I’ve been living in Africa for a year!

Once again I apologize for the long gaps between my blog posts. I really don’t have a good excuse this time. I was even in Senegal recently where the Internet is abundant and I couldn’t bring myself to sit in front of the computer for an hour or two. It can be pretty overwhelming to come back to the Internet after being away for a month or more. Luckily, I am now in Conakry getting some work done and I’ve had enough time to take the Internet in small doses until I could build up a tolerance again haha. It’s been so long that I’m sure there are a few things that I wanted to write about that I have now completely forgotten. Instead of summarizing the last two, perhaps three months, I will tell you about several important events over the course of several automated blog posts. There will be stories and pictures and maybe even a video! I’ll start with a school related update.

The end of school was rather chaotic this year because Guinea’s legislative elections were planned for the 30^th of June, just after the national exams usually wrap up. Because of the close proximity to elections, the government decided to move all the exams up by about 2 weeks. This changed the 10^th grade exam from the second week of June to the last week of May, giving us two weeks less to prepare our students for the exam. Luckily, I was almost finished with the math program and we were able to breeze through the last couple sections and start reviewing for the brevet blanc, a practice for the national exam that I got to write the math questions for. My students took the brevet blanc about three weeks before the actual brevet. I tried to make the questions as similar to real brevet questions as possible so my students would know what level of difficulty to expect. They did alright on some portions of the brevet blanc (biology, history) but they really struggled with my math questions and with chemistry too. After the test, I was in charge of compiling all the scores from the different sections and calculating the overall grade for the test. This is part of my job as the professeur principal for the 10eme class. If the brevet blanc was an accurate representation of the real brevet, it seemed like about 50% of my kids would pass test and continue on to lycee (high school). This was actually a pretty high percentage compared to a lot of other schools. After the brevet blanc was over, a lot of my students stopped coming to class. It was hard to encourage them to come too because the brevet blanc was their last official grade for the year. They started showing up again about a week before the real brevet for the review sessions that I had prepared. The real brevet began on May 27^th in a nearby (18km) town called Sinta that served as a testing center schools in our area. Math was On the very last day of testing so I planned to ride my bike to Sinta on Thursday, which was a non-test day and on Friday to give math reviews. I was excited to see my students show up to my reviews in large numbers accompanied by students from other schools as well. It also seemed like they had done some studying during those days they had skipped class which I guess is good haha.

After the real brevet was finished the only thing I had left to do was give the final exams for Geography and Math to my 9eme class. After I finished grading these exams I was done for the school year! It was a bittersweet moment because I was relieved to be done with the exhausting aspects of teaching, like grading, but I felt like there were still so many things I could teach my students. Luckily, some of them requested that I continue math review sessions throughout the summer and even more asked me to come to their villages and teach English which I have been doing on a daily basis since returning from Senegal. Upon my return, I also learned that 91% of my 10eme students had passed the brevet and would have the opportunity to continue on to lycee! Although I knew that some of them had probably figured out a way to cheat on a national exam, this was still a pretty exceptional success rate and I was very proud of them for putting in a lot of hard work throughout the year. I’m even more excited about my 9eme students who will get to spend a second yeah with Monsieur Ben. These are the kids who ask me to hold reviews and come during the summer even when it rains. They have great potential and I’m excited to see where they go! So long for now! I’ll leave you with a schedule of future blog post topics so you can know what’s coming. Check back once a week to see if my automated posts are working…

Geoff’s cursed keys

Feet

Senegal

Ramadan

Also, here are some pictures!

This is my awesome collection of Guinean pants! My favorite is the second from the left...

This is what the stinking wind did to the fence behind my hut. It's all fixed now though!

Aussi, le vent a decoiffe notre 10eme! We collected the pieces of the roof and a carpenter fixed it rather quickly.

Luckily the map of Guinea I'd been working on wasn't damaged

It's not finished in this photo. I finished it right before leaving for Senegal but forgot to take a picture...

Happy World Malaria Day!

I'm actually a day late with this post. World Malaria day was yesterday but as I mentioned, here in Guinea we made April Malaria Month.

So what is the big deal with Malaria anyway? It's hardly every mentioned in the US. When's the last time you heard of someone getting Malaria? This is unfortunately not the case in West Africa where Malaria is the biggest health problem facing many countries. The tropical climate as well as a lack of resources and education are the main reasons for this. Guinea is one of the rainiest countries in West Africa, recieving more than a meter of rain per month during the peak of the rainy season. All this rain provides a greed breeding environment for mosquitoes and the prevalence of Malaria rises during the rainy season. The lack of resources to fight malaria is also a problem but this is changing as mosquito net distribution campaigns are currently underway and new malaria drugs are coming down the pipeline. This leaves the problem of general knowledge about the dangers of Malaria.Spreading lifesaving knowledge like how to use a mosquito net, medicines available for pregnant women, and the demographics most affected by malaria is the best way to fight "le paludisme." Education is also where we as volunteers, can have the biggest impact. YOU can help too! Because most people in the US have never even heard of Malaria, telling people about it can raise awareness about the problem that the developing world is facing. Feel free to share any of my stories. The scale of the problem is really crazy. So big in fact, that on average, one child dies every minute from malaria and there were 216 million cases reported around the world in 2010. This is why Peace Corps has developed the Stomp Out Malaria initiative. It's a big deal. Here are some resources if you'd like to learn more:

President's Malaria Initiative: http://www.pmi.gov/
Stomp Out Malaria's facebook: http://www.facebook.com/StompOutMalaria?group_id=0

Seeeeee ya!

Here's another attempt at an automated blog post. For this one I'll give you a quick lesson in Pular, the language spoken in the Fuuta region of Guinea. Pular is a very rich language with tons of interesting verbs and a system of articles. Here are some of the things I say pretty much everyday:

On jaraama = I greet you
Tanna alaa ton? = Is there no evil there?
Jam tun = Peace only
Hii-hi = Yes
O'o or O'owooye = No
Awa = Ok
No marsude? = How's it going?
No marsude seeda. = It's going alright
No marsude fota! = It's going well!
Oo-o! = Goodbye!
En bimbi. = See you in the morning.
En kiikiide. = See you this afternoon.
Si Alla jabi = God willing.
Ko jelu? = How much?
No Moyyi! = That's good!

This is how I would introduce myself in Pular: On jaraama! Ko Mr. Ben mi ineete. Ko min janoowo mathematik. Mi iwi amerik e mi hoday ka la guinee duubi didi. Ko Gougoudje mi woni.

Translation: Hello. My name is Mr. Ben. I am a math teacher. I came from the US and I'm going to live here for two years. I live in Gougoudje.

Hope you enjoyed the Pular lesson! There are apparantly a decent number of Pular speakers living in the US so if you ever meet someone with the last name Diallo, there's a decent chance that they're from Guinea and might speak Pular!

Also, check out this link where you can download the Pular book they give to PCVs:
http://www.ibamba.net/pular/

And here's a picture of me making some fresh peanut butter! That's the Sous-Prefet's wife next to me haha.

Hello! I am currently in Kindia wrapping up my spring break. It’s been a good week. Last Wednesday, after giving a review session to my 10e students, I rode my bike out to Geoff’s site where we did a sensibilisation about malaria and talked about the importance of using mosquito nets. This was the start of our malaria sensibilisation bike tour. The next morning we continued to my site where we did another sensibilisation and Geoff and I explored a cave near Gougoudje (hopefully I’ll be able to put up some pictures). On Friday we rode to Sinta, a town about 20 km south of Gougoudje. We led a Malaria discussion with a group of 10e students there and then we talked to the school principal about the school and the village because a new volunteer will be coming to teach there in July. I am pretty excited about this because I will have a new neighbor that I don’t have to ride up a mountain to visit! After being treated to some rice and sauce by the principal of Sinta, we continued on to Konkoure which is about midway between Telimele and Kindia. We gave a sensibilisation in Konkoure and then went for a very refreshing swim in a beautiful river. At one point we thought we saw some poop floating by and thought maybe swimming in the river wasn’t such a good idea after all but then one of our Guinean friends grabbed it out of the water and explained that it was just a type of nut from a tree haha. The next day was a long a difficult ride to Kindia. It was very hot and dusty and the road was very bumpy but after about 5 hours of pedaling and some hydration breaks, we rolled into Kindia around 1 and went immediately to a restaurant to get some food. Then we got in a little bit of internet time and got some absolutely delicious soft serve ice cream. On Saturday night we stayed with an agro-forestry volunteer who works on an organic farm South of Kindia. The farm was very impressive with sections devoted to pineapples, palm trees, cashews, and watermelons, as well as spaces for raising chickens, ducks, and rabbits. They were also working on building an “outdoor restaurant” where guests would be able to pick out the food they eat directly from the garden. On Sunday we had a long but much easier ride on paved roads into Coyah where we met up with Dante and then rode to his site in Wonkifong. The next day we did a sensibilisation in a nearby village and helped hang up some mosquito nets. It was rewarding to do something that would almost certainly directly impact the health of the community. It was also surprising how many people had nets but hadn’t hung them up yet. This was the main focus of our sensibilisations. On Monday night we were joined by Caleb. We spent the next few days hanging out in Wonkifong, visiting Forecariah (South of Conakry), doing another sensibilisation, swimmimg in rivers, and having an epic late night squirt gun battle. In summary, it was a fantastic week. It was really nice to spend some time with other volunteers and just relax for a little bit. The malaria sensibilisations were also a lot of fun and it seemed like we were able to get the message across. All of these malaria related activities correspond with a competition we are having between the 3 different regions of Guinea. Volunteers can earn points for their regions by doing certain activities. At the end of the month, the region with the most points wins. The competition corresponds with World Malaria Day which is at the end of April. However, because Malaria is such a huge problem in West Africa, we decided to make April Malaria month. Check back in a few weeks for a post concerning Malaria in West Africa and the impact Peace Corps volunteers in Guinea are making. So long for now! Hope everyone is enjoying Springtime in the US!

Ben

Gougoudje kids watching a soccer game

Ragoo - a combo of cassava, squash, and sweet potatoes. It's very tasty

The cave in Gougoudje

A really cool tree

Fixing a flat en route a Coyah

Geoff and Dante putting up a net

Successfully hung net!

Sunset during a soccer game in Gougoudje

Swimming in a river near Coyah

Malaria sensibilisation!

Hello!

I would first like to apologize for not posting for so long. It's been difficult to find internet access lately and when it's available it is extremely slow. Right now I am at IST or in service training. We talked a lot about our secondary projects which we will be working on during summer break. I'm not sure fpr sure what I'll be doing yet but I've talked to a few people about starting a school lunch program. Right now students get to school at 7:45 and leave a little before 2, sometimes without having eaten for that entire time. This is definitely a barrier to learning as the students are tired and just want to go home by the time the last class period comes around. It doesn't help that this is also the hottest part of the day and we certainly don't have AC. Some other smaller projects I've been considering are wall murals, Malaria or HIV/AIDS sensibiisations, and a school garden. We had a really cool session during this week of training where everyone shared their project ideas. It definitely got me motivated and I'm excited to see what we accomplish as a group.

There are a ton of stories I could tell now but unfortunately I just don't have the time to type them all up. Geoff and I are planning to go to Conakry in a couple weeks for a traning related to Malaria Month which is this April so I will probably have access to good internet then. For now, I'll leave you with these photos.


Just kidding. The internet is to slow and I can't get them to load. Maybe in a few weeks. Later!

Hello again and Merry Christmas!

I am currently in the city of Labe, capital of the Fouta region. The trip here was pretty awesome so I'll explain that first:

This past Friday I rode my bike to Geoff's site, Porekire which is about 30 km from my site. He introduced me to some of his friends and fellow teachers and then we went out for a bike ride and climbed around on some big rocks which was a ton of fun. Then we ate dinner several times and had to "drink" 30-40 oranges and eat a papaya and 11 bananas which were all given to Geoff as gifts. I spent the night at Geoff's site and then we headed out the next morning around 8:15. We went through Gougoudje about 2 hours later and I gave Geoff a quick tour and introduced him to some of my colleagues and friends. Then we were pulled across a river on a ferry by men with long sticks. After the river we made a quick pit stop in Lei Miro to fill up on rice and sauce. We had planned on stopping for the night in a town called Dongul Touma. We asked several people along the way how far we had to go. The first guy told us 15 km. Two hours later another person told us 14 km. After many exhausting hills, we finally rolled into Dongul Touma around 18:00, or about an hour before sunset. We talked to the Sous-Prefet who hooked us up with a place to stay which was a bit creepy but cheap and comfortable. We slept very well and then headed out the next morning around 9:15. The second day wasn't quite as eventful. The roads were a little more flat and a little more dusty and there weren't many towns between Dongul Touma and Labe. We made pretty good time after we hit the paved road between Pita and Labe and arrived in Labe around 5:30. It was nice to see some other volunteers and eat a delicious hamburger at one of Labe's many restaurants. We slept very well that night.

The "tan" we acquired during our bike ride

The next day was Christmas eve so we hit up the bank and did some Christmas shopping for our gift exchange. We also ate some absolutely delicious food (check facebook for pictures). I found some really cool fabric made out of scraps left over from the tailor to give for my gift. I bought one for myself to so I can get a shirt or some pants made. Then we just hung out for the rest of the evening and waited for Santa to come.

Christmas day was fantastic with great food, music, stockings, and gifts. I got apples in the gift exchange which are pretty tricky to find in Guinea and very tasty. I also got to talk to my family for a very long time which was very, very nice.

That brings us to today which started without electricity but we fired up the generator for a couple hours so we could get some Internet time. I also woke up early to do some dishes from the night before and got to see a very beautiful sunrise over Labe. Geoff and I will probably spend tomorrow in Labe as well and then hop back on our bikes to head back to our sites where we're planning on celebrating the new year. I'm interested to see what Guineans do to celebrate. I will most certainly let you know when I find out. Also, you should check out: Geoff's Blog. I heard it's pretty cool ; )

Happy New Year from Guinea!

Peace.