And I’m back. After one month in the states and 30 hours in
transit I have returned to Guinea. It was sad to say goodbye to friends and
family, but nonetheless I was excited to get back. When I landed I did not
think, “You escaped! Why the heck would you come back here”, but instead had a
feeling of homecoming. Yes, we had to push start my taxi from the airport and
yes, I was called fote immediately after landing, but it was more familiar than
frustrating.
The last month was whirlwind (note the spelling, mom) of
activity. I was in Philadelphia, Boston, and New York. I saw family and friends
from grade school, high school, and college. I got my nails done 3 times, saw a
Broadway play and ate more turkey sandwiches and sushi than you can count. And of course I cuddled with my dog, Louie,
at every possible moment. I saw Silver
Linings Playbook (brilliant) and Les
Miserables (mediocre). The crazy thing is that that list includes nothing
that I can or would do in Guinea, but there was almost no culture shock. It was
as if I picked up right where I left off.
The upcoming month will be equally busy in a completely
different way. On the AGUIDEP front, I finally got a credit card for my
organization so we will be launching BiblioTech this month. We also will be
editing the film we shot right before I left. Next week, I am heading to a farm
for 5 days to facilitate the Youth Entrepreneurship Training Program for
interns who have been learning small animal husbandry and organic agriculture
for the last 3 months and want to learn how to transform their new knowledge
into a profit. The week after that I will be heading to our training center in
Dubreka for two weeks to train our new volunteers on organizational assessment
tools. I am excited to welcome 5 of these new volunteers into the Kindia region
so I will no longer be so isolated.
Then boom, it’s February and I have less than a year left.
So with that in mind I have made my New Year’s resolution to focus on
sustainability. I want my projects to continue to succeed after I am gone, so
this year there will be no taking the easy way out. I will teach instead of do
and mentor instead of control.
For those of you who jut can’t get enough of my blog, I am
contributing to OsezInnover.com. In English it means “Dare to Innovate” and
features articles about Social Entrepreneurship from 6 volunteers and in the
near future our Guinean counterparts in both English and French. So please
read, comment, follow (there should be at least one new article a week) and if
you have a lot to say about social entrepreneurship let me know and you can
become a contributor.
