So in Guinea, we end up saying a lot of things in English that one would NEVER understand or say in any other place. For example, whenever anyone eats anything here, if there are other people around, you always say "invitation" to offer your food to whoever is around. Generally, expecting a decline, but still politely offering as a nice gesture. It becomes like a mandatory thing and people tease you about being rude if you forget or don't offer.
So two days ago, Conor was talking about one of the girls at our girls conference and said, "She didn't invite me to her peanuts, soooo I don't know about her." But the sentence just made us all crack up, because honestly, who would ever say that?? Another good one was "Oh maybe we can get her something nice, like from the gas station." In all seriousness, gas stations are where you get better (american like) snacks and stuff, so we consider it "nice." Pretty amusing. Some things just don't translate.
Anyway- so the last month... We welcomed the new group of education trainees!! Yay!! So G18 is in country now and our education volunteer family has grown! I got to go to the airport with some others to welcome them off the plane, so that was awesome. One of them will be another new "neighbor" about 15 k from my site, so that's exciting too!
I haven't had much to do at my town since school ended, but I've been in and out with conferences and travelling, etc. I hoed my whole front "yard" and got blisters ALL over my hands. My right hand was essentially one big blister. My yard looks much classier now and less jungle-like.
We had a "ceremony" to announce the results of the school year. And because of numbers and lack of space to keep having ginormous classes, the admin went down to 7 out of 20 for passing for some of the grades. THIRTY FIVE PERCENT. If you got 35 percent, you passed onto the next grade. Mind you, 50 percent is actually passing, so it's a little different from our standards, but still. Unfortunately I know they need the space, but at the same time it will just perpetuate a sub-par level for that large amount of students.
I went to my first wedding last week. It was a traditional wedding and it was a good time. I hung out with all the ladies for a while, waiting for the bride to arrive from her house (everyone waits at the house of the groom's family). Then she arrived and was getting prepared by being covered in a white sheet over her head, so you can't see her. I was invited into the room where she's getting ready and went from hanging out and having a good time with all the ladies, to being totally heartbroken, finding her crouched down, sobbing. It was so heartbreaking. Young girl, probably totally scared and probably doesn't even know her husband. Apparently after the fact, some American friends explained that the bride has to be miserable out of respect for her family. Sad she's leaving the family kind of thing, and also to show that she's still "pure." But still. You can imagine some of it is the "Oh I have to cry" sentiment, and then there's so much reality to it that she's young and willl probably no longer get to play a role in decisions about how her life goes. Maybe her husband will be supportive, but more often than not here, the wife is seen as personal property- possession. So it was pretty heartbreaking to see.
After that, she leaves and gets dressed in red and comes back on the shoulders of a griot to enter the huge dancing/singing circle of all the ladies. The ladies obviously have the most fun at weddings. Men are all just sitting around, girls get to sing and dance in a big circle. That was pretty awesome and lightened my mood a bit. Very cool. I took some videos that I'll try to load when I'm on faster internet to show you all.
I have a new Sous- Prefet (local authority) in my town and he's kind of intimidating. He had a town meeting talking about the things he wanted to change, including making a 12th grade in my town. Which would be great news for me, but I worry they won't have the other necessary teachers to prepare the students in all the other necessary subjects, outside of English. We'll see. But everyone in the town seems hopeful with all the things he's talking about changing, so we'll see how it goes.
My PCV group, G16, unfortunately is down three more. They went back to the states and we're all pretty bummed. Boys- miss you already and keep in touch. Guinea, and G16, won't be the same without you <3
Just finished the week of Girls Conference where we had 38 Pullo girls here to have sessions on HIV/AIDS, excision, public speaking, health and nutrition, how to succeed at school, and the importance of girls getting educations. (THANK YOU MONICA, PARENTALS, JOHN H, HONEYGRAM AND POP POP FOR YOUR DONATIONS!!) We had a great time and all the girls did a wonderful job and hopefully learned a lot. It's really good info for them and hopefully made an impact on them so they can aid Guinea and the future of the country. Can't develop a country with half the population uneducated, so the week was really productive and very gratifying. The girls were awesome. Last night, we had an end kind of talent show. But then after everyone kind of broke away for the night, we found all the girls in one of the session areas in a huge circle all just singing and dancing. So we all joined and I have to say, that's probably one of my highlights from my entire peace corps experience so far. It was so awesome and everyone was having such a great time. Very very cool.
That about sums it up. Heading back to my town today to clean my house becaaause my mom gets here next Wednesday!! Very very exciting!! After her jaunt to Guinea, we'll be heading to the Gambia for a week vacation with dad and Jake too, so I'm very very excited!!
Comme d'habitude, love and miss you all. Keep in touch!!
And of course, HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN AND BETH! Hope it's wonderful and buy a beer for yourselves and I'll pay you back around Christmas! LOVE YOU BOTH
<3 rb
Friday, July 31, 2009
Monday, July 6, 2009
12 out of 12 ladies after 12 months
The G16 girls had a delightful ladies night yesterday to celebrate our year. As hard as it is to be a woman in this country, we're 12 for 12 after a year. Wonderful group of people :)
Team Ambiance setting the table on the roof.
The 12 lovely ladies
Team Ambiance setting the table on the roof.
The 12 lovely ladiesSunday, July 5, 2009
My first anniversary in Guinea
Well a few days short of. But still. One whole year living in Guinea! Wild.
So with the end of ths school year, there's always the frustrations of wanting to smack some sense into Guinean students whose default learning style is relying on someone sitting nearby to tell them the answer. Very frustrating with the compositions and exams. If only they would realize they're just perpetuating the status of Guinea as poor and underdeveloped by not working to their full potential. There are some good students, but the overwhelming majority falls into this category, unfortunately. A bunch of my fellow G16ers met up for a couple workshops the past couple weeks and swapped stories which is always hilarious and fun. And we all make each other feel better about our passing statistics, because we have VERY low standards. Ha. Anyway, we've had a good time catching up and hanging out almost all together.
Lots of people at site getting sick with "malaria" since the rains started. It's awesome how fast things here turn green with a single rainfall, but coupled with that, the mosquitoes are out and hungry. A lot of Guineans do indeed have malaria, but it's also an easy diagnosis for doctors for anyone with fevers and such. Lots of my good friends were out of commission for a couple days, lying in bed with fevers. But I guess it passes with treatment before it comes back again and they feel tired and feverish.
My cat ate a bat. I ate termites and a large cricket (grilled and salted... not too bad once you get past the fact that you're eating bugs). My favorite seamstress in my town had her baby! A cute and tiny baby boy, whose name I don't know yet because I left town before the baby naming ceremony (a week after birth). Very exciting tho! On a much sadder note, one of my 10th grade girls is married and was pregnant. But two days before my other friend had her baby, my student also gave birth, but the baby didn't make it. Can't imagine a girl that young having to know that kind of sadness. I visited my friend Kim's site and we took a walk through her town with one of the teachers at her school. As we passed the large forested cemetary, he also told us that almost all families have a small lot in their yard for the very small children that don't make it. Also, there was a sign next to the cemetary that said, "Nous étions comme vous. Vous serez comme nous." (We were like you. You will be like us.) The mortality of people is very visible here. I guess much more than it is in my American life, Dieu merci.
So, like I said, had a couple workshops. One on HIV/AIDS where we went over all the facts basically and how to get those facts out to Guineans that we have contact with. Went to visit Kim's village for a couple days after that. Really beautiful place and they live on top of a mountain basically, so the view is wonderful. She also has a goat who had just had a baby, so he is adorable! (I don't know if I've mentioned this, but goats are adorable. Sheep, not so much. But I really love goats.) She has a nice garden too which turned to a jungle almost overnight. The land here is so fertile, and it's certainly getting all the water it needs right now, so it's pretty awesome how fast stuff grows here.
Had another workshop planning for the new education group's training. Helped out there for a few days. Weird to be back in Forecariah (where we were for training for 3 months) without having all those anxieties or stresses of being in training and living with a host family and learning how to be a teacher in Guinea, etc. Kind of cool being back there under different circumstances and working with our trainers as colleagues and not as our trainers.
Now in the capital. Had my mid-service medical exam (aka the works) to see if I have any sort of hiding amoebas or parasites or other things in my body. I'll keep you posted on that one. Celebrated the fourth with almost all of my group (minus 2), and now just working on some things before the new education group gets in! We're all pretty excited for the new group and we're hoping to make their welcoming to Guinea as nice as we remember ours being.
I guess that's about it for now. Heading back to my town in a few days to hopefully start being productive on other projects since I'll be in and out of my town a lot this summer. Mama's coming in a month! Then Stef's coming now too in October! Very excited!
Hope you're all doing well. I spent a lot of yesterday reminiscing about last year's 4th of July with all of you and how wonderful that was. Really love you all and miss you terribly (hope you're not tired of hearing that yet).
Anyway, keep in touch. Love you all.
~rab
So with the end of ths school year, there's always the frustrations of wanting to smack some sense into Guinean students whose default learning style is relying on someone sitting nearby to tell them the answer. Very frustrating with the compositions and exams. If only they would realize they're just perpetuating the status of Guinea as poor and underdeveloped by not working to their full potential. There are some good students, but the overwhelming majority falls into this category, unfortunately. A bunch of my fellow G16ers met up for a couple workshops the past couple weeks and swapped stories which is always hilarious and fun. And we all make each other feel better about our passing statistics, because we have VERY low standards. Ha. Anyway, we've had a good time catching up and hanging out almost all together.
Lots of people at site getting sick with "malaria" since the rains started. It's awesome how fast things here turn green with a single rainfall, but coupled with that, the mosquitoes are out and hungry. A lot of Guineans do indeed have malaria, but it's also an easy diagnosis for doctors for anyone with fevers and such. Lots of my good friends were out of commission for a couple days, lying in bed with fevers. But I guess it passes with treatment before it comes back again and they feel tired and feverish.
My cat ate a bat. I ate termites and a large cricket (grilled and salted... not too bad once you get past the fact that you're eating bugs). My favorite seamstress in my town had her baby! A cute and tiny baby boy, whose name I don't know yet because I left town before the baby naming ceremony (a week after birth). Very exciting tho! On a much sadder note, one of my 10th grade girls is married and was pregnant. But two days before my other friend had her baby, my student also gave birth, but the baby didn't make it. Can't imagine a girl that young having to know that kind of sadness. I visited my friend Kim's site and we took a walk through her town with one of the teachers at her school. As we passed the large forested cemetary, he also told us that almost all families have a small lot in their yard for the very small children that don't make it. Also, there was a sign next to the cemetary that said, "Nous étions comme vous. Vous serez comme nous." (We were like you. You will be like us.) The mortality of people is very visible here. I guess much more than it is in my American life, Dieu merci.
So, like I said, had a couple workshops. One on HIV/AIDS where we went over all the facts basically and how to get those facts out to Guineans that we have contact with. Went to visit Kim's village for a couple days after that. Really beautiful place and they live on top of a mountain basically, so the view is wonderful. She also has a goat who had just had a baby, so he is adorable! (I don't know if I've mentioned this, but goats are adorable. Sheep, not so much. But I really love goats.) She has a nice garden too which turned to a jungle almost overnight. The land here is so fertile, and it's certainly getting all the water it needs right now, so it's pretty awesome how fast stuff grows here.
Had another workshop planning for the new education group's training. Helped out there for a few days. Weird to be back in Forecariah (where we were for training for 3 months) without having all those anxieties or stresses of being in training and living with a host family and learning how to be a teacher in Guinea, etc. Kind of cool being back there under different circumstances and working with our trainers as colleagues and not as our trainers.
Now in the capital. Had my mid-service medical exam (aka the works) to see if I have any sort of hiding amoebas or parasites or other things in my body. I'll keep you posted on that one. Celebrated the fourth with almost all of my group (minus 2), and now just working on some things before the new education group gets in! We're all pretty excited for the new group and we're hoping to make their welcoming to Guinea as nice as we remember ours being.
I guess that's about it for now. Heading back to my town in a few days to hopefully start being productive on other projects since I'll be in and out of my town a lot this summer. Mama's coming in a month! Then Stef's coming now too in October! Very excited!
Hope you're all doing well. I spent a lot of yesterday reminiscing about last year's 4th of July with all of you and how wonderful that was. Really love you all and miss you terribly (hope you're not tired of hearing that yet).
Anyway, keep in touch. Love you all.
~rab
Fourth of July
Some of the G16 girls, loving freedom like all Americans. Me, Al, Caro, Tiff, and Isy.
A bunch of PCVs on the beach.
Fourth of July sunset.
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