Lazy summer

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  Gbangbadou, Guinea
Tuesday, July 28, 2009

It's the rainy season which means the village empties during the day. School is out so kids migrate to family members in big cities. Adults and all the kids unlucky enough to be left in the village spend their days in the fields, planting rice, weeding peanuts and pulling off ears of corn. There has been plenty of rain and sunshine alike so crops are growing well. This is good news in a continent plagued by floods and draughts where one bad harvest means starvation for thousands. But where does this leave me? I have no fields to tend. I could visit other volunteers but after 20 months of waiting for bush taxis to fill up and then waiting when they break down and waiting at military roadblocks the magic of travel has faded. I'm actually quite content to stay in my village for now.
Things have been happening in Gbangbadou. My peer educator group "Les Superstars" is still my pride and joy. Slowly but surely my kids are slipping away, though. Mai is in Kissidougou, apprenticed to a painter. Sarata is visiting family in Kankan. Aissatou is visiting family in Labe. Pierre, the president and motivator, left on Sunday for N'Zerekore. Tamba, the best student in English and such a sweet boy, has a sadder story.
Most of you probably haven't been keeping track of what's going on with the new government in Guinea. Since our military coup back in December, the new president, Moussa Dadiss Camera, has been making a lot of changes. One is with the justice system. According to the new Minister of Justice there are too many people in prison. The government cannot afford to pay for them. So when someone murders or steals they should not be brought to prison. They should be subjected to the "people's justice", basically released to a mob and killed in whatever way the people choose. Over the past few months I've heard of various cases. A man was found in Mandiana with a girl chained in his house that he had been raping and was planning on trafficking to Mali (child trafficking is a lucrative business in West Africa). He was found out; a tire soaked in gasoline was put over his head and he was burned to death. Another case had my village all abuzz. In Guekedou three men were caught after breaking out of prison and stealing some motos. They were also burned to death. I spoke with some village men about this. I said that there human rights had been violated; everyone has the right to a trial. And really, they killed them for stealing motos! Everyone of the 5 men disagreed with me. "You white people can have your human rights. You have that luxury. You've been raised to respect other people's rights. But all we Africans know is every man for himself. So when someone breaks the law they must be punished immediately and harshly to be an example for other would-be criminals. That's what we understand." How sad. And I'm not sure they would be so keen on this if the punishment for corruption, or skimming money off the top of projects, was also death. As all of them were government employees, I doubt one would be spared.
But two weeks ago in Kissidougou a woman was murdered with a machete. Her husband claimed a moto taxi driver did it. Their 8 year old son said daddy did it. So that day the husband is put in prison. As word gets out angry people stream into the streets. Roadblocks are constructed throughout the city and a mob storms the prefet's mansion demanding the release of the husband to the crowd. The prefet calmly walks out of his house, flanked on all sides by a military escort and promises the people what they want. Ben, another volunteer, who visited me the day this happened, witnessed everything in the streets up to this point. Then as things started to heat up, he came to my village. Well, the husband was released to the mob. He was stoned, beaten with sticks and kicked until he died. Then his mangled body was left in the street to rot. The Red Cross came by later in the evening to collect his remains. He was convicted by his 8 year old son! How is that justice? How is making the hundreds of people in that mob into murderers justice? What sort of society is this practice encouraging? I'll tell you. It's leading to a Rwanda, a Burundi, a DRC, a Sierra Leone or Liberia. It's creating a citizenship that does not respect law, human rights or life itself. When a mob become the judge and jury how can there be a civil society? I do not like what this foreshadows for a future Guinea. But the woman who was macheted to death was Tamba's sister. So he has also left Gbangbadou to mourn with his family in Kissidougou.
Another recent development my official counterpart, the person I'm supposed to work with and who is responsible for me in my village has been transferred. She found out on Sunday and had to be out by Monday. Therese, my first friend in Gbangbadou, has been demoted from the head of a health center to the head of a health post. Health posts are in the middle of no where! She's refusing the position. But she can't stay in the village. She has been replaced with a man, Karifa Conde. I have yet to meet him. We're also getting a new vaccinator, another man. So my woman-run health center is being taken over by men in a week's time. It's a lot to take in.
I'll carry on as best I can. I've opened the peer educator meetings up to all middle schoolers left in the village, just for the summer. I had three new boys yesterday. I asked why there weren't any girls. They told me that the girls are too busy selling corn on the road. Corn is grown as a garden crop here; it towers over our huts all over the village. The girls pick it and then roast it over hot charcoal to sell to passing vehicles. It's feed corn- for cows. Even when I boil it and smother it in margarine I can hardly chew it down. But I'd say it's the main food source for most villagers around me. So the girls that I would love to have in my classes are trying to make a few francs on the side of the road.
I only have a few months left so all of you who said you would write me a letter, and haven't...should. I'm spending a lot of time studying for the GRE which I'm taking in Conakry in October. I've also been writing my statement of purpose for the schools I'm applying to. I get stressed sitting in my peaceful village just thinking about tests and papers and class. I will miss my free time. Speaking of, I have some relaxation reading to do. Peace out.

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