Senegal, Land of Dreams?

The Runs! 1-1

Presenting at All-Vol

I just got back from Senegal where I attended an “All-Vol”, ostensibly a conference where volunteers from all over West Africa exchange ideas and WAIST, the West African International Softball Tournament.

Still in Guinea, we drove our car on to this hand crank operated ferry.

Guinea volunteers talk about Dakar (the capital of Senegal) as if it were the Emerald City, Atlantis, and Paris all wrapped in one. I have a secret for you. We are not exaggerating. Senegal is Guinea’s neighbor to the north sharing a border with a small part of the northern Basse-Cote and the entire northern border of the Fouta Djallon. In terms of distance, it’s less than 10 hours from the regional capital of Labe to the border, but it terms of development it is light-years away. As you approach the border, the road becomes smooth and paved with a dotted line down the middle. Taxis that hold 9 in Guinea, by law hold 7 people. That is to say one person per seat. When we pulled into the first small town, I saw signs for “Espresso” everywhere. I was excited. I love coffee and didn’t know that the coffee shop was an integral part of Senegalese culture. I was wrong and the answer was even more exciting. Espresso is an Internet provider. Running water (potable in Dakar), electricity and Internet are ubiquitous in Senegal. When we got to the training center in Thies, a city like Kindia in that it is the closest large city to the capital, we were cautioned that every once in a while there would be a short black out and to not be alarmed. I couldn’t help but laughing. If we were in Kindia, I would be warning, “Every once in a while, we will have a short period of electricity. Don’t be alarmed.” In Thies, you could go eat at one of many air conditioned cafes that served everything from penne with shrimp to four cheese panninis to ice cream and pizza while providing free high speed wifi. Dakar was even better. I drank tap water! I drank draft beer! There is a real mix of cultures in Dakar. You can see the diversity of the city just walking down the street. A survey of our group would reveal that we collectively ate Ethiopian, French, Lebanese, Thai, Senegalese, American, and Koren Food. Also, we ate more ice cream than a person should in a week. Don’t even get me started on the grocery stores.

That's a real Aldo across the street from our hostel. Walking in is just like going in the one on M street.

The super market...in a shopping mall. They have their own line of store brand organic products

I scream, you scream, we all scream for N'ice Cream!

It’s easy to go on and on about Dakar. We decided that we needed to be careful, as Guinea volunteers, not to point out constantly to the Senegal volunteers how much harder we have it. Every once in a while, something would slip out (OH MY GOSH! Grass! They have grass fields!), but the more time we spent in Senegal, the more we realized how easy we have it in Guinea. Yes, they can ride a Ferris Wheel, or take hot showers, or buy American clothes in a shopping mall, but they are also constantly harassed and treated like tourists. Guineans are warm and welcoming. They treat you like family and know that you are in their country to get a job done and so give you respect. At the first leg of my trip I ended up in Labe, alone, after dark, with no phone. Apparently, there were bandits eyeing my bag and offering me rides just so they could steal all my things. What happened? The driver put my bag and me in his taxi and locked the doors. The woman who was riding next to me got in and offered to take me to her house so I could charge my phone and eat dinner until I figured out how to get to the Peace Corps house. The driver took me all the way to the Peace Corps transit house for free.  In Senegal I felt constantly affronted, harassed, swindled and ripped off. When buying something in the market, I kept my ears open for Guinean last names and would buy from these friendly vendors. Peace Corps Guinea is like one big family. I know everyone’s names, their siblings names, where in Guinea and America they live, and their favorite food. Seasoned Senegalese volunteers kept asking us if we were from the new stage and the new ones kept asking us where in Senegal we served. So even though in Guinea I can’t eat a bagel and drink iced coffee while watching Youtube videos, I feel blessed to have ended up in Guinea, the land of one million smiles and one kind of paved road.

Madeline Island, a completely deserted island paradise

Hey Baby, I Think I Want to Marry You

In November I hit my one-year in country mark. In January, I got to the halfway point and now today, I have officially one year left. That though is not the point of this post. While a lot has changed in the year I have been here- both personally and in Guinea generally, one thing has remained a constant. The marriage proposals never stop. The other day, I was facilitating a workshop and a participant came over before I had even started and said in English, “I want to marry you now”. I said that was fine by me as long as he was comfortable with being my 6^th husband (as in polygamy) and that my bride price was a car, 100 cows, and a house with a pool. He said he would build a compound for me with a pool and a house for each of my husbands on the condition that I never leave the compound. It didn’t work out.

Last year, I spent 9 weeks living in a host family in Dubreka during my training. I had a 15 year old brother, Ishmael who acted as a surrogate mother, father, brother, and sister. He was the one charged with taking care of me and so we spent a lot of time together. Last year for Christmas he bought me a stack of 100 puppy stickers, a glow in the dark rosary and a ring. He knows I am obsessed with dogs because one of the first things I did was show him pictures of Leo. He knows I am Catholic because that is a the reason I give for not going to the mosque. The ring was supposed to keep me safe. It was a very thoughtful gift. This year, when I told him I was coming back to Dubreka for training he was excited. He had bought me a gift and didn’t know when he would be able to give it to me. So one night after training, I walked over to their house to say hello and get my gift. It started off with 5,000 GNF phone credit- a nice gesture since he calls me everyday and sometimes when the call drops I call him back. Then he put a rubber “Sylli de Guinee” bracelet on my wrist. Think Livestrong bracelet but twice as thick and the colors of the Guinean flag. Then he slipped a sweat band (also in the colors of the flag) on my other wrist except this one can with the decoration of a marijuana leaf and he had added “Grace a Maman” in pen. Then he handed me a opaque black plastic bag and told me to open the rest at home. Inside the bag was a packaged wrapped in cellophane gift wrap (Which can only be bought at a gas station and so is a luxury item). Inside this wrapping was a box, inside this box was a bag, inside this bag was a box. This time the box was clear and said, “I heart you”. Inside this box was a fake rose ring box open with a ring inside and a pack of mints. It may be hard to picture so when I get to a better internet connection I will add some photos. The package contained many other smaller gifts such as a change purse within a change purse with one of each type of American coin, some euro coins, and religious medals inside. A sheet that used to contain heart stickers with one letter of “Bonne Annee MC” written one letter inside each empty heart. A free bank wallet with 300 GNF (approximately 4 cents) in it. A illustrated card with some lovely stickers on it including one of a glittery squirrel. A certificate saying he had donated 5000GNF in my name (which he thinks is Meghan Cormick) to development funds. A nice gesture although I highly doubt those funds are going towards developing anything. A mardi gras mask and a paper asking me “In your opinion, what most quickly kills a friendship”. He then had 35 responses for me to choose from including not being yourself, marriage, and bad breath.

The gift was wonderful and strange. Opening it gave me quite the entertaining evening. My reaction was, “Oh isn’t this sweet”, but it was apparent to the other volunteers that I was with that this was a proposal. In this uncertain and instable world, it is nice to know that at least some things never change. 

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. 

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Belated Thanksgiving! We were able to have a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at our country director’s house who supplied us with a delicious turkey. With our powers combined, volunteers were able to scrape together stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes , green beans and even rolls with butter! For the first time in my life, I did not roll my eyes at the traditional lets go around the table and say what we are thankful for activity. Living in Guinea, I realize how much I have to be grateful for. Here is an abbreviated list.

1.       I am thankful that I won the nationality lottery. Being born as an American citizen opens up so many doors.

2.       I am thankful for watching the sunsets over the ocean from the roof of the volunteer house in conakary.

3.       I’m thankful to friends and family who have sent me letters and packages.

4.       I am thankful for mangos, pineapples, avocados and other delicious things that grow in Kindia.

5.       I am thankful to have a host family that has really taken me in as a member of the family. I am thankful that I have a real family who has supported me on this adventure.

6.       I am thankful that the people of Kindia are motivated and engaged and ready to work with me towards a better future.

7.       I am thankful that I have had success in my projects and that I find my work so fulfilling.

8.       I am thankful to my stage mates and to our “flotte” that makes all of them just a free phone call away (if only Orange could get their act together)

9.       I am thankful for waterfalls that let me escape the heat and go for a swim.

10.   I am thankful that in 8 days, I will be getting on a plane to go to American for the Holidays and thankful that I am loving life enough here that I can say for certain that I will get back on that plane at the end of vacation and continue my work.

Things I am not thankful for…BICIGUI. If you have been following the saga, we still don’t have our credit card so my BiblioTech is still on hold. You expect the small local organization to make development work challenging, not the multinational bank, but alas AGUIDEP has their stuff together 1000x more than BICIGUI.

Baa Baa Black Sheep

It’s November. Last November I was saying my final goodbyes, packing up, and getting on plane to fly over here. In the past 11 months, Guinea has transformed itself from a wild an inexplicable adventure to my new normal. As a result, the blog posts have dropped off. Doing laundry by hand, at a point in the past, was out of the ordinary, worthy of a blog post. Now, on laundry day, I haul some buckets of water, turn on my ipod speakers, and get it done. I will do my best to keep posting and keep it interesting.

Last Friday was Tabaski, the Muslim holiday to commemorate when God to Abraham to kill his first born and at the last minute decided that the test was enough of a sacrifice and a sheep would suffice. In Guinea, they often call it “La Fête de Mouton” because every Muslim with the mean to is supposed to sacrifice a sheep and share the meat with friends, family, and the less fortunate. In the days leading up to Tabaski, I saw sheep everywhere. Sheep in cars, sheep on cars, sheep on motorcycles, on boys’ shoulders, tied to a tree. Literally everywhere you looked there was a sheep enjoying its last few days on earth. As an on-again-off-again vegetarian, I was not thrilled about the prospect of seeing sheep slaughtered all over the place. When I close my eyes, I can still picture the slaughtered cow that I saw during Ramadan. I got up early and went for a run. I put on a baseball cap, yoga pants, a t-shirt popped in my ipod and off I went. I did not realize that my normal run took me by the main mosque in my neighborhood. I turned a corner and there were people everywhere and more streaming up the road coming for the morning prayer. The women were in complets, shawls, and head scarves and here I was dressed like a 21^st century American. I decided to stop running out of respect, turned off my music and greeted my neighbors as I passed by them. The rest of the day was spent going around and saying hello to people and giving little presents to kids. It was strange after seeing hundreds of live sheep everywhere for days, I did not see a single one get slaughtered. Sheep are very expensive and I live in one of the poorer neighborhoods so I guess nobody could afford it. I am sorry that they did not get to sacrifice a sheep because it is important to their religion, but I am thrilled that I did not spend the day seeing puddles of blood and entrails.

All dressed up for the fete!

For those of you interested in my work, things have been moving along really well. No, I still do not have a credit card to buy the Kindles for BiblioTech, but I have been assured that the request has been sent to France for processing, so one day soon. I am also developing a conference on social entrepreneurship with 7 other volunteers. The conference will introduce 20 youth to social entrepreneurship, take them through the process of dreaming up a social enterprise, doing feasibility studies writing a business plan and then pitching it with the winner getting their start up costs as prize money. It is very exciting and we have started a blog where we and eventually our participants will be posting articles on their experiences. Check it out at osezinnover.wordpress.com. Follow it and send it to other people you think may be interested. If you work in the field of social entrepreneurship and want to contribute an article, we would be thrilled. Osez Innover means Dare to Innovate in French and the blog will soon be up in French as well. 

The Banking Crisis

Every year the World Bank publishes their “Doing Business” survey. It ranks countries on how easy it is the start, register, and run a business within its borders. In 2010, Guinea ranked 173^rd. On of the indicators is how easy it is to open a bank account. Based on my experiences here, I am surprised we are not ranked last. In June, I started helping an NGO open a new joint bank account. They were already account holders at this bank. First of all you need to go get ID photos taken. There are few places to do this, they are expensive, and the hours of operation are at best unpredictable and at worst, non-existent. You need to photo copy all your documents (the bank does not do this to create yours dossier). After you run around town collecting all the requisites, you wait for hours at the bank for a meeting and then (in my case), months for the account to be open. After 2 months, we stopped the process. We never succeeded in opening the account.

For my current project, BiblioTech, we need a credit card both to purchase the initial stock of Kindles and to put new books on in the future. I asked my NGO is we could get a credit card from a Guinean bank that would work internationally. The response was an instant no. That does not exist. In trying to find alternative solutions, I went to Conakry and I ended up talking to a PC staff member whose husband works for the largest Guinean bank. She told me that she was fairly confident that such a thing did exist, called him and got the product name. She told me go back to the Kindia branch and ask for a “Carte Bleue”. They should know what I am talking about and be able to open it up for me there. So back to Kindia and the waiting room to meet with the bank director. I could taste victory. After a few hours of waiting I got called in. He had no idea what I was talking about. He told me he was going to e-mail someone in Conakry and to come back in three days. So I waited the three days and came back. I was informed that a card existed but he did not know if it would work for international purchases. I had to go to Conakry HQ and meet with a Mr. Diallo to find out and to apply for it. One problem, he would not give me Mr. Diallo’s contact information. So I called my PC contact who found out his number for me. I explained what I wanted and that I was PC and he told me to come in. So it was back to Conakry. Amidst rumors riots and protests, I headed downtown to the HQ. I found Mr. Diallo. I again explained what I wanted and how I got his contact information. His response was, “Ok. I have two problems. One, I don’t know how you got my phone number. And two, I do not do credit cards.” After many apologies for wasting his valuable time, he gave me the name of the person I had to see. I went to his office. His response was shock that the Kindia branch had sent me in the first place since all we needed was to fill out a simple form that had to be submitted to the HQ in Paris by the branch where the account was opened. I could not do anything in Conakry. I took his card and the form and headed back to Kindia. In Kindia, I met with the director, handed him the form and asked him to apply for us. He still had no idea how to do this so I gave him the contact for the helpful man in Conakry. Unfortunately, cell phone service has been terrible of late and he could not reach him. He told me he would send this an e-mail and to come back in a few days. Right now I am waiting for “a few days” to pass. My first visit to the bank to ask about this was August 25^th. It is now Oct 1^st and still no credit card is in site. I will go back tomorrow and will hopefully have good news. How can businesses be expected to function and grow if they cannot even get a large bank to understand the basic products available and know how to support their clients in the use of something as simple as a credit card?