Pictures!

 Waterfall visit

Biking around the rice paddies 

Me looking like a nerd

Beautiful Dubreka

In the Swing

Three weeks have passed in Dubreka, so I’ve finally managed to figure out my daily routine. A normal day here looks a little bit like this:

6:15AM: Wake up!

6:30AM: Shower time. Go to the well, try to ignore my family’s stares as they watch me pull up bidon of water, and take my bucket shower. (I will have biceps of steel soon!) I’ve managed to communicate to my family that all I need for breakfast is bread with butter (or peanut butter if I’m lucky), so I sit on the porch eating that. Sometimes my host father comes and sits with me before he heads to work. Ramadan has started, however, so I try not to eat around my family since they’re fasting everyday; I’ve been wrapping my bread up and take it to the training center to eat before class.

7:15AM To the training center! Three times a week, a group of us have been practicing yoga and meditation before school – a great way to start the day. One trainee, Geoff, is Buddhist so he leads the meditations.

8M: TRAINING!

Fortunately I live right behind the training center so my commute is about three minutes walking. (During this three minute walk I used to hear children shouting “foté,” or white person, a bunch. Now, they all know my Guinean name, so I hear shouts of “Mariam! Mariam!”)

So… what do I do at the training center all day?

Classes are either 2 hours or an hour and a half. The biggest emphasis is on language learning. Many trainees came in with very little French and we’re expected to test into an “Intermediate High” level by the end of the eleven weeks, so it is very intensive. French is really important for us as teachers, since it is the language of the schools. For this reason, our training is three weeks longer than it is for extension volunteers (public health, agroforestry, and community/economic development). I’ve tested into the advanced French level, so this much language class is a bit tedious. Right now my biggest issue with French is my vocabulary, so I’ve been reading French novels to try to expand upon that. Class usually consists of conversation topics, games, and story writing. It’s okay, there’s just a LOT of it, and sometimes I feel like I’m getting worse.

Another big component of training has been technical training, i.e., how to teach English in a Guinean high school. Some sessions have been really helpful, others not so much. Ousmane, our training coordinator, has been really receptive to our feedback for the TEFL training. Guinea currently has only one TEFL volunteer so the training program isn’t as fine tuned as the other subjects (math, chemistry, and physics). Topics for these sessions range from learning about the Guinean educational hierarchy to how to effectively teach grammar lessons. I’m definitely nervous about being ready to teach when the time comes, but the last three weeks of training are practice school, so I’ll have an opportunity to try it out before being placed into my community. Technical training has also become significantly better this past week, since Kelsey, the one current TEFL volunteer in country, came to Dubreka to help us out. Since her arrival, she’s been running the technical training sessions, and they have been incredibly informative/helpful.

Once or twice a week, we have cross-cultural training. These classes have topics like family roles, religion and taboos, and styles of communication, among others. I’ve enjoyed these classes; they’re generally very interactive and are very applicable, especially since we live in homestay families.

The last major piece of training is focused on health. Peace Corps Guinea has two doctors that are on call for volunteers, which is an excellent (and important) resource. One of these doctors comes in to lead classes on diarrhea (yes, two hours on the topic), food preparation, malaria, and others. They include broad overviews of the illnesses (such as the life cycle of the malarial parasite) and also how we can self diagnose many of them, or what to do if we think we’re sick. We’ve each been provided with a medical kit that is FULL of goodies, so I think I’m in good hands. The doctor that gives these presentations is EXTREMELY (sometimes annoyingly) energetic; he has joyfully proclaimed us “the D.F.G” (diarrhea-free group) and is making us t-shirts with this acronym. Lovely.

One aspect of training that has been really great and requires mentioning has been the presence of the volunteer trainers. Four current volunteers that have been in Guinea for a year are in Dubreka helping out with training. Their insight and advice has been incredibly helpful. It’s nice to see them and think, “They made it through a year and are happy! I can do this!” They participate a lot in the technical training sessions, giving us advice on working in the Guinean school system, which is kind of terrifying but necessary. I’ve been warned about rampant cheating, uncontrollable classes, and a major lack of resources. It’s daunting, but definitely better to know beforehand rather than being unpleasantly surprised upon arriving at site.

12:30-2PM Lunch. Go to the market to buy sandwiches, avocados, oranges, bananas, etc. Relax, read, hang out.

2-5PM More training. Exhausting!

5PM Sometimes internet, sometimes go drum at a neighbor’s house, sometimes bike ride around the rice paddies, sometimes just hang out at the training center.

6:30PM Return home to spend time with the family.

7:30PM Spicy fishy sauce with rice. Now that it’s Ramadan, I wait for my family to pray and then I break the fast with them by eating out of a communal bowl.

8:30PM Go to my room to study or read, or go on a night walk with another trainee. It is really dark at this point and I’m usually really tired!

9:30 or 10PM Tuck myself into my mosquito net and go to bed!

Weekends have been enjoyable. The first Saturday here, we went to swim in a BEAUTIFUL waterfall about 25K away. A dozen of us chose to bike there, which was amazing. I continue to be blown away by the physical beauty of this country. This past weekend I spent all of Saturday biking around Dubreka. There is a gorgeous bike ride on a dirt road around the rice paddies. The one downside to this is that, since it’s rainy season, I end the ride completely covered head to toe in mud. My host family is always horrified when I come back so dirty.

The weekend before Ramadan, I went out to a bar with my host brother and some other volunteers. Moral of the story: not the most fun. It was probably around 120 degrees in the bar, and it was fun to dance for a bit until it got too hot. The night ended by walking home by flashlight at 2 in the morning through the pouring rain.

Each day that passes seems to go so slowly, but it is weird to me that August is quickly approaching. Our group is getting along really well and we’re all hanging in there, except for one that decided to go home early (very sad for all of us). I think one of the biggest personal challenges I’ll have in Guinea is dealing with my health. I have been VERY lucky thus far (knock on wood) but I know I’m just waiting for my turn to come. It’s almost funny how openly we speak about the intimate details of our health issues here. I guess when you’re here, living in a setting where everyone gets sick, your standards quickly change.

Lastly… SITE. Aside from gossiping and talking about American food (both of which are standard conversation topics for a PCT) one of the most talked about subjects is placements. We’ve patiently waited three weeks, and the day for site announcements has finally arrived. This is a huge milestone: my Peace Corps application process took over a year, and finding out where exactly within Guinea I’ll be placed seems like the final step! It’s a daunting (but exciting) prospect.

This weekend, some other trainees and myself are going to hike up “Le Chien Qui Fume” (“the smoking dog”), a nearby mountain. I’m really looking forward to it!

The next time I write I’ll be posting about my future home for the next two years. Get excited!

P.S.

Friends! I have a cell phone here in Guinea. You can text me FOR FREE from gmail and it is super cheap for me to respond. Any word from home is greatly appreciated. My number is country code 224, number 68 71 57 14. Contact me!

Life in Dubreka

The Family

Meeting and living with in my Guinean host family has got to be one of the most nerve-wracking but fun experiences I’ve had, period. It all began at our “adoption ceremony” which took place last Friday morning in Dubreka. It consisted of some speeches presented by the head of PC Training, Julie (our Country Director), and a representative of the prefecture, among others. We then watched a group of children drumming and singing – it was really quite impressive – until we were pulled up onto the stage to dance. (Those of you that heard about my experiences in Mali know that this is NOT my first time publicly humiliating myself in this fashion.) Finally, they brought the families up one by one and announced what volunteer would be taken away with them, much like a game show. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t terrified.  Fortunately, I was near the beginning: la famille Sylla. Four of my host brothers came to the ceremony to meet me: three small children and one in his 20s. Having the kids around made going back to sit with the family far less stressful and more pleasant. Fortunately, most of the family speaks French.

La famille “Le Bon” Sylla (as we are known) live in a home just next to a large soccer field (much like my host family in Mali!). My own room is separate from the house; it’s essentially a concrete square with 2 beds (one that is broken), a desk, and a chair. Peace Corps has provided me with a water filter that takes up much of the desk space. There is a small window but the room is very, very dark. But it’s my own room with my own space, so I like it!

The rest of the family compound consists of other homes where different members of the family live around a courtyard. There is a well in one corner of the courtyard, and a small room where the cooking is done in another. The latrines (one for showering, one for the bathroom) are behind the kitchen. This compound is connected to another where the rest of the family resides by a doorway, and between the two compounds there are at least 20 people living here, most of them children. I haven’t quite figured out who everyone is yet, but I’ve asked many a question about how people are related and I think I’ve got most of it figured out. Essentially, my host father is the chef de famille, and many of his nieces and nephews live with us as adopted children. My host mother’s younger sister also lives on the compound with her children, as do a couple of close friends (one of whom is a tailor that makes beautiful clothing). I love the kids. Much of my time at home is spent playing with them, and my oldest host brother has already decided that Aliou, a 3-year-old, is my “husband.” I especially enjoy the children as they are patient with my incessant questions about Susu (the language my family uses for conversation).

In terms of amenities, the house does have connection to electricity, but the town of Dubreka is often cut off. In fact, in my 10ish nights here, I have seen the electricity working twice. This means that when the sun goes down at 7PM, I usually retreat to bed shortly thereafter. There is no running water, which is fine. My drinking water comes from the pump that is on every other day (I store it in large jugs in my room), and my water for cleaning comes from the well in our compound. The only major issue with that is that water is HEAVY and I am not the strongest. But alas, I will improve!

My host father is polygamous. My first night here, my siblings told me I would have to wait until the next day to meet him, as he was at his other wife’s house. Last night my host mother talked to me about it. She asked me about polygamy and the United States and we discussed why it isn’t commonplace. I asked her why she and her coepouse (co-wife) don’t all live in the same compound (as I’ve seen in the past), and she explained that living separately was the will of my host father. I did not want to pry, but she did tell me that her co-wife also has two children and that I will go to meet them one day. My host mother’s youngest daughter, Madou, is named after the other wife. It is my understanding that having multiple wives is very expensive and can therefore be seen as some sort of status symbol. I know that my host father works as a director for a company that produces flour. Based on the fact that he has adopted many of his nieces and nephews, I presume that he is well off relative to the rest of his family.

I adore my oldest sister, Mariam (yes, this is also my name given to me by my mother – very confusing). She is 20 and has been great at taking me under her wing. She just took the baccalaureate and is waiting for her scores to see if she can go to university next year (this level of education is already a huge deal for a woman in Guinea). Since it’s the summer, she spends everyday sitting outside selling fried sweet potatoes, looking a bit like a child’s lemonade stand. She tops them with hot sauce and they are delicious!

Speaking of…

The Food

Oh, rice. Sadly, I don’t love rice. I hardly eat it in the states. Here, it is served at every meal (including breakfast). I suppose I will learn to love it.

For breakfast, my family gives me a piece of bread (actually quite delicious baguette) with something on the side. That something on the side differs. My first morning here, it was a giant fish with the eyes still in intact with cold pasta on the side. That did not make me very happy. The next morning, it was a mixture of avocado, potato, tomato, and onion – so good. It’s a bit of a gamble. If I really don’t like it (the giant fish), I take a few bites out of politesse and tell them I’m full.

At school, I go to the market for lunch. My favorite thing is to just eat a full mango. I cannot put into words how delicious these mangoes are. I truly have never tasted anything like it. If I’m hungrier, I’ll buy some baguette and avocado, a bean sandwich, or a hard-boiled egg.  Since it’s usually so hot, a mango is usually all I want. It’s about 15 cents for a huge, juicy mango.

I eat dinner at home. I still haven’t really figured out if or when my family eats dinner (they each just seem to eat when they’re hungry), so I eat on my own but usually sitting with my family. The meal: rice and sauce, always with fish. The fish is actually pretty good; since we’re so close to the coast it’s always quite fresh. The sauce can be made with many things (peanuts, gumbo, tomatoes) but it is always really spicy, which I love. I also think the spice might overpower any really fishy taste…

The Weather

The weather is INSANE here. Right now it’s the rainy season; you can tell when you look around. Everything is so green and beautiful. I have never witnessed rains as strong as here, even in Minnesota. Last night we had an incredible downpour for four hours. Since the roofs here are tin, it’s particularly loud. It can be kind of startling when it wakes me up at night, but usually I find the noise to be soothing. During one of our first nights in Conakry, we had our first really big rainstorm. Some of us went up onto the roof and stood under a shelter to watch it. It was unreal.

I think that’s all I’ll include in this post – sorry it got so long. I’ll definitely post about what I actually do all day every day at the training center soon. A bientot!

Arrived and feeling great

I’m HERE!!!!!!!!

I sit in our training center in Dubreka, Guinea. So much has happened in the past week, I don’t even know where to start! Initial impressions: RAIN! BABIES! And so much Susu!

The first few days as a Peace Corps Trainee (PCT) went very smoothly. Staging day in Philadelphia was actually a whole lot of fun as mentioned in my previous post. Everyone in my group is getting along really well and is coming from different places and backgrounds. It’s nice to be out of the Macalester bubble (as much as I loved it) and to meet people that went to different schools and some that have had real person jobs for some time. Compared other Peace Corps countries, our training class is really young (all under 30 and at least one third of us just graduated from college). We’ve been told that’s because Guinea has really poor medical care and so older people with health conditions can’t really make it here. (Also Guinea is apparently number 1 in Peace Corps countries for volunteer diarrhea. Sorry if that was too much info.)

Anyway, traveling with all 27 volunteers was a bit crazy but we managed it without any major hiccups.  When we landed in Conakry, some volunteers, staff, and the country director were there with a big sign saying “Welcome to GUINEA!” It was all very exciting despite the sleep deprivation. They drove us to the PC house and we got our first glimpses of Conakry. First impressions: DARKNESS. I’m trying not to compare Guinea to Mali too much, but Conakry is markedly darker than Bamako – very little electricity.  Also, tons of people walking around in the streets. It was scary – it really felt like were going to run them over!

We spent three nights in the volunteer house in Conakry. We had air conditioning, running water, and nice meals. However, we also really lacked privacy. I shared a room with 7 other volunteers, bunk bed style. It was fun, but exhausting. We also had lots of sessions on intros to Peace Corps Guinea, “survival” language sessions (for our homestay family – I learned some Susu), and interviews for our French language placement.

Now I am in Dubreka, staying with a homestay family and going to training school. I have SO much to say about my homestay family but my time is really running low on the internet and it is very SLOW so I need to post this. I will definitely add more as soon as I can.  Also I’ll try to put up pictures. There is just way too much to say right now! But I am happy despite being really sweaty all the time!

OH! P.s. I have a Guinean name: Mariam Sylla. That is the only name I will be responding to now.

Staging and a final farewell

Devoted readers,

Exhausted, loopy, whatever you want to call it, I've survived staging in Philly. The day consisted of a lot of ice breakers and games for the 27 education volunteers heading to Guinea, mostly involving Peace Corps history/rules/talking about our own anxieties and hopes (lots of laughter and camaraderie). Basically, they served us Koolaid, we drank it, and it was delicious!

I now sit in my Holiday Inn hotel room, ready to pass out and wake up a new woman. Most of these other trainees must think I am loca due to my epic fatigue. I feel like the bright-eyed, naive Peace Corps Trainee that I should be! Excited, motivated, and relieved by how great this group seems.

I apologize for the brevity of this post. I'm too overwhelmed and exhausted to express basic facts. The next post will be from Guinea. See you on the other side!


p.s. THANK YOU to my family and friends who have supported me throughout this entire process. Saying goodbye was not pleasant and I will think of you often.