Current mood:

content

You all haven't forgotten me yet, have you?
So, this is the girl who is living thousands of miles away, in a little country called, "Guinea," peeing in a hole, and currently kind of ill. Please tell me you still remember me. :)

So, I just found out where I'm going for the next two years...what little town I will be living in. It's a small village called Katougouma. Population: 2050. It's right on a river called the Rio Nez. I don't know much except that the rainy season is long, they speak SouSou and Malinke, I'm the first volunteer at the site, possibly living in hippo/panther/lion territory (or close to it anyways), and definitely living in Caiman territory (Caimans are a small, angry alligator--think 4 ftish--who are in my part of the river during rainy season....which is 7 months of the year). It looks pretty sweet on paper...I'm visiting it in a couple days and will be there until Thursday. On the plus side, my one request to be near internet was granted...I'm within an hour bush taxi ride from an ex-pat site called Kampsar, where there is reliable internet, and well as this weird mail box thing. It seems that a large American mining company is headquartered there, and they let Peace Corps Volunteers who live in the area use their mail service. What that means is that people who live in the states will be able to send mail to an American address, and magically, it will appear in Kampsar within a couple weeks. This is good since I'm not guaranteed that I'll get mail if we rely on the Guinean system, and this has a faster turn around. As well as eliminating the hassle (for you guys) of going to a post office...you'll just have to use an American stamp. :) Hoohaw!

Oh, and the best part? You actually have to use a canoe to get to my site. Crazy, huh?

So, currently fairly content with the situation of my site. We'll see if I feel the same way after seeing it this next week.

Also, slightly disgusted that the petites (kids) gave me a cold in a country that seems to run 100 degrees daily--so was already slightly miserable before arriving at Mamou for a counterpart workshop where I ended up eating something that may or may not have given me parasites, food poisoning, dysentery, and/or amoebas. Apparently, this place we go for conferences has a history of making people sick. When we were here the first time, six people were bed ridden for most of the time at this place. And now, after several trips to the bathroom, and gross stuff coming from both ends of my body...I have also fallen prey to nasty Mamou.

It's not that bad though. I mean, being sick is awful, but Guinea's really interesting, and the people are really nice, even if the food sucks (i.e. please send care packages).

In other news, I read some of your journals...Steve, how's school going? Elena and Dale BOTH got tattoos (damn...I didn't see that coming--Elena yes...Dale, more questionable:)-given a previous trip to the tattoo parlor with him...what did you guys get done?)...And what else is going on? Briana...job sounds like it sucks...Peace Corps = good idea if only for the procrastination time AND traveling opportunity. I miss everyone back home so much, and wish I could have the best of both worlds...all of you, here with me. Obviously, there's some flaw with that plan, but nonetheless, there it is.

I love you all.

When you feel like it, drop me a line:

JanRose Ottaway
Corps de la Paix
BP 1927
Conakry, Guinea
West Africa

Letters were sent to some of you already. Hope you get them sometime soon.

Jan