Guinea

Some of my students and me

Just a few months ago I was seriously doubting the possibility of my going to Guinea, West Africa with a team from my church. Now, looking back, it is difficult to believe it even happened. It was such a whirlwind adventure - about 10 days in all- with a back-to-back trip to Guadalajara, Mexico right afterwards. The Guinea team consisted of 2 guys and 6 gals (including myself) from the College and Career group in the Missoula Alliance Church. The majority of the team went with the idea of putting on a volleyball camp in a village on the outskirts of Conakry. I went with the intention of teaching ESL to kids and translating for the group whenever needed. Guinea, like Senegal, is a primarily Islamic country with bits of Animism mixed in. There are very few Guinean believers. The Susu people, that we went to minister to - are very much an unreached people group. There are about 6 Susu believers in Conakry (The capital city). Our team began our trip in Casablanca, Morocco. It was so much fun for me to share a little bit of a country that I love with friends from Montana. We explored the medina (or old part of the city), ate Moroccan tajine, visited the Hassan II mosque, and spent time just enjoying the atmosphere while sipping mint tea. Good times. We then flew to Conakry to begin our West African adventure. The "kids" that I had been planning on teaching turned out to be 25 young men from the age of 18 to 30 years old. We still had fun playing games like Simon Says :). I was really proud of how much my students learned in just three hours a day for a week. At least, I was proud until I said hello to one of them and they said "I am fine, thank you!" I believe the volleyball team saw a lot of improvement in the high schoolers as well. I know for a fact that they all had lots of fun. More importantly, we all made some wonderful relationships with our students and the 6 members of the Susu church in Hafia. According to one member of my team, I even met my future husband - A Brazilian working in a village in Guinea.

Some of my highlights include:

• Passing out candy to children on the streets and having them teach me Susu.
• Sitting down with random families in the village and chatting with them and eating crazy fruits I have never seen before.
• Watching grown men fight over whether or not they got 'out' at Simon Says.
• Braving the roads of Guinea to get to a village a few hours outside Conakry.
• Listening to the Susu men worship.
• Discovering a new place and culture with friends from Montana.
• Just being back in Africa.:)
  

Some of my least favorite things were:

• Eating plain rice day after day because the sauce had seafood in it.
• The suffocating heat combined with the humidity.
• Getting sick from fish and/or malaria pills and/or unclean food/water.
• Trash...everywhere.
• Not being able to help so many people that I saw in need.
  

The Susu church at Hafia

Eating rice and sauce...with our hands

Jeremy, the master at eating with his hands.

The children just love seeing themselves on the camera

Women getting the water for the day at the well

Just another curious observer of the Fotes (White People)

African women are incredible and can carry many things on their heads, in their arms, on their backs...

A family in a village...they gave me a crazy fruit that I've never seen before. Yummy!