Strike update

Hello All!

A lot has happened since my last blog update. Major events:
1. Christmas was spent in Conakry with around 40 other volunteers, not a very traditional holiday this year, but I did get to spend one fabulous day on the beach of one of the islands just off the coast of Conakry.
2. An old friend from HS, Derek, who I visited with my parents during his time in Accra, Ghana, came to visit just after Christmas. Derek convinced me (it wasn’t hard) to visit Sierra Leone for the New Year’s holiday. We managed to get a free ride on a world food program flight from Conakry to Freetown and spent a few days checking out the capital as well as the nearby Atlantic coast beaches.
3. Derek continued his travels and I took a bush taxi with a few other PC volunteers back to Guinea in early January. I rode as far as Forecariah, the old training site where I spent my first 3 months in Guinea. There I assisted my boss is creating a training program for this years small enterprise development volunteers. Unfortunatly, this work in Forecariah was cut short with the decision by the major unions in Guinea to begin a national, unlimited (in time) strike on Jan. 10th. Which leads to event #4…
4. Today, I arrived in Bamako, Mali along with all 105 other PC Guinea volunteers. After 14 days of trying to keep from being bored in Timbi Madina during the nation- wide strike our headquarters decided to evacuate all the volunteers here until things calmed down in the country.

The strike began back on January 10th, and called for the same changes as had been demanded in previous national strikes, namely, salary increases and a decrease in the price of oil and rice. By the second day the demands were changing, representing peoples want for a true display of revolution in the country. The country began asking for the current president, Lansana Conte to step down from his post as President. Conte has been in power since 1986 and changed the Guinean constitution in 1998 in order to extend his presidency until 2010. The reports on BBC tended to focus on his old age and ill health as primary reasons that a change of government was needed. In reality, it is the corruption in Guinea (recently ranked as #1 most corrupt country in Africa) that is debilitating any opportunities for development that favor Guinea. A majority of the strike was peaceful, although in several demonstrations that military openly fired on demonstrators, which resulted in a total of around 40 people dead at the end of the 14 days. In Timbi the only evidence of the strike was a demonstration that took place last Monday. A group of maybe a couple hundred youth in the community took to the streets and began to throw rocks, then tore the roof and doors off of the police and national military ‘gendermare’ buildings and burned them in the street.

Since then, the latest rumor circulating is that Conte has agreed to share power with a prime minister, and possible candidates for this post are being considered. Alas, we’re all just laying low in Bamako, enjoying the dry heat and the company of all the PC Guinea volunteers together in one place. Tonight we’re taking a short drive to downtown Bamako and our expectations are set pretty high for this city. (As in, we heard they might have milkshakes and cheeseburgers), maybe electricity, anything else would just be a great bonus!

I’ll keep you posted on our status, but for now. PC Guinea has blended into PC Mali and we’re all enjoying the vacation. Miss you all and hope you’re doing well.

An aside:
I did discover that SIM cards can be cheaply purchased here, so for the time being I have a phone number (that actually works). It’s 011.223.69.96.83.6 so, if you’ve been frustrated trying to reach me while I’ve been in Guinea this is your best chance to get through. Back to my old Guinean number as soon as I return to Timbi.

Take care,
Amy