A lot of other volunteers are already done, or at least working on their "finals," but unfortunately not me. I'm just antsy for the end of the school year, as are all the students and other teachers. But soon enough. Also we had a temporary math teacher that just up and left, leaving our 10th graders on their own for their big national exam to enter into high school. Classy. Some other teachers are going to pick up the slack and help them review, but kind of sad that the other guy apparently felt no need to stick it out and help the students through the end of the school year.
When I got back to site after Labe a couple weeks ago, there was a bird in my house. Scared the daylights out of me when I walked in and it flew at my head. It was a "cow bird." I don't think that's the technical term, but they hang out around cows most of the time. Except when they're inside people's living rooms pooping everywhere. So that was a nice welcoming. Njemma did not do a good job as cat of the house while I was gone because he was apparently, quite peacefully, cohabiting with a bird. My Guinean sister told me I should've caught the bird and we should've eaten it to teach it a lesson. Ha.
Girls sports group is going well. Once a week we play basketball, frisbee, or we just taught them dodgeball. And then two days of the week we play soccer. Which, I am still miserable at. But it's fun with the girls.
Had a lot of Guineans tell me they were sick with malaria. I don't know if they really all have malaria or if it's just a normal diagnosis. But rainy season is starting, so the mosquitoes are definitely out in full force.
Went to another dance/concert in the middle of some random tiny village in the bush. Fun, but a little odd. The DJ kept yelling "CORPS DE LA PAIX" for me and Lisa and he dedicated a song to us. How sweet. Haha. Also had one of my students get in a fight with a man that night. So that was pretty disappointing with his actions.
Visited Conor and hung out at his site for a day or so. Went to a baptism, which is totally normal. People don't think twice if you go to a family ceremony and have never met a single member of the family before. Hysterical if you try to translate that to an American setting. Anyone in your town or in a 10 mile radius hears you're having a baptism or wedding or something and everyone shows up. Funny.
Visited one of the other professor's village which was nice. He's a very cool guy and Conor and I got to have some good chats with him and with people in Conor's village.
Memorial day was also a holiday here. 25 May is the anniversary of the African Union forming? Or some similar entity. So, no school last Monday.
Some interesting things you may not have known:
--when a family has only girls and they want a son, they generally give the girl a boy's name, in hopes of the next one being a boy.
--dry season is basically the school year, because if you had school during the rains, you wouldn't be able to hear anything anyone said because the rain is so loud on the metal roofs (rooves?)
--heard some drumming one morning, which was apparently the call for people to come work on repairing the roads. way cooler than an alarm clock.
--guineans find nothing personal about their BMs and will not hesitate to tell you if they are constipated or have diarhhea, etc.
On that note, I'll close this blog with another quote I liked. I recently re-read a childhood fave- The Phantom Tollbooth, so here's a good quote from it.
"but, as you know, the most important reason for going from one place to another is to see what's in between..." ~Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth
CONGRATS JOHN AND CARLY on graduating!! Welcome to the real world :)
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Mango season has arrived
First of all- mangoes are delicious. Secondly, I have recently discovered, that I am ALLERGIC to mangoes. Of all things! It's pretty rough since mangoes now run like water runs in America. So that's been a little rough. Coping though, and just enjoying the scent of mangoes when everyone around is CONSTANTLY eating them! Ha
Anywho- getting back to site after coming home was a pretty easy readjustment for the first few days. Warm welcomings from the missionaries and my good friends at site. After a few days it was a bit harder, thinking to myself, "why can't I see or talk to my family anytime I want to?" I guess I had gotten re-used to that, for the two weeks I could see and talk to you all whenever I wanted. But, getting used to the limited access again I guess.
Back at site, some of my students were in the "finals" of a soccer tournament and I was invited as the "queen" or female guest of honor. So that was pretty fun. Some other good news- Erich got invited to a Food Security conference in Togo, so that's pretty exciting! Two PCVs from Guinea and their counterparts get to go in June, so that's some exciting stuff.
Had some frustrating experiences in the last few weeks with Guineans. Men continue to introduce themselves to me then immediately express that they want to go to America and marry an American. I think they must think it's a land of desperate women just waiting for them to come and make them their 2nd or 3rd wives. Anyway- that's sadly normal happenings, but it continues even now.
Also, the awesomely generous family in the village we like to visit has kind of let me down. After questioning their motives and deciding that we think they genuinely are just nice and want to be so generous to us, the last time Lisa and I visited, they asked, very bluntly, "ok, so how are you going to get our son to America with your mom when she comes to visit?" TOTAL let down. It just gets a little tiring second guessing peoples' motives for being nice to you. You have to take it all in context, that they live in poverty and take any opportunity possible to escape from this lifestyle. But, it can get kind of draining and can definitely let you down. I still think there's some authenticity in their generosity, it just now kind of stinks that we have to second guess ourselves when they make a nice gesture.
Another kind of frustration is with the LETTERS! (Madame, I sent you the letters with a more detailed letter, for you to flesh out what you think we should do). I felt like Santa bringing in those letters with how ecstatic my students were. They were SO excited. It was awesome to see. So I told them they could write letters back to the students in America in French, as this is their first year of English. So I read the ones I could and unfortunately, most students see this as a way out too. Most asked for books, or money, or help to get to America. Most said "I love you"... One boy even wrote "If I get to America, I will love you like a fish loves water." But, in French. And then! One of my favorite students wrote a really lovely letter. But towards the end he wrote, " I ask myself why my grandfather's grandfather wasn't enslaved. Because, then I'd be an American." That was pretty heartbreaking to read. Wishing slavery upon your ancestors just so that you would have a different life now. Yea. So that was pretty hard to see too.
I don't want this to be such a Debbie Downer blog, but just wanted to voice some frustrations.
In other news, I've been in Guinea for over 10 months now. WILD! Allie and Jake got married the 1st of May. CONGRATULATIONS and best of luck and I love you both! Happy 27 years of marriage Mom and Dad! (may 8) and Happy Mother's Day to all mothers reading but especially my mama, Honey Gram, and Grandma.
Lisa, Conor, and I went to a concert in Lisa's town. More hilarity and lots of fun dancing. And yes, my town is still talking about it.
End of the school year- students have mango fever so just want to be out of class eating mangoes all the time. Frustrating for the teachers, but we're getting by.
Started a girls sports group- really fun. We play basketball and mainly soccer- which I am TERRIBLE at, but that's the easiest sport to play here with limited supplies and no real "courts" for things like basketball, etc. Been really fun so far tho.
Funny note on my Pular- people think I understand WAY more than I do because I pick the two or three words I did understand and out of context guess what I think people said. But, sometimes I guess wrong. For example, while visiting the family in the village, the mom there asked if I had fed my cat before I left. The two words I understood were "food" and "cat" and she was preparing a meal at the time, so I responded with an emphatic "A- oiiii" (NO!) You see, I thought, she asked if we were going to eat her cat (who was meowing and being a bit of a pest at the time). I assumed she asked as a joke, yes, but either way. I was WAY off. Oops. We cleared it up though, but Lisa had a good laugh at me.
Anywho, I think that's about it for now. Awaiting the rains because it's stinking hot, but until next time.
Here's a quote I recently read and liked:
"Most people don't know there are angels whose only job is to make sure you don't get too comfortable and fall asleep and miss your life." ~Brian Andreas
Love and miss you all (as always). Keep in touch
<3 rach
Anywho- getting back to site after coming home was a pretty easy readjustment for the first few days. Warm welcomings from the missionaries and my good friends at site. After a few days it was a bit harder, thinking to myself, "why can't I see or talk to my family anytime I want to?" I guess I had gotten re-used to that, for the two weeks I could see and talk to you all whenever I wanted. But, getting used to the limited access again I guess.
Back at site, some of my students were in the "finals" of a soccer tournament and I was invited as the "queen" or female guest of honor. So that was pretty fun. Some other good news- Erich got invited to a Food Security conference in Togo, so that's pretty exciting! Two PCVs from Guinea and their counterparts get to go in June, so that's some exciting stuff.
Had some frustrating experiences in the last few weeks with Guineans. Men continue to introduce themselves to me then immediately express that they want to go to America and marry an American. I think they must think it's a land of desperate women just waiting for them to come and make them their 2nd or 3rd wives. Anyway- that's sadly normal happenings, but it continues even now.
Also, the awesomely generous family in the village we like to visit has kind of let me down. After questioning their motives and deciding that we think they genuinely are just nice and want to be so generous to us, the last time Lisa and I visited, they asked, very bluntly, "ok, so how are you going to get our son to America with your mom when she comes to visit?" TOTAL let down. It just gets a little tiring second guessing peoples' motives for being nice to you. You have to take it all in context, that they live in poverty and take any opportunity possible to escape from this lifestyle. But, it can get kind of draining and can definitely let you down. I still think there's some authenticity in their generosity, it just now kind of stinks that we have to second guess ourselves when they make a nice gesture.
Another kind of frustration is with the LETTERS! (Madame, I sent you the letters with a more detailed letter, for you to flesh out what you think we should do). I felt like Santa bringing in those letters with how ecstatic my students were. They were SO excited. It was awesome to see. So I told them they could write letters back to the students in America in French, as this is their first year of English. So I read the ones I could and unfortunately, most students see this as a way out too. Most asked for books, or money, or help to get to America. Most said "I love you"... One boy even wrote "If I get to America, I will love you like a fish loves water." But, in French. And then! One of my favorite students wrote a really lovely letter. But towards the end he wrote, " I ask myself why my grandfather's grandfather wasn't enslaved. Because, then I'd be an American." That was pretty heartbreaking to read. Wishing slavery upon your ancestors just so that you would have a different life now. Yea. So that was pretty hard to see too.
I don't want this to be such a Debbie Downer blog, but just wanted to voice some frustrations.
In other news, I've been in Guinea for over 10 months now. WILD! Allie and Jake got married the 1st of May. CONGRATULATIONS and best of luck and I love you both! Happy 27 years of marriage Mom and Dad! (may 8) and Happy Mother's Day to all mothers reading but especially my mama, Honey Gram, and Grandma.
Lisa, Conor, and I went to a concert in Lisa's town. More hilarity and lots of fun dancing. And yes, my town is still talking about it.
End of the school year- students have mango fever so just want to be out of class eating mangoes all the time. Frustrating for the teachers, but we're getting by.
Started a girls sports group- really fun. We play basketball and mainly soccer- which I am TERRIBLE at, but that's the easiest sport to play here with limited supplies and no real "courts" for things like basketball, etc. Been really fun so far tho.
Funny note on my Pular- people think I understand WAY more than I do because I pick the two or three words I did understand and out of context guess what I think people said. But, sometimes I guess wrong. For example, while visiting the family in the village, the mom there asked if I had fed my cat before I left. The two words I understood were "food" and "cat" and she was preparing a meal at the time, so I responded with an emphatic "A- oiiii" (NO!) You see, I thought, she asked if we were going to eat her cat (who was meowing and being a bit of a pest at the time). I assumed she asked as a joke, yes, but either way. I was WAY off. Oops. We cleared it up though, but Lisa had a good laugh at me.
Anywho, I think that's about it for now. Awaiting the rains because it's stinking hot, but until next time.
Here's a quote I recently read and liked:
"Most people don't know there are angels whose only job is to make sure you don't get too comfortable and fall asleep and miss your life." ~Brian Andreas
Love and miss you all (as always). Keep in touch
<3 rach
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