Week 1 done...

Again, I'm going into my 3rd week and I'm just getting a chance to post... enjoy...

It’s about 5 pm here in Guinea as I write, which means its about 1 pm at home in Georgia. So this time last week I was making sure my bags were packed and that I hadn’t left anything I might need. Spending my last moments in my house with my family until reunite with them in May. Making phone calls and sending messages to people to let them know I’m on my way out of the country.
It’s been almost a full week since I arrived in Guinea. What a week its been!! Landing in Conakry on Monday evening and just making it out of the airport was a big deal almost. Tuesday we made the 2.5 hr journey to Fria, met the rest of the Coleman family and the Guinea Team, and had our first African meal in Guinea…I think we had rice and cassava leaf sauce or maybe it was beans and rice…either way it was really good. The rest of the week was kinda a blur, just trying to get used to the temperature, its SOOOOO HOT- its like Florida during the hottest part of the summer in a non-A/C house! Also getting used to the money and time difference, even though I don’t think I’ve had much of an issue with that. The biggest difference is transportation and language. My two feet are my transportation, only a few people have cars in Fria or you can take a moto-taxi, but things are pretty close so there’s no need to waste money on that unless you’re going far. Then the language, very few people speak English outside of the Guinea Team. Most people speak French and/or Susu, the few who speak English know greetings and that’s it…about the amount of French I know :) I can greet people in French and that’s about it, when people say more than Bonjour or Savee bien (I have no idea how to spell these things) I just put on my confused/I don’t speak French look.
On Friday we went to vespers which is like a 30 minute walk from where we live, at the old church. Sabbath we walk to church. Church is one whole hour away from where we live and another whole hour back. Most people walk because they don’t have cars and can’t afford to take a moto-taxi both ways. It’s not too bad, its just really hot; the walk home is easier because the whole church walks together basically. Patricia and I walked home together on Sabbath; she’s a cute 4 yr old daughter of one of the other team members. She kept me entertained so I didn’t focus on the passing minutes and miles. At least I’ll have strong calves and be in really good shape when I get back! Sabbath lunch was so good, the walk probably increased the value of lunch too! Auntie Cathy made coconut ice cream that was ate for desert, from scratch. Thursday I watched her as she prepared it straight from the coconut. It doesn’t seem to difficult to make. Plus its amazing! Sabbath afternoon we went to bible study, after I woke up from my heat/exhaustion/food induced coma, I didn’t even realize I was asleep until Rebecca and Chelcie knocked on my door.
Bible study was good, we had a discussion about the state of the dead. There’s a young man who’s here in Fria on vacation from school and he started coming to the church during the summer. He has so many questions and wants to know the church. Its refreshing to see young people wanting to know about God and the truth. It’s kinda funny because he’s in school studying to be a priest and now he’s intrigued and curious about the advent message. Saturday night we watched Amazing Grace, the movie about the abolition of slave trade in Great Britain….pretty powerful. Today (Sunday) Auntie Baby took us to the market and bought all the things we’ll need to cook. Big sack of rice and all sorts of things. We learned to make potato leaf sauce today. The market can be a pretty confusing place. All kinds of smells, sights, sounds…everything! Eventually I’ll get the hang of it. Tomorrow we’ll go back and pick up a few more little things and we’ll make a new sauce or food everyday this week. Basically I’ll be eating a lot of rice and sauces, which is good since I’ll be busy running around I’ll need those carbs for energy.
Anyway, Fria is a nice place. I have a lot to learn about language, people, and getting around but I’m excited. I hope and pray I can give as much as I’ll get. Still trying to wrap my mind around 8 months here, it hasn’t hit me yet. I’ve had small bouts of homesickness but I don’t think the real deal has hit me yet. I guess this is still the honeymoon/vacation phase, but I’m sure it’ll hit soon enough. I really do like it here though, even though some things seem inconvenient, life is simple here. I mean it’s busy here, but different…the things that we think are ‘necessities’ really aren’t; it’s sad that I hade to travel here to realize it.
I’m not doing a good job of taking pictures, but I’m gonna try to do better since I’ve had a week to get settled. Also I’m gonna try to be better about updating my blog. This is the second entry I’ve written since arriving but I haven’t uploaded either of them. No DSL over here! lol Internet can be sketchy sometimes and they said its no so great right now because people are stealing oil from somewhere that powers the connection I think, because Ramadan just passed (the biggest Muslim holiday). It’s like our Christmas, lots of gifts are bought. So I guess people are broke and they steal to get money. Did I mention how corrupt this place is? Oh man! oh and FYI just in case anyone plans to send me a package, make sure its as plain as possible and put valuable stuff at the bottom. It’s not uncommon for them to open the packages at the post office and take stuff out before it gets to us. So like if you send a letter don’t put anything extremely important in it or any candy or stuff because they will take it out and all I’ll get is the letter. If you send stuff to the AFM address, they send letters and stuff to the Colemans like once or twice a month, but it does cost the Colemans because it comes by DHL. So yea….if its just a letter send it to Guinea. For packages it can only be sent to Guinea I believe, so just make sure boring stuff is at the top of the package. If it even looks moderately interesting or good, they’ll take it and I’ll never get it! Yea…that’s Guinea!! BUT….the people here are very loyal and good friends once that bond is formed. Basically their mentality is that relationships are of primary importance, which is why they’ll steal if it’s to support their family. So yea…
This has been a super long post, hopefully it doesn’t take too long to upload. And I’ll try to get better. Thanks for reading. Much love from Guinea!!!
~Alex
I’m like a millionaire in Guinea! 1 USD = 5100 Guinean Francs I think.

The Beauty of Fria!