Ha....it makes me laugh that in an entry that I wrote for my blog on October 27 (and finally posted today, December 14), I had written that I would really try to update my blog more often. It's been a month and a half since that entry, and there has been no new post. I think I wrote a couple big emails that made me feel as if I had basically written a blog update. In fact, I was planning on later copying and pasting some of the parts from those emails to actually make a blog entry with stuff I had already written. But I was too lazy for even THAT! I consume myself on the Internet far too much with the latest news about the presidential campaign, the meaningless power rankings of the NFL on 3 different websites, and I also do try to post pictures and keep updated on world news (like, crazy Hugo Chavez's ridiculous antics). This basically leaves blog posting as the 6th or 7th item down the list when I go to the Internet. In other words, I never get to it. So here is a much awaited update from me! (Plus the other two previous updates which i nevert put online - scroll down to read them)
It had been a tough month and a half. Personally, I am doing well, in good health (which IS a big thing here), excited for my upcoming trip to Egypt, and currently enjoying an excellent Franklin Roosevelt biography. Professionally though, I had been struggling: problems at school, both with students and with my school's administration, and a few events that occurred in Boke that were less than enjoyable for me. Fortunately though, things finally seem to be picking up. But People always want bad news first, so I guess I'll get that out of the way.
First, the students. I suppose, in a nutshell, my students seem much less well behaved and less motivated than they did last year. I'm not sure what has brought about this change in their attitudes, but it made the past few weeks of teaching very difficult. I guess it began when I gave my first test, and discovered that far too many students had failed. I didn't know if I wasn't teaching the subject matter well enough, or if my students were simply disinterested. I tried to change my teaching style a bit, give the students more exercise and chances to practice, giving them higher marks on their homework in an attempt to boost their confidence about their English skills and therefore increase their participation and hopefully their understanding. There were no discernible results the first couple weeks, and so I immediately became discouraged. I left site in mid November to visit Jen and spend thanksgiving in Conakry with my moral low and lacking much motivation. I decided to postpone evening review sessions discouraged about the effort students were putting into my class. If my students weren't trying in class, why would they try in evening sessions?
It all came to a head when on a particularly stressful week, my students, unwilling to arrive on time and be quiet, angered me to such a degree that I yelled at them, “I know English. I have a job. I went to university. And I am three thousand miles from home. This class is not for me, it is to help you. But if you don't want to put in the effort to learn, to arrive on time, and to show some respect for the teacher, I no longer want to put in the effort to teach you.”
I turned around walked out of the class.
Moreover, last year, when I had any problems, I could easily call Jen at any time of day to vent, or also call home to release my frustration and through the words of wisdom of my parents, get some renewed motivation. This year though, Jen had been moved to a site without cell phone service, and though she had some coverage in her old house, she switched houses to one without (although her new house is AMAZING!), making communication more difficult. International communication seemed to be no better, as a little more than a month passed without being able to receive a call from the US, and calls from Colombia were having as much difficulty coming through.
At school too, I was having difficulties with one of my school's staff members. He seemed to constantly be interrupting my class in one way or another, largely through punishments being handed out to students which would then be carried out during my class. (I don't mean corporal punishment, I have actually only seen that one time, and it was not on one of my students, but instead on a younger middle school student. Nonetheless, seeing the powerless kid being smacked repeatedly by an administrator so much bigger than he was disgusted me. I simply saw it as an abuse of power. I still fail to see the point of corporal punishment. Maybe someday I will be enlightened as to its virtues. Doubtful). The punishments that really began to anger me were not the physical ones, but instead were the times that the staff member would pull students out of my class to do meaningless yard work instead of being able to come to my English class. I asked a couple of times that these detentions be carried out not during my English class, but instead after school.
The last time this happened, it was due to one student shouting at a referee and at parents during a soccer match. Because of this one student, all of the 12th grade was punished, forced to do yard work, though on a day when I was not teaching. Several students did not attend the detention however, including one of my best students and good friend outside the classroom. The reason he did not attend the yard cleaning brought on by one student's poor behavior? He was at home studying for his chemistry test that was to take place the following day. This is the same kid who quit his soccer team this year (unheard of!) so that he would have enough time to study a several hours every night. His goal is to be first in his class. This kid is a good kid. And now he was being taken out of my English class by my colleague so that he could spend two hours picking up sticks. I was furious. I marched into the office, and asked why the students were being punished during my class. I was told the story of the unruly student at the game. “Can they not be punished after school, or at the very least after my class?”, I asked? No, I was told. I would not take no for an answer, and insisted that English class was more important than teaching a lesson to kids who didn't even attend the soccer game where the shouting match took place. I believe the staff member finally just wanted to get rid of me, so he said, “Fine, take them, they are your students, but they should be punished.” He was not happy, but I felt like I had won a small victory. Unfortunately though, since that day when I challenged his authority, the administrator hasn't done so much as smile or even look at me when he greets me. It had become an uncomfortable situation.
The worst part of the week I won’t really go into detail on my blog – but basically, it involves a beating that I witnessed in front of my house (which I think, or I hope, doesn’t happen too regularly), and I felt powerless to do anything about it. I think the worst part of it was how some of the people around me laughed at the sight of this beating, rather than rushing to help the person. I myself wanted to run and do something, but one of my students warned me to stay put, lest I also be overcome by the large, violent group which had formed across the street.
I began wondering to myself, “What am I still doing here?” I knew the answer – I still liked Guinea, I wanted to continue living abroad for some time, I did very much enjoy teaching the handful of excellent students (Kadiatou, Odia, Mamadou, Djoubairou, Souleymane, Aminata and some others) from my classes, I wanted to continue learning French, and I was committed to finishing my Peace Corps service. But it was still difficult to convince myself that that was enough to stay here. I suppose however that I never seriously considered quitting. I enjoyed what I was doing too much (difficulties aside) and, at any rate, Jen is here in Guinea, so I'm definitely not going home! Yet I had a very difficult time regaining motivation, and seemed to spend from sunrise until sunset (and beyond) dreading going to school and could only think about how soon I could finish my service. It was a tough couple of weeks, and what I decided was that I needed to get away from my site and recharge my batteries.
I left for Labe last week, traveling for 24 hours to visit Jen for a couple days. The trip was exactly what I needed. I felt as if my frustrations of the previous month had been washed away. I was able to return to Conakry and watch a steelers game, and although they lost, it also helped to erase my negative feelings about my work in Boke. Moreover, my APCD then decided to come to visit me in Boke for a couple days, talk to my school administrators, and sit in during my classes. After just one day of his visit and him talking to my administrators, I feel so much better already. My students also seem to be doing much better, I think maybe my change in my teaching methods is showing a its first results. We’ll see after I give my kids a test next week. But I do feel about 30 times better about my life than I did last week. We’ll see how long this lasts, but I feel that I definitely have made it past the worst week ever (as far as Peace Corps related things are concerned) – nowhere to go but up from here! It seems that the trip to Labe and Mohamed’s visit was just the treatment I needed.
So yeah – that’s the bad news, I suppose. The good news is: A) I had a great week of teaching this week. B) Christmas is just around the corner, and I even have some presents picked out for people, C) Jen and I leave for Egypt to meet up w/ Madre and Pipe in just 2 weeks!
Also, my canoe is finally finished!! I was able to get some money for an old digital camera that I had lying around the house. With the money I received, Thierno and I (mostly Thierno) painted the canoe and are getting it ready to finally put it in the water. I had been hoping to do this by October - I am now two months behind schedule, but at least it’s finally going to be put in the water. This means I can finally go finishing with my palm leaf fishing stick. I still don’t have much hope for catching anything worth taking back to the house. If I’m lucky, I will at the very least avoid getting my hook cause in the muddy banks of the river.
I also decorated my house for Christmas and have been listening to some Christmas tunes. It’s a little hard to get in the whole Christmas spirit in a 90% muslim country, where the weather is 90 degrees with a 100% humidity, but I sure am trying. I posted pictures of my decorated house on my Flickr account (whose link you will see on the right).
Friday, December 14, 2007
Bits and Pieces from letters to Fill in my missing blog updates
- ON GETTING A CAT FOR THREE DAYS -
Everything is indeed going splendid(ish) in Africa. Currently, mybiggest problem are my allergies. The seasons are changing from rainyseason to dry season, which means I sneeze an average of 134 times aday. That's probably a conservative estimate. Anyway, my allergiesalso weren't helped by the fact that I decided to get a cat last week. See, I have this mouse problem in my house. The live in the ceiling,and at night I can hear them dancing around and having little races,and scratching at the wood to be able to move their party down into myroom. Guinean mouse traps are hardly functioning, and so I figuredthe easiest thing to do to get rid of the mice was to get a cat. Now,I knew I had ridiculous allergies to cats. I thought,however, that maybe I wasn't allergic to kittens, and that if I was,it would quickly go away as I became accustomed to having the cataround. Ha. Boy was I wrong. The kitten was cute and adorable andtiny and black and white. And he made my life miserable. My eyesitched non-stop, I sneezed 10 times more, my throat scratched, and Iwas just generally unable to breathe. On top of that, I had never hada cat before (as you well know, dogs are the fashionable pet to haveat the Forero residence), so I had no idea what to do for it. Do Ibathe it? How do I potty train it? What does a cat do? How do I keepit from getting pregnant? Hell, how do I even know if its a girl cator a boy cat? Yeah, I knew none of these answers. I called my mom inColombia, desperate to find out how to care for a cat, telling her toresearch everything on the Internet about cat-care. Four days laterhowever, by the time my mom called me back with all the info, I hadalready named the cat Pollen (in honor of my seasonal allergies) andhad also already decided to return the cat to the student who found itfor me. Luckily, his sister in law was also looking for a cat to takecare of her cat problem. I'm sure he'll be just as happy there.
- ON THANKSGIVING DINNER -
There were four (or three?) turkeys at Thanksgiving!! And two pigs!! It was amazing. We celebrated at my country directors house, stuffing our faces with more good food than I've eaten since arriving back in Guinea. My birthday, which fell a day before Thanksgiving, was also great - I got to eat numerous cakes and drink a couple mojitos. Anyway - more about the thanksgiving food...I know in the states it doesn't sound that terribly exciting, but making cranberry sauce from dried cranberries, pumpkin pie from Guinean squash, and pistachio pudding from cream that does not whip is just an amazing feat. We weren't able to use the barbecue put unfortunately, but that too is coming along nicely and will hopefully be done by thanksgiving.
- ON BAD STUDENTS SAPPING MY MOTIVATION LAST MONTH -
As far as my work, school is going well – I’m just kinda trudging through the weeks. Teaching, while still enjoyable, is not as fun as last year. Perhaps its because last year, I saw myself teaching English for two years, thereby having an adequate amount of time to teach my students a decent amount of English. This time however, I am likely only going to be here in Boke for one year, and I worry that I won’t have anywhere near enough time to teach these kids any English that will stay in their heads. It wouldn’t be so bad if my kids also realized this, and therefore came to class on time, well behaved, and ready to learn English. That is not the case however. They arrive late, leave early, use cell phones in class, and except for maybe 15 or 20 (out of about 210) students, they care very little about actually learning the language and practicing on their own. This led me to give my kids a speech the other day. “I am not a magician,” I told them. “I cannot magically make you learn English. If you want to learn English, you have to pay attention in class, show up on time, do you work, and study at home. English class is not a time to receive phone calls or send text messages. I do not want you to come to my class late any more, and if you do come late, then I will keep you after school or as long as I need to so that you understand that if you waste my time, I will waste yours. Either that or I will begin giving you homework every night. And if you don’t want to learn English – if you just want to sleep or talk in class, I don’t care. I speak English; this class is not for me. But if you do sleep or talk in class, I will just give you zeros. So understand this – if you don’t want to learn English, get out of my class. Go home.” I was furious at them. I think that may have had some effect on them however. My students were silent as the grave for the rest of that day. I really do enjoy teaching those kids that are motivated. But it’s the majority of those non-motivated kids that are now also beginning to sap my motivation for teaching this year. I have decided this: I am going to teach to the kids who want to learn English and will not be slowed down by those who do not want to. I look forward to starting my evening classes, which will be more relaxed, during a cooler part of the day, and with more fun activities with the motivated students who are inevitably the ones who come to evening sessions.
Everything is indeed going splendid(ish) in Africa. Currently, mybiggest problem are my allergies. The seasons are changing from rainyseason to dry season, which means I sneeze an average of 134 times aday. That's probably a conservative estimate. Anyway, my allergiesalso weren't helped by the fact that I decided to get a cat last week. See, I have this mouse problem in my house. The live in the ceiling,and at night I can hear them dancing around and having little races,and scratching at the wood to be able to move their party down into myroom. Guinean mouse traps are hardly functioning, and so I figuredthe easiest thing to do to get rid of the mice was to get a cat. Now,I knew I had ridiculous allergies to cats. I thought,however, that maybe I wasn't allergic to kittens, and that if I was,it would quickly go away as I became accustomed to having the cataround. Ha. Boy was I wrong. The kitten was cute and adorable andtiny and black and white. And he made my life miserable. My eyesitched non-stop, I sneezed 10 times more, my throat scratched, and Iwas just generally unable to breathe. On top of that, I had never hada cat before (as you well know, dogs are the fashionable pet to haveat the Forero residence), so I had no idea what to do for it. Do Ibathe it? How do I potty train it? What does a cat do? How do I keepit from getting pregnant? Hell, how do I even know if its a girl cator a boy cat? Yeah, I knew none of these answers. I called my mom inColombia, desperate to find out how to care for a cat, telling her toresearch everything on the Internet about cat-care. Four days laterhowever, by the time my mom called me back with all the info, I hadalready named the cat Pollen (in honor of my seasonal allergies) andhad also already decided to return the cat to the student who found itfor me. Luckily, his sister in law was also looking for a cat to takecare of her cat problem. I'm sure he'll be just as happy there.
- ON THANKSGIVING DINNER -
There were four (or three?) turkeys at Thanksgiving!! And two pigs!! It was amazing. We celebrated at my country directors house, stuffing our faces with more good food than I've eaten since arriving back in Guinea. My birthday, which fell a day before Thanksgiving, was also great - I got to eat numerous cakes and drink a couple mojitos. Anyway - more about the thanksgiving food...I know in the states it doesn't sound that terribly exciting, but making cranberry sauce from dried cranberries, pumpkin pie from Guinean squash, and pistachio pudding from cream that does not whip is just an amazing feat. We weren't able to use the barbecue put unfortunately, but that too is coming along nicely and will hopefully be done by thanksgiving.
- ON BAD STUDENTS SAPPING MY MOTIVATION LAST MONTH -
As far as my work, school is going well – I’m just kinda trudging through the weeks. Teaching, while still enjoyable, is not as fun as last year. Perhaps its because last year, I saw myself teaching English for two years, thereby having an adequate amount of time to teach my students a decent amount of English. This time however, I am likely only going to be here in Boke for one year, and I worry that I won’t have anywhere near enough time to teach these kids any English that will stay in their heads. It wouldn’t be so bad if my kids also realized this, and therefore came to class on time, well behaved, and ready to learn English. That is not the case however. They arrive late, leave early, use cell phones in class, and except for maybe 15 or 20 (out of about 210) students, they care very little about actually learning the language and practicing on their own. This led me to give my kids a speech the other day. “I am not a magician,” I told them. “I cannot magically make you learn English. If you want to learn English, you have to pay attention in class, show up on time, do you work, and study at home. English class is not a time to receive phone calls or send text messages. I do not want you to come to my class late any more, and if you do come late, then I will keep you after school or as long as I need to so that you understand that if you waste my time, I will waste yours. Either that or I will begin giving you homework every night. And if you don’t want to learn English – if you just want to sleep or talk in class, I don’t care. I speak English; this class is not for me. But if you do sleep or talk in class, I will just give you zeros. So understand this – if you don’t want to learn English, get out of my class. Go home.” I was furious at them. I think that may have had some effect on them however. My students were silent as the grave for the rest of that day. I really do enjoy teaching those kids that are motivated. But it’s the majority of those non-motivated kids that are now also beginning to sap my motivation for teaching this year. I have decided this: I am going to teach to the kids who want to learn English and will not be slowed down by those who do not want to. I look forward to starting my evening classes, which will be more relaxed, during a cooler part of the day, and with more fun activities with the motivated students who are inevitably the ones who come to evening sessions.
Entry that was written on Oct. 27
Dear Faithful Readers (all 2 of you, if I’m lucky),
I must apologize. I used to really enjoy updating my blog – and I used to blame my lack of regular updates on not having a laptop at site so that I could prewrite my blog entries before arriving at the slow and uncooperative computers of the internet café. I brought a laptop back to Guinea – but it turns out that since my new house does not have electricity, I may as well have just waited to update my blog at the internet an hour away. Unfortunately, the internet in Kamsar also stopped working, and when I went to Conakry, I was so consumed by watching South Park episodes and reading NFL and World Cup qualifying news on the free internet, that I put off updating my blog until I realized it was time to come back to Boke. So it’s been what, a month without an update on my life? I always say I'm going to REALLY try to update it. We'll see how it goes. Now, enough rambling, lets get to the actual entry.
Oh, it’s been a long month – let’s see, last you heard from me, I had moved into my new house perhaps? Or maybe not? Was I still waiting for my new house? Well, faithful reader, you’ll be pleased to know that I have in fact finally moved into a house. After 8 weeks of living in Peace Corps offices, a hotel in Labe, and Jen’s house, I finally have a place to call my own. I actually like it quite a bit – it’s much closer to my school, with a mostly nice family, and is made up of four smallish (but perfect for one person) rooms – my bedroom, living room, kitchen, and a random storage room. Unfortunately, the house has one MAJOR shortcoming: no electricity. Ever. It’s wired for it sure, but in the month that I’ve been living there, how many nights have I had electricity? One. That’s it, one. Not enough to charge my phone regularly, use a laptop, or have light bulbs at night. The sockets and light switches on my house exist simply to taunt me and remind me of the electricity my old house had which made living in hot-as-hell Boke tolerable. So, there is no electricity, and thus, there is no fan. What does that mean? Only that my sleep at night is, at best, interrupted no less than 4 times from waking up, drenched in sweat, and subsequently being forced to hang my bedsheets out to dry every morning. It used to not be so bad a few weeks ago when it rained every night, letting a cool breeze flow through the house that would last until the morning, when on a couple occasions I even had to pull a sheet over me. No, not any more. The rain has basically stopped, and the dry season is taking over, bringing a blanket of stagnant, humid air that hovers over my house twenty four hours a day. It’s unbearable. It really is. I no longer sweat, really. At least it can’t be called sweating, what I do. It is so much more than that. I am basically a human water faucet. Night and day, I am basically drenched in my own ocean of sweat – and have finally decided to give up on trying to dry myself with 10 washcloths I have sitting in all corners of my house. Wiping the sweat from my brow, back, arms, legs, nose, chest – everywhere – was a battle I was nowhere close to winning.
So what does this mean? Well – basically, I’m becoming a little more miserable by the day. I need to figure out some way to take care of this whole fan situation, cause I’m just not sure how many more sleepless nights I can stand.
Not to mention, when it’s not my sweat that is waking me up at night, it’s the rats scrambling and clawing their way across my house, usually in the ceiling, but occasionally winding their way through my bedroom, leaving their little tiny feces pretty much everywhere. I wish I could get a cat – unfortunately, I am so allergic to them. I may soon consider just saying, “To Hell with my allergies” and ask a student to find me a kitten that will in time take care of my mouse problem. I’m not sure if that’s a gamble I want to take. If I don’t get used to having a cat, then it will be my non stop sneezing and itchy eyes that will keep me from having any peaceful sleep.
That’s enough about my night time problems. Basically, pretty soon, I’m going to either get a cat or pay as much as I need to in order to get electricity at my house on a daily basis. I prefer the electricity option. The sound of rats can easily be drowned out by the constant humming of a fan rotating back and forth beside my bed. I pray that option will work. I should probably not get my hopes up.
In other news, school has finally started. The daily downhill migration to my high school of blue, white, and khaki clad students finally resumed on October 22nd. I’m really hoping I will see it beyond January 2008. Another evacuation is the last thing I need. Despite my constant worries about not staying in Guinea till the end of my service, the school year started without any problems (a big relief) and in fact, it looks like all the teachers are showing up (somewhat) regularly to teach this year. Certainly, the start of the academic year is better this year than last. But as one of my students reminded me, the school year in Guinea is like a horse race. It doesn’t really matter how it starts – it’s how it ends that counts.
Beside that, what else has been going on in Guinea? (My little section of it at least.) Jen came a few weeks ago and spent a little over a week with me, which was a great time – especially on Ramadan when I got to wear my big purple boubou (must see picture here) and eat chicken and meat in the same day! Moreover, Jen and I had made 4 loaves of banana bread to deliver to all the families we were visiting that day. This essentially granted us rock star status throughout the course of the day – as it turns out that Guineans LOVE banana bread. Who knew? They don’t like most other things that aren’t rice and sauce – so it was a big gamble that fortunately paid off. Ian and Beth also visited for a bit, as did a posse of Burkina Faso volunteers, so Boke was rather full of “fote” activity for a few days.
Well – the electricity went out a while back (I’m writing in the Peace Corps house) and my battery is wanting to die on me. So I’m done with this blog entry. Hopefully, faithful reader, the next time you come back I will be feeling much better about my sleeping situation. Tonight’s rat free sleep in the Boke house should help reach that goal. Till next time, oo’o.
I must apologize. I used to really enjoy updating my blog – and I used to blame my lack of regular updates on not having a laptop at site so that I could prewrite my blog entries before arriving at the slow and uncooperative computers of the internet café. I brought a laptop back to Guinea – but it turns out that since my new house does not have electricity, I may as well have just waited to update my blog at the internet an hour away. Unfortunately, the internet in Kamsar also stopped working, and when I went to Conakry, I was so consumed by watching South Park episodes and reading NFL and World Cup qualifying news on the free internet, that I put off updating my blog until I realized it was time to come back to Boke. So it’s been what, a month without an update on my life? I always say I'm going to REALLY try to update it. We'll see how it goes. Now, enough rambling, lets get to the actual entry.
Oh, it’s been a long month – let’s see, last you heard from me, I had moved into my new house perhaps? Or maybe not? Was I still waiting for my new house? Well, faithful reader, you’ll be pleased to know that I have in fact finally moved into a house. After 8 weeks of living in Peace Corps offices, a hotel in Labe, and Jen’s house, I finally have a place to call my own. I actually like it quite a bit – it’s much closer to my school, with a mostly nice family, and is made up of four smallish (but perfect for one person) rooms – my bedroom, living room, kitchen, and a random storage room. Unfortunately, the house has one MAJOR shortcoming: no electricity. Ever. It’s wired for it sure, but in the month that I’ve been living there, how many nights have I had electricity? One. That’s it, one. Not enough to charge my phone regularly, use a laptop, or have light bulbs at night. The sockets and light switches on my house exist simply to taunt me and remind me of the electricity my old house had which made living in hot-as-hell Boke tolerable. So, there is no electricity, and thus, there is no fan. What does that mean? Only that my sleep at night is, at best, interrupted no less than 4 times from waking up, drenched in sweat, and subsequently being forced to hang my bedsheets out to dry every morning. It used to not be so bad a few weeks ago when it rained every night, letting a cool breeze flow through the house that would last until the morning, when on a couple occasions I even had to pull a sheet over me. No, not any more. The rain has basically stopped, and the dry season is taking over, bringing a blanket of stagnant, humid air that hovers over my house twenty four hours a day. It’s unbearable. It really is. I no longer sweat, really. At least it can’t be called sweating, what I do. It is so much more than that. I am basically a human water faucet. Night and day, I am basically drenched in my own ocean of sweat – and have finally decided to give up on trying to dry myself with 10 washcloths I have sitting in all corners of my house. Wiping the sweat from my brow, back, arms, legs, nose, chest – everywhere – was a battle I was nowhere close to winning.
So what does this mean? Well – basically, I’m becoming a little more miserable by the day. I need to figure out some way to take care of this whole fan situation, cause I’m just not sure how many more sleepless nights I can stand.
Not to mention, when it’s not my sweat that is waking me up at night, it’s the rats scrambling and clawing their way across my house, usually in the ceiling, but occasionally winding their way through my bedroom, leaving their little tiny feces pretty much everywhere. I wish I could get a cat – unfortunately, I am so allergic to them. I may soon consider just saying, “To Hell with my allergies” and ask a student to find me a kitten that will in time take care of my mouse problem. I’m not sure if that’s a gamble I want to take. If I don’t get used to having a cat, then it will be my non stop sneezing and itchy eyes that will keep me from having any peaceful sleep.
That’s enough about my night time problems. Basically, pretty soon, I’m going to either get a cat or pay as much as I need to in order to get electricity at my house on a daily basis. I prefer the electricity option. The sound of rats can easily be drowned out by the constant humming of a fan rotating back and forth beside my bed. I pray that option will work. I should probably not get my hopes up.
In other news, school has finally started. The daily downhill migration to my high school of blue, white, and khaki clad students finally resumed on October 22nd. I’m really hoping I will see it beyond January 2008. Another evacuation is the last thing I need. Despite my constant worries about not staying in Guinea till the end of my service, the school year started without any problems (a big relief) and in fact, it looks like all the teachers are showing up (somewhat) regularly to teach this year. Certainly, the start of the academic year is better this year than last. But as one of my students reminded me, the school year in Guinea is like a horse race. It doesn’t really matter how it starts – it’s how it ends that counts.
Beside that, what else has been going on in Guinea? (My little section of it at least.) Jen came a few weeks ago and spent a little over a week with me, which was a great time – especially on Ramadan when I got to wear my big purple boubou (must see picture here) and eat chicken and meat in the same day! Moreover, Jen and I had made 4 loaves of banana bread to deliver to all the families we were visiting that day. This essentially granted us rock star status throughout the course of the day – as it turns out that Guineans LOVE banana bread. Who knew? They don’t like most other things that aren’t rice and sauce – so it was a big gamble that fortunately paid off. Ian and Beth also visited for a bit, as did a posse of Burkina Faso volunteers, so Boke was rather full of “fote” activity for a few days.
Well – the electricity went out a while back (I’m writing in the Peace Corps house) and my battery is wanting to die on me. So I’m done with this blog entry. Hopefully, faithful reader, the next time you come back I will be feeling much better about my sleeping situation. Tonight’s rat free sleep in the Boke house should help reach that goal. Till next time, oo’o.
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