Day 053 - Hello from Guinee II

Hi Everyone,

I am in Conakry again to write to you all! Woohoo! I have so much to say and I don't know where to start. So, grab a cup of coffee and kick back. (I sent Michael another really long letter about 1.5 weeks ago about the 2nd-6th week of training, so I will not repeat them here. You should see that one pretty soon.) 

We just finished our first week of practice school teaching real Guinean students. It was a real intense week. I hardly got much sleep and got a cold, but I think the cold is going away now. Just a quick of explanation of practice school since you haven‚t seen since my last post yet, it is for students who want to learn a bit of extra and for us to practice teaching in the summer.

Before practice school, we had taught among ourselves a few times and got started to plan our lessons. And last week was for the first time facing 30-50 young faces each day for 2 hours and then observes other fellow trainees or trainers, then more language studies in the afternoon, then preparing for our lessons for the rest of day into the wee hours. The preparation takes a long time for me, because I have to script out my entire lesson, when do I write something on the board, when do I explain the concept (often with multiple explanations), when do I demonstrate, when do I ask student questions, when do I ask student to come up to do exercise in the front, and I have to make sure my language is correct. I feel bad for my students because of my broken French. I told my kids that I am here to teach them physics, and they can certainly help me with my French. 

I taught the source of light and how we are able to see things with light to my 9th grade students. I spent a long time to come up with all different way to demonstrate when light shine on different things, they reflect light and therefore we are able to see them. I explained to them that the moon reflects light, it doesn't produce light; why when you put a pen in a cup of water it looks bent, because light change direction going from one medium to another. I was also able to construct a pin-hole camera with the tube you find inside a roll of toilette paper, taping up one end with duct tape for screen, to show them how camera got started. I save everything now, cos you just never know what you can use to teach. Also, things are hard to obtain, not like there are everywhere and they have everything to sell, so I have to be very creative. And Can I tell you, it‚s so much fun for me! I spent so much time to think, think and think some more. I would wake up early sometimes (like 5 am when I only had just gone to bed 5 hours ago) because I have some new ideas for my classes. My 9th grade class is small about 30 students, and they were all very good. I think all the demonstrations really helped keeping them engaged. We even played a jeopardy game of all the concepts I taught them on Thursday, to help them to get ready for a quiz on Friday.

I taught my 9th grader at 8am for an hour, and then I had an hour break till my next class with the 10th graders. I usually look over my next lesson during that hour. My 10th grade class is much larger, about 50 students. I taught them the basic concept of motion, that it is relative, also concept of distance, speed and time, all very basic stuff. I held a pen in my hand in my hand, and walked around the classroom, to show them that, to them the pen is moving, but to me, the pen is not. Also the example of passenger and driver in a moving car. I think most of them got it. I am not as happy though as their comprehension of the relationship between distance, speed and time. During class they all seemed they really understood me, but their homework and quiz don‚t quite reflect that. I wonder if I went through the material too fast (on day, I was so caught with the energy we created in the classroom, I think I got carried away and move the lesson along too fast), or my French was just not good enough, so they didn't really get everything I taught. We are told that Guinean students answer yes to a lot of things, so their enthusiasms do not necessarily reflect their comprehensions. 

Although the first week of practice school was tiring, but I enjoyed it nevertheless, even on catching students cheating during quizzes. Yes, cheating is big problem here and I totally switched mode from a nice perky teacher to a hard ass when it came to quiz time, as soon as I saw them looking at another kids paper, I put an „0‰ on their paper. No discussion. Here in Guinea, classroom has rows of benches, and because of lack of teachers, class size can be really large, like 100. So if you get 3 kids in row on the same bench, it's just way to easy for them to look at each others‚ paper during exams. I am lucky that I didn‚t have to give out so many „0‰. In my 9th grade, I was able to sit one student at a bench because class is small. In my 10th grade, I had 2 kids per bench and I made 2 different problems, so each kid sitting in the same bench will not do the same problem. They will have to turn around to look at the person directly behind them, and that will just be too obvious. Also, we have to write exam questions on the board. Paper is expensive and how do you make photo copies if there is no electricity.   So, I wrote the prob lem on the board ahead, but leave out import terms and numbers, so the kids couldn‚t peek in the room and see what the questions are. Argh, the art of policing cheating. We also ask students to bring all their bags and notebook to the front before the exams.

I will teach 7th and 8th grade for the next 2 weeks of practice school. A whole 2 hours lesson each time instead of just one hour. It will be interesting, because I will be teaching younger kids, larger class size, therefore more issues with classroom management, and it is a longer class. I didn‚t really have classroom management issues last week, because they were older kids, short class, and I had enough interesting mix of things to show to keep them interested. Oh boy, I‚ve never sweated so much talking in front of a group of people.

We also had a session on giving a sensiblization to our future communities. Teaching villager about safe sex like using condoms for example is a sensiblization, other things are like trash disposal in the communities (trash are thrown wherever here), keep girls in schools to help forwarding the progress of the countries, etc. I am looking forward to talk to as many people as possible in my village in an one-on-one style about a lot of these issues. I also hope I can visit all my students‚ family.  Let's hope my frustration will never be too great to stop me from keep trying.

I had a dream (or rather, nightmare) on Thursday night that I got kicked out of the Peace Corps without being told why and was back in the U.S. I was devastated and totally in a panic mode. I woke up from my dream. I think I was just stressed from teaching and preparation. I am glad I am teaching physics, not math, because to me it is so much fun to explain and understand how the physical world works. I am learning new things myself as I am teaching. But, really, I can‚t imagine going back to the states and live the life I used live anymore. I can‚t explain to you why, but I just can‚t as this point, maybe in a couple of years, I will be, or maybe not. I will have to see where my wandering soul feels then. Tibet wouldn‚t be too bad. I really miss Tibet, just hope it won‚t get too developed too quickly.

On other front, my stomach is continuing doing well and enjoys my mom's (Guinean) cooking. Everyone in the group is supporting each other in this endeavor. It's really great to have second year PCVs and learn from them. A great training system.

The beautiful landscape of countryside continues to mesmerize me. I hope you will find that as well in my photos.

I am happy and I hope all of you are as well. Miss you all, and please keep well!

- Bonnie

Day 043 - Pick up a pen and start writing!

August 10, 2005

Hello Everyone, I know it's has been a while since you've seen anything on this blog. I was hoping to update it myself at my regional capital when I went on a site visit during the week of (08/01 - 08/05), or at Conakry the Saturday afterwards. But internet isn't working in Labe (my regional capital), and well probably not work for the next year, always have low expectations here, and we're not going to Conakry anymore. So I'm back to the old and long way. Michael should be back to post this when my letter gets to him.

I just finished my letter to Winnie, thanks for your letters and post cards. Wendy, I wrote you to your address in Beijing, and for those of you thinking you have nothing to write, trust me you do. Please to the power of 100 write! We all jump for joy here when we get letters and envy those who get a lot. I was tearing a bit when I was signing off my letter to Winnie, wish that I can just be back for a couple of days or even a couple of hours, seeing your faces and hearing your voices.

It was nice to have a week off from the grueling training, and have some downtime, catch up with my journal and review the French I have learned. It took about 12 hours for us to get to Labe, because the original bush taxi overheated, and we ended up waiting on the side of the road for 2+ hours for the driver to get another taxi for us from the nearest town. The biggest road in the country is just 1 lane each way, much like the road in the countryside in the U.S.. Plus pot holes here and there. We had a small station wagon that has 2 rows behind the driver, and there are 10 of us in the car. We had to strategically seat people based on their width and heights to allow for maximum comfort. Well, we try anyways...

The regional PC house at Labe was really nice, filled with a lot of books for leisure and referencing for work, so between books I'm getting and books there, I'll be set once I move to the site. We had Pizza upon arrival, and it never tasted so good. Ok, Michael the restaurant at DUMBO is still the Best! ( M's comment: I believe Bonnie is referring to Grimaldi's in Brooklyn, but I believe I'm reading this correctly...).

There is a designated hotel that we get a voucher to stay in each time we go to Labe. After weeks of sleeping in a small room and using the dark latrine, the hotel (well, it's really more like a hostel) is really nice to us. Tiled bathroom w/ warm showers, definitely feels like luxury to me. I was also able to take some tea in the morning, because it is cold enough here in the morning and evening to drink hot stuff. I'm saving all the soup mix and coffee from my brother for my site where it's cooler there. Thanks so much for the care package! Amazing thing that we start to appreciate when we are at places where so little are available.

Michelle, a PCV who started a year ago was our host for the site visit along with one of our language trainers Mamouna. She wanted to be a civil engineer just like what I was doing but because of a lack of work and other reasons, she became a physics teacher in college (middle school). I'm really looking forward to the day I can have a deep conversation with her and share with her my career in structural engineering and things women face in more male dominated professions in America. We stayed at Michelle's site for one night. SHe is an English teacher in her village. She came with really good French so she learned the local language - Pulaar very soon and can now speak it quite well. I hope I can get close to that in a year, because that will help my integration to my community tremendously. We'll see, let me conquer French first.

The road from Labe to our sites is all dirt road, at the best is like the carriage path in a national park, many parts there are medium rocks, and lots of puddles from the rain, not to mention the cows, the goats and sheeps wandering along the way. I can walk faster than the car sometimes. So even my site which is about 50-60km away from Labe, still takes about 4 hours to drive there. It is not dangerous cos the car can't fly down the road, but quite bumpy. The scenary though is absolutely beautiful, in the raining season at least. We drove though many open fields that allow up a expansive view of valleys and mountains in the distance. Various shades of green coupled with beautiful white clouds and blue sky, is very pleasant to see.

I had a brief meeting with the officials in my village, all men and much older then me. I'm the first female teacher in my village, and supposedly the previous PCV recommended to replace him with a female so the girls in the school can have a role model. I sure hope I can fill the role and very much looking forward to it! Also, I'll teach 07th - 10th grades, 12 - 18 hrs/wk, with 30 - 60 students per class. That's actually not bad compared to some of my fellow PCT who will have 100 + students per class.

So I'll live in a hut. Yup, a thatched roof hut! I can't wait! It's cooler in a hut than the houses most people have in Fouta Region and Basse Cote. Because the houses have corrugated metal roof, and it absorbs a lot of heat. I still haven't quite figured out why house construction and architecture is such in Guinee, what materials are local, etc. But I sure will find out given my professional habit. So my hut is in a gated family compound. My future site family live in a house next to my hut. There are lots of crops growing in the compound. It's nice to know I have a family right there and it feels safe. I just hope we will get along. My nearest site mate is about 15 km away. I can either bike to or take a bush taxi to when it is available. Both will take about an hour. I'll return to my site in mid-september after swearing-in.

I'm back to training with practice school coming up next week. It is 3 weeks of practice teaching with real guinean students who want to learn a little bit extra in the summer. They will be more motivated and smarter then most of the kids I'll encounter in my village. I'll have 2 - 1 hr classes each day the 1st week, then 2hr classes every other day the next 2 weeks. Wish me luck!

I always agonize through lesson planning, but always feel so good and achieved a great deal once I have it done. I have to script everything since my French isn't so good. But at least now, I don't have to write down how to say, "Sit down, please" in my lesson. Woohoo! I find it lot of fun to think of activities, examples, and demonstrations to help my students to understand the concept and I welcome the fact that there is a lack of resources, because I can really challenge myself to be more creative.

Too much of anything is not good, and that has been the case for the rain we are getting right now. Sun has not been out for over 10 days. It's been raining on and off everyday. My washing takes 2 days to dry indoors. But it is cooler, so that's nice. My mom here made a killer leaf sauce the other day. I'll have to get a recipe. Happy to report, I'm once again eating like a pig (or a cow, or a horse, well you get my point).

Well, I'll report again in a week or 2 on how practice school is going. BTW, I'm now able to receive phone calls from my family at another PCT's home, so I'm talking to them once a week. I'm so glad to know my parents found support among all the families of our PC group. It helps us to know that families are supporting each other.

So what's the message you get from this posting? That's right, pick up a pen or a keyboard and write to Bonnie! :-)

- Merci Beaucoup!