From an Internet Cafe in Conakry

Hello everyone,

Just a quick update. I'm actually writing this in an internet cafe in Conakry. We (me and all the men) are here to pick up the container which is finally coming out! Nothing is easy in Guinea though. They're telling us the taxes and fees amount to about $10,000, about twice what we expected to pay (besides the fact that we're a NGO and technically tax exempt). We're working on all the details today and hopefully the container will come out tonight or tomorrow morning at a more reasonable rate.

We got some gas tanks from Conakry so we're running the refrigerator half days now. It's good to have cold water again. We will not travel to Conakry to pick up more gas tanks though, so please continue to pray that Faranah will get some.

Another student went home this past week. Nearly every student from the Labe region has left now. The only reason we can see is that the school is Christian. A couple of moms came and visited thinking of taking their students back home but decided to let them stay in the end. The families of these students must be feeling a lot of pressure from the Muslim communities or leaders. We rarely consider what the parents and families of our students must face when they send their children to us. Please pray for the families of our students who seem to be facing more persecution than even we are!

Dry season is here. 2 weeks without rain now. The grass is slowly turning brown and the dust is starting to pick up. The nights are still cool though, so we have nothing to complain about!

The governor of the Faranah region came to visit the school this past week. There are only 7 regions of Guinea so only 8 governors if you include the one from the capital. He was very friendly and even knew one of our students who is the son of an official from the ministry of finance. We also had a film crew stop by who are doing a documentary on the education system of Guinea. I think we're officially famous now!

I'm not sure when our next e-mail will come. The bill we got for our usage last month was outrageous, so we're not using it again until we figure out why it was so high.

No other news here. We're all healthy and well and thinking of you all often.

God bless you all for your thoughts and prayers!

Love,
Shannon and Carol

Everyone is healthy and doing well.