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.