The Fruits and Vegetable Capital of Guinea!

 Mr. Sylla and Mohmed

My hut

So as my dad pointed out, I have been absent from the internet this blog for a little while. It is because this past week was a part of training know as Counter Part Workshop and Site Visit. For the workshop we went up in the mountains to learn about our organizations with our work partners. It was so chilly in the mornings that I wore my sweatshirt. It was wonderful . After that, the moment we all were waiting for; Site visits when we got to see the place that we are going to live for the next two years. I am in Kindia or Xindiya, depending if you are in the mood for French or Susu, in the neighborhood of Canenday. If is about a 35 minute walk from city proper so I get the benefits of both having a city and small town feel. Electricity has not yet come to my quartier, but a transformer is sitting next to my house waiting for the government to come install it. I should have asked how long it has been sitting there… I will be living in a hut. I felt weird calling it a hut until I heard my host dad call it a hut. I do have a tin roof and cement walls though (see picture)!  I live with a man, his wife, and their 8 month old baby, Mohmed. He is an absolute muhz. There are also another little girl and boy who live with us who I think are somehow related. I told my host dad that I love fruits and vegetables so every day he showed up at my door with oranges, grapefruits, bananas, pineapples, and cucumbers. I will probably overload on vitamin c before getting out of here, but worse things have happened. I was there for 4 days so I only really scratched the surface of living in Kindia but some highlights:

Joining a women’s group of fabric dyers- thay sang and hugged me and welcomed me as a sister

Waiting 3 hours to get a taxi out of the city

Going through my first military checkpoint and witnessing my first bribe

Cold refrigerated water!

Being given Susu lessons by the 15 kids who showed up every night after dinner for the Fote show

Right now I am in Conakry enjoying AC and showers and tomorrow I will go back to Dubreka for 3 more weeks of training  and then finally I will be sworn in as a volunteer and move out to my site for good!