Hello Hello

So I passed another weekend in the lovely country that is Guinea.

On Saturday we went to a waterfall. It was literally in the middle of nowhere with mountains rising up everywhere. Absolutely gorgeous! We  spent the morning swimming and lazing about on the rocks. It was a definite treat with all the heat of summer. The Soumba Cascades were quite small but majestic nonetheless. I found it a little difficult to swim with the strong current - but it is nature, not a swimming pool, not the usual stagnant water that I'm used to :) Since I can't really put up pictures go ahead and google the falls. It's a touristy site - so it'll pop up and you can get a gauge of what sort of beauty I am surrounded by!

The rest of Saturday was spent getting to know my brother who is on vacation from University. He is studying civil engineering! His French is very impressive. I find that the French here is not necessarily of the highest caliber. This is probably because people speak Guinean languages around the house. When I use complex tenses I am usually met with blank stares. My bro said "Je blague" a lot - which directly translated is "I joke" and he thoroughly enjoys using the phrase "CCA- C'est ca en Afrique" which can be translated to "That's life in Africa". It was a very relaxed Saturday and I find that I'm very happy that I have brothers around my age to interact with.

Sunday was a day to finally do chores. I did my laundry. What a task! In the sun, over a bucket scrubbing away. I am not looking forward to the next laundry day. After that I cleaned my room - swept with a broom and mopped down with a rag and water. That's simple enough I think. I imagine I'll be splashing dirty water on myself to deal with the sweat but hey - CCA! Oh, I helped cook lunch on Sunday. That was interesting. We were squatting on the porch and literally cutting the vegetables in our hands. I nicked myself but I think that with practice I'll be just like the Guineans. We made peanut fish sauce and rice. It was a very simple recipe but cooking over a fire is difficult. The timing is hard to get and I almost turned all the rice into gratin(?). Whoops! After that I found time to myself to read and write. Guineans are very social and my family loves talking to me - so it can be hard to find time to myself. Hopefully by next Sunday I'll have a working phone and can make some calls since letters aren't really going to happen (The phone thing is a long story...)
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Oh BTW, why can't I send letters? Guinea can't meet the US postal standards - thus can't send mail to the US. Hopefully they can work that situation out in the next few years. Especially since I've been writing a letter a day!!

What else to tell? I still have my routine. I've met a lot of people on my road. They invite me into their houses to introduce me to their family. It's very nice because I feel like there are a lot of people here who have my back. My french is excellent. I actually think I can say I'm ready to take on another language. We had our first formal teaching session. Teaching is difficult. It's hard to organize one's thoughts, organize the board and speak French at the same time. By the end of all the training (2 more months!) we'll have around 30 hours of teaching already. Sounds intimidating but it will certainly be excellent preparation for the real deal.

We have our interviews for site this week and then next week will be finding out our possible sites! I'm actually hoping to be near Kanakan or Labe. I think it would be cool to be close to Senegal or Mali and to have a decently long trip to get to Conakry. That way I can see a lot of the country on the Peace Corps dollar ;) The Peace Corps covers our quadrannual trip to Conakry for in-service training and such. The week after next we go to Mamou for a workshop with our counterparts. Mamou is in the Fouta - so it'll be much cooler. The Fouta is where the Pulaar people live. Many people have told me I look like I might be a Pul (those who speak Pulaar), or Matisse. I laugh, and then tell them I'm Indian, haha. The people here love Indian films!

Already... Internet time is almost up! I'm going to cut this short. Hope America is doing well. I miss you all!  Oh, and guess what? I woke up this morning and said "Good morning Guinea!