Hello again and Merry Christmas!

I am currently in the city of Labe, capital of the Fouta region. The trip here was pretty awesome so I'll explain that first:

This past Friday I rode my bike to Geoff's site, Porekire which is about 30 km from my site. He introduced me to some of his friends and fellow teachers and then we went out for a bike ride and climbed around on some big rocks which was a ton of fun. Then we ate dinner several times and had to "drink" 30-40 oranges and eat a papaya and 11 bananas which were all given to Geoff as gifts. I spent the night at Geoff's site and then we headed out the next morning around 8:15. We went through Gougoudje about 2 hours later and I gave Geoff a quick tour and introduced him to some of my colleagues and friends. Then we were pulled across a river on a ferry by men with long sticks. After the river we made a quick pit stop in Lei Miro to fill up on rice and sauce. We had planned on stopping for the night in a town called Dongul Touma. We asked several people along the way how far we had to go. The first guy told us 15 km. Two hours later another person told us 14 km. After many exhausting hills, we finally rolled into Dongul Touma around 18:00, or about an hour before sunset. We talked to the Sous-Prefet who hooked us up with a place to stay which was a bit creepy but cheap and comfortable. We slept very well and then headed out the next morning around 9:15. The second day wasn't quite as eventful. The roads were a little more flat and a little more dusty and there weren't many towns between Dongul Touma and Labe. We made pretty good time after we hit the paved road between Pita and Labe and arrived in Labe around 5:30. It was nice to see some other volunteers and eat a delicious hamburger at one of Labe's many restaurants. We slept very well that night.

The "tan" we acquired during our bike ride

The next day was Christmas eve so we hit up the bank and did some Christmas shopping for our gift exchange. We also ate some absolutely delicious food (check facebook for pictures). I found some really cool fabric made out of scraps left over from the tailor to give for my gift. I bought one for myself to so I can get a shirt or some pants made. Then we just hung out for the rest of the evening and waited for Santa to come.

Christmas day was fantastic with great food, music, stockings, and gifts. I got apples in the gift exchange which are pretty tricky to find in Guinea and very tasty. I also got to talk to my family for a very long time which was very, very nice.

That brings us to today which started without electricity but we fired up the generator for a couple hours so we could get some Internet time. I also woke up early to do some dishes from the night before and got to see a very beautiful sunrise over Labe. Geoff and I will probably spend tomorrow in Labe as well and then hop back on our bikes to head back to our sites where we're planning on celebrating the new year. I'm interested to see what Guineans do to celebrate. I will most certainly let you know when I find out. Also, you should check out: Geoff's Blog. I heard it's pretty cool ; )

Happy New Year from Guinea!

Peace.

Food!

Although there is not a tremendous variety of food here all the time, as the weather changes, so does the food that is available. Guineans usaully eat rice and sauce for lunch and dinner and usually just bread for breakfast, sometimes with coffee. There are a lot of different sauces for the rice and some of them are very tasty! My favorite is called mafe tako and is combination of eggplant, okra, and various spices. While rice and sauce is filling, I like to have a little more variety so I've sought out some other foods at the market. Here are a few of my favorite meals to make:

Guacamole: Some fresh avacadoes, onions, lemons, garlic, and maybe some hot peppers and bam! You've got une repas mexicain! I usually eat it with bread because there are no tortilla chips.

Pasta: Spaghetti is easy to find in the market and the sauce is fun to experiment with. I've made pretty good tomaoto sauce and tried a pumkin based sauce that was pretty good too.

Peanut butter sandwich: Not too fancy but very filling and delicious. I can get freshly ground peanut butter at the market and it's really good with a little chocolate powder.

Fresh fruit: There are so many oranges and bananas right now. I love eating the fresh fruit here. Alright, out of time. See you next time!

Creatures!

Here is the first attempted themed blog post. If you're reading it then I guess it worked haha. Since I have been here in Guinea I have had the opportunity to experience some really cool animals. Most notably:

Monkeys - Sometimes people keep small ones as pets. I also saw some fairly large ones crossing the road o my way to Telimele one day.

Chimps - Have never seen any but I can often here them howling in the forest behind my hut. I've gone searching for some several times but unfirtunately have not encountered any.

Snakes - actually a large black one, maybe a meter long in my hut one afternoon. Thankfully it promptly exited when I opened the door. I've also seen two large black snakes in the road and watched my neighbors pull a really long yellowish snake out of a tree and beat it to death with really long sticks. Also, the cat that sleeps in my hut sometimes couldn't see one day and wouldn't open his eyes. One of my collegues suspected that a cobra had spit in his eyes! Yikes!

Chamelon - Was lucky enough to see one of these guys climbing a tree one day. I saw him eat a fly which was really fun to watch! Also, apparantly some Guineans think that if you touch a chamelon you will die!

Ants - We have ants in the US but not like this. These ants bite. And it hurts a lot. They have invaded my hut once and cane very close another time. Sometimes they travel in thick lines or other times in huge swarms covering the ground. They eat all other insects and some other small animals like frogs. When they came into my hut I made sure my mosquito net was well tucked in so they didn't eat me!

Lizards - There are a lot of small lizards in Guinea. They're fun to watch. Sometimes they sit on walls and "do push-ups." I have also seen enormous lizards (maybe monitors?) crossing the road occasionally.

Vultures - These guys swarm the market area the day after market day. They are huge and very creepy and eat everything.

Bats - They live in the ceilings of most of our classrooms and deposit a fresh layer of "caca" on the floor every night. Sometimes they don't wait and drop poo on my head when I'm teaching. Not cool bats, not cool.

That takes care of all the interesting things I've seen so far. I've heard scary stories from other volunteers about giant bush rats but haven't seen any of those yet, Dieu Merci! We also have dogs, cats, squirrels (?) and a ton of cool birds. When I have access to faster internet I will update this post with some more pictures!