Incipit Vita Nova

(In photo: me and Lauren, a PCV that returned to Guinea to train us. She's been like a big sister to me. I'm going to miss her when she heads back to the US in a few weeks!)

Well, it’s official. I am now a Peace Corps Volunteer! So, when you send me packages (please…) you can write PCV instead of PCT after my name.

The ceremony was held out in the back of the Peace Corps office under a few tents and we all wore our African best. It was surprisingly moving, as Steve, our Country Director for PC Guinea, began to tear up. We’re the last stage he’ll be around to see swear in. He’s lived in Guinea working as the Country Director for the past five years, and he’s heading home to the US in five months. (This picture is of all the G-15 Health volunteers with Steve, a few returned health volunteers that came back to train us, and our two Guinean teachers, Madieu and Kake)

Tom Gallagher, a returned PCV from the first Peace Corps group EVER, came to our ceremony and gave an amazing speech. He told us that instead of having his orientation at a Holiday Inn function room, he had his orientation over tea with John F. Kennedy! His stage still has reunions, almost 50 years after they all served.

(In picture: me and Teale, hamming it up.)

The Guinean Minister of Health spoke and so did the American ambassador (who kept mispronouncing ‘Guinean’) and then we took a pledge to do our jobs as best as we could.

AND THEN WE ATE!!! Devilled eggs, tuna fish sandwiches without the crusts, cheese sandwiches. It was so good. I just stood by the trays of food, shoveling it all into my mouth. Not very good etiquette, but I couldn’t help it-- a girl’s gotta eat.

After swear in, a group of us headed to the beach bar and had a few drinks. (These two pictures were taken at the bar. That's Liz and me, looking off into the future of our service in Guinea. )

That night, we had a, “hooray we’re sworn in!”/my birthday party. I had a lot of fun-- everyone sang happy birthday when the clock struck midnight. At the end of the night, three PCV’s gave out superlatives and I was awarded “Most likely to marry a doctor without a border.” Other awards given out were “Most likely to mistake rat for fine dining,” (that went to Jess) and “Most likely to fall into a well” (Allison Buttercup). I don't quite understand why I was awarded my superlative.

I haven’t done anything that exciting for my birthday today. I went to the massive market in the middle of Conakry to pick up a few essentials for my hut, which was totally overwhelming. All the vendors were constantly trying to physically pull us into their stores (which are just rickety shacks with stuff on shelves) and we had to always be on the lookout for cars coming down the road. Even though the market streets were packed with people, the cars were just driving like there weren’t any pedestrians at all. The pedestrian does NOT have the right of way here. In fact, if you get hit by a car, it’s your fault. All PCV’s have already almost been hit by a car or motorcycle. You really have to be careful.

A few PCV’s went out and bought a pig for us to cook for dinner tonight. I haven’t had ham in such a long time, so I’m really excited. It's now 8:30 PM and we're still waiting on the pig, because, we are in Guinea, which means that we had to kill it, skin it and cook it. Haha, oh how I do miss pre-cut bacon.

Some friends have also made a cheesecake for me to eat for my birthday.

Tonight is our last night together. Tomorrow, we’re all leaving for our respective regional capitals. It’s going to be several months before I get to see other PCV’s in the two other regions of Guinea (Fouta and Basse Cote). Fortunately, our group of ten Haute volunteers is making the journey east in two taxis instead of one, so the 15 hour ride up there should be relatively comfortable. I think there will only be one animal, a puppy, in the car with us. No goats!

I’m excited to start my new life in Mandiana. According to Felipe, the town has an obsession with Star Wars and expects each volunteer to take a name from the original trilogy. I want to adopt “Chewy” but they may want me to take “Leah”, seeing that I’m the first female volunteer in the town. We’ll see.

Wish me luck!!!