Nearing the end of the school year

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 :)