Take care, I?m thinking of you all
Fiona
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| Into Africa | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| For the long silence, my apologies, I promised many of you updates and I promised stories. Now I will deliver. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Life has been a frantic series of holiday celebrations; catch-up meetings and jetting around to meet up with everyone. I?ve been loving the downtime and taking advantage of it to travel around Europe, meet up with old friends and getting up to mischief.; I?m constantly told that I sound like an American now, and have to avoid words like ?tomato? and ?thirty? as they inevitably provoke giggles and imitation from anyone within earshot! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| As much as I have liked being back in Europe, the time has come to get back in the saddle and I?m heading off to do relief and development work in Africa.; I?ve accepted a position in a village called Dabola, located in the heart of Guinea, West Africa. I?ll be spending the next year in role that primarily involves liaison with local and government organizations combined with programme development and planning. The programmes I?ll be involved with are WatSan (water and sanitation), livelihoods, education, | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| and emergency relief, which consists of gearing up for another anticipated flurry of refuges from Guinea?s rather unstable neighbours. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| If you?re anything like me, you?ll only have heard of Guinea in passing. It?s basically a tropical country, with mainly two seasons, the monsoon season (very rainy) and the hot season where midday highs reach more than 100 degrees. Half of it is | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| rain forest; the other half is barren and scrub. With a population of about 9 million people in a country smaller than the State of Oregon, they are a former French colony and French is the first language although they have about 20 tribal languages too. They aren?t exactly wealthy there; it is one of the poorest countries in the world with an economy depending on agriculture and extraction of natural resources. Literacy rate is only about 35% of the population. A huge number of people are suffering from HIV/AIDS and general life expectancy is short, with very high infant mortality rates. Over population, deforestation and | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| desertification and poverty make life difficult, farming is a challenge, finding drinkable water is an issue, access to healthcare is poor and the influx of large numbers of refugees has added to the instability of this country. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Infrastructure is weak, basic services that you and I are accustomed to can?t be taken for granted. Electricity for example is available in the capital city only sporadically; the lack of service in the rest of the country remains a problem. Telephones are a luxury; A/C and Internet service are only sometimes attainable in the capital city.; As a technology junkie I can only imagine what life will be like. In rural areas people live in huts. My diet for the next year will include a lot of rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They say that if people have not had any rice on a particular day, they do not feel that they have eaten. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| I have been warned about African time and the potential for frustration being very high. I?ve been warned about corruption from all ranks of governments and locals. I?ve been warned that it is a yellow fever endemic zone, and that the harmattan (wind that blows off the Sahara) is bringing airborne varieties of meningitis into nearby regions. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I?ve been recommended books such as the ?Worst-case Scenario Survival Handbook?! And mostly I?ve been told to forget everything that I know, everything that I?m accustomed to and comfortable with and be prepared to face a world that will overwhelm me in ways I cannot yet comprehend. I have moments of sheer unadulterated fear, and moments of such excitement I can hardly breathe. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I?m including some pictures below that I?ve ?borrowed? from a website I?ve found, these have been helpful for me to picture what life will be like, although I doubt that they are from the exact village where I will be. I won?t be leaving for another few weeks, so please drop me a line and fill me in on all that is happening with you. I miss you all and hope that you will be sure to keep in touch; snippets from the outside world will go a long way to helping me adjust. So keep in touch, I look forward to hearing all of your news and I will keep sending out updates until you tell me to stop!!!! Take care, I?m thinking of you all Fiona |
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