Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Where the heck is Guinea?

No it is not a pig.
No it is not an old British coin.
No it is not an exotic island in the Pacific named Papua New Guinea.
No it is not Equatorial Guinea.
Not it is not Guinea-Bissau. (but it's close.)

Guinea is, well, Guinea. A former French colony in West Africa and the future home to me. I can't tell you much other than what I've read online or in books, but I know that it's a place I will probably fall in love with over the next 2.5 years. If you're curious where I'm moving, I'd encourage you to check out Wikipedia; there's not much I can tell you that isn't already on that page. But, what I can give insight on is why I'm going.

I've finally boiled down my response to 'why?' to a nice succinct answer, but believe me, it's more than what I'm going to say...

I'm moving to Guinea with the United States Peace Corps because of my passion to learn new cultures, meet new people, explore the great beyond and work with communities to identify and address their problems. I have no idea what to expect -- or even what I'll be doing -- but I'm certain my life will be transformed over the next couple years. This is something that I've given much thought, prayer and reflection. I don't have a doubt that this is the direction my life is supposed to take and I'm embracing it to the fullest!

From the limited information I've been given thus far, I can tell you I'll be a Public Health Educator, most likely working with a health post and doing community health outreach programs.  Fortunately, I get to work with my Guinean counterpart to determine what our individual projects are, so we truly get to assess the needs of our community before offering a program.  The Ministry of Health has determined that they would like us to focus on 5 main areas: nutrition and food security, childhood immunizations, HIV/AIDS and reproductive health, malarial prevention, and water, sanitation and food-borne illness (diarrhea).

It's my hope to share with you some of the experiences I have in Guinea through this blog. Feel free to share the link with anyone interested. For now, let's play a game.  Which one doesn't belong?

Some of the things I'm most excited for:
  • struggling to learn French and my village's language
  • being in a foreign country and knowing no one (at first)
  • sleeping with lions, and monkeys and bugs
  • eating rice and 'sauce' for every meal, every day, for 27 months
  • working with my village to address public health challenges