Something's growing on here.

I'm going to conjecture that the purpose of a blog with four former Peace Corps Volunteers is to talk about Africa, Peace Corps, and Africa, though not necessarily in that order.

The great thing about a blog with Peace Corps volunteers means that you don't have to suffer the hoity-toity, high falutin' standards of news organizations like Reuters, BBC, or IRIN. In short, it means is that we can talk about stuff like:

Perhaps you don't recognize one of the greatest alcoholic beverages known to Man. That's OK; that just means you haven't visited Guinea yet.

Speaking of The Greatest Country in the Universe, nothing much of interest is going at the moment as the new prime minister is still in the midsts of organizing his new government while the general populace holds its breath and the international community pretends the whole charade may actually result in positive change—but we all know who is still wearing the pants in this dysfunctional family (a certain diabetic chain-smoker, son excéllence, le Général Lansana Conté).

Meanwhile, the few media outlets that exist are still trying to make sense of the massive riots that tore apart the country last month. The always redoubtable Guineenews.org has posted an interview with my former prefet, Mouctar Banti Diallo (now occasional-prefet of Pita—when he isn't getting chased out of town). It's an interesting read if you can suffer his penchanct for long-winded extemporations.

Ol' Mouctar was an acquaintance of mine as we lived next to each other when he was Prefet in Tougué and I drew water from his family's pump every other day-or-so and diligently greeted his wife in her multi-colored complets beneath the mango tree. That somehow makes me feel close to him, though why I'd want to feel close to him is another question altogether. Assuming you speak French, you can read his reactions to the riots that lead him to take his family and flee the town while his office and home were sacked and looted, as well as his explanations as to the causes.

Then when you're tired of feeling bad for the state of the world, cheer yourself up with the Garfield comic generator: They literally write themselves!

This one, however, is still my favorite: