The holidays aren't quite over, but I'm back in Labé with many a tale to tell. Tomorrow is New Years Eve, which people will be celebrating here, unlike the previous holiday, one week ago.


Most of The Fouta volunteers that gathered in the Labé house for vacation arrived on Christmas eve, and the following hours were filled with ingredient hunting in the Labé market, cooking, and of course, savoring our crafty holiday meals made as best we could with guinean substitutions. We used the h...
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"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." So said Jane Austen nearly 200 years ago... So remains true for Guinea in 2011. Amend the statement to remove "single," and you've hit the nail on the head. A man with up to three wives here can still be on the lookout for another. Four is maximum permitted by Islamic law. From the various conversations over tea that I've had in the past month, it seems, as it was in the era ...
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