On to Part II

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.