of our reunion was carrying the Guinean flag across the Memorial Bridge and to the closing ceremonies in Arlington Cemetery. We created a contact list of Guinea I and II RPCVs, and have plans for another reunion before another 37 years go by." When we arrived in Guinea in 1963, the country was in transition from colonialism to independence. Guinea, alone among French West African nations, had chosen independence over continued confederation with France, and was feeling the economic effects of that isolating choice. Public services had deteriorated. Shortages of food and supplies were widespread and severe. But Guineans were optimistic about the future and ready to build their country, and we, the volunteers, were hopeful for them. We were about 60 volunteers, half English teachers and half rural economic development workers, deployed all over the country. The Peace Corps wanted volunteers in Guinea to counteract the Soviet bloc’s effort to pull Guinea, with its rich resources of cold-war-necessity bauxite, into its realm of influence. We were the first Americans most Guineans had ever seen, but we joined a host of foreigners from France, China, and the Eastern Bloc countries–Czechoslovakia, Russia, Bulgaria–all teaching in the high schools and offering technical and material assistance. The Cold War was a constant presence. During training, we mastered the Communist Manifesto, to inoculate us from anticipated propaganda. When some Russian teachers made friends with Conakry volunteers and arranged reciprocal language lessons, the Russian leadership put a stop to it–no fraternizing with the capitalists. PC Washington, in urging Conakry teachers to move out of the international teachers’ bloc of apartments and into Guinean neighborhoods, fanned suspicions that we were spying. During one three-month period, we received no personal letters from home at all, and our letters to the States were often waylaid. It turned out that someone (the Red Chinese?) had bribed drivers carrying mail from the airport to deliver it elsewhere; huge piles of soggy, contaminated mail were later found on the beach and stuffed down toilets. Our very concerned parents flooded the State Department with requests to know what was going on–clearly their kids weren’t getting any mail! Finally, they let parents send us mail through the diplomatic pouch. Some Guineans in my town, Dubreka, unable to understand why else I would have landed in their small corner of the world, assumed that the American government sent me there to punish my family, having heard that in the U.S. the rich oppressed the poor. Yet, on a personal basis, the Guineans were very hospitable and welcoming. The night Kennedy was shot, a few weeks after I arrived, all the teachers and dignitaries of the town came to my home to offer condolences. The Cold War seemed very removed from daily life at the College Court at Dubreka. I became part of a group of young teachers from all over Guinea, the first cohort of home-grown teachers to graduate from Guinean teacher’s colleges. They took me under their wing and taught me essential skills–don’t flash the flashlight in people’s faces when walking out at night (tres impoli)–the cadences of the extended ca va? greetings (ca va la frigo? was a favorite in a land of chronic kerosene shortages), how to wait patiently for parades, ballets, and concerts to start hours late, how to take it easy during the long, hot afternoons, how to share what we had–cigarettes, records, coffee, bug spray, soup packages–and take care of one another. They included me in their lives, and with them I attended the activities of the town: parades, theater evenings featuring political skits and local music and ballet, a declitorization ceremony, a funeral, Muslim holiday feasts, visits from Sekou Toure, and daily life in family homes. I taught them English, typing, and sewing, and they taught me, by example, about the strong ties and obligations of family and community. Some aspects of life there may sound familiar to today’s volunteers. The short wave radio, issued to each PCV, was our indispensable link to the outside world, as no newspapers or magazines were available. Obtaining kerosene was a constant problem, needed to fuel the gas burner for cooking, the lantern for evening reading, and, if all went well, the refrigerator. Food was scarce most of the time, and I lived on canned salmon, coffee, noodles, bread, and seasonal fruit, and, sometimes, PC issued K rations. The rainy season, though it brought flies and mosquitoes, also brought cool air and fresh water, caught in a rain barrel as it fell off the roof. I was through, for awhile, with muddy water pulled from the town well, needing endless filtering. Travel was always an adventure; I took taxis, in the form of very old and beat up cars, back and forth to Conakry. The taxis were packed with travelers, came irregularly, and often broke down en route. Even in my relative backwater, however, I remained aware of Guinea’s emergence in the international arena. U Thant and Ben Bella visited, and the U.S. sent the Hope Ship, which docked off Conakry to provide medical training and services for a year. Volunteers taught English to Guinean medical personnel working on the ship. Harry Belafonte came to recruit the astoundingly talented indigenous musicians and dancers for international tours, and SNCC members, invited by Sekou Toure, reminded us of the tumultuous developments in Civil Rights back home. Sekou Toure seemed ubiquitous on the radio, urging his country to greater efforts in development, and he sounded the same themes on his frequent visits to the prefectures. My first lodging was in the President’s guest house in Dubreka, decorated with huge Guinean flags and portraits of Sekou Toure. Three more PC Guinea groups arrived during and just after the departure of Guinea I and II in July 1965, but an increasingly oppressive government evicted them within about a year. The hopes we had for Guinea seemed lost in the harsh regime of intolerance and administrative chaos. Like other volunteers, I was fearful for my Guinean friends; a curtain had fallen and the country was no longer accessible to the outside world. It is a relief and a delight to know that the Peace Corps is back in Guinea, and stronger than ever, at the invitation of a new, more open, government. Keep up the good work, and let us know how we can help!
Marilyn Pearson (PCV Parent) [email protected] Hello everyone. My name is Marilyn Pearson and I am the new Guinea List Administrator elected by the members of Friends of Guinea (FOG) in October 2002. The Guinea List is a free email discussion list (group). As a parent of Jenni Pearson, a Peace Corps Volunteer teaching English in Siguiri, I’m finding volunteering on the FOG Board both enlightening and rewarding. The Guinea List serves all PCVs past, present, and future as well as family and friends who need a quick, reliable way to communicate on all matters Guinean. Current membership is hovering at 312. Check out http://friendsofguinea.org to become a member of the list. I’m also the coordinator of the Guinea Parent Support (GPS) listservs. As a new PCV parent, I was desperate to communicate with other parents when my daughter left for Guinea. Although the Guinea List was helpful, I wanted to communicate with the other parents of my daughter’s departure group because I knew we would all be experiencing the same feelings and concerns. . . “mail takes HOW LONG to get there?!!!” GPS was born when FOG generously offered to set up a listserv for each PCV departure group (typically June and October each year). Each group has a volunteer “leader” from a previous parent group as well as several “mentor” parents who are in the 2nd or 3rd year of the PC experience. (See the accompanying article, “Guinea Parent Support”, in this newsletter.) As of January 2003, we have 104 parents, family, and friends communicating and supporting each other in two GPS groups, one from June 02 and one from Oct 02. We’ve also started a general Parents group which any parent past, present, or future can join. To join any of these groups, visit http://friendsofguinea.org and look for the “Guinea Parent Support” link. As you can see, FOG has communication opportunities galore on its various listservs. As both the Guinea List and the GPS listservs grow, my goal, as a fairly new convert to listservs, is just to keep them all straight! |
Girls’
Conference Fundraising Succeeds!
The Girls' Conferences Fundraising Committee:
THANK YOU Friends of Guinea! We did it – we raised the $8,000 needed for the 2003 Guinea Regional Girls' Conferences and more! We currently have over $10,000 in funds and donations continue to be received. All funds collected over the needed $8,000 for this year's conferences will be saved for next year. The Girls' Conferences Fund Raising Committee wishes to thank each and every one of you for your efforts and generosity, and particularly a few of our major donors: Kathy Tillford, former PCD for PC Guinea who currently lives in Niger; and Jeni Moore, of Pasadena, CA. Look for a full report on our fund raising efforts in the May CaVa, but until then, Congratulations – this is a great success for all Friends of Guinea! Marilyn Pearson, PCV parent Parents, family, and friends of Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) in Guinea have a new way to keep in touch with other parents, sharing tips, support, and experiences. The idea for GPS began in July 2002 when a group of Peace Corps Trainees (PCTs) in Dubreka sent a list of email addresses home to give parents in their group a way to contact each other. With lots of help from Stephanie at FOG and the Peace Corps Guinea desk in Washington D.C., Guinea Parent Support was born. Parents can join a group, based on their PCT’s departure date, to share support as they embark on the Peace Corps adventure. Parents, who may not have heard from their PCT yet, are moved to tears when they are able to view photos shared by other GPS parents, or read a reference to their loved one in an email. Each group has a volunteer parent leader from the previous group as well as several “mentor” parents who are in the 2nd or 3rd year of the Peace Corps experience. As of November 2002, there were 94 parents, family, and friends communicating and supporting each other in two GPS parent groups, one from the June 2002 departure and one from the October 2002 departure. New groups will be added as each batch of PCTs leaves for Guinea. We have also started a general Parents Listserv group which any parent, past, present, or future can join. Each group communicates via a listserv, generously set up and maintained by Friends of Guinea. New parents are given a chance to sign up for the listserv, corresponding to their PCT’s departure date, through the parent information letter sent to all parents of PCTs. PCTs can also sign up their friends and family at Staging, just before they leave for Guinea. For information about joining any of these groups, please contact Marilyn, the GPS Coordinator, at [email protected]. Jody Sites '94-'96 My name is Jody Sites. I became Finance Director of Friends of Guinea in the election held at the end of last year. Before I continue with my report on FOG’s finances, I would like to tell you about myself. I was in Guinea from 94-96. I lived in Beyla, where I served as a math teacher for the 9th and 11th grades. I had a hard time being away from my family and friends for so long, as well as trying to communicate in a new language–I had a hard enough time trying to communicate in English! But, while my time was very challenging on a day to day basis, it was also extremely rewarding. I think about my village daily, and have developed friendships that I believe will last a lifetime. I started dating Anne Redmond during training, and our 1st year we lived about 4 days travel away from each other. For our 2nd year, she luckily got a position in my part of the country, so she was 'only' 5 hours away from me. We were married in August of 2001. We were blessed to welcome our daughter Aidan a couple of years ago while living in New York City. Before joining Peace Corps, here's some quick data about myself: I grew up in Maine, went to school for a couple of years at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Indiana, finished up my Electrical Engineering degree in Maine, then went to Guinea. After returning, Anne and I lived in Portland, Maine for a couple of years whilst I worked at National Semicondutor. In the fall of 1998, I decided to return to school to pursue an MBA degree from Babson College in Wellesley, MA. Anne started working on her MPH at Boston University. After graduation, I moved to NYC where Anne was finishing her degree at Hunter College. I believe FOG has a tremendous future. There is a huge need for a center for communication on this side of the ocean, and I believe FOG will serve this purpose effectively with the help of all the members. So much for me. Here’s the finance report. Since the last newsletter, not including donations for the Girls Conference and revenue from Peace Corps calendar sales, FOG has garnered an income of $691, and incurred expenses of $603, for a net income of $88. Income was generated through membership dues and donations. Expenses include web development & domain registration, costs to send out the newsletter, and costs in putting together information packets for the new officers. For the Girls Conference, FOG had revenue in excess of $8000. This revenue came from both donations and revenue from Peace Corps calendar sales. Brian Farenell '95-'97 [email protected] Advocacy Website Coming Soon. A new advocacy website is under construction and will be online hopefully soon. Follow the listserv and the main website (friendsofguinea.org) for more details. Interested In Advocacy? Some members may be interested in advocacy issues but do not know how to channel that interest. If you have a particular area of interest that you want to put your energies toward, please contact me. I will try to help find a way you can advance that issue. And don't feel limited by the domains that Peace Corps tends to focus on like education, public health and environment. Some members are interested in issues of peace and security, trade policy, generic medicines, etc. The issue can be as broad or as focused as you wish. I can help direct you toward other resources as well as other members who might share similiar interests. ADNA Rep. The Africa Development Network for Advocacy (ADNA), of which Friends of Guinea is a member, holds monthly meetings. Although I am on their listserv, I would like very much if FOG could have a representative physically present at their meetings. ADNA is a broad coalition of NGOs working throughout Africa; they comprise diverse organizations working in areas of refugee aid, food relief, human rights, peace efforts as well as on broader development policy questions. They hold meetings in Washington, DC on the first Tuesday of every month from 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Please note that this is a weekday and lasts all morning. Refreshments are provided. If you live in the DC area and are interested (and available) to attend these meetings, please contact me for more details.
Stephanie Chasteen '97-'99 [email protected] FOG Humor If you haven't already, check out our fun page at http://www.friendsofguinea.org/fun.shtml. We have links to old volunteer newsletters (Awa, La Pagaille), and other funny writings. Got anything to add? Send it to Stephanie Chasteen at [email protected]. A big thanks to Jennifer Czysz (Villemure) for painstakingly converting old Pagaille's to PDF! Girls Conferences I would like to take a moment to give a big round of applause for our Girls Conference Coordinator, Anne Redmond ('94-96). Anne signed up for a small organizational role, which ended up being more encompassing than we had originally anticipated. She took on the role with finesse, acting as a central coordination point for the fundraising of over $8000 for the conferences. She deserves a lot of credit for communicating with people around the country, and in Guinea, to pull this off. And once again, the conferences were fully funded without drawing from FOG's own funds (from membership dues). Thanks to Anne, and thanks to everyone else who pulled together time and money to make these conferences possible!
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News from PC/Guinea Following are some highlights from the in-country Peace Corps Guinea Newsletter of December 2002. APCD for Health, Agnieszka Sykes, left her post in Guinea on December 6th to take a position with USAID in Benin. In speaking about Agnieszka’s two and a half years with Peace Corps, Country Director Lisa Ellis described her as enthusiastic, creative and hard driving and praised the advances made in the Health program during her tenure. The Peace Corps office moved to a new location in Taouyah in mid-December. The new facility will provide space for new staff, new technology and additional programming, and will allow the program to comply with current safety and security requirements for overseas government agency facilities. Lisa describes the new building as spacious, spectacular and even “palatial.” The Maison de Passage (volunteer house) has already re-located into a house next door to the new office. New staff members are: Sidi Conde, Information Technology Specialist, formerly with Mobil Exxon in Conakry. Catherine Kling, new APCD for Health beginning in January, who was a PCV/Health in Cameroon, served as a Crisis Corps Volunteer in Forecariah, Guinea and currently works with Catholic Relief Services in Sierra Leone. Sean Cantella, new APCD for Administration beginning in January, a RPCV from Senegal who has worked in Guinea with PSI and USAID in HIV/AIDS. New trainees for Public Health and Natural Resources Management (G5) will become Volunteers at swearing in ceremonies on January 2, 2003 in Dubreka-Ville. Their site visits were in late November. New travel restrictions for Guinea PCVs: No travel allowed to Cote d’Ivoire, including any travel that entails a flight stop or layover in Abidjan. Vacation policy for PCVs: Effective January 2003, standard policy will be strictly enforced (2 days of vacation earned for each month of service). Volunteers can no longer take additional vacation days and pay for them at COS (close of service). |
Megan Wilson '97-'99 [email protected] Hello All. My name is Megan Wilson and I am FOG’s new membership director. I am excited to be a part of Friends of Guinea. I see my position as a way to help promote Peace Corps’s third goal of sharing the volunteer experience back here in the states. It is great to work and get to know FOG members, who care so much Guinea and Guineans. I was a PCV in prefecture of Kouroussa of Upper Guinea from 1997 to 1999, where I taught math and coordinated three community development projects. While the sun beat down hard on my small tin-roofed house turning it into a little oven, I loved my experience. The people I worked with were very dedicated, friendly and fun. My house was a hang-out for my neighbor’s kids—and I enjoyed getting to know them and watching their funny antics. (I am sure that they thought I had some funny antics of my own.) Of course, I had the average array of volunteer frustrations: communication woes, transportation problems, and the slow pace of work. Frustrations aside, my Peace Corps experience was a life changing experience and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Currently, I live in Washington D.C. – that great Mecca for RPCVs. I work for the Environmental Protection Agency, where I focus on international environmental policy. I plan to go to graduate school soon, where I am going to study the interplay between environmental policy and international development. Now on to more important matters – the state of FOG’s members. Currently FOG has 140 paying members and 82 people whose memberships have lapsed. In December, renewal notices were sent out to the lapsed members. If you received one of these notices and renewed your membership, thank you. If you haven’t renewed yet, please consider rejoining our ranks. Your support is important to FOG – without it we couldn’t keep up the FOG website, list serve, send out “Ça Va” or contribute to projects such as the annual Girls’ Conferences. If you have any questions about the renewal process or about FOG membership in general please let me know. One of my goals as Membership Director is to work to expand our ranks and make sure that the returning volunteers know what a great resource FOG is. I plan to work with Peace Corps and you – our members – to accomplish this goal. Please email me at [email protected] if you have any ideas or suggestions. Thanks for being a part of FOG. I look forward to getting to know many of you better this year through my position as FOG’s Membership Director. |