Through my mother's eyes

I asked my mom to write a blog about her Guinea experiences, et voilaaaa...


Well, I leave feeling quite prepared, because, after all, I was a Girl Scout and (you know, I’m also naïve). I was right, though, I was prepared, but it was really because of Rachel and Cal and some moms who travelled before me. They gave me all the good advice I needed. Rachel charmed her way into the airport to help me with baggage claim and had commissioned a taxi to take us to the PC house. There, I was lucky to meet some of the smartest, and I’ll use the term courageous, PC volunteers. We slept there, enjoyed a real shower and left next morning for Kankalabe.

That was an exciting journey. It is rainy season and roads are not good, very congested and with potholes and on the last 3 hour stretch, unpaved with craters, big and deep. Sharif is driving again, someone Rachel knows pretty well and with a reliable car. We made it to her house about 10 p.m. Rachel’s cat, Njemma, welcomed us – he’s not your typical tabby but some cross between that and a cute wild thing. Mind you, Rachel has a nice house, a living area, kitchen with a burner, bedroom and extra room she’s converted to an indoor bucket shower and dressing room. No running water or electricity, but still, a house, with a porch, and a view. We called it a night – she knew next day would be busy with visits and a tour of the village.

View from Rachel's house.

Friday, we awake to sunshine, a nice surprise and I prepare for the Greetings coming my way. I am the talk of the town, Neighbors stop by to greet me, then one of Rachel’s students, a couple more neighbors, and her Guinean “sister”, Diaraye, who invites us to have a salad at her restaurant that morning. She also brings gifts of a wallet with “Welcome mother” hammered in and sandals, with “I love my mother” hammered in. So sweet. We venture to her restaurant, a stall in the long string that line the “street”, enjoy fresh veggies and then walk on to the medical center where Rachel’s “mom” (Neene) works as a nurse. She’s the sweetest person in Kankalabe and we enjoy time with her and others in the center, including one of the girls who accompanied Rachel to the Girl’s Conference a couple weeks before. Everyone is so gracious. Rachel has to interpret for me but I start to learn a few key phrases I’ll use a lot for the next few days. We stopped at the home of Rachel’s principal and visited a bit. His son, also one of Rachel’s students, agrees to take us to the school tomorrow for a tour. We get a tour of Neene’s garden, full of good things, and of course leave with some sweet limes and oranges. Another lady gifts us with peanuts from her garden.

We stop at a porch next to Diaraye’s restaurant and have a lively discussion with Sadou and Ismaela and another gentleman who were making and drinking a sweet, strong, frothy tea. The older gentleman thought I’d been there before and did dental work, I had to disappoint him. Our discussion was around numbers of children and wives. Having only two children indicates we must be poor and unable to support multiple wives and children. Of course, Rachel tells him multiple wives are not allowed in America. Both Sadou and Ismaela indicated they intend to have only one wife (not sure they aren’t hoping for Rachel). Of course, the older gentleman thought they were crazy and that was one reason he would never go to America.

Ismael, Rachel, the gentleman, and Sadou .

We stop again to visit with Diaraye as she and her daughters and extended family (all the girls) cook and clean and prepare the local dishes they serve at the restaurant. They grind manioc to mix with vegetable ceke’, and make tons of rice for rice and sauce. Some boys are in and out, but the girls seem to work non-stop into the evening. Diaraye sends us home with some rice and peanut sauce, very tasty.

Next stop is to the seamstress to check on the “complet” (outfit) Rachel is having made for me. It isn’t yet started, but they assure Rachel it will be ready for me tomorrow, in time for market on Sunday. The seamstresses are quite young, probably close to Rachel’s age. The owner has just had a baby. We sit there to visit awhile and another lively conversation begins. They tease Rachel about an older teacher they think wants to marry her and she responds with the standard reply “no way”. More on the teacher, later.

We return to Rachel’s house to pack for our sleepover with the Peppers. The Peppers are a missionary family sent by God to Rachel, (oh, and to the Guineans, too, I suppose, and to Lisa and Conor). Doctor Pepper greets us from across the street and we walk on to their house and compound where they have a great garden, a couple goats, a dog, cat and bird. They have solar panels so have electricity and a gas oven. What an easy-going family, and we “girls” gather in the kitchen where Rebekah,15, is making pumpkin bread from a giant squash they had grown. Sarah Catherine is cutting cukes, Rhonda (mom) is making the pizza. We help a little, with sauce and veggies and pepperoni slicing. The boys, Paul and Andrew, are playing quietly in their room. When the first couple pizzas are done, we assemble to watch Finding Nemo, what fun, everyone has a favorite character. We sleep over on the comfy sleep sofa, and a nice rain falls all night but stops in a.m. – weather has been really considerate of me on this visit. Breakfast is pumpkin (squash) bread, best I’ve ever tasted, yogurt and blueberries, yum.

We leave to meet Hamidou for our school tour. We walk the road to the school, greetings along the way, and as we enter the library, we hear a shout and I look out to see Conor, PCV from next village, has biked over to visit with us. He joins us, and next thing we know, there’s another white person at the gate, Lisa (PCV from different nearby village) has come with three of her village authorities, also to greet me. It’s all about me, these few days, truly. So gracious are these people. After a few pics and a look-around, we walk back to town. Lisa and her friends depart, we’ll see Lisa again Sunday, for our return to Conakry and then to the Gambia.

Conor and some friends sitting at Diaraye's restaurant.

Conor, Rachel and I walk to have lunch at the Hoflands, another missionary family with a nice house and compound. Cheryl and Dale (another missionary couple) are also joining for lunch. The Hoflands greet us and Jamie takes us to the small school where Aaron teaches their younger children, Levi, Micah and Jeschelle. Benjamin is home now, but attends university in the US. Cal, the dad, joins us. He’s the one who gave us the really helpful travel advice. Jamie has made the best chicken pot pie I’ve ever had, and there is bread and oranges for drinking, and carrot cake to finish off. No hope of losing weight while in Guinea. We leave Conor who is going to hang out awhile with Aaron, they are close in age and have become friends, but Rachel and I need to walk up the reso hill to make some calls and back to the seamstresses to check on my complet. As we walk, a moto comes honking and it’s the older teacher (the one the girls teased wants to marry Rachel), and he’s been looking for us for two hours bringing me a gift of sandals that say “I love” and “Rachel”. So thoughtful.

On our way to the reso hill, we stop to greet others, including some of Rachel’s students, hear a party going on and learn it’s to celebrate the arrival of the wife of the new “in charge” military town leader, I don’t recall the term for him. So, Rachel feels obliged to stop there and greet the wife. It was nice to hear and see local music and dancing but we stayed only a few minutes. Made what calls we could, then back to pick up my complet.

By “pick-up”, I mean stop to visit again. Conor finds us there, he wants some pants made for a friend. The baby is there and likes Rachel for awhile, very cute and small. We walk back to Diaraye’s restaurant to sit for quite awhile before dining on rice and soup sauce. Conor is very popular with the village, he and Lisa visit pretty often as their villages don’t have as big a market. People are stopping by the entire time, to visit me and frankly, to hang out with Conor and Rachel. It’s a good time. Neene stops by to bestow another gift upon me, a calabash bowl and woven mat. She’s absolutely the sweetest. Rachel and I return to her house to sleep, but Conor is going dancing and spending the night at Sadou’s house.

On Sunday, I wake at 7 for my last day at Kankalabe. Stay was too short, and I hope to return one day. It’s market day, and mail run day and we plan to join the missionaries for worship. Another family stops by to greet me, they have come from Dougaya. After they leave, we walk to market and it’s bustling as Rachel assured me. We wander around, sampling some great dough balls, greeting more people. The mail truck is due about 10, so we return to her house, where it will deliver the mail, then go to Lisa’s village, bring Lisa back to Kankalabe, and pick up Conor to take him back to his village. It’s late, but brings Rachel lots of good stuff, then goes for Lisa; we’re very late for worship, but they wait for us and are very understanding. We’re supposed to leave about 2 p.m. for our return to Conakry. I felt really moved at Worship, grateful Rachel is surrounded by faithful people who welcome her. Rhonda invites us for a fast taco lunch, it was great and we’re late for the car, but things work out. We’re going to Dalaba, a beautiful village on the mountain where the paved roads start. We’re meeting Katy and Andrew, two PCVs nearby, for dinner. We’re spending the night there, at a hotel, where we are the only guests. Dinner is chicken and fries and COLD BEER! There is electricity here, so quite nice and really beautiful. Had a pleasant evening, and left the next morning to return to the PC house in Conakry. We stop a couple times to take pictures of the beautiful scenery that is Guinea. It’s truly a beautiful country.

Market Day

Rachel and some of her students.

Back at the PC house, there are a few other volunteers, and we all go to the “Beach Bar” just behind. Beach is filled with young boys/men playing soccer. It’s not a beautiful place, really, but is a beach and has a bar. A couple U.S. Marines join us for a short while. It’s a pleasant evening. We sleep in the PC House bunks, and leave next morning. Lisa, Rachel and I, are flying to the Gambia, where we’ll see what a difference exists between two very close West African countries.
Plane sat 18 – we all had window seats, and landed about 1.5 hours after we departed. Small world story, again, Rachel and Lisa know two people on our plane – more missionaries they had met through Rhonda and Robert. They are stationed in Guinea but are going to the Gambia for a couple weeks for some commitment. They tell us of a dancing/music troupe they know is supposed to be performing close by one night and assure they’ll call us with details.
We had chosen our hotel via the internet, and it was a pleasant surprise, more beautiful than I had really anticipated. We have two rooms, as Jake and Rob are joining us on Thursday. Grounds are pretty, lush green with lots of floral plants, there’s a pool, a beautiful beach, a pool bar, game tables, restaurant, birds and monkeys. Interesting thing here, is VISA isn’t welcome everywhere. No credit cards are. We charge food to our rooms, hotel takes VISA, fortunately. There’s an ATM right outside the hotel where we can get cash, so things worked out.

I won’t make this a book on the Gambia, but will say we had an awesome time, sun was hot, pool was cool, Pool bar band was entertaining and excited when Rachel spoke to them in Pular. We met Marlane and Tony from Columbia and Spain, originally, but living in UK. At the pool bar, the same people assembled for happy hour so became comfortable and familiar. The band played typical Bob Marley music, there was dancing, Kemo, a server, would encourage all to join. He seemed to be assigned to us as he served us at breakfast, lunch and happy hour most days. Jake, Rachel and Lisa, joined Marlane and Tony for drum lessons on the beach Sunday morning. They had fun. We went on a tour of the local forest area which included a ride on the river in a hollowed tree boat. There were lots of birds and eventually baboons, a good diversion. Two band members met Rachel, Jake and Lisa to go dancing one night. We played tourists, enjoyed the entire visit, was lucky with weather and are really grateful to have had the opportunity for the family and Lisa vacation in Africa. Really glad Lisa joined us, what fun! Only downer, no checked bags have made it home. Afraid Rob’s refusal to slip money to the airport “official” might be the problem, but Air France is trying to locate.


On jaaraama - hello to more than one person, or to show respect to a person of higher standing in the community

Tanaa alaa gaa? - There is no evil here? Response: Jam tun (peace only)

Some pics from the Gambia

The beach outside of our hotel.

Lisa and me on the beach.




Monkeys and their babies at our hotel.




Baboons at Makasutu Forest.

Family out to dinner at Ngala Lodge.

Some pictures from Mom's visit to Guinea

A beautiful day in Kankalabe. (this captures my favorite colors in Guinea)

My moms.




Lisa, Conor, and some visitors from Mombeya :)




My neene (Guinean mom), mom, and my sister, Diaraye at Diaraye's restaurant.



Barron ladies lookin goood on market day in my town.



Rainy season in Guinea is beautiful.

Traditional Wedding Pics

Ladies having all the fun.

And the miserable bride...

"She didn't invite me to her peanuts, so..."

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

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

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