Rooting for the Underdog

In the Guardian’s article, “Guinea’s Anti-Corruption Activists Raise Doubt Over Mining Crackdown”, they write:

There is a saying in Guinea that is popular among those who work in development: "Everything is a priority". It is a wry observation that, in a country in which almost nothing works, it is difficult to work out what to tackle first. The facts are stark. A recent survey showed that 62% of Guineans have no access to running water, 62% have no access to electricity, 65% say they have inadequate access to roads, and 72% think the

justice system is broken. The country's human development indicators are well below those of other sub-Saharan African countries – the UN ranks the country's development 178th of 185 in the world.

Wow. This is the country that I have called home for nearly two years. I know the lack of water and that our electricity is so scare that you do not call periods without electricity blackouts, rather you call the hours with electricity a grand surprise. While the roads in my region are not bad by Guinean standards, not even the national highway is completely paved and it is only the national highway, one road snaking around the country to hit the major cities, which is paved. My problem with the justice system, starts with the fact that something so lacking in transparency cannot really be called a system. And justice… A recent survey found that 98% of businesses in Guinea, and 93% of citizens, have experienced corruption.

Lack of electricity means lack of food conservation. This is a workshop on how to preserve our abundant mangos through jamming!

And so this is the country that I have come to love and am here to help develop and it can be a daunting task. I’m in my fourth quarter, the clock is running out, and we are down so many points. What’s a girl to do? For me, the answer is social entrepreneurship. If you don’t know which problem to tackle first, go for the base. Start with the youth. They have time and the passion to make real change.  Teach people to see a lack of development as an opportunity. Give them the skills they need to create innovative projects and manage them for success. Teach them the benefits of networking so that they can have access to the resources that are present in the region. Give them mentors who know how to operate in the context to serve as their guides. Find positive deviants and give them the confidence to be visionaries. And that is the Dare to Innovate project. It has grown immensely over the past year and starts officially with a weeklong conference August 11^th. It will launch the social enterprise sector in Guinea and already is attracting trainees from other West African countries. I’m excited and proud of my partners and have seen enough sports movies to know even if there are mere minutes on the clock and you are down, the underdog, full of passion and grit can win. And Guinea, is nothing, if not the underdog.

It's that time of the year...again

The month of Ramadan has arrived. Last year, I was a bit cranky during this period of the year. When I was fasting, people would tell me I could not fast until I converted to Islam and if I wasn’t fasting they told me that I must. Finding a bowl of rice while the sun was out was a challenge. People move slower, work less, and lose their tempers more.

As Ramadan approached this year, I tried to get in my zen place. Within a day, I was already getting frustrated. I cannot count how many times I had the conversation, “Are you fasting?”, “No, I’m a Christian”. It was driving me crazy, but why? I have the conversation “Are you married?” almost as much and it does not drive me nearly as crazy.

Peace Corps is all about integration. The biggest compliment you can give another volunteer is that they are bien integré. You spend your life here proving that you are the same as the people you live and work with. Wontanara, we are together. I’m no different from you, see us both waiting in line at the pump? I go exclusively by my Guinean name and I speak local language as much as possible. My French has completely lost the formality of my high school textbooks and contains the whole rainbow of Guinean sound effects. And this is why having to declare my Christianity on a bi-minutely basis is so frustrating. After spending months upon months trying to show the similarities between all of us, I am forced to constantly point out a major cultural difference or else go without water in the hot sun.

I’m not sure what that means for this month. I am not sure if it will make me fast more or less, but it is nice to be able to name the place that the frustration is coming from and try to move past it and spend this month learning about a key aspect of Guinean culture.

Happy Independence Day

America was once a colony. This is a phrase I repeat often to my friends and colleagues in Guinea when they seem to have given up hope that the transition to democracy will continue or they are frustrated at the lack of social development. We almost went bankrupt. Shortly after Independence, we fought a war against the British. They burned down the White House. We had a civil war. We had a great depression. Democracy is not easy. It takes a long time to get right. But it is worth it. 

Once a year, we get to celebrate the fact that we gained our independence, set up a functioning government and have run it continuously for the last 237 without a coup d’état, military take-over, or other disastrous interruption. This is something I have always taken for granted. Of course they set up a system of checks and balances and of course George Washington, the visionary leader that he was, refused to stay in office indefinitely and stepped down when his term was over. But, living in Guinea, I realized that these are not “of courses” but “Thank Gods”. This continent is scarred by democratically presidents refusing to step down, devolving into tyrants as fatigue and paranoia set it. Guinea, itself, has very few checks and balances considering the fact that it still does not have a legislature and anyone can be bought off.

America is not perfect, but it has kept me safe and healthy, protected my freedoms, provided me with basic services, and sent me half way around the world to promote peace, technical understanding and cultural exchange. I am always proud to be an American, but the 4^th is the occasion to celebrate it. This year I dressed in red, white, and blue head-to-toe, drank a “cold” beer with some other volunteers, sang the national anthem and danced the night away, because there is nothing like living in Guinea to make you appreciate the fact that you are an American.