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!