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!