Making it back "home"

After two less-than-positive blogs concerning African travel, I figured I owed it to you readers to write a follow-up post on how it all ended. Especially since my former country director wrote in last week's team letter something to the effect of: "Rene and her fiancé, Andrew, were stranded in Accra when security issues prevented their onward journey to Guinea. Not sure where they are now, but pray for God’s protection." Haha!! Well, Bill, and all the rest, I have made it back to the States, against all odds, but of course, not without incident. Wanna hear about it?

So after a couple days of seeking out internet kiosks and buying cell phone credit to communicate with US travel agents, Ghanaian travel agents, and mom's who all were trying to help me coordinate a flight out of Africa. Easier said than done. With less than 24 hrs to spare, I finally managed to book a flight to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso and then from there to Paris-->N.Y.-->Charlotte, NC. So on Friday Andrew and I parted ways in the Accra airport while he headed to Bamako, Mali and I back across the ocean. In Ouagadougou I spent a seemingly interminable 8 hr layover in the less-than-accomodating airport. I mean, I've been in my share of developping world airports...and I've never before feared I was contradicting malaria. I bided my time before they allowed me to check in (and thus proceed to the real waiting lounge (with drinks for sale and a television spewing horrible franco-african dance videos) ), by reading, journaling, and rearranging my skirt to guard against the swarms of mosquitoes. After about an hour when the morning flight took off and I'm the lone passenger they switch to low power mode--dimmed lights and no fans. Ok, enough complaining about the torturous time there. On the flight to Paris I got put in the same row as the only (as far as i could tell) American. We had some good conversation which helped both of us stay up to reprogram our body clocks and fight jet lag. Standing in the security line in Paris I was immediately struck by the dearth of bright colors and elaborate patterns of clothing...instead was just a sea of of grayscale. Perhaps that's why people seemed slightly happier around me...I was wearing a patchwork skirt made of vibrant Nigerian cloth and toted a flourescent green carry-on.

ANYWAYS, my 30+ hours of travel from airports to planes continued to slowly break me back into the "developped" world. Climate-control, water fountains, and car seats...all fantastic ideas. When I rolled past customs at JFK, the heart-winning, delight-filling, smile-effecting Grandpa Peter K. Haile was there to greet me. I was grinning from ear to ear as we hugged and he showered subsequent kisses on my cheeks. G'pa had graciously arranged a ride so he could come spend about an hour with me during my layover there at JKF. What a blessing for such a loving face to be one of the first to see as I stepped on American soil! My mom was slightly jealous:)

Though I only had one more short flight left to CHarlotte, NC, I wasn't ready to give up my transient life of waiting in terminals...so I volunteered my seat on the over-booked flight! They offered flight vouchers and I thought, heck, what's another few hours of self-entertainment in this NICE airport (with coushioned seats, bathrooms, magazines, and CNN)?? AND THEN I got upgraded to first-class for the 1st time ever!!! now, it would have been sweet for that to happen on the trans-atlantic flight, but cruising into my homestate in style wasn't bad either. You know how when you board a plane you shuffle past the 1st-class passengers and think to yourself, "It'd be nice to have the dispensible income to afford such a cushy ride. I wonder what this man/woman does?" Well, I totally got those looks and wanted to put a sign up that said, "Not rich, just work for God."

Ok, last fun episode of my journey happend after I collected my backpack and was milling around the baggage claim area. Someone was supposed to be picking me up but I wasn't sure who or if they would know me, though my attire and smell screamed Africa. While I wrestled with the payphone to try to reach someone who might know, this nice lady said, "Hey honey, just use my cell phone." And then this lovely hispanic lady complimented me on my skirt, which led to my giving my schpill about Nigeria and her offering to give me a ride wherever I needed to go! She waited with me outside until my ride rolled around, what a sweet heart! Her as well as a handful of other people and situations i encountered in transit got me thinking that perhaps God wasn't out to just screw up all my plans. I mean, I know He's not, but I had been really disappointed about not seeing Guinea and leaving Andrew early and frustrated about all the time I spent organizing things. Now that I'm on this end of things, I can see God's loving hand guiding and dropping little gems of blessing into my lap.

Right, that was super d duper d long. Sorry! I might have to do a little retroactive blogging about saying goodbye to Nigeria and then some of Andrew's and my fun in Ghana. You don't mind non-chronological blogging, do you?

ps--see link on right for my video summarizing the past 2 years :)

andrew's guinea update

here's andrew's more detailed explanation (from a mass email)

Hello all,

So many of you may have been following the news on Guinea the last week or so. For those who haven't, there has been a spate of violence in the capital, Conakry, surrounding a scheduled rally from the political opposition last Monday. Rioters were shot by the military and there were a number of other abuses, including stories of rape at gunpoint and other brutalization of women. Terrible stuff, and deeply disturbing considering the precarious nature of the political situation during this interim government period.

I've been in Ghana since Friday, taking the LSAT and meeting up with my fiancee, Rene as well as spending time with some other Peace Corps friends. It's been a great week-- beaches, hammocks, great seafood, and a real movie in a real movie theater have all been highlights. I heard the news about Guinea Tuesday night as I was waiting to pick Rene up from the airport. Getting back to the hostel that night, we made some phone calls and heard about the violence-- over 150 dead. Pretty shocking. From there, we've been in touch with Peace Corps and with Guinean friends back in-country.

Peace Corps, in coordination with the US embassy, has decided to evacuate all Volunteers as a precautionary measure. The country is ostensibly calm: the violence hasn't spread outside of Conakry although tensions are apparently high. However, the situation with the military and the interim government looks extremely grim-- the men who ought to be maintaining order and justice are instead murdering and brutalizing civilians.

Despite this, Boulliwel is of course entirely unchanged. When I called M. Diallo the other day he confirmed the reports that we had heard through the grapevine but assured me that everything would get better and that they'd have us back in Guinea soon enough. Apparently Blaise Campaore, the President of Burkina Faso, and a high-up American State Dept official are being dispatched to Conakry to "mediate." So we'll see how that goes.

In the meantime, it looks like the Guinea Volunteers that I'm here with in Ghana and I will be heading to Bamako, Mali this week, for a minimum of two weeks (and potentially more) to watch and see if the situation cools down. This is a huge bummer for me, because it means that Rene won't get to come see Guinea. She and I had planned to head back to Guinea on Tuesday and now it looks like she may head back to the States instead. We are exploring the option of her coming to Bamako for a few days to prolong the visit but it looks unlikely. And Boulliwel had been so excited to get to meet her after all these months! A real shame.

Please keep Guinea in your thoughts and prayers. All the Volunteers will be leaving Guinea for Mali on Thursday-- we might be there as soon as Wednesday (waiting on PC/Ghana for word on that one) to meet up with the rest of the crew. Bamako may not know what hit it! But we have all been shocked by the news and are hoping for a swift and peaceful resolution to the conflict and a just, orderly organization of the presidential elections scheduled for January.

Take care,

Much love,

Andrew

A.W.A.

In my early blogging days I posted a blog entitled T.I.A. (This is Africa) chronicling some of the ridiculous unexpected things that make life in Africa FAR from boring. Now, as I'm on my way back to the U.S. the African powers have decided I needed a final kick in the pants so I don't forget just how nutty life on this continent can be.
Right. So I had carefully, though not TOO meticulously, planned a little west African travel en route to the States after finishing my term in Nigeria. Andrew and I arranged to meet up in Ghana, where he and a couple other peace corps friends were taking the LSAT. We planned to hang out on the coast of Ghana for a week and then fly back to Guinea where I'd spend a couple weeks in Bouliwell, his village and home for the past 2 years. All goes according to plan EXCEPT for this small tid-bit of news we heard that there was some sort of violent retaliation towards a political opposition demonstration. "Hmm..." we think to ourselves, "that doesn't sound good." Over the course of the next few days we receive increasingly plan-threatening reports which culminated in learning that Peace Corps-Guinea will be evacuating all its volunteers to Bamako, Mali. (note: my wonderful fiance has sent out a mass e-mail with more details about all that jazz so I won't bore you with my less eloquently written rendition)(If you want to read that, I'll try to post it in another blog)
SO, yes, my friends. All those who said goodbye to me in Nigeria and jokingly said, "I can't wait to see what adventures West Africa throws at you this time..." it has come. Currently we are stuck in Accra (though we did have several fantastic days down along the coast. blogs with pictures to come at a later date), waiting to see when and how to get to Mali. Or if I'm even going to go. It is a good thing I've had lots of experience over the past 2 years with the unpredictability of African travel, otherwise my type-A tendencies might be on the fritz. I wish I could write more, but my time is ticking on this Internet cafe computer and there are travel agents to contact. For now, I have my white flag up in surrender for A.W.A (Africa Wins Again...I know some of you were wondering what that stood for :) )