Letters from Volunteers in the Field

Woody Colahan's Letters

I joined Peace Corps in 1993 at the age of 35, immediately after finishing the requirements for my Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Denver. Peace Corps service was a dream I had had since I was a teenager...

Woody Colahan's letters - 14 June 1995

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It's been a while since I've written so I guess it's time for an update. The last week of May I took a trip to Kankan in the eastern part of the country. A gruelling 36-hour voyage by "bush taxi" (a Peugeot station wagon with eleven passengers) which I don't think I will repeat. Kankan is the second-biggest city in Guinea. While I was there I saw lot of other volunteers, most of whom had gathered like myself for a going-away party for Mara, the volunteer with the record for the longest stay in Guinea -- almost four years. (The standard stint is two years.) We all had a great time.

Haute Guinee (Upper Guinea), as the area around Kankan is called, impressed me mostly as flat and monotonous. I was glad to have seen it primarily because it made me appreciate my own region of Guinea, the Fouta Djallon highlands, that much more.

Woody Colahan's letters - 30 June 1996

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Today was an unremarkable day. This morning at 8:00 a.m. Mouctar showed up at my door. I was still getting dressed and he had already hiked all the way from Kambaco. He's Saikou's star student and assistant in the literacy group out there. He said Saikou was sick with a sore throat and did I have any medicine?

I gave him some cough drops I had and recommended tea with lemon. I also recommended he gargle with salt water. I had to look up the French word for "gargle" (se gargariser) and demonstrate for Mouctar what it meant. He thought it was pretty hilarious. I told him Saikou probably had the flu but if his sore throat lasted more than three days, he should come in and get checked for strep.

Woody Colahan's letters - 29 June 1996

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Greetings from the Fouta. Rainy season is moving into full swing and everybody is out in the fields growing the rice and cassava they will eat for the rest of the year. It really is beautiful this time of year. I have always known that I would be leaving Guinea at the height of the rainy season, and I am glad I will remember it this way.

Rainy season is also malaria season and flu season of course. The health center is very busy. I saw a little girl with whooping cough the other day. Something you don't see often at home. Unfortunately all the health centers are desperately low on medications. In a related development the Guinean health minister has, after initial denials, admitted the truth of a report on French radio that more than a million dollars in health funds has disappeared without a trace. This scandal, though unremarkable by itself in Guinean terms, comes on the heels of the announcement of a government anti-corruption campaign.

Woody Colahan's letters - 7 May 96

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So -- it is two days later and I will try to finish the story. They wanted me to go to this big meeting, and I didn't really want to. I had something I wanted to do in Pita on Friday. They asked me at least to address the meeting before I left for Pita. So I told them, if I were to address the meeting it would be to ask the following question: Why had all these thousands of dollars (millions of francs -- I heard estimates from two to ten million) been spent of sacrifices and ceremonies to seek God's benediction for the development of Maci, when they could have actually been used to do something for Maci such as digging wells, building a school, or even installing a solar electric system in the health center? They agreed I should go to Pita instead.

Woody Colahan's letters - 5 May 1996

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Dear Mom & Dad;

Greetings from Guinea, the pearl of West Africa. Pardon me for using the blue pen as I know black is easier to read on this grid paper, but it is the only one I have with me and I want to get this letter off with someone who is leaving for Conakry today. In fact if I have to break off abruptly, it is because they have come for my letter. Last week was the Feast of Tabaski, and a great number of people who claim Maci as their ancestral home but who live elsewhere came back to visit their families and pass the holiday together. This to be followed by a big meeting on Friday to discuss the development priorities of the sub-prefecture and try to make some positive decisions. In order that Allah should smile upon the development of Maci, they spent the entire day and night leading up to the meeting in holding special prayers and

Woody Colahan's letters - 23 January 1996

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Dear Mom & Dad;

Greetings from Maci. Today is the first day of Ramadan, the holy month of fasting and atonement for all muslims. For the faithful who keep the fast, including everyone in Maci except small children and me, no food or drink is to be taken between sunrise and sunset. People here have a special wrinkle they throw in: they refrain as well from swallowing their spit. All day long people are spitting out long streams of saliva everywhere.

Besides small children, the Koran specifically excuses sick people from fasting, as well as pregnant women and nursing mothers. In principle, in fact, anyone who doesn't feel up to it is excused. But here in the Fouta, everybody fasts, period. Needless to say, it is not the healthiest thing for a woman in an advanced stage of pregnancy. I have been trying to introduce the idea that pregnant women shoul not fast, but no luck so far.We will start seeing the first miscarriages and premature births here at the health center in a few days.