Peace Corps, Round 2

So it's official, the Peace Corps Guinea program has been suspended. After a day of massive protests all across the country, we were informed by our APCDs that the program in Guinea would be suspended for a period of at least 3 months. So, what does this mean for me? Well - we were given three options by the PC. The first option was to do a three month project in another country (Mali, for example) to wait out the protests in Guinea, then possibly return to Guinea if the program reopened. The second was to imediately transfer to another PC country to finish out our service. I won't be doing either of these. After being pulled out of Guinea, where I had made friends, begun learning the language, established a good rapport with my students, and had made my house a comfortable place to live, I did not want to start from square one in another country without even having the benefit of pre-service training. Instead, I'll be taking the third option available to us, which is to COS (Close of Service). That being said, I'll only be closing my service temporarily, as I'm going to request to re-enroll in the Peace Corps in a program leaving this summer. So I'll be starting over with Peace Corps in June or July, redoing training, and committing to another two years.

I have no idea where I'll end up, but I'm really hoping we have some say over where we go. I would hope that since we forced to leave Guinea by situations out of our control, the Peace Corps will be understanding and helpful the second time around, giving us some say as to where we go. Then again, the Peace Corps is a big government bureaucracy, and the fact that we were evacuated after serving for 7 months might just get lost in the shuffle of papers.

The good news is that I'll be getting a crapload of money for the 7 months i served plus for accepting Cash in Lieu instead of a ticket straight home. This means that, hopefully, Jen and I will be traveling to Dogon country in Mali, then spending a few weeks in Mauritania and Morocco, before ending our journey in Spain. We'll see.

As far as la Guinee is concerned, the president declared martial law a couple nights ago, meaning:

• The military has taken over all policing duties
• Civilians are only allowed to move around the cities from 4 pm to 8 pm
  
• No one is allowed to move around in automobiles
• No large gatherings are permitted

With this added repression on the Guinean people, who knows how much longer Lansana Conte can hold on to power.

Ok, that's all for now...oo'o.

Another Day of Violence in Guinea

Well - time for a pretty pessimistic post. Looks like we're not going back to Guinea, where things seem to be getting worse before they get better. Violence broke out all across the country today, as Lansana Conte announced his nomination of Eugene Camara as Prime Minister late Friday night. The promotion of Camara, Minister of Presidential Affairs, to Prime Minister was seen by the unions and most Guineans as a demonstration of the president's unwillingness to surrender any power, sparking demonstrations from Conakry to Kankan to Kissidougou. Even in Boke, where I spent standfast with pretty much no signs of unrest, protesters lined the streets. I haven't been able to call Boke to find out what happened, but I'm assuming it was a generally peaceful demonstration, at least compared to the rest of the country. That being said, I still worry about my students, who will undoubtedly become involved in demonstrations at some point, and my neighbors, who live in the Prefet's compound, which seem to be a favorite target for demonstrators. Dalaba, Labe, Pita, and other cities have all seen the prefet's houses or offices ransacked and burned to the ground. In Kankan today, violence resulted in the deaths of two soldiers, who were subsequently burnt. It seems unlikely that tomorrow will be any better, as soldiers in the President's motorcade killed two students as the President fled Conakry this morning. The new Prime Minister's house was sacked in Conakry, along with the Guinea Bissauian President's mansion (the neighboring country had apparently sent mercenary troops to help defend Conte).

Things finally seem to have come to a point of no return. I'm hoping that the conflict resolves itsef sooner rather than later in Guinea, mostly as I'm worried about the security of all the people I met throughout my seven months in Guinea. That being said, the people of Guinea could only live under a regime which oversaw 250% inflation, making it nearly impossible for some to buy rice, medication, and other necessary goods. Teachers weren't being paid, schools were closed, and corruption was rampant. A country can only function for so long under those conditions.

A good BBC article covers today's occurrences in Guinea: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6349411.stm

As far as we're concerned, well, I have no idea what's gonna happen. I'm positive we're not going back to Guinea, though I'm not quite sure what I'll be doing a few months from now. I'm hoping that the re-enrollment option works for me. In other words, I'm hoping to return to the U.S. for a few months, before rejoining the Peace Corps for another full service starting this summer, likely in another West African country with a TEFL program. Next week I'll hopefully know a little more about what our real choices are. Guess we'll see. Ok - time for bed. Say a little prayer for Guinea.

Oo'o.