Breaking into My House with the Head of Security

Hello from Guinea! Sorry its been so long!

Most of the Education volunteers are in Conakry this week relaxing and catching up with one another. Spring break started Wednesday for me and I traveled to the capital yesterday with three other volunteers. I had a brief flash of the Christmas coup and not getting to come to Conakry for the break: getting out of my village is tough but the Peace Corps head of security, Yamma, was visiting my village on Thursday as part of her tour of my region of Guinea (just a check to make sure things are going well) so I was going to leave the village with her. I had my house ready for visitors and was waiting for her at my neighbors who were cooking for all of us. Yamma arrived and we made our way to my house. It was an extremely windy day, and when we arrived at my door, we found I was locked out of my house. The wind had blown my double doors shut and blew so hard that the pins in the bottom of the door (the pins that provide "extra security" in addition to the lock) had fallen into the floor, locking the door from the inside. It was quite a scene - Yamma, the driver, me, and 10 of my neighbors with an assortment of tools, rocks, sticks, spoons, and knives trying to pry the door and pop the pins. Lots of ideas were thrown around, and Yamma just keep repeating "your house is very secure. Very secure. I'm not worried about you!" as we tried to break in. After an hour, we decided we needed the carpenter because we couldn't break in, which meant I was not going to Conakry anytime soon (the carpenter is a few villages over, so it would take a while to get him, break the door and then fix it again and Yamma had to leave to get to the next village.) It was just like Christmas break...a dead president, a locked door...there's always something keeping me from Conakry! While we were beginning to eat, the driver and one of my students who came to assess the situation went back over and somehow got it open. So I made it here after all.

I'm working on uploading all sorts of things; photos, videos, and stories. For now, check out two new videos. One is the market in my village. Since I'm in such a small village, I have a very small market! The other is lunchtime chez moi. I eat with the family next door. The girls come to my door each day to let me know its time to eat. Lately I've been too slow to come over so now they tell me to hurry up! You'll notice in both that there is more Pulaar than French. Do I understand? Most of it. Do I speak it? Very little. Also is a slideshow - "The Proclamation"...story to follow.

More to come over the next couple of days...so visit again soon!