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My Friend Meghan's Adventures in Africa

Thursday Jan 27, 2005

For those of you who remember the good ol' San Francisco days, you should also fondly remember my roommate Meghan. Well Meghan, out of the seemingly endless goodness of her heart, has opted to teach for Africa after already dedicating two years to the same aims but for our nation. Recently I received a letter from her that I felt not only gave great insights to the life of a foreigner living in a third world nation, but also showed a wonderful dark humor -- the best way to survive the tougher times. Without further ado, I present to you, Meghan's letter:

"Hello all,
Just a quick Guinea update. I’ll actually try to make it somewhat quick this time, as I’ve begun to realize that I have a tendency to write long-winded compositions. First things first, change of address. I am changing my address (and my name), as the corruption within the postal system here is becoming more and more evident. Everyone I talk to who actually receives mail in Guinea pays off the post office. But my organization does not recognize that this is necessary, despite the well-known fact that when the postal workers get tired, they throw mail in the trash or just take it. I find it amusing to think of a bunch of disgruntled Guinean postal workers sitting around watching Mean Girls and listening to the Garden State Soundtrack. So anyway, here it is, new address, new Guinean name, we’ll see how things go:
 
Mariama Diallo
IFESH / Professor d’Anglais
Centre Universitaire de Labé
BP 210
Labé, GUINEE
West Africa
 
In other news, the teachers have been on strike here since my return. They are paid 120,000 Guinea Francs a month, which is the equivalent of about $33 a month. So they were striking to get more money, which the government insists doesn’t exist, but I have a feeling if top officials required a little less bling-bling to be content, the country could pay its teachers a livable wage. In the meantime, since I’ve been unemployed, I’ve been doing a lot of English lessons from home with my students, exploring the town a bit more, and playing copious amounts of Scrabble (thank you, Annemarie… everyone loves it). It sounds like they’ve negotiated some  things now, so work should start up again next week. Thursday is Tabaski, which is a holiday that involves a lot of sheep killing and eating. Looking forward to it. I hope all is well in your neck of the woods.
 
Love,
Meghan"

The woman has changed her name, is out of work due to a strike, and is thoroughly looking forward to the sheep killing holiday of Tabaski. That's awesome!