In many ways, Guinean and American middle schoolers really
aren’t all that different:
Over the past month, I’ve started my unit on reproduction
and sexual health in my 9th grade biology class, only to be met with
nervous giggles, sheepish questions, and painfully embarrassed girls who refuse
to answer even the simplest questions. I’ve met with the girls separately to discuss issues specific
to them and passed around an anonymous question box with the whole class. Sometimes I feel like Mrs. Staples at
Wheeler back in the 6th grade.
Also in my 9th grade, we’ve started a letter
exchange project between my students and Dana Tatlock’s 6th grade
class at The Wheeler School in Providence, RI, my alma mater. It’s been really
fun to see the similarities and differences between the students’ letters. Both
are incredibly curious and excited to be hearing about another culture from a
real student across the world. Upon receiving our first batch of American
letters, I had to answer a LOT of cultural questions: What is lacrosse? What is
a hamburger? What is snow? What is skiing? Why are American families so small,
since here our fathers can have up to 15 kids? Etc, etc, etc. Letters coming
from the states had lots of questions for my students about after school
activities, favorite foods, amount of homework, and sports. One thing that both
batches had in common: knowledge of, and love for, Justin Bieber. All in all, I
think it’s been a really fun project on both ends.
The girls club has continued to be a success. We’ve done a
few art projects, including one where we brainstormed adjectives to describe
women, which sparked some interesting discussions: despite the fact that women
here do basically all of the heavy lifting, “strong” was not a word they tended
to think of, as they all said it was too masculine. Afterwards, they selected
from our list to create a collage of words and images on construction paper,
coming together to represent themselves. We are now making beads from paper,
which we’ll use to make bracelets and necklaces. So, quick plug: for those of
you amazing people that send me packages, good craft projects or other ideas
for activities would be greatly appreciated!
I suppose one way in which students in the states and
students in Guinea differ is over the matter of vacation: Guinean students
simply don’t get excited for it. I think for a lot of my students, going to
school is a break from doing house work, so vacation is just a time where
they’ll be spending even more time cleaning, cooking, getting water, going “en
brousse” to gather wood, going “au champ” to gather straw for making thatch,
etc.
Despite their lack of excitement, spring break finally did
come! In typical Guinean fashion, the expected one week of break turned into
two since people stopped showing up before the break officially started and
came back long after the break officially ended. Sigh.
My spring break was a success. I traveled to the Fouta, the
mountainous region, for a week of hiking and relaxing in the cooler weather! I
started out with a trip hitchhiking to Labe, the regional capital of the Fouta.
The car I found was a nice air-conditioned truck, with two ridiculously nice
guys working for Orange, the cell phone company. One was from Cote d’Ivoire,
and made for a great converser as we wound through the mountains, distracting
me from freaking out as we sped around every curve (did I mention there are no
guard rails?).
We stopped in Dalaba, a somewhat magical city in the
mountains (there is a forest of pine trees!) to pick up my friend Kelsey, who
waited for us on the side of the road next to some ladies selling bean
sandwiches. Our kindly chauffeurs dropped us off right at the Peace Corps house
in Labe, never asking for money until we insisted on pitching in for gas. We
spent three nights in Labe, relaxing, watching a disgusting amount of movies,
and hanging out with a handful of other volunteers who came to meet us. One
night, we cooked enchiladas: YUM. (Granted, the cheese was Laughing Cow, but
you take what you can get here.)
After becoming a vegetable in Labe, we traveled to Doucki, a
tiny village in the mountains, 50 kilometers from the paved road. Our taxi
driver had no idea where we were going, and literally every time we passed a
tiny village he stopped the car and asked where Doucki was. This was
particularly comical, since the car we were in was almost a tin can, and the
front door kept popping open, with poor Kelsey up in the front seat.
Hilariously enough, after stopping about a dozen times to ask for directions,
we stopped in front of an old man, rolled down the window, and the driver yells
in Pulaar (the language of this region), “Excuse me, do you know where um…um…”
(turns to Kelsey) “Where are we going again?” Needless to say, we all exploded
in frustrated laughter…our cab driver didn’t even know the name of our
destination. Despite these minor blips, we finally made it there, to find a
wonderful man named Hassan (fluent in French, English, and Spanish) with quite
the set-up. We stayed in really adorable huts in his compound, ate meals in a
gazebo filled with bamboo furniture and hammocks, and slept under THICK
blankets – it was coooold! The main purpose of our trip was to see what this
Doucki place was all about, since so many people had told me that it is
stunningly beautiful. Well…they were right. Our first day there, we were fed a
delicious Guinean meal of corn mush and peanut sauce (yes, it is tasty), and
headed off on an afternoon of hiking. It turns out Doucki is on the top of a
cliff perched over the largest valley in Guinea, which looks a little bit like
the African Grand Canyon. Because of this, all of the hikes start with a
descent and end with an ascent, which is the opposite of what my
mountain-climbing self is accustomed to! The first day of hiking, we were all
just blown away by the scenery. Hassan took us to two separate waterfalls where
we could go swimming, had us lie on our stomachs to stick our head over a cliff
(sorry Dad), and showed us the hilarious rock formations that he’s named: the
pregnant woman, the boat, and my favorite one, our favorite extra terrestrial,
ET. We got back from the hike just in time for dinner, ate some rice and sauce,
and slept amazingly well.
The next day, we did what Hassan called the K.A.H., or
Kick-Ass Hike. Its more official name is “Chutes and Ladders,” because during
it you climb up hand-made ladders right next to a waterfall. The hike was a
looong day, a full 9 hours, but never had a dull moment: we saw three more
waterfalls, ate lunch while little fish ate the dead skin off of our feet (yes,
gross), drank lots and lots of spring water (don’t worry, we had iodine), and
climbed up nine ladders made of vines on the face of a cliff. The hike started
with a loooooong descent into the valley, including one part where we literally
climbed down through a rocky, slippery stream, most of which we spent on our
butts. We hiked through the valley for a while, enjoying the view of the cliffs
and coming quite close to a group of baboons, stopped for lunch at a stream at
the base of the cliff, and climbed ladders back up. After the ladders, we
climbed and climbed some more, stopping at yet another waterfall to swim, then
once we reached the top, worn out and sweaty, we had to cross back over to the
base camp. All in all, it was exhausting but wonderful.
The next day, we were all sore but Hassan insisted he’d take
us on a nice and easy hike, and he was true to his words. He took us down into
these incredible rock formations, where you climb on vines. (Fittingly, he
calls this hike the “Indiana Jones.”) It was a gentle but stunning hike, and
literally did look like a movie scene.
We made it back to the compound by noon, signed Hassan’s
impressive guest book, and headed on out.
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| One of the many waterfalls we swam in |
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| Ready to rock the KAH |
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| ET rock! |
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| Climbing up ladders |
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| Indiana Jones! Aka, Hassan |
I spent two more nights in Labe, and it was a bit of a
reunion for our stage since about 16 of us were there. It was fun, but by
Sunday I was ready to get back to my village, where I was planning on spending
the second week of break.
Getting back to site was, as always, really nice. I was
happy to see everyone and give them the expected gift from the Fouta: potatoes.
I spent several days relaxing, going on bike rides to neighboring villages,
working on my grades for the trimester, studying Malinke, and hanging out with
Hawa, my best friend in Cissela. Another volunteer came to visit for a few
days, and we made pancakes and ate them with care package maple syrup: YUM.
However, quite unfortunately, I got really sick that week,
with all sorts of scary symptoms: chest pains, high fever that wouldn’t go
away, and GI issues. Finally, this past Sunday, after being sick for 5 days,
the Peace Corps doctor told me to go to Kankan, my regional capital, where I am
now. Getting here was not pleasant: I needed to find a way to get the 2K from
my hut to the paved road where I hitchhike, meaning a car had to come and get
me, which was very embarrassing since cars are nearly never in my village and I
had to draw so much attention to myself. I was dizzy and weak and feverish when
flagging down cars, but luckily I found one pretty easily, although I don’t even
want to remember what it felt like driving on that awful road in the state I
was in. BUT: I made it here and once I got here the Peace Corps car drove me
around, got me some antibiotics and pain meds, although I still never really
found out what was wrong with me I’m finally better today and I’ll be going
back to my village tomorrow. Despite how awful traveling was, I think I needed
to get out of my village: yes, I love it, but after spending several days in a
ridiculously hot one room hut with a high fever, I needed a change of scenery,
and although here I continued to sweat and have a high fever, I also had Peace
Corps support if I needed it, and running water so I could rinse off whenever I
wanted.
So…back to my village tomorrow! This weekend I have lots and
lots of activities planned for malaria month, which I’ll write about more in my
next post. That’s all for now, thanks for reading!
