Bamba and Mamadou help make l'huile de palme (red palm oil) before the evening meal in Guinea.
A community is waiting for you in Guinea. What are you waiting for? Now hiring English, math and science teachers.
Welcome to Guinea! 🇬🇳
43 new Agroforestry and Public Health Volunteers arrived last month in Peace Corps Guinea. We can’t wait to see what they accomplish!
Photo essay: Guinea Wasted
“‘Guinea Wasted’ is a photojournalistic piece I conducted while living and working in waste management in Guinea. The piece seeks to provoke thoughtful reflection and critically-necessary discussion surrounding the wealth/filth paradox that lives and breathes side-by-side in Guinea: beautiful countryside/trash everywhere; wealth of natural resources/trash everywhere; fancily-clad bureaucrats and businessmen/trash everywhere; gigantic villas and homes/trash everywhere — it’s pervasive, puzzling and, quite frankly, alarming.”
“While attempting to tackle the issue in collaboration with local partners, we worked extensively to negotiate and install 108 trash cans for an integrated collection and recycling service in our city. The system was operated by employed youth, funded first by the Guinean Environmental Ministry and later by the planned sale of compost, plastic and a trash ‘tax’ that we negotiated and instituted with the blessing of the mayor’s office. We conducted community surveys and educational efforts, drew community maps, named streets, took census data, and wrote and professionally recorded two ‘trash’ songs in the local language that were later broadcast on local radio stations.”
“In the backdrop of this work, my mind continued to rest on the greater matter at hand: Why was Guinea so dirty and why was no one doing anything about it? While on a run one morning in my city, musing over its waste management system and the larger picture of Guinea in general, the idea came to me — how might I really cultivate attention around this? Why isn’t anyone?
I took the idea and ran with it, deciding to conduct a series of photo shoots with a very compliant PCV friend, Wiatta Thomas, as my model, juxtaposing beauty, wealth, the male/female dynamic, posterity and authority with the mountains of trash that exist everywhere. We flew by the seat of our pants in execution with zero budget, using my point-and-shoot and borrowing clothes and jewelry from friends in the capital city (thanks to those who helped make it happen!).
From there, ‘Guinea Wasted’ was born. I hope each photo individually provokes a different sentiment and conversational element, all part of the greater question at hand. From there, I’ll leave it to you to connect, take a look and join the conversation — Guinea deeply deserves it.”
Check out this vintage shot from 1970 of Peace Corps Volunteer Clint Mooring, who took his mechanical engineering degree to Guinea. Clint worked with a group of mechanics at the Conakry Bus Company, teaching them to make spare parts for buses.
(Psst… we’re hiring in Guinea right now.)
Peace Corps is back in action in Guinea
Et c'est parti! 15 Volontaires ont prete serment ce Vendredi 8 Janvier 2016. Une nouvelle page s'ouvre dans la cooperation americano-guineenne.
Here we go! Peace Corps Response Volunteers were sworn in Friday, January 8, 2016. A new page in U.S - Guinea relations opens.
Your sister is waiting for you in Guinea. Are you ready to meet her?
Apply today to be in Guinea by July 2016.