Again, I apologize for the long stint with no posts. But I
am still here! Just very very very hot. (The meaning of the title of this post is: it's hot.) Yes, it is hot season here in Guinea.
Every day it is sweltering, and unfortunately it does not cool down at night,
so sleeping has been rough. Two months of this, and then the rains will come,
and fortunately mango season is coming in the next few weeks, so there are
upsides!
The past few months have gone quite well. Here are some
highlights:
Traveling the Fouta
In early February, I traveled to a fellow G22-er, Kelsey’s,
village. I hitchhiked my way there (this is how I get around, as it is the only
way to get out of my village), which is always an adventure. This time around I
was in an air-conditioned car with 4-wheel drive (YES!) filled with Cote
d’Ivoirian auditors headed to Conakry. They spoke French that I could hardly
understand and were not very knowledgeable about Guinea; they had never heard
of Peace Corps and were shocked that I didn’t have internet. When I said I
didn’t even have electricity, their jaws dropped. Regardless, when we arrived in Mamou they refused any money
as they knew I was a volunteer, which was nice and has happened now four times
in my travels.
Kelsey lives in a village called Ditin, around 30k off of
the national highway to Labe on bumpy dirt road over a mountain. The village
itself is in a valley, but it’s surrounded by mountains on all sides and
therefore the setting is pretty stunning. Ditin is in the Fouta region, where
people speak Pulaar, not Malinke. It’s interesting to see and hear not only how
different the language is, but also how different the people are. By no means
am I an expert on the Malinke, but my short taste of the Pulaar was
interesting; they seemed much quieter and perhaps more reserved than the
Malinke.
I spent two nights in Ditin. Our full day there, Kelsey and
I walked to a giant waterfall about 5 miles from her village. The walk was
beautiful, with mountains in the distance and the giant waterfall in sight.
We were covered in sweat by the time that we arrived, so we
were thinking that we may want to swim, but the minute we got within fifty feet
of the falls we were covered in goose bumps. The water was COLD and it was
sending out a constant mist in our faces. It felt pretty amazing; we sat on a
patch of grass and napped for a few hours, had a picnic, and relaxed some more
until we felt we had enough energy to make the trek back. That night we cooked
a delicious squash soup (so jealous that they have squash in her region) and
slept unbelievably well.
The next day we left for In Service Training, a weeklong
workshop in Mamou, a city in the Fouta. It was a great week; it was the first
time in four months that our training group had been together since swearing in
four months ago. Throughout the training we covered lots: we spent the first
half of the week talking about teaching, sharing common problems and solutions
in the classroom, and discussing technical issues that we have teaching
English. It was nice (although a little disheartening) to hear that my problems
are not at all unique, and my school is no less functional than anyone else’s.
I also got to meet with the Malinke teacher to bombard him with the billions of
questions that have popped in my head over the past few months, which was great.
The second half of the week, we talked about secondary projects that we can do
throughout the school year and during the upcoming summer break. It was nice to
remember that although we are teachers, we can do more than just that in our
communities. Peace Corps told us how we can apply for small grants and how to
design and manage a project. We had sessions on life skills (such as HIV/AIDS
education), food security, and malaria. All in all, it was a productive week,
and seeing the 21 other members of my stage was just what the doctor ordered.
Life in Cissela
Site has been really great lately. Teaching is still
teaching, but I feel like I’m finally making some headway in my 10th
grade biology class (I think they finally understand enzymes!) and my 9th
graders have really surprised me with their recent motivation. A few weeks ago
we had a “Proclamation des Resultats,” where we read off student rankings for
the first trimester of school. About ten parents showed up, which was
apparently much higher attendance than the previous year. Before Peace Corps I probably
would’ve been against such a public announcement of ranks and comparisons
between students, but honestly I think this has been the greatest motivator for
my students. If anything, they are competitive, and they want to beat their
classmates, so I’ve noticed their work has gotten better since that day.
Somewhat by accident, I’ve started a girls club in my
village that seems to be pretty successful (at least in that they actually show
up). At this point in 9th grade biology we’re going over puberty and
reproduction. In the class of 25 only 6 are girls, and they’ve all been pretty
silent throughout the lessons, so I asked them if they wanted to talk about
these topics without the boys. This was met with such an enthusiastic response;
I couldn’t help but be surprised. Girls that hardly ever open their mouth
responded with an eager “OUI, MADAME!” So that Tuesday, I had the girls over to
my hut; we sat in my back yard and I answered all of their questions. As soon
as the rest of the girls in the middle school got wind of this, they all asked
if they could come over on Tuesday nights, and the rest is history. I think it
will be a good forum to begin my secondary projects, which is exciting.
What else happened this month? Well, I attended my first Guinean funeral, which was upsetting to say the least (lots of very loud crying), but it was my best friend in village aunt's that died so I'm happy that I was there. The day after the funeral, the friend (named Maitresse) and I had a really long talk about all sorts of things: family members dying and coping with loss, her struggle with generating an income for her family, her search of a husband and that she doesn't want to get married (so rare here), among other things. Honestly, it was the first time in my five months at site that I really felt like I was connecting with someone on a level deeper than just a superficial friendship, so I kind of think of this conversation as a milestone.
Also, now that it's hot season I never want to cook dinner because by the evening it's about 1021091 degrees in my hut, so I've been cooking with Hawa (in my host family) every night. She now leaves me to make the sauce on my own for the whole family every night, which I'm more than happy to do since they are so generous with me and I love sitting down and eating with them. They really make me feel lucky to be in Cissela.
Unrest in Guinea
The most stressful part of being here over the past few weeks has been the civil unrest in Conakry, the capital, and other major cities throughout the country. It all stems from legislative elections that were supposed to be coming up on May 12th. However, the president did not confirm this date by the deadline (this past Sunday), and this has sparked a lot of violent demonstrations throughout the country, mostly stemming from ethnic tensions between the president's supporters, belonging to one ethnic group, and his opponents, from another ethnic group. The protests got pretty violent this past week, sparking several deaths and many more injuries. Right now, things are a lot calmer, but it's unclear as to what the future holds for Guinea. In the mean time, Peace Corps is revising its EAP (emergency action plan -- basically where we go if we need to consolidate in country or to be evacuated) and we're going to do a drill in the coming month where we'll have to travel to our consolidation points. Regardless of the political situation, this is a good idea, since really anything can happen in a country with such a weak political structure as it is here. So... I'm keeping my fingers crossed, for the sake of Guinea and for my future here.
Okay, I need to stop writing and go fan myself. It is way too hot to function. I'm in Kankan right now for a weekend long "Malaria Training," where we've been learning about how to hold malaria sensitizations and other malaria-focused projects we can do at our sites. The one upside to being here is we've set up our mattresses and mosquito nets on the roof, where it's actually a somewhat bearable temperature. I'm off to drink a gallon of water. FAREWELL!
