It's only been eight days since my last entry but a lot has happened here in that time. For those of you who haven't been keeping up to speed, on Dec 23rd Lansana Conte died after twenty four years as president of Guinea. According to the constitution the president of the national assembly is the successor in the event of the death of the president. However, only a few hours after Conte died the military staged a coup d'etat, suspended the constitution, and dissolved the old government. The leader of the coup, Capt. Moussa Camara, is now the self-proclaimed president of Guinea.
In the time since the military took over all the volunteers in Conakry have been confined to the Peace Corps compound on lock down. So over the past few days we've basically been spending our time waiting and speculating about whether or not Peace Corps was going to be evacuated from the country. In the beginning it looked like it could go either way but now after a few days of playing wait and see it seems like the situation is stabilizing. When the new president was announced people took to the streets to cheer, apparently relieved that there would be a return to some sort of stable government. So, barring any unforeseen circumstances, we're going to be able to go back to our sites soon.
Anyone who's interested in reading more about what's going on here, BBC has been covering the situation really well. Here's a few stories they've run that give a good overview of the events of the last few days.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7797629.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7799279.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7800163.stm
Due to the lock down we had to cancel our trip to Sierra Leone and all of the new volunteers had to stay at the training site for Christmas so we didn't get to meet them. It was a little disappointing having to change all of our holiday plans but at the same time it's been an interesting experience to see how everything has played out so far. After all, how many people can say that they've lived through a military coup?
Regardless of the change of plans we've still been making the best of our time here and it's been nice seeing everyone who made it into Conakry before the lock down was imposed. I've been having a great time hearing everyone's stories from their villages and I've also been spending a lot of time in the kitchen. I didn't realize how much I missed cooking until I got back here. Cooking at site is really time and effort intensive so I hardly ever do it, opting instead to just eat all my meals with my host family at site. But since getting back to Conakary I've been cooking up a storm and having a great time doing it. So rest assured I'm still enjoying the holidays.
Anyways, I just wanted to let everyone know what was going on here and that I'm OK. A lot's been happening over the past few days and I'm sure a lot is yet to come. The new government is still forming itself but as always seems to be the case in Guinea we're just going to have to exercise a bit of patience and hopefully everything will work itself out.
December 26, 2008
December 18, 2008
Fêtes and Freetown oh my oh my!
I'm back in Conakry now for some much anticipated R & R. I got in yesterday from Kankan and I'll be here until the 27th, then I'm going to spend New Years in Freetown with a bunch of other volunteers. I've been anticipating this trip for quite some time and now that it's here I'm really excited for it. I've heard Freetown is beautiful and it will be nice to spend some time on a beach where you can actually go in the water.
Adding to my excitement is the fact that a new group of volunteers just arrived in country at the beginning of the month. The first time I'll get to meet them will be when they come up to Conakry for Christmas, which is just one more thing to look forward to. I'm really excited for the new people because I remember what it was like arriving in Guinea and having everything be new and foreign. It's quite a shock at first and it makes for some interesting times.
As far my own life goes it's moving along, petit á petit. Tabaski, which is the Islamic celebration of when Abraham climbed the mountain to sacrifice his son, was at the beginning of the month. It's the biggest holiday of the year in Guinea. There was tons of dancing, eating, and visiting from extended family. It reminded me a lot of Thanksgiving actually which was sort of a nice substitute for not being at home this November. Plus my family slaughtered some goats and a cow and we ate meat with all of our meals which never happens normally. It was delicious.
Also because of the holiday, school has been closed for pretty much the entire month. Which left me plenty of time to read, dance, read, eat, read, and sleep. It's been a tough month, which is why I need a vacation.
In other news I finally got my act together and went through the photos I've taken so far in country and posted them online. There's a link on the right hand side of the page but here it is again for those unable to turn their head slightly.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jreffsin
By the way, Merry Christmas and Happy New Years to everyone. It's so easy for me to forget that it's the holiday season since the temperature never drops below seventy here. I don't know what I'm gonna do after I go home, I'm shivering when it does hit seventy and just looking at pictures of winter in Massachusetts makes me cold. Who knows though, maybe by the time my service is up global warming will have taken care of all the snow for me. Fingers crossed.
Adding to my excitement is the fact that a new group of volunteers just arrived in country at the beginning of the month. The first time I'll get to meet them will be when they come up to Conakry for Christmas, which is just one more thing to look forward to. I'm really excited for the new people because I remember what it was like arriving in Guinea and having everything be new and foreign. It's quite a shock at first and it makes for some interesting times.
As far my own life goes it's moving along, petit á petit. Tabaski, which is the Islamic celebration of when Abraham climbed the mountain to sacrifice his son, was at the beginning of the month. It's the biggest holiday of the year in Guinea. There was tons of dancing, eating, and visiting from extended family. It reminded me a lot of Thanksgiving actually which was sort of a nice substitute for not being at home this November. Plus my family slaughtered some goats and a cow and we ate meat with all of our meals which never happens normally. It was delicious.
Also because of the holiday, school has been closed for pretty much the entire month. Which left me plenty of time to read, dance, read, eat, read, and sleep. It's been a tough month, which is why I need a vacation.
In other news I finally got my act together and went through the photos I've taken so far in country and posted them online. There's a link on the right hand side of the page but here it is again for those unable to turn their head slightly.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jreffsin
By the way, Merry Christmas and Happy New Years to everyone. It's so easy for me to forget that it's the holiday season since the temperature never drops below seventy here. I don't know what I'm gonna do after I go home, I'm shivering when it does hit seventy and just looking at pictures of winter in Massachusetts makes me cold. Who knows though, maybe by the time my service is up global warming will have taken care of all the snow for me. Fingers crossed.
November 26, 2008
America, exotic disease, and goats
Well, another month gone by and here I am again. The month's been a bit up and down for me. At the beginning I was having a good time just being back at site after my last trip to Kankan. When I tried to come back after last month's trip I ended up not being able to get a ride and was stuck in the city for a few days. Being stuck like that with nothing to do made me antsy to leave and it was a really nice feeling coming back to site after being gone. My village definitely feels like home now.
On top of that I got a bit of a hero's welcome on my return because everyone in my village was celebrating Obama's win. There was much tea drinking and it was generally agreed that the U.S. is the greatest democracy in the world. It's funny, I often get the feeling that Guineans love my country more than I do. Although I must admit that I'm getting more in the patriotic spirit with Obama taking the reigns. It'll be interesting to see how he fares in the face of such overwhelming (and probably impossibly high) expectations. It's quite a time to be an American abroad, especially in Africa.
As I said though the month wasn't all good and towards the end I started getting a bit down. It was mainly due to a bought of some flu-like illness that left me incapacitated in my hut for a week with a fever and severe fatigue. To make matters worse I felt guilty the entire time because I was missing so much school and I'd already missed some this month when I was stuck in Kankan sans ride. Although when I voiced my concerns to the principal he just laughed it off saying "Don't worry, health above all!"
With me out of the running the school was pretty low on teachers. Before the school year started the principal held a meeting with us to voice his concern over the lack of teachers at our school this year. Although there were 6 different classes at the school at that moment we only had 5 teachers. He had appealed to the head of education for our region to send more teachers and he told us that soon we'd hopefully be getting some more.
Well, as it turns out, they didn't exactly heed his call. In fact the only course of action they took was to transfer the only other math teacher away from our school. After the principal made an attempt to deal with that by teaching some classes himself we had some more bad news.
A few weeks ago I was sitting around with my family at dusk when somebody ran into our courtyard to tell us that something had happened to the French teacher and we should come quick to the health center. All I was able to catch was that it was something serious involving a gun. When we got there I found that the staff was removing the remnants of pieces of a revolver that had exploded while he was out hunting and lodged itself in his right hand. I saw all of this as I walked up to the health center since the staff were doing all of this basically with his hand hanging out the front window. It was the only part of the center at that hour that had enough light falling on it to do the procedure. Although I can assure you that the man was suitably vocal about his discomfort to have alerted me to what was going on had I not seen it.
Although he'll be ok with a lot of rest and recuperation it still left our school down another teacher for the moment. So already by the time I got sick we were operating with only 3 teachers and the principal meaning that each period there were two classes of students who were left to entertain themselves without supervision. As far as I can tell their favorite past time during this free time is congregating outside my classroom having contests of who can yell louder. Let me just say there are a lot of strong contestants. I can only imagine the chaos that must have been ensuing at the school in my absence with half the students free to do as they pleased at any given time. But hey, health above all.
Being cooped up in my hut all week worrying about the state of affairs at the school was, to say the least a bit of a downer. Especially lacking the energy to go for a stroll and collect my thoughts. Usually, in my free time I like to walk around my village thinking or talking with friends. It's nice to just take in the sites and everyone's always happy to see me and greet me as I walk by. Apparently this constant aimless strolling is a bit unusual as far as Guineans are concerned.
My behavior has caused one guy that I often walk past to give me a nickname reflective of my new found hobby, Sofé bah. It means the wandering goat (bah being the rather logical name for goat in Malinké). There's a constant stream of goats that roam the streets here eating whatever is in the path, earning their share of thrown rocks and shouting as they get into people's dinners. I've been fortunate to avoid the rocks and angry outbursts so far but apparently my habitual walking is more goat like than human in this neck of the woods and the name seems to have stuck for the time being. Although only with a few guys, most people I pass on my walks still prefer to call me by the nickname I've had since I got here, white man.
~Jesse
On top of that I got a bit of a hero's welcome on my return because everyone in my village was celebrating Obama's win. There was much tea drinking and it was generally agreed that the U.S. is the greatest democracy in the world. It's funny, I often get the feeling that Guineans love my country more than I do. Although I must admit that I'm getting more in the patriotic spirit with Obama taking the reigns. It'll be interesting to see how he fares in the face of such overwhelming (and probably impossibly high) expectations. It's quite a time to be an American abroad, especially in Africa.
As I said though the month wasn't all good and towards the end I started getting a bit down. It was mainly due to a bought of some flu-like illness that left me incapacitated in my hut for a week with a fever and severe fatigue. To make matters worse I felt guilty the entire time because I was missing so much school and I'd already missed some this month when I was stuck in Kankan sans ride. Although when I voiced my concerns to the principal he just laughed it off saying "Don't worry, health above all!"
With me out of the running the school was pretty low on teachers. Before the school year started the principal held a meeting with us to voice his concern over the lack of teachers at our school this year. Although there were 6 different classes at the school at that moment we only had 5 teachers. He had appealed to the head of education for our region to send more teachers and he told us that soon we'd hopefully be getting some more.
Well, as it turns out, they didn't exactly heed his call. In fact the only course of action they took was to transfer the only other math teacher away from our school. After the principal made an attempt to deal with that by teaching some classes himself we had some more bad news.
A few weeks ago I was sitting around with my family at dusk when somebody ran into our courtyard to tell us that something had happened to the French teacher and we should come quick to the health center. All I was able to catch was that it was something serious involving a gun. When we got there I found that the staff was removing the remnants of pieces of a revolver that had exploded while he was out hunting and lodged itself in his right hand. I saw all of this as I walked up to the health center since the staff were doing all of this basically with his hand hanging out the front window. It was the only part of the center at that hour that had enough light falling on it to do the procedure. Although I can assure you that the man was suitably vocal about his discomfort to have alerted me to what was going on had I not seen it.
Although he'll be ok with a lot of rest and recuperation it still left our school down another teacher for the moment. So already by the time I got sick we were operating with only 3 teachers and the principal meaning that each period there were two classes of students who were left to entertain themselves without supervision. As far as I can tell their favorite past time during this free time is congregating outside my classroom having contests of who can yell louder. Let me just say there are a lot of strong contestants. I can only imagine the chaos that must have been ensuing at the school in my absence with half the students free to do as they pleased at any given time. But hey, health above all.
Being cooped up in my hut all week worrying about the state of affairs at the school was, to say the least a bit of a downer. Especially lacking the energy to go for a stroll and collect my thoughts. Usually, in my free time I like to walk around my village thinking or talking with friends. It's nice to just take in the sites and everyone's always happy to see me and greet me as I walk by. Apparently this constant aimless strolling is a bit unusual as far as Guineans are concerned.
My behavior has caused one guy that I often walk past to give me a nickname reflective of my new found hobby, Sofé bah. It means the wandering goat (bah being the rather logical name for goat in Malinké). There's a constant stream of goats that roam the streets here eating whatever is in the path, earning their share of thrown rocks and shouting as they get into people's dinners. I've been fortunate to avoid the rocks and angry outbursts so far but apparently my habitual walking is more goat like than human in this neck of the woods and the name seems to have stuck for the time being. Although only with a few guys, most people I pass on my walks still prefer to call me by the nickname I've had since I got here, white man.
~Jesse
November 1, 2008
How Da Business? Fine Fine.
Happy belated Halloween everyone!
I’m in Kan Kan for a few days to relax with some of the other volunteers so I’ve got some time to post here. Sorry for the lack of updates but I’ve been at site for the last month and obviously there’s no internet there. Get used to it, I live in an African village. C’est la vie.
It’s been quite a month. My village is really remote, even by Guinean standards. So I haven’t had any contact with other Americans for the entire month. As you can imagine, that can be quite a plateful at times.
The actual day to day happenings of life are pretty uneventful for the moment. School only started 3 days ago so I’ve spent the majority of the month just trying to get to know my community. Almost nobody there speaks French so I’m having to start all over again with the language learning process, this time with Malinke which is a local language spoken here. There’s no lack of people who want to help me practice, which is great, but there are definitely times when I just want someone who will speak to me in French so I can have a real conversation.
When I’m not wandering around my village trying to blunder my way through a usually nonsensical interaction in Malinke I’m usually spending time reading or with my host family. Activities with them involve eating toh (corn paste served with dipping sauce), teaching me Malinke, eating more toh, and asking me if the things we have here can be found in the U.S. (yes we do have the moon and stars back home). Did I mention we eat a lot of toh?
Tea drinking is also a huge pastime here. Wherever you go in the village you find tons of groups of men sitting around with little charcoal stoves boiling tea. The process of making/drinking the tea takes hours and it’s really more of a way for people to socialize than anything else. The socialization aspect of it is nice but I’m still getting used to the tea itself. It’s made with a really bitter green tea which they then load up with an unbelievable amount of sugar. The result is quite, umm…. sweet, to say the least. As the honorary guest at any gathering I always get the first and biggest cup of tea. Lucky me.
Slowly, the more I get used to my community and venture around further I’m starting to find the little secrets that I missed when I first got here. The market lady who makes awesome peanut butter cookies. Or the goat meat salesmen at night who grills delicious kabobs on an old oil barrel. Or the perfect time to show up at the bakery to get the fresh baked baguettes right out of the brick oven, mmmmm. I’ve also started to explore the surrounding area. There are plenty of paths and hills around here to check out. It’s a good place to go for a hike. Although you always have to be wary of snakes and scorpions.
So I guess you could say I’m slowly figuring out my new life here. The language, the people, the customs. Little by little it’s coming to me. It’s not always easy (in fact I’d say it’s pretty much never easy) but it’s definitely been interesting so far.
I’ll leave you with a little story from one of my first weeks at site, before everyone there knew there was a white guy in town. I was lying under the mango tree in the middle of my family’s concession one night when a man walked through on his way home. In the dark, only sensing that there was someone there and not knowing who I was he gave me a polite “I ni wura” (good evening) and kept going. When I responded in my obvious American accent he stopped, did a double take, and came up to me. “Eh! Tubabu! (White person.)” he said excitedly. “What’s the matter? Are you lost?”
I sat up and looked around at the rows of huts and my African family sitting with me. I listened to the drumming coming from the shortwave radio. I thought of the fact that the closest American was 5 hours away and that it was pretty much impossible for anyone I know to contact me. I shrugged, “I guess so.” He smiled and told me over his shoulder as he walked away “Have courage.” As he disappeared down the path I settled back down against the tree. Have courage indeed.
I’m in Kan Kan for a few days to relax with some of the other volunteers so I’ve got some time to post here. Sorry for the lack of updates but I’ve been at site for the last month and obviously there’s no internet there. Get used to it, I live in an African village. C’est la vie.
It’s been quite a month. My village is really remote, even by Guinean standards. So I haven’t had any contact with other Americans for the entire month. As you can imagine, that can be quite a plateful at times.
The actual day to day happenings of life are pretty uneventful for the moment. School only started 3 days ago so I’ve spent the majority of the month just trying to get to know my community. Almost nobody there speaks French so I’m having to start all over again with the language learning process, this time with Malinke which is a local language spoken here. There’s no lack of people who want to help me practice, which is great, but there are definitely times when I just want someone who will speak to me in French so I can have a real conversation.
When I’m not wandering around my village trying to blunder my way through a usually nonsensical interaction in Malinke I’m usually spending time reading or with my host family. Activities with them involve eating toh (corn paste served with dipping sauce), teaching me Malinke, eating more toh, and asking me if the things we have here can be found in the U.S. (yes we do have the moon and stars back home). Did I mention we eat a lot of toh?
Tea drinking is also a huge pastime here. Wherever you go in the village you find tons of groups of men sitting around with little charcoal stoves boiling tea. The process of making/drinking the tea takes hours and it’s really more of a way for people to socialize than anything else. The socialization aspect of it is nice but I’m still getting used to the tea itself. It’s made with a really bitter green tea which they then load up with an unbelievable amount of sugar. The result is quite, umm…. sweet, to say the least. As the honorary guest at any gathering I always get the first and biggest cup of tea. Lucky me.
Slowly, the more I get used to my community and venture around further I’m starting to find the little secrets that I missed when I first got here. The market lady who makes awesome peanut butter cookies. Or the goat meat salesmen at night who grills delicious kabobs on an old oil barrel. Or the perfect time to show up at the bakery to get the fresh baked baguettes right out of the brick oven, mmmmm. I’ve also started to explore the surrounding area. There are plenty of paths and hills around here to check out. It’s a good place to go for a hike. Although you always have to be wary of snakes and scorpions.
So I guess you could say I’m slowly figuring out my new life here. The language, the people, the customs. Little by little it’s coming to me. It’s not always easy (in fact I’d say it’s pretty much never easy) but it’s definitely been interesting so far.
I’ll leave you with a little story from one of my first weeks at site, before everyone there knew there was a white guy in town. I was lying under the mango tree in the middle of my family’s concession one night when a man walked through on his way home. In the dark, only sensing that there was someone there and not knowing who I was he gave me a polite “I ni wura” (good evening) and kept going. When I responded in my obvious American accent he stopped, did a double take, and came up to me. “Eh! Tubabu! (White person.)” he said excitedly. “What’s the matter? Are you lost?”
I sat up and looked around at the rows of huts and my African family sitting with me. I listened to the drumming coming from the shortwave radio. I thought of the fact that the closest American was 5 hours away and that it was pretty much impossible for anyone I know to contact me. I shrugged, “I guess so.” He smiled and told me over his shoulder as he walked away “Have courage.” As he disappeared down the path I settled back down against the tree. Have courage indeed.
September 25, 2008
Cheeseburger in Paradise
The day is almost upon us! After two and a half months of training tomorrow I will be sworn in as an official Peace Corps Volunteer. I must say I am ready. Although I’ve had a great time during training and it was definitely a necessary part of adapting to life here it’s time to strike out on my own. Not to mention that swearing in will be followed by two consecutive days of BBQ and swimming in the pool at the Country Director’s house. Eh Allah.
Wednesday was our last day at the training site. We had a farewell ceremony with our host families. The actually ceremony itself was pretty run of the mill as far as things go here. We started an hour and fifteen minutes late. We sat through a bunch of speeches. There were some certificates handed out. And everyone got warm soda, which the Guineans had to save for later since almost all of them are fasting during the day for Ramadan.
The actual saying goodbye part of the whole affair was pretty sad though. Over the months of training I had some great times with my family and although I’m excited to head out to my site I’m also going to miss them. My little brother actually started crying as they were loading my bags onto the cars. But we all have each other’s numbers and we made some plans to visit. I told them it’s not adieu, it’s just à plus tard.
After the ceremony we boarded the bus and left for Conakry. I must say the relative comfort of the Conakry house is a welcome change of pace. Simple things like AC and reliable Internet can do wonders when you’ve gone without them for so long. It’s also just nice to have all of G-16 (and others!) in the same place for some final R&R before we leave for our sites.
Of course I still have stuff I need to do and getting ready to move to site has a whole slew of headaches that go along with it. Today we spent a good part of the day trekking around in the heat going around to different stores in downtown Conakry trying to get all the supplies we’ll need for installation (Peace Corps jargon for “move into site”). So far I’m doing good, I’ve got most of the important stuff like tuna fish, chocolate powder, oatmeal, and nutella. Saturday we’ll be reserved for the less important items like actual supplies for my house. I mean really, who needs to buy a stove when you can just eat nutella all day long?
Spending the day downtown was a bit of a trip. We don’t stand out quite as much in Conakry because Guineans here are more used to seeing white people from the embassies and such but we still garnered our fair share of attention. Most of it was pretty benign, like people yelling out Barak Obama’s name at us. Or trying to sell us calculators. I don’t know what the obsession is with calculators here but every time I go anywhere in Conakry there’s always a ton of Guineans who follow me around trying to sell them to me. Maybe they just assume white people will buy anything with electronics in it.
While most of the attention that we get here either falls into the category of “Hey look a white person! Weird!” or the category of “Hey look a white person! Let’s try and sell them something!” sometimes we get some attention of another variety all together. Such was the case today when, for some reason, the Guinean police decided to start stopping all the foreigners (a.k.a. white people) they found on the streets and demand to see visas.
Now, Peace Corps’ policy is that we don’t walk around with our passports on us and all we have when we’re en ville are Peace Corps ID cards. So when the police decided to start hassling volunteers for their visas they were none to happy to find they only had PC IDs. After many minutes of arguing about the necessity (or lack thereof) of showing them our visas they took a bunch of people over to the police van (where they were keeping a bunch of Asian people who were frantically talking on their phones, probably trying to get someone to come down and bail them out) and proceeded to have a ten minute long argument over the phone with our doctor, who was the highest ranking Peace Corps staff member anyone could get on the phone. After the argument they finally let everyone go, apparently having been convinced that, indeed, it was not necessary to act as though the entire city was one large boarder crossing. Although the situation eventually did resolve itself it was definitely a reminder that we always have to be on our toes when we’re in the big cities here.
Wow, time certainly flies when you’re using the internet. It’s already way past my bedtime here and I need to get up early tomorrow to head over to the Embassy for the swearing in ceremony. I’m scheduled to give a (possibly nationally broadcast) speech in Melinke which is a local language that I can barely greet people in at this point. Suffice to say I need as much sleep as I can get to be able to muddle my way through the page long oratory me and a language trainer wrote up together. I’ll try and post another update through the barbeque induced stupor that I’ll be enduring for the next few days.
~Jesse
Wednesday was our last day at the training site. We had a farewell ceremony with our host families. The actually ceremony itself was pretty run of the mill as far as things go here. We started an hour and fifteen minutes late. We sat through a bunch of speeches. There were some certificates handed out. And everyone got warm soda, which the Guineans had to save for later since almost all of them are fasting during the day for Ramadan.
The actual saying goodbye part of the whole affair was pretty sad though. Over the months of training I had some great times with my family and although I’m excited to head out to my site I’m also going to miss them. My little brother actually started crying as they were loading my bags onto the cars. But we all have each other’s numbers and we made some plans to visit. I told them it’s not adieu, it’s just à plus tard.
After the ceremony we boarded the bus and left for Conakry. I must say the relative comfort of the Conakry house is a welcome change of pace. Simple things like AC and reliable Internet can do wonders when you’ve gone without them for so long. It’s also just nice to have all of G-16 (and others!) in the same place for some final R&R before we leave for our sites.
Of course I still have stuff I need to do and getting ready to move to site has a whole slew of headaches that go along with it. Today we spent a good part of the day trekking around in the heat going around to different stores in downtown Conakry trying to get all the supplies we’ll need for installation (Peace Corps jargon for “move into site”). So far I’m doing good, I’ve got most of the important stuff like tuna fish, chocolate powder, oatmeal, and nutella. Saturday we’ll be reserved for the less important items like actual supplies for my house. I mean really, who needs to buy a stove when you can just eat nutella all day long?
Spending the day downtown was a bit of a trip. We don’t stand out quite as much in Conakry because Guineans here are more used to seeing white people from the embassies and such but we still garnered our fair share of attention. Most of it was pretty benign, like people yelling out Barak Obama’s name at us. Or trying to sell us calculators. I don’t know what the obsession is with calculators here but every time I go anywhere in Conakry there’s always a ton of Guineans who follow me around trying to sell them to me. Maybe they just assume white people will buy anything with electronics in it.
While most of the attention that we get here either falls into the category of “Hey look a white person! Weird!” or the category of “Hey look a white person! Let’s try and sell them something!” sometimes we get some attention of another variety all together. Such was the case today when, for some reason, the Guinean police decided to start stopping all the foreigners (a.k.a. white people) they found on the streets and demand to see visas.
Now, Peace Corps’ policy is that we don’t walk around with our passports on us and all we have when we’re en ville are Peace Corps ID cards. So when the police decided to start hassling volunteers for their visas they were none to happy to find they only had PC IDs. After many minutes of arguing about the necessity (or lack thereof) of showing them our visas they took a bunch of people over to the police van (where they were keeping a bunch of Asian people who were frantically talking on their phones, probably trying to get someone to come down and bail them out) and proceeded to have a ten minute long argument over the phone with our doctor, who was the highest ranking Peace Corps staff member anyone could get on the phone. After the argument they finally let everyone go, apparently having been convinced that, indeed, it was not necessary to act as though the entire city was one large boarder crossing. Although the situation eventually did resolve itself it was definitely a reminder that we always have to be on our toes when we’re in the big cities here.
Wow, time certainly flies when you’re using the internet. It’s already way past my bedtime here and I need to get up early tomorrow to head over to the Embassy for the swearing in ceremony. I’m scheduled to give a (possibly nationally broadcast) speech in Melinke which is a local language that I can barely greet people in at this point. Suffice to say I need as much sleep as I can get to be able to muddle my way through the page long oratory me and a language trainer wrote up together. I’ll try and post another update through the barbeque induced stupor that I’ll be enduring for the next few days.
~Jesse
September 17, 2008
Usually it makes hot, but now it makes cold
Just a quick update.
Right now everyone in training is on a 3 day trip to a town in the middle of Guinea. We're staying ensemble in a forrestry school in the mountains. We just got here but it's looking like the cool mountain air will be a nice little break from the hot humid weather that we get at the training site. The school itself is really secluded and overlooks the town from the top of a mountain, it's very monastaryesque.
Training is fast drawing to a close for me, which is exciting. PST (Pre Service Training) has been a great introduction to life in Guinea but I'm definitly ready to begin my service already. We leave for Conakry on the 24th for our swearing in ceremony at the U.S. Embassy and then I'll officially become a volunteer (as opposed to a trainee).
Hopefully I'll find some time in Conakry to jump on a computer and write a more substantial update but it might be a little tough, we're definitly going to be pressed for time when we get there. In addition to preparing for swearing in (I have to give a speech in Malinke at the ceremony) I also have to work out my banking situation and run around to various markets around the city buying supplies for my site.
I hope everyone's doing good and enjoying the onset of fall in New England. I've decided that although I miss everyone back home, and the food, and the cheese... Having different seasons (especially fall) is going to be one of the big things I'm going to miss during my time here. Oh well, enjoy it double for me. Next time you goto Raos pour out a coffee in my memory.
~Jesse
Right now everyone in training is on a 3 day trip to a town in the middle of Guinea. We're staying ensemble in a forrestry school in the mountains. We just got here but it's looking like the cool mountain air will be a nice little break from the hot humid weather that we get at the training site. The school itself is really secluded and overlooks the town from the top of a mountain, it's very monastaryesque.
Training is fast drawing to a close for me, which is exciting. PST (Pre Service Training) has been a great introduction to life in Guinea but I'm definitly ready to begin my service already. We leave for Conakry on the 24th for our swearing in ceremony at the U.S. Embassy and then I'll officially become a volunteer (as opposed to a trainee).
Hopefully I'll find some time in Conakry to jump on a computer and write a more substantial update but it might be a little tough, we're definitly going to be pressed for time when we get there. In addition to preparing for swearing in (I have to give a speech in Malinke at the ceremony) I also have to work out my banking situation and run around to various markets around the city buying supplies for my site.
I hope everyone's doing good and enjoying the onset of fall in New England. I've decided that although I miss everyone back home, and the food, and the cheese... Having different seasons (especially fall) is going to be one of the big things I'm going to miss during my time here. Oh well, enjoy it double for me. Next time you goto Raos pour out a coffee in my memory.
~Jesse
August 15, 2008
Hi From Haute
Bonjour tout le monde!
It’s time for a long overdue update. So I’ve been in Guinea for just about a month and now that my life in training is pretty well established I figure I’ll give you guys an overview of how I spend my time here.
Monday through Friday I have to be at training site by 8:00am which means I’m up by 7:00. Before I leave for the day my mom gives me breakfast which is always bread and tea. At the training site we have 4 different courses each day with small breaks in between. There’s always at least one language course and the rest are a mix of technical training, culture, health, safety and security, and more lang.
Our trainers are mostly Guinean and they’re an awesome group of people. All of them are completely over qualified for their jobs (there are two former Fulbright scholars on staff) and the fact that they’ve decided to work with Peace Corps instead of taking a higher paying job elsewhere really says a lot about their dedication to their country’s well being.
At midday we get a break for lunch. Tuesdays and Thursdays they feed us at the facility and we usually get some combination of rice, sauce, salad, and various other deliciousness. Bureau lunch (as it’s called) is always a cause for celebration.
Monday, Wednesday, Friday we’re on our own for lunch and I usually go to the market and get food there. Choices in the market are pretty limited and I usually get rice and sauce, an egg sandwich, or meat on a stick.
Rice and sauce is by far the most popular meal here. I’d say the Guineans I know eat it for at least two meals a day. Every day. Always. There are three different kinds of sauce, leaf sauce, soup sauce, and peanut sauce. It’s all pretty good but it can get a little monotonous at times. And there are rocks in the food because everyone dries their rice by spreading it out on the street.
After lunch there’s more training until 5:00. At which point I usually head home and hang out with my family. My family here is really amazing and my parents are two of the kindest people I’ve met in my life. They’re always willing to help me with my French and they never lose their patience with me no matter how inept I prove at figuring out life here. They don’t have any direct children but the family unit in Guinea is really fluid and right now I have two cousins living with us.
I usually eat around 7:30 or so and dinner is always plain spaghetti with meat, avocado salad, or french fries. That is, of course, my dinner. My family eats rice and sauce. For some reason my mom doesn’t believe that I can eat rice and sauce everyday with them and she insists on making me a separate dinner during the week. On the weekends I get rice and sauce with them and it’s awesome because my mom’s a great cook.
After dinner it’s dark and that means not a lot goes on. The town I’m in gets a few hours of electricity at night every few days. So days with power mean the whole family watches poorly dubbed B movies from the states or static on the TV (which is the only thing my family’s antenna picks up).
Nights without power usually consist of sitting in the dark living room with my family listening to French radio. None of which I understand. Sometimes I’ll listen to the BBC in English in my room or read a book with my headlamp. After a few hours of that I go to bed so I can start all over the next day.
Those are the weekdays however, weekends are a whole nother ball of wax. And by that I mean the time I would be at training turns into me sitting around with my family some more. Highlights of the weekend include hand washing my clothes (which takes forever), playing soccer, and rice and sauce.
There’s also usually at least one opportunity to hang out with the other trainees and go to one of two bars here. I use bar in the loosest sense of the word since almost everyone here is Muslim and doesn’t drink so we’re usually the only people there. I honestly have no idea how they stay in business but I don’t ask questions. It’s the only place in town to get a cold beer and if you’re willing to wait the hour they take to make you can get french fries too. They even have Ketchup!
So that’s pretty much my life here for the time being. We all found out last week where our sites are going to be and now we’re on a week long trip to visit our sites. My site’s in the north eastern corner of the country and I’m about 20km away from Mali, which means that anyone who wants to come visit can fly into Bamako and we’ll be relatively close to my site (maybe 8 hours or so).
My region is the hottest in Guinea and supposedly temperatures during the dry season can reach 125 degrees. Yay! Right now I’m in the regional capital, KanKan. Hence the internet access. We just got in last night but so far the city seems really cool. It’s the second largest city in the country after Conakry so there’s a lot going on. The market is supposedly gigantic and there are a lot of really cool artisans here from Guinea and Mali. Tomorrow I get to go visit my site and I’ll finally get to see my home for the next two years. I can’t wait. I’ll try and post an update when I get back if I can make time. For now though I’ve got to go since my time at the internet café is almost up. I hope everyone is doing well back home. Peace.
~Jesse
It’s time for a long overdue update. So I’ve been in Guinea for just about a month and now that my life in training is pretty well established I figure I’ll give you guys an overview of how I spend my time here.
Monday through Friday I have to be at training site by 8:00am which means I’m up by 7:00. Before I leave for the day my mom gives me breakfast which is always bread and tea. At the training site we have 4 different courses each day with small breaks in between. There’s always at least one language course and the rest are a mix of technical training, culture, health, safety and security, and more lang.
Our trainers are mostly Guinean and they’re an awesome group of people. All of them are completely over qualified for their jobs (there are two former Fulbright scholars on staff) and the fact that they’ve decided to work with Peace Corps instead of taking a higher paying job elsewhere really says a lot about their dedication to their country’s well being.
At midday we get a break for lunch. Tuesdays and Thursdays they feed us at the facility and we usually get some combination of rice, sauce, salad, and various other deliciousness. Bureau lunch (as it’s called) is always a cause for celebration.
Monday, Wednesday, Friday we’re on our own for lunch and I usually go to the market and get food there. Choices in the market are pretty limited and I usually get rice and sauce, an egg sandwich, or meat on a stick.
Rice and sauce is by far the most popular meal here. I’d say the Guineans I know eat it for at least two meals a day. Every day. Always. There are three different kinds of sauce, leaf sauce, soup sauce, and peanut sauce. It’s all pretty good but it can get a little monotonous at times. And there are rocks in the food because everyone dries their rice by spreading it out on the street.
After lunch there’s more training until 5:00. At which point I usually head home and hang out with my family. My family here is really amazing and my parents are two of the kindest people I’ve met in my life. They’re always willing to help me with my French and they never lose their patience with me no matter how inept I prove at figuring out life here. They don’t have any direct children but the family unit in Guinea is really fluid and right now I have two cousins living with us.
I usually eat around 7:30 or so and dinner is always plain spaghetti with meat, avocado salad, or french fries. That is, of course, my dinner. My family eats rice and sauce. For some reason my mom doesn’t believe that I can eat rice and sauce everyday with them and she insists on making me a separate dinner during the week. On the weekends I get rice and sauce with them and it’s awesome because my mom’s a great cook.
After dinner it’s dark and that means not a lot goes on. The town I’m in gets a few hours of electricity at night every few days. So days with power mean the whole family watches poorly dubbed B movies from the states or static on the TV (which is the only thing my family’s antenna picks up).
Nights without power usually consist of sitting in the dark living room with my family listening to French radio. None of which I understand. Sometimes I’ll listen to the BBC in English in my room or read a book with my headlamp. After a few hours of that I go to bed so I can start all over the next day.
Those are the weekdays however, weekends are a whole nother ball of wax. And by that I mean the time I would be at training turns into me sitting around with my family some more. Highlights of the weekend include hand washing my clothes (which takes forever), playing soccer, and rice and sauce.
There’s also usually at least one opportunity to hang out with the other trainees and go to one of two bars here. I use bar in the loosest sense of the word since almost everyone here is Muslim and doesn’t drink so we’re usually the only people there. I honestly have no idea how they stay in business but I don’t ask questions. It’s the only place in town to get a cold beer and if you’re willing to wait the hour they take to make you can get french fries too. They even have Ketchup!
So that’s pretty much my life here for the time being. We all found out last week where our sites are going to be and now we’re on a week long trip to visit our sites. My site’s in the north eastern corner of the country and I’m about 20km away from Mali, which means that anyone who wants to come visit can fly into Bamako and we’ll be relatively close to my site (maybe 8 hours or so).
My region is the hottest in Guinea and supposedly temperatures during the dry season can reach 125 degrees. Yay! Right now I’m in the regional capital, KanKan. Hence the internet access. We just got in last night but so far the city seems really cool. It’s the second largest city in the country after Conakry so there’s a lot going on. The market is supposedly gigantic and there are a lot of really cool artisans here from Guinea and Mali. Tomorrow I get to go visit my site and I’ll finally get to see my home for the next two years. I can’t wait. I’ll try and post an update when I get back if I can make time. For now though I’ve got to go since my time at the internet café is almost up. I hope everyone is doing well back home. Peace.
~Jesse
July 11, 2008
First Impressions
Hello everybody!
So I made it to Guinea in one piece. We arrived in Conakry yesterday around 9:00am after about 20 hours of travel. Our journey from the states was long and very tiring. It began with a bus from Philly up to JFK, then a plane to Dakar, Senegal, and finally another plane from Dakar to Conakry.
Arriving in Conakry was quite an experience. Peace Corps met us at the luggage pick up and I'm sure we made quite a scene with everyone walking around introducing themselves. Meeting a lot of the staff who would be training us and helping us during service was really exciting. There's a group of volunteers who delayed returning to the states at the end of their service so they could welcome and help train us. All the volunteers I've met here have been really awesome and have immediately made us feel right at home. They've been an unbelievable resource for trying to figure out life here in Guinea. I feel like I could pepper them with questions for days and still not run out of things to ask. Fortunately they don't seem to mind.
I haven't had an opportunity to see much of Conakry yet since the only time I've been out of the Peace Corps compound has been on the ride from the airport and on two short trips to the closest market. The little I have seen though has been really eye opening. The poverty here is unbelievable. The streets are lined with little run down shacks and are covered in trash. And I literally mean covered, when I'm walking I have to make a conscious effort to avoid stepping in it.
Despite the poverty the Guineans I've met have seemed genuinely happy and most of them have been extremely friendly to me. When walking down the street many people will greet you and ask you how you are doing. White people are quite a novelty in Guinea and we get a lot of stares as well as people (mostly small children) shouting "Foté" at us (which is Susu for white person). The shouting isn't malicious though, it's almost a game that the kids here play, it's really more of a chant than a shout.
Even though the city is dirty I still really like it here. The climate is really beautiful (although stiflingly hot) and the trash, stares, and shouts lend the city flavor.
The Peace Corps compound itself is really nice. It's walled in and has guards posted 24/7 at the gates. There are two main building which consist of the volunteer house and the administrative building. The living quarters are really nice and another trainee was talking about how it's almost like we're on the set of "Real World Conakry". We even have AC, which is a luxury I won't have once we leave here on Monday for our training. So I'm enjoying it while it lasts.
I'll leave you guys with a picture I took from the compound roof to give you an idea of what it looks like here.
So I made it to Guinea in one piece. We arrived in Conakry yesterday around 9:00am after about 20 hours of travel. Our journey from the states was long and very tiring. It began with a bus from Philly up to JFK, then a plane to Dakar, Senegal, and finally another plane from Dakar to Conakry.
Arriving in Conakry was quite an experience. Peace Corps met us at the luggage pick up and I'm sure we made quite a scene with everyone walking around introducing themselves. Meeting a lot of the staff who would be training us and helping us during service was really exciting. There's a group of volunteers who delayed returning to the states at the end of their service so they could welcome and help train us. All the volunteers I've met here have been really awesome and have immediately made us feel right at home. They've been an unbelievable resource for trying to figure out life here in Guinea. I feel like I could pepper them with questions for days and still not run out of things to ask. Fortunately they don't seem to mind.
I haven't had an opportunity to see much of Conakry yet since the only time I've been out of the Peace Corps compound has been on the ride from the airport and on two short trips to the closest market. The little I have seen though has been really eye opening. The poverty here is unbelievable. The streets are lined with little run down shacks and are covered in trash. And I literally mean covered, when I'm walking I have to make a conscious effort to avoid stepping in it.
Despite the poverty the Guineans I've met have seemed genuinely happy and most of them have been extremely friendly to me. When walking down the street many people will greet you and ask you how you are doing. White people are quite a novelty in Guinea and we get a lot of stares as well as people (mostly small children) shouting "Foté" at us (which is Susu for white person). The shouting isn't malicious though, it's almost a game that the kids here play, it's really more of a chant than a shout.
Even though the city is dirty I still really like it here. The climate is really beautiful (although stiflingly hot) and the trash, stares, and shouts lend the city flavor.
The Peace Corps compound itself is really nice. It's walled in and has guards posted 24/7 at the gates. There are two main building which consist of the volunteer house and the administrative building. The living quarters are really nice and another trainee was talking about how it's almost like we're on the set of "Real World Conakry". We even have AC, which is a luxury I won't have once we leave here on Monday for our training. So I'm enjoying it while it lasts.
I'll leave you guys with a picture I took from the compound roof to give you an idea of what it looks like here.
Btw here's my address for people who want to send me mail.
Jesse Reffsin
Corps De La Paix Americain
B.P. 1927
Conakry, Guinée (West Africa)
If anyone decides to send a package send it via the post office and not DHL. You have to pay to receive packages in Guinea and a package via post costs me about $1 to receive whereas a package via DHL can cost upwards of $100.
Ok well I have to go because I'm using one of the only computers here and I don't want to tie it up for too long. I'll probably be pretty cut off from the internet for a while but I'll try my best to keep the blog updated. Until then, au revoir.
~Jesse
June 29, 2008
The storm before the storm
So, it's been a while since I posted. That's partly because I've been busy and partly because I'm still in the U.S. and I can still talk to most of the people who would be reading this. However, since it's been over a month since my last post, for the sake of continuity (and procrastination) I'm posting a quick update.
I've got eight days until I leave for staging and I just wrote up a to do list. It's so long it's depressing. Most of the stuff is pretty easy but there are just so many loose ends I need to tie up that it's a bit overwhelming. Not to mention I haven't started packing yet... I'm having trouble getting motivated as my current living situation consists of sleeping in my parents' living room with all of my belongings lumped into piles around the house. It makes tasks so much harder when they all have to be prefaced with moving a bunch of crap out of the way to even find the thing you're looking for. But really I'm just being lazy.
It's crazy to think that in 10 days time I'll be living in Africa with a family I've never met who speak a language I barely know and have a ton of customs that are completely foreign to me. I'm excited, but it sort of seems like this is happening to someone else. I don't really feel like I'm about to leave the U.S. for two years. It's been so long since I first applied for Peace Corps last July and I've gotten used to thinking of Peace Corps as something I'll do in the future as opposed to the present. I'm having a tough time wrapping my mind around the fact that it's about to become a reality.
At the same time though I'm really excited that my departure date is almost here. It's been such a long wait and I'm antsy to get going. I've been operating at such a high level of stress and anxiety trying to make sure I get everything done that it'll be a relief to finally be done with this preparatory stage. Even though I know that once I get to Guinea I'll be faced with a whole slew of new challenges I feel about as prepared for those challenges as I could hope for and I'm ready to meet them head on.
Alright, well enough procrastination. I need to start tackling this to do list. I think if I start now and don't sleep until I leave that I just might be able to get everything done in time. Here's hoping.
~Jesse
I've got eight days until I leave for staging and I just wrote up a to do list. It's so long it's depressing. Most of the stuff is pretty easy but there are just so many loose ends I need to tie up that it's a bit overwhelming. Not to mention I haven't started packing yet... I'm having trouble getting motivated as my current living situation consists of sleeping in my parents' living room with all of my belongings lumped into piles around the house. It makes tasks so much harder when they all have to be prefaced with moving a bunch of crap out of the way to even find the thing you're looking for. But really I'm just being lazy.
It's crazy to think that in 10 days time I'll be living in Africa with a family I've never met who speak a language I barely know and have a ton of customs that are completely foreign to me. I'm excited, but it sort of seems like this is happening to someone else. I don't really feel like I'm about to leave the U.S. for two years. It's been so long since I first applied for Peace Corps last July and I've gotten used to thinking of Peace Corps as something I'll do in the future as opposed to the present. I'm having a tough time wrapping my mind around the fact that it's about to become a reality.
At the same time though I'm really excited that my departure date is almost here. It's been such a long wait and I'm antsy to get going. I've been operating at such a high level of stress and anxiety trying to make sure I get everything done that it'll be a relief to finally be done with this preparatory stage. Even though I know that once I get to Guinea I'll be faced with a whole slew of new challenges I feel about as prepared for those challenges as I could hope for and I'm ready to meet them head on.
Alright, well enough procrastination. I need to start tackling this to do list. I think if I start now and don't sleep until I leave that I just might be able to get everything done in time. Here's hoping.
~Jesse
May 17, 2008
Presenting... Guinea!
The Peace Corps has three goals that form the basis for all of the work the organization does around the world:
- To help the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.
- To help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.
- To help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.
In the interest of the third goal and to give everyone a better understanding of what my life will be like while I serve, I’m going to give a little information about Guinea and what I will be doing there. Most of my info is coming from the Peace Corps welcome pack, the CIA factbook, or Wikipedia (yay Wikipedia!).
In recent history there have been various protests and strikes against the policies of Conté and his government. These strikes have been spurred by many issues such as government firings, appointees, and the rising cost of living due to increased fuel and food costs. At the beginning of 2007, in response to protest related violence, Peace Corps evacuated all volunteers from
Roughly the size of
One of the poorest nations in the world,
While
I will be serving in
I’m leaving for orientation in
Ok well that was a lot of information but at least now you guys have some idea of where I’ll be for two years. After all that, I’ll leave you with two facts I stole from my friend, Lecesse’s, blog which I thought were pretty interesting.
The Peace Corps uses less money a year than the
~Jesse
May 5, 2008
Why Peace Corps?
My decision to apply for the Peace Corps probably caught a lot of people by surprise and I’ve gotten tons of questions as to what my motivations for wanting to serve are. It seems like this question always comes up at weird times and I never really know how to answer it. I mean how can I condense my reasons for wanting to spend two years volunteering abroad into a quick blurb that I can tell people at parties? Whenever I’ve tried to do so I’ve just felt disappointed with my inadequacy to accurately explain myself. So for my inaugural blog entry I’ve decided to try and put the speculation to rest and explain my reasons for joining the Peace Corps as best I can. Keep in mind that I doubt I could ever offer a complete understanding of all my reasons for wanting to become a PCV so bare with me and, as always, take what I say with a grain of salt.
It probably comes as no surprise that a main motivation of mine for wanting to serve is a desire to help others. It’s a sad fact that there is an enormous gap in the quality of life enjoyed by the worlds richest and poorest nations. Being lucky enough to live in the
I’ve been able to get a quality education at very little cost. I have ready access to medical services that allow me to live my life unhindered by illness. I’ll never go hungry. I live in a house equipped with electricity, heat, and running water. It’s no secret that the things I’ve just listed are beyond the reach of many people in the world. It bothers me that we allow this gap between the rich and the poor to exist without giving it much thought.
Our society is built on moving forward. As a people we’re constantly inventing, discovering, and exploring. These things help us improve ourselves and our quality of life. Being mindful of how we can advance our society is obviously important, but in my opinion, paramount to moving forward is ensuring that we leave no one behind. That’s exactly what we’re doing when we stand by while so many people lack so much.
I imagine there was a time when it was acceptable to focus merely on our own problems. When travel was slow and communication was limited it probably made sense to think of the world as a collection of isolated nations who had only to think of themselves. But today this is not the case. Countries can communicate with each other at a moment’s notice and we can be almost anywhere in the world in less than twenty four hours.
As the concept of globalization surfaces again and again in our popular conscience we need to realize that it means more than simply merging the world’s economies or connecting the world’s people. As we continue to become more global we must also begin sharing the world’s problems. Because in a truly global society the world’s problems are our own and by neglecting any part of the world we are neglecting a part of ourselves.
Ok, since I’m beginning to feel the rolling of many eyes through my computer screen I’m going to step down off my ideological soap box now. I’m obviously no saint and my decision to join the Peace Corps was as self motivated as it was otherwise. I hope to get a lot out of this experience and I’ve heard from many people that volunteers often come away from their service feeling like they’ve gotten more from their time abroad than the people they went to help.
In a lot of ways this makes sense to me. My primary assignment is fairly rigid, I’m going to teach math to 7th through 10th graders in
There are tangible things that I’ll gain as a PCV such as fluency in a new language or skills as an educator that drew me towards service. Things like this are a plus and they’ll look good on my résumé when I return home, but I think the thing that attracted me most to the Peace Corps won’t fit nicely on a piece of paper. More so than anything else I was seeking out an adventure.
People who knew me well before I decided to serve may not have known I was thinking about joining the Peace Corps, but they certainly knew I didn’t want to graduate and immediately start on a career path. I’ve always tried to be experience driven in my life. I want to go places, I want to meet people, I want to see the world. I find the idea of being tied down to a job directly out of school to be completely antithetical to those goals. Instead, I want an adventure, and Peace Corps is a great way for me to find one.
Well, I think that’s about the best I can do to illuminate my motivations for wanting to be a PCV. Hopefully I’ve made my choice a little clearer to everybody out there. If nothing else I’ve found it helpful to write this. It gave me a chance to reflect on my reasons for serving and to clarify to myself why I was undertaking this entire experience.
Once I get motivated I’ll put up a little information about
~Jesse
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