Round 2

Rainy season again. Ramadan again. A new training class has come in to start their 11-week pre-service training. I guess that means I’ve been here for over a year. Part of me feels like it’s only been a few months, while another part of me feels like it’s been years. I guess that’s natural; some weeks go so slowly I can’t believe it, while other weeks feel like a day. It’s certainly a feeling of accomplishment (I’m halfway there!) but doing it all over again is a daunting (yet exciting) prospect. Thinking about all of the things, both good and bad, that have happened to me this year, and the giant question mark that this year brings actually puts butterflies in my stomach. G-20, the group that helped train my stage, is finally headed home after their 27 months of service. It’s sad to see them go, but I’m happy for them – it is relieving to see them actually finish up! (Guinea hasn’t had a group complete their 27 months in years and years, with all of the interruptions and evacuations that have occurred.)

In any case, summer is flying by. I had an incredibly rejuvenating trip to France; I spent time in Paris, Toulouse, hopped over to Barcelona for a few nights, and just felt generally spoiled by all of the food and beauty. I was a bit nervous coming back to Guinea (at that point another year seemed more daunting than exciting) but things have been much better than I could have hoped for. It’s amazing how comfortable I am in Guinea now, and how much it does feel like home. I flew back into Conakry, only to find that my luggage had been lost (of course), so I had to wait a few days and come back to the airport to look for it (no delivery service here). To my relief my bags made it, and I ended up spending 20 minutes talking to the security officer there. He was from a village neighboring Cissela; he was so incredibly excited that I knew his home that he proceeded to call all of his family and tell them to protect and watch out for me. They knew who I was having seen me riding my bike. Small world, small country; it was good to be back.

I came straight to Dubreka, the city where PC Guinea trains its volunteers, to spend a few weeks working as a volunteer trainer; in other words, to help out with getting the new stagiaires accustomed to living in Guinea. It was great to be back in Dubreka. I lived in a house with several of the other volunteer trainers, got to catch up with the Guinean trainers that I adore, and I worked on my Malinke with a language trainer. I was able to do many of the things I did last year doing training without realizing how lucky I was: eat salads everyday, bike to the waterfall, visit my host family…

The new stage is great. They are much smaller than my group (only 17, whereas mine was 27) but they have an awesome outlook on things. Honestly, it’s been nice to be around such optimism and it helps to reaffirm why I am here. Being halfway through has definitely led me to question my effectiveness and rational for being here at all. In addition to being a trainer, I’m also a semi-trainee, as I’ve been sitting in on the technical sessions for the math teachers. Next year I’ll be dropping English and teaching math and biology.  I’m looking forward to it, especially because my school doesn’t have a math teacher and it’s a huge component of the national exam.

Speaking of national exams: we got the results for the high school entrance exam! My school succeeded the most of any school in my prefecture, with around 50 percent passing (I think the national average is about 20). So, while I’ll still have half of the same 10^th graders that I had last year, I’m really happy for the 16 that will be moving on to high school.

After about six weeks away from site, I finally went back. I was only there for a few days but it felt wonderful to be there. My hut was completely swarmed by children upon my arrival. I visited all of my neighbors, gave gifts to my host family and friends, cleaned out the school’s direction (where the offices are), met up with a young woman teacher from the primary school I hope to have work with my girl’s club this year, and relaxed. The village looks beautiful and green during the rainy season, although my backyard was truly a jungle that some of my 8^th grade boys had to come over and help me fix up.

After not even a week at site, I left again (boohoo) for the regional capital, where I met up with the new stagiaires after their site visit. We cooked great food, I helped show them around the city, and we threw our annual toga party.  Now I’m back in Dubreka to continue math training. I will be here for a few more weeks; I’m hoping to be back in village by the start of September. That way, I can have a month at site to work on projects, lesson plan, and study Malinke before the school year starts. Then, I’ll be ready to do another year all over again. Only better the second time around.