Hello again!
I didn't actuqlly have time to set up the automatic blog posts the last time I was in Conakry but now Geoff and I are in Kindia and we have access to the internet here so I'll try to set up a couple short posts sharing some interesting stories. First though I'll give you an update on the last 2 weeks:
After thanksgiving, we went back to site and back to the typical routine. Nothing has changed too much at my site with the acception of a new class on my schedule! I am no longer just a math teacher but now I am also teaching Geography for my 10th grade class because our geography teacher was reassigned to the high school in Telimele. I may also start teaching geography in 9th grade but I'm going to see how 10th goes for a month or so before I get too many more classes on my plate. I gave my first lessonthispast week on North Africa. It was a lot of fun and it's helping me build my French vocabularyand learnabout Africa so it's a win-win situation. In other news, I recently had some pants made from local fabric and they are awesome! Also, I have a new favorite african dish which is a mixture of manioc, pumpkin, and sweet potatoes. I'll take a picture the next time we eat it.
Geoff and I are planning a bike trip during Christmas break so I should be able to put up some cool photos from that. We're in Kindia for the weekend to hit up the bank, the internet cafe, and do some shopping. So long for now!
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Hello everyone!!!
I apologize for not posting for the last two months. I unfortunately have no Internet (or electricity for that matter) at my site in Gougoudje. The last two months have been amazing and I'm feeling quite at home here in Guinea now. My French has improved a lot and I have even started to learn some Pular (seeda seeda). Since so many things have happened and I could go on for pages telling stories, I have decided to give you a quick summary of the last two months and then set up some themed posts to go up every week telling different stories or giving insight into different aspects of Guinean culture.
So, after being installed at my site in late September, I had my first class on October 3rd. Not many kids showed up for the first day and some of the teachers weren't even back from vacation yet. I talked to other volunteers and they had similar first days. Things picked up by the second week of school though and by the third week of school I was getting 55 students in my 9eme class and about 30 in my 10eme class on a regular basis. The 9eme class is very far behind and the 9eme program is very rigorous so I've been doing my best to get them up to speed on the material that they should have learned in 7eme and 8eme. Although it is very challenging and can be frustrating explaining negative numbers almost every class, it feels good when I can tell that they're starting to understand. At the end of the school year, the 10eme students are required to take the brevee which is a test that determines whether or not they can continue on to lycee (high school). To give them some extra practice I started some optional review sessions after school. I really like these because I can work with the students one on one and give them problems to do according to their level of comprehension. I always look forward to these. Sometimes I give them cookies if they come haha. I started the same thing for 9eme a couple weeks later so I could work with the kids who were really behind. Unfortunately, most of these kids don't come to the reviews.I think that's a good summary of school. I'll have a more focused post about that in the coming weeks. Now, I'll try to give you an idea of what a "day in the life" is like for me here in Guinea.
A typical day usually involves waking up around 6:30 and revising my lesson plans for the day and then maybe eating breakfast and listening to the radio. Then if it is a Monday, Tuesday, or Thursday, I head to class at 8:00. I teach until 12:15 with a 15 minute break at 10:00. Then I usually eat a snack and take a nap, listen to the radio, or chat with people until around 2:30 when I eat a lunch of rice and sauce with my host family. Then, after this I usually work on lesson plans, work in my garden for a little bit, listen to the radio, take a nap, or drink tea with my friend Diakite. As you can see, I do a lot of napping and listening to the radio. The BBC's world service has become a staple of my daily routine. Also, some other things The sun goes down around 7:00pm and after that I usually lesson plan for a little bit and then eat dinner and chat with friends. Revision sessions are at 4:30pm on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and I started an English club with the 10eme students after their last class on Monday. Market day is on Saturday. I usually go around 1:00pm because the good food has arrived by that time but hasn't been sitting out long enough to go bad. Sometimes on Sundays I go to Telimele for their gigantic weekly market. If I run out of peanut butter sometimes I go on Wednesday. It's quite an exhausting 15km bike ride up the mountain to get to Telimele but it's always nice to hang out with Richard, the other volunteer who lives there. The downhill on the way back is also nice.
Now, on the topic of more current events, we celebrated Thanksgiving today in Conakry. Geoff, Richard, and I made the 7 hour bush taxi trip from Telimele so we could celebrate the "fete americain" with other volunteers from the basse cote region. It was very nice to see everyone and the dinner was absolutely amazing! We had turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and most of the other typical fixings. We even had pumpkin pie! I am continuously amazed by the remarkable cooking abilities of my fellow volunteers. There is a volunteer cookbook here in the Conakry house that I would like to try a few recipes from to try at site. I'll have to let you know how that goes. Anyway, I apologize again for the long delay. As I said, I will set up some automatic posts covering certain topics of life here so check back next week for themed post number 1. I would like to post again in about a month but I can't really say for sure when the next actual update will be. Overall, I have to say that things are going very well here and I am very satisfied with my experience so far. I've made some great friends and I'm learning a lot about myself too. Until next time, peace.
I apologize for not posting for the last two months. I unfortunately have no Internet (or electricity for that matter) at my site in Gougoudje. The last two months have been amazing and I'm feeling quite at home here in Guinea now. My French has improved a lot and I have even started to learn some Pular (seeda seeda). Since so many things have happened and I could go on for pages telling stories, I have decided to give you a quick summary of the last two months and then set up some themed posts to go up every week telling different stories or giving insight into different aspects of Guinean culture.
So, after being installed at my site in late September, I had my first class on October 3rd. Not many kids showed up for the first day and some of the teachers weren't even back from vacation yet. I talked to other volunteers and they had similar first days. Things picked up by the second week of school though and by the third week of school I was getting 55 students in my 9eme class and about 30 in my 10eme class on a regular basis. The 9eme class is very far behind and the 9eme program is very rigorous so I've been doing my best to get them up to speed on the material that they should have learned in 7eme and 8eme. Although it is very challenging and can be frustrating explaining negative numbers almost every class, it feels good when I can tell that they're starting to understand. At the end of the school year, the 10eme students are required to take the brevee which is a test that determines whether or not they can continue on to lycee (high school). To give them some extra practice I started some optional review sessions after school. I really like these because I can work with the students one on one and give them problems to do according to their level of comprehension. I always look forward to these. Sometimes I give them cookies if they come haha. I started the same thing for 9eme a couple weeks later so I could work with the kids who were really behind. Unfortunately, most of these kids don't come to the reviews.I think that's a good summary of school. I'll have a more focused post about that in the coming weeks. Now, I'll try to give you an idea of what a "day in the life" is like for me here in Guinea.
A typical day usually involves waking up around 6:30 and revising my lesson plans for the day and then maybe eating breakfast and listening to the radio. Then if it is a Monday, Tuesday, or Thursday, I head to class at 8:00. I teach until 12:15 with a 15 minute break at 10:00. Then I usually eat a snack and take a nap, listen to the radio, or chat with people until around 2:30 when I eat a lunch of rice and sauce with my host family. Then, after this I usually work on lesson plans, work in my garden for a little bit, listen to the radio, take a nap, or drink tea with my friend Diakite. As you can see, I do a lot of napping and listening to the radio. The BBC's world service has become a staple of my daily routine. Also, some other things The sun goes down around 7:00pm and after that I usually lesson plan for a little bit and then eat dinner and chat with friends. Revision sessions are at 4:30pm on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and I started an English club with the 10eme students after their last class on Monday. Market day is on Saturday. I usually go around 1:00pm because the good food has arrived by that time but hasn't been sitting out long enough to go bad. Sometimes on Sundays I go to Telimele for their gigantic weekly market. If I run out of peanut butter sometimes I go on Wednesday. It's quite an exhausting 15km bike ride up the mountain to get to Telimele but it's always nice to hang out with Richard, the other volunteer who lives there. The downhill on the way back is also nice.
Now, on the topic of more current events, we celebrated Thanksgiving today in Conakry. Geoff, Richard, and I made the 7 hour bush taxi trip from Telimele so we could celebrate the "fete americain" with other volunteers from the basse cote region. It was very nice to see everyone and the dinner was absolutely amazing! We had turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and most of the other typical fixings. We even had pumpkin pie! I am continuously amazed by the remarkable cooking abilities of my fellow volunteers. There is a volunteer cookbook here in the Conakry house that I would like to try a few recipes from to try at site. I'll have to let you know how that goes. Anyway, I apologize again for the long delay. As I said, I will set up some automatic posts covering certain topics of life here so check back next week for themed post number 1. I would like to post again in about a month but I can't really say for sure when the next actual update will be. Overall, I have to say that things are going very well here and I am very satisfied with my experience so far. I've made some great friends and I'm learning a lot about myself too. Until next time, peace.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
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...
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...
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 |
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Site visit stories...
As I mentioned in the last post, site visit was a crazy but excellent experience. Here are a few brief stories to paint you a picture of my life during the last week:
The Introduction
The day I arrived in Gougoudje also happened to be the last day of Ramadan, meaning that the fete de Ramadan would be taking place the following day. I wasn't sure what to expect. The only thing I knew for sure is that there would be a lot of eating involved because everyone had been on jeune (fast) during the day for the last 30 days and was looking forward to eating when the sun was still out. I woke up around 8:30 on the morning of the fete and chatted with the physics teacher who lives right next to me for a bit. Around 9:30, everyone changed into fancy outfits and started walking toward the center of the village. They invited me to come along so I put on a nice shirt and joined them. We made our way to a spot designated for communal prayer and everyone unfolded their mats and sat down. Someone was playing a drum close by which was cool. More and more people kept filing in and the prayer space quickly overflowed. After about 200-250 had arrived, we prayed and listened to something read in another language (I'm guessing Arabic). After that a few people left and the people in the front motioned for me to come and sit down with them. Then the sous-prefet started making a speech. Instead of using a microphone, he spoke to another man in French who translated it to Pular (the local language) and then relayed it to another man who stood up and yelled it. I imagine most small villages have a "yeller" like this for large community meetings. I was so intrigued by this new system of communication that it took me a minute or so to realize the speech was all about me. I didn't understand all of it but I gathered that the sous-prefet gave me a very nice introduction and thanked me for my future two years of service to the community. The experience was very moving and got me pretty pumped about teaching math in Gougoudje. Also, I am now known as Monsieur Ben.
Telimele
On Wednesday (8/22) I left Gougoudje for Telimele to meet up with Rick and Jeff for our trip to Conakry. I thought the road between Kindia and Gougoudje was bad but it turns out that the last nine miles between Googoudje and Telimele were exponentially worse. There were spots where we had to drive through streams, over solid rock, or straddle ruts deep enough to swallow the whole wheel. The 15km trip took about 45 minutes. The road was almost exclusively uphill and I quickly realized that biking to Telimele would be a serious workout. I was dropped off at a gas station where I met up with Rick and we walked back to his house. His house was donated by a wealthy family and is very nice. When Geoff arrived we chatted for a while and then ventured out in the dark and pouring rain for some late night food. Normally walking around a town at night is not much of an adventure but then again, most towns that I've adventured in before have power and paved roads. We headed out with our headlamps and impermeables (rain coats) and after a 15 minute walk we arrived, soaking wet, at a late night restaurant in central area of town. A burger was on the menu but I was a little skeptical so I ordered an omelet instead which turned out to be just fried eggs but was still pretty good. Rick tried the "hamburger" which was actually an egg sandwich with a little bit of beef as well. He said it was good though so I think I'll try it next time. Also, there was a TV with Gladiator playing. Eating fried eggs under a single light bulb hanging from the ceiling watching Gladiator with a generator humming in the background pretty much sums up the experience. After dinner we walked back to Rick's place and went to bed early because we were going to catch the 7:00am taxi to Conakry.
Telimele to Conakry by Bush Taxi
Geoff, Rick, and I woke up at 5:30am on Thursday morning to find a bush taxi going from Telimele to Conakry. Rick's supervisor was kind enough to get the taxi situation organized for us. We walked to the gare with him around 6:30 and handed over the 80,000 GNF for the voyage to Conakry. After grabbing some baguettes for breakfast, we piled into the Peugeot 505 with 11 other people and some live chickens lashed to the roof. It took a while for us to leave Telimele because we kept stopping to pick up more people until we got to 14 total which seemed to satisfy the driver. At one point, we stopped on a bit of a downhill and the driver got out to round up some more passengers. He had left the car in neutral and we started to roll down the hill without him but luckily he was only a few steps away and jumped back in and applied the brakes. We finally left around 7:30 and for some reason, I had to use the restroom 3 times in the first 3 hours. Luckily, we stopped 3 times and I got to run off into the woods or behind a building to relieve myself. We stopped in a small town for a food break about 3 hours in and I got one of my favorite market snacks: sugared peanuts. After about 5 hours on the "road" we arrived back in Kindia and took another short break. We bought some petite gateaus or small bits of fried dough which were delicious. Then we had paved roads the rest of the way to Conakry. It took us another 3 hours to get to Conakry and we had to pass through several military/police checkpoints where they checked the IDs of everyone in the car before we could continue. At one point, the right rear wheel started making an unpleasant sound so we stopped and the driver got out and did something that did not involve changing the tire but apparently fixed the problem because the noise stopped. We arrived at a gare (transportation hub) in Conakry at 4:30 and climbed into another smaller taxi which took us to another gare. From here, we attempted to walk to PC headquarters but made a wrong turn and had to ask for directions. We found a taxi driver who said he could take us there for 25,000 GNF so we climbed in his taxi because it was going to be getting dark soon and we didn't want to be lost in Conakry at night. Unfortunately, the driver didn't actually know where the office was and we had to ask some people on the street. It's a good thing Geoff and Rick have good French skills because my French speaking abilities decrease exponentially as I get tired and I was pretty exhausted at this point. The guy we asked ended up getting in the car with us and telling the driver exactly how to get there. We finally arrived around 7:30 just as the sun was going down. We dropped off our stuff at the house and then walked down to the beach to get some food and relax after a crazy 12 hours of Guinean transportation.
As I mentioned in the last post, site visit was a crazy but excellent experience. Here are a few brief stories to paint you a picture of my life during the last week:
The Introduction
The day I arrived in Gougoudje also happened to be the last day of Ramadan, meaning that the fete de Ramadan would be taking place the following day. I wasn't sure what to expect. The only thing I knew for sure is that there would be a lot of eating involved because everyone had been on jeune (fast) during the day for the last 30 days and was looking forward to eating when the sun was still out. I woke up around 8:30 on the morning of the fete and chatted with the physics teacher who lives right next to me for a bit. Around 9:30, everyone changed into fancy outfits and started walking toward the center of the village. They invited me to come along so I put on a nice shirt and joined them. We made our way to a spot designated for communal prayer and everyone unfolded their mats and sat down. Someone was playing a drum close by which was cool. More and more people kept filing in and the prayer space quickly overflowed. After about 200-250 had arrived, we prayed and listened to something read in another language (I'm guessing Arabic). After that a few people left and the people in the front motioned for me to come and sit down with them. Then the sous-prefet started making a speech. Instead of using a microphone, he spoke to another man in French who translated it to Pular (the local language) and then relayed it to another man who stood up and yelled it. I imagine most small villages have a "yeller" like this for large community meetings. I was so intrigued by this new system of communication that it took me a minute or so to realize the speech was all about me. I didn't understand all of it but I gathered that the sous-prefet gave me a very nice introduction and thanked me for my future two years of service to the community. The experience was very moving and got me pretty pumped about teaching math in Gougoudje. Also, I am now known as Monsieur Ben.
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| The pump by my hut where I get good cellphone reception and sometimes water |
On Wednesday (8/22) I left Gougoudje for Telimele to meet up with Rick and Jeff for our trip to Conakry. I thought the road between Kindia and Gougoudje was bad but it turns out that the last nine miles between Googoudje and Telimele were exponentially worse. There were spots where we had to drive through streams, over solid rock, or straddle ruts deep enough to swallow the whole wheel. The 15km trip took about 45 minutes. The road was almost exclusively uphill and I quickly realized that biking to Telimele would be a serious workout. I was dropped off at a gas station where I met up with Rick and we walked back to his house. His house was donated by a wealthy family and is very nice. When Geoff arrived we chatted for a while and then ventured out in the dark and pouring rain for some late night food. Normally walking around a town at night is not much of an adventure but then again, most towns that I've adventured in before have power and paved roads. We headed out with our headlamps and impermeables (rain coats) and after a 15 minute walk we arrived, soaking wet, at a late night restaurant in central area of town. A burger was on the menu but I was a little skeptical so I ordered an omelet instead which turned out to be just fried eggs but was still pretty good. Rick tried the "hamburger" which was actually an egg sandwich with a little bit of beef as well. He said it was good though so I think I'll try it next time. Also, there was a TV with Gladiator playing. Eating fried eggs under a single light bulb hanging from the ceiling watching Gladiator with a generator humming in the background pretty much sums up the experience. After dinner we walked back to Rick's place and went to bed early because we were going to catch the 7:00am taxi to Conakry.
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| Waiting for our taxi to be ready in Telimele (that's the "road" behind me) |
Telimele to Conakry by Bush Taxi
Geoff, Rick, and I woke up at 5:30am on Thursday morning to find a bush taxi going from Telimele to Conakry. Rick's supervisor was kind enough to get the taxi situation organized for us. We walked to the gare with him around 6:30 and handed over the 80,000 GNF for the voyage to Conakry. After grabbing some baguettes for breakfast, we piled into the Peugeot 505 with 11 other people and some live chickens lashed to the roof. It took a while for us to leave Telimele because we kept stopping to pick up more people until we got to 14 total which seemed to satisfy the driver. At one point, we stopped on a bit of a downhill and the driver got out to round up some more passengers. He had left the car in neutral and we started to roll down the hill without him but luckily he was only a few steps away and jumped back in and applied the brakes. We finally left around 7:30 and for some reason, I had to use the restroom 3 times in the first 3 hours. Luckily, we stopped 3 times and I got to run off into the woods or behind a building to relieve myself. We stopped in a small town for a food break about 3 hours in and I got one of my favorite market snacks: sugared peanuts. After about 5 hours on the "road" we arrived back in Kindia and took another short break. We bought some petite gateaus or small bits of fried dough which were delicious. Then we had paved roads the rest of the way to Conakry. It took us another 3 hours to get to Conakry and we had to pass through several military/police checkpoints where they checked the IDs of everyone in the car before we could continue. At one point, the right rear wheel started making an unpleasant sound so we stopped and the driver got out and did something that did not involve changing the tire but apparently fixed the problem because the noise stopped. We arrived at a gare (transportation hub) in Conakry at 4:30 and climbed into another smaller taxi which took us to another gare. From here, we attempted to walk to PC headquarters but made a wrong turn and had to ask for directions. We found a taxi driver who said he could take us there for 25,000 GNF so we climbed in his taxi because it was going to be getting dark soon and we didn't want to be lost in Conakry at night. Unfortunately, the driver didn't actually know where the office was and we had to ask some people on the street. It's a good thing Geoff and Rick have good French skills because my French speaking abilities decrease exponentially as I get tired and I was pretty exhausted at this point. The guy we asked ended up getting in the car with us and telling the driver exactly how to get there. We finally arrived around 7:30 just as the sun was going down. We dropped off our stuff at the house and then walked down to the beach to get some food and relax after a crazy 12 hours of Guinean transportation.
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| Our ride to Conakry |
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