The Future of Guinea

Today we had more survival language training in Susu. I had a good time coughing up my silent n's and swallowing my x's to imitate our language teacher. After this lesson we had a class dealing with the different types of cultural adjustments when living with our homestays. The topics ranged from eating etiquette to bathroom etiquette. My favorite was when a trainee named Erich demonstrated how to use a pit latrine by standing on two chairs. It truly was a "kodak moment" which I will hopefully be able to share with you all one day but seeing that I am having difficulty finding a way to upload my pictures it will definitely be one day more in the future:)
The day's sessions ended with two guest speakers from the US Embassy. The Security Officer and the Political Officer were able to shed some light on the situation in the country. I was happy to find out that our "American" presence here is very wanted and that there is a high demand for more volunteers throughout the country. However, I left with a certain disparity that I'm not sure how to handle.
The country of Guinea is full of natural resources with so many possibilities for progress. Not only is there an untapped tourism market but being in Agroforestry I learned that ~80% of their mangoes rot. Also Guinea's potential for hydropower could in fact provide electricity for most of West Africa! Statistics like these goes across all sectors because what it all comes down to is that a corrupt government will never allow progress to happen. This immediately made me feel hopeless but I found hope in the Embassy officers knowing that there are many people like them dedicating their lives to development in the most hopeless cases.
They have coined our group as "G15-The Future of Guinea" because we are the first full training group to return since Peace Corps volunteers had to evacuate in January due to political instability. I'm excited to start working with farmers and to address agricultural issues like making drying ovens for those mangoes! But since our presence here will often be the only exposure a Guinean will get of America, I have to remember that every encounter matters. I believe that the answer to corruption lies within having an education. Foreign aid can only take a country so far, but real change depends on the people of that country. A country cannot perform without its' basic human rights.