It’s nearly Christmas…

And I’m back in Conakry, with coconut palms, ocean beaches, and the promise of eggnog and Christmas cookies this evening.  I would like to formally acknowledge that my life is wonderful, in a way that is completely out of proportion to the amount of planning and effort I’ve put into it.  I keep finding myself in wonderful situations like this. 

For the last two weeks I've been in Dubreka, helping out with training for the latest group of Peace Corps trainees.  Since my training on arrival in Guinea was fairly bare-bones, it's been fun to sit in on some of the cultural and language sessions.  And it's fun to be in a completely different climate: Dubreka is on a salt-water inlet, so there's crabs in the market, fish in every dish, coconuts, warm humid nights, and neon-green rice fields. 

Still, I miss the cool, crisp nights in the Fouta, the flowering vines that spill from the trees over every footpath and road, the hazy views across valleys to distant hills and mesas.... and I miss Mariama and her kids; slow mornings washing my laundry under the orange trees; hanging out in the coffee shops on main street... soon I'll be back. 

And while Christmas does make me terribly lonely for the people I love back home, I just have to say that I'm not missing winter in western Washington.  Most years I enjoy the long hibernation of rainy days, twilight afternoons, and lazy mornings in front of the fire waiting for the sun to rise.  But this year, the sun feels so good on my skin.  I may become addicted to the tropics. 

It's a beautiful morning in Conakry

I woke to the sound of ocean waves, and a dim, hazy morning light: morning in Conakry.  A cool breeze makes the thick humid air pleasant at this time of day: the air sort of sloshes around you like lukewarm water in a bathtub.  By midday, it feels more like a stewpot than a bathtub, but at 6:30 AM, with the sun rising through a cloud of city dust and smoke from burning fields on the mainland, with the sound of roosters muffled by the hum of traffic, everything feels soft and undefined.  Who knows what this day will bring?  Now, at 7, the pink light is gone, the lines of the coconut palms are sharp against the grey sky, and down on the beach, the sound of waves is defined by their actual lines, spilling over the soft sand and worn down rocks.  The traffic is louder, the roosters are joined by a chorus of voices: the kids are up; their mothers are calling out commands and instructions; school will start soon, you'll be late, and I'll be late, too: I need to catch a ride out to Dubreka with a Peace Corps car, leaving at 7:30.  En ontuma!  See you later!

internet..... so..... slow.......

Well, after 15 minutes, I've managed to load this page.  That leaves 5 more minutes to tell you guys everything that's happened in the past month, before I rush off to a meeting here in Dalaba to talk trash.  No, really, we are talking about recycling, municipal trash collection, public trashcans, composting of organic waste, and cleaning up trash in public areas.  It's really exciting.  There's a company, based in Senegal, that's started making buckets, washtubs, and washboards in Conakry out of the millions of used plastic bags floating around the streets and sidewalks of town.  They'll pay you 2,000 francs if you bring them a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of trash plastic-- sounds like big money, huh?  It's only about 30 cents-- but still, considering how much plastic trash we all produce, recycling can be big business. 
OK, quick highlights of the last month:
1. Makan gave me a ripe pineapple from his garden-- hurray!
2. I got the sixth graders to sing the alphabet song in English
3. I made a doll for Hassanatou out of scraps from the tailor's shop-- it survived 3 weeks before losing a limb!  (I sewed it back on-- she's fond of using her doll as a weapon)
4. Boubacar from Telire has taught me all the consonants in the Arabic alphabet-- now we're working on adding vowels
5. I grafted mandarin buds onto orange rootstock this morning
6. I'm headed to Dubreka for two weeks to help with training the new group of Peace Corps volunteers
7. While I'm there, hopefully I'll get my very own internet key to work, and then.... I'll update this blog again!