Leaving For Site!
It's 6:45AM here in Guinea and we're about to depart for Telimele! We're currently waiting for our driver to arrive so I ran up to the computer room to make one last blog post because when I arrive at my site in Gougoudje I won't have access to the Internet, let alone electricity. We'll be heading to Kindia first to meet some important government people and then spending the night in Telimele at Rick's house. Then we'll take Geoff to his site in Porekire which is 15km North of Telimele. After that, I will be the last one dropped off in Gougoudje on Wednesday afternoon. I start teaching in 8 days and I couldn't be more excited and nervous. The next week will be filled with lesson planning and learning how to do all sorts of little tasks in my village that I didn't have to do in Dubreka (cooking for example). We spent the last several days in Conakry buying what we will need at site because most things aren't available in our villages. I'll definitely miss the conveniences we had access to here in Conakry but I'm very excited to get to know the people in my village and become more integrated into Guinean society. We will spend about one month at our sites and then take our monthly visit to our regional capitals so that is probably the next time you'll get a blog post from me. I'll leave you with these two videos I took while here in Conakry...
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Swearing In!
As of about 6:00PM yesterday I am an official Peace Corps volunteer. Our swearing in ceremony was held in the Peace Corps compound here in Conakry. It was fun with speeches made by our country director and a representative from the Guinean government. Our group decided to have matching outfits made for the ceremony out of the "squiggly monster" pattern (see picture below). I also made an audio recording of the actual swearing in when we took the oath. After the ceremony we had an impromptu dance party and ate ice cream and brownies! It feels good to be done with training but I'm definitely going to miss seeing the other volunteers everyday. We will be leaving for our sites in a few days so we're really savoring these last few days together...
As of about 6:00PM yesterday I am an official Peace Corps volunteer. Our swearing in ceremony was held in the Peace Corps compound here in Conakry. It was fun with speeches made by our country director and a representative from the Guinean government. Our group decided to have matching outfits made for the ceremony out of the "squiggly monster" pattern (see picture below). I also made an audio recording of the actual swearing in when we took the oath. After the ceremony we had an impromptu dance party and ate ice cream and brownies! It feels good to be done with training but I'm definitely going to miss seeing the other volunteers everyday. We will be leaving for our sites in a few days so we're really savoring these last few days together...
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Last days in Dubreka...
It's been a bittersweet last few weeks for the trainees here in Guinea. After 10 weeks of hard work, we are finished with training. We spent the last week teaching in practice school and preparing for the big move to our sites. The last few days were pretty busy. On Saturday, we had an awards ceremony to p[resent certificates to the top students in practice school. On Sunday, we climbed Le Chien Qui Fume, the mountain that overlooks Dubreka. On Monday morning we had our final language interview for French (I passed!) and learned some more local language. Then on Monday night we had a talent show with all the trainees and the language trainers. I was in charge of the transitions between acts. I didn't get any pictures but I think there is a picture of me doing a skit on Facebook. On Tuesday we had a short lang tech session on the morning and then spent the rest of the day packing. I gave some small gifts to my family and then went on one last walk around Dubreka with some of the volunteers. Then I spent the rest of the evening with my host family. This morning, I finished packing up and we drove to the farewell ceremony. There were a lot of speeches and dancing and we ate with our host families one last time before climbing on the bus to head to Conakry. We will be spending the next 5 days in Conakry to buy things that we'll need at our sites. Our swearing in ceremony will also be here in Conakry. It is on Friday and everyone had African clothes made out of the same fabric so we can all match for the ceremony. I heard that it will be on national television but I'm not sure if this is actually true. I'll be posting photos of it for sure so check back in a few days. Here is a video from the top of Le Chien Qui Fume:
It's been a bittersweet last few weeks for the trainees here in Guinea. After 10 weeks of hard work, we are finished with training. We spent the last week teaching in practice school and preparing for the big move to our sites. The last few days were pretty busy. On Saturday, we had an awards ceremony to p[resent certificates to the top students in practice school. On Sunday, we climbed Le Chien Qui Fume, the mountain that overlooks Dubreka. On Monday morning we had our final language interview for French (I passed!) and learned some more local language. Then on Monday night we had a talent show with all the trainees and the language trainers. I was in charge of the transitions between acts. I didn't get any pictures but I think there is a picture of me doing a skit on Facebook. On Tuesday we had a short lang tech session on the morning and then spent the rest of the day packing. I gave some small gifts to my family and then went on one last walk around Dubreka with some of the volunteers. Then I spent the rest of the evening with my host family. This morning, I finished packing up and we drove to the farewell ceremony. There were a lot of speeches and dancing and we ate with our host families one last time before climbing on the bus to head to Conakry. We will be spending the next 5 days in Conakry to buy things that we'll need at our sites. Our swearing in ceremony will also be here in Conakry. It is on Friday and everyone had African clothes made out of the same fabric so we can all match for the ceremony. I heard that it will be on national television but I'm not sure if this is actually true. I'll be posting photos of it for sure so check back in a few days. Here is a video from the top of Le Chien Qui Fume:
Friday, September 7, 2012
Practice School
On jarama! I’ve been back in Dubreka for almost two weeks now and practice school is in full swing. All education trainees must complete 3 weeks of practice school before they can be sworn in as vrai volontaires. Last week I taught two 1 hour classes each day and this week I taught one 2 hour class each day. In Guinea, students go to school for 4 hours per day, from 8am-12pm. They have math 3 times per week for 2 hours each time and most other subjects for only 2 or 4 hours per week. The levels are a bit different too. College (or middle school) starts with 7th grade and goes through 10th grade. Then lycee (or high school) starts with 11th and goes to terminale (13th). I will be teaching 9th and 10th grade. 10th grade is especially important because at the end of 10th grade, students must take the brevet which is an exam that determines whether or not they can continue on to lycee. I will be preparing the dixieme students in Gougoudje to take this exam. Practice school has been going well so far. The first week of practice school I taught 8th and 9th grade classes and this past week I taught 9th and 10th grade. The classes are substantially smaller than the classes I will have in Gougoudje but it’s still very good practice. I’ve discovered that giving exams here is especially tricky because there is no easy way to make a copy of the exam for all the students. When giving an exam, I have to write the questions on the board and have the students copy it down on a piece of notebook paper. This makes it hard to prevent the students from cheating when I’m writing out the questions and it also takes up a lot of class time and limits the size of the exam. However, it has forced me to be very creative with my exam questions. Although my 9th graders had a hard time with my first exam about the properties of a triangle, they did great on the last exam about vectors so I think I’ve been able to improve my exam format a little bit. In other news, I obtained my first bit of African attire yesterday! I bought some fabric last week and took it to a tailor here in Dubreka to have pants made. I went to pick them up yesterday and I was thoroughly impressed. They set me back 45000 GNF or about $6.50. They even have pockets! Also, since the pattern on them is pretty geometrical, I wore them to teach my class today. Below is a picture of Sara (another math volunteer) and I modeling the “geometrical flower” fabric. For the swearing in ceremony, our whole group is going to wear clothes made of the same fabric. The fabric we selected was the “squiggly monster pattern.” I’ll be sure to post a picture of this as I’m sure we’ll look pretty ridiculous/totally awesome. Speaking of swearing in, it’s only 2 weeks away! I will be an official Peace Corps volunteer on September 21, 2012! Then I’ll be headed off to Gougoudje for the next 2 years to teach math and live in my excellent hut. Thank you to everyone who has been following my blog. I’m glad I can share my experience in this way. I hope I am giving you a taste of Guinean culture! If you like what you hear, feel free to come visit any time! That’s all for this post. The next time you here from me I’ll be in Conakry for the swearing in ceremony!
On jarama! I’ve been back in Dubreka for almost two weeks now and practice school is in full swing. All education trainees must complete 3 weeks of practice school before they can be sworn in as vrai volontaires. Last week I taught two 1 hour classes each day and this week I taught one 2 hour class each day. In Guinea, students go to school for 4 hours per day, from 8am-12pm. They have math 3 times per week for 2 hours each time and most other subjects for only 2 or 4 hours per week. The levels are a bit different too. College (or middle school) starts with 7th grade and goes through 10th grade. Then lycee (or high school) starts with 11th and goes to terminale (13th). I will be teaching 9th and 10th grade. 10th grade is especially important because at the end of 10th grade, students must take the brevet which is an exam that determines whether or not they can continue on to lycee. I will be preparing the dixieme students in Gougoudje to take this exam. Practice school has been going well so far. The first week of practice school I taught 8th and 9th grade classes and this past week I taught 9th and 10th grade. The classes are substantially smaller than the classes I will have in Gougoudje but it’s still very good practice. I’ve discovered that giving exams here is especially tricky because there is no easy way to make a copy of the exam for all the students. When giving an exam, I have to write the questions on the board and have the students copy it down on a piece of notebook paper. This makes it hard to prevent the students from cheating when I’m writing out the questions and it also takes up a lot of class time and limits the size of the exam. However, it has forced me to be very creative with my exam questions. Although my 9th graders had a hard time with my first exam about the properties of a triangle, they did great on the last exam about vectors so I think I’ve been able to improve my exam format a little bit. In other news, I obtained my first bit of African attire yesterday! I bought some fabric last week and took it to a tailor here in Dubreka to have pants made. I went to pick them up yesterday and I was thoroughly impressed. They set me back 45000 GNF or about $6.50. They even have pockets! Also, since the pattern on them is pretty geometrical, I wore them to teach my class today. Below is a picture of Sara (another math volunteer) and I modeling the “geometrical flower” fabric. For the swearing in ceremony, our whole group is going to wear clothes made of the same fabric. The fabric we selected was the “squiggly monster pattern.” I’ll be sure to post a picture of this as I’m sure we’ll look pretty ridiculous/totally awesome. Speaking of swearing in, it’s only 2 weeks away! I will be an official Peace Corps volunteer on September 21, 2012! Then I’ll be headed off to Gougoudje for the next 2 years to teach math and live in my excellent hut. Thank you to everyone who has been following my blog. I’m glad I can share my experience in this way. I hope I am giving you a taste of Guinean culture! If you like what you hear, feel free to come visit any time! That’s all for this post. The next time you here from me I’ll be in Conakry for the swearing in ceremony!
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| Math teachers rockin' the "geometrical flower" pattern |
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