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:

  1. To help the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.
  2. To help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.
  3. 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!).

Guinea is a country in West Africa. In 1958 it became the first French African colony to gain its independence at which point Sekou Touré became Guinea’s first president. Following the death of Touré in 1984 General Lansana Conté took over as head of the Guinean state via a military coup. Conté has served as president of Guinea since 1993 when the country held its first democratic elections.

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 Guinea for a period of six months. Things seem to have calmed down considerably since then but there is still ongoing talk of strikes and government protests.

Roughly the size of Oregon, Guinea has a population of about ten million people, two million of which live in the capital city, Conakry. The officially language is French but many other local languages are spoken in the country such as Malinke, Susu, and Pular. 85% of the population is Muslim, 8% is Christian, and 7% practice indigenous beliefs.

Guinea is a notoriously wet country. The Niger river, the third longest river in Africa and the principal river in West Africa, originates in the Guinean highlands. The country’s terrain is pretty varied. It includes four distinct regions of coastline, mountains, savannahs, and rainforest/jungle. There are two seasons in Guinea, a rainy season from June to November and a dry season from December to May.

One of the poorest nations in the world, Guinea has a GDP per capita of $2,100 which places it 209th out of the 229 countries listed in the CIA factbook. 47% of the country’s population lives below the poverty line.

Guinea’s economy is mostly centered around agriculture and mining. The main export of Guinea is bauxite, accounting for about 80% of its international trade. Bauxite is a general term referring to a rock composed of hydrated aluminum oxides. 99% of metallic aluminum is produced from bauxite which makes the ore a practical prerequisite for anyone trying to manufacture aluminum. Guinea contains about ½ of the world’s bauxite reserves. Other leading exports include coffee, bananas, palm kernels, and pineapples.

While Guinea has a much lower occurrence of HIV/AIDS than a number of other African countries the World Health Organization declared in 2005 that Guinea was facing a generalized epidemic. 1.7% of the population is HIV positive. In the U.S. only 0.3% of the population is HIV positive.

I will be serving in Guinea teaching math to students between 7th and 10th grade. I’ll be teaching any number of the following subjects: algebra, geometry, and trigonometry. My class sizes can range from 25 to 100 students with the average class size being 40. I will be assigned to a school located in a village or small town. I won’t find out where until I begin training and the Peace Corps staff can determine where they want to place me.

I’m leaving for orientation in Philadelphia on July 7th and will be arriving in Guinea on July 10th. July 10th through September 27th consists of pre-service training which covers things like technical, language, health, and cultural training. During PST I’ll be living with a Guinean host family. Housing at my site is provided by the local community and is different from site to site. It could be anything from a one room hut, to a communal living arrangement, to my own house. We’ll just have to wait and see.

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 U.S. government spends on coffee for the army. Also, the Peace Corps uses less money a year than the cost of half of one day of war in Iraq. Obviously the military and the Peace Corps are two completely different organizations and it doesn’t really make sense to directly compare their expenditures but I still think it’s worth mentioning. War is expensive and there are many better things we can spend our money on.

~Jesse

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