Day 081 - Now I am an official PCV!

We are finally swore in officially as Peace Corps Volunteer on Friday. All 14 of us. Unfortunately we lost one dear friend Brian to the good US of A, and Travis is being transfered to Vanuatu (the survivor island) due to health issues. Brian was in most of my French language classes and I enjoyed his humor a lot, I am really going to miss having him here. I can't help being upset with him leaving us, but I certainly hope that what he decided was best for him. So, that brings the original group of 16 to 14, still 9 women but only 5 men. Was I really excited and emotional during the ceremony? You ask. Only briefly, but that doesn't mean I am not excited to be here. It is just that I felt that I was a volunteer the moment I stepped in Guinee. We had a veteran volunteers who taught English in the 60's for 2 years in Togo then another 2 years in Guinee giving us an speech during the ceremony, and she said one thing is English, which was "You will never be the same again." That's when I got a little emotional. I am excited for the transformation that the next 2 years will bring me. The ceremony was held at a nice hotel, attended by the top officials of education ministry, the Peace Corps Guinee country directors and staff and of course the United States ambassador to Guinee (who also gave a speech).

The past few days in Conakry, we mostly shopped, hung around the volunteer transit house, used internet a lot and talked on the phone. We were all given a resonable amount of settling allowance so we can buy some essential household stuff, like stove, gas tank, sheets, pillow, cooking ware, etc. There is no such thing as plastic here (debit card). We all walked out of the bank with a thick stack of bills in our backpacks. Couldn't have fit them in our wallet or in a money belt. I don't understant it, but the largest note only has a face value of the equivalent of a US dollar. Imagine carrying $200 in all dollar bills. Just like the 2nd year volunteers said, it seems like we are given a lot of money, but with the recent price increase, my wallet is draining very quickly. Thanks goodness that I am inheriting a lot of stuff from the volunteer before me, so I don't have to buy a lot as some people. I think I am finally getting the money a little bit now. We all treated ourself to a brunch today at a really nice French restaurant in Conakry. I think it is probably the most fancy western style restaurant in town. It ate a big whole in my pocket, but it was well worth it. I can just see it now when I go back to the US, even the simplest meal will taste so good to me!

For most of us, it will probably be another 6-9 months before we will come back to Conakry after we leave for our sites on Sunday. I am keeping my mailing address at Conakry since it is more secure. Once a month in the beginning of the month, a mail truck will gather all our letters and packages received in Conakry and deliver them to around 100 somewhat sites in Guinee. So, please still send your lovely letters to

Bonnie, PCV
(e-mail Michael for Mailing Address)

Day 080 - Just Plain Miscellaneous Stuff

I was a little choked up when I gave the thank you (to host family and trainers) speech in Dubreka (where we had our training), had to stop my speech to regain composer. I don‚t know what came over me, but I guess that I felt that the Guinean especially the trainers were the unsung heroes who did so much to train us, and I really felt sad that we won‚t get to see them for a long time. 

A moving vendor - a lot of guinean women carry a tray of cooked peanuts, or a basket of vegetables, or a huge jug of porrich, and whole lot of other stuff on top of their head, all they have to do is just walk around the village or town and that's how some of them sell their stuff. 

The weather - with the rainy season slowly ending, it is definitely getting hotter. I thought I am getting used to the heat, but I am melting more everyday, but I am finally more able to live with sweaty and sticky skins. I still stand by my argument that the reason the pace is so slow here is because it is just too hot, sometimes all you can do is just sit around to minimize perspirations.

Word on learning French ˆ I wish now that I had studied more French before I came given that language immersion wasn‚t as good as I had expected, also it would helped if we trainees had practiced speaking French among each other during school. Although it is quite hard to do in the beginning. I feel that I can get by right now to convey simply daily needs on semi broken French. I actually speak better in class because I always write everything ahead with all the right tense, verb conjugation and gender for each object. Oh, French, can be such a pain with all these rules and irregularities.

Looking back and looking forward ˆ

I was talking to another trainee that I haven‚t felt much of culture shock during training, and was wondering if I am just being blissfully oblivious, or it is because the physical conditions I grew up with in China has some similarity to what I experience in Guinea, as well as that Chinese also had large size family, multiple wives before the independence and inequality between men and women. Also, all I had to worry about everyday in past few months was study and study some more, food was prepared for me and trainers look after all our concerns and needs, we hung out a lot among each other Americans. It will be very different when I get to site and be on my own, introducing myself to the community and feed myself. Everything takes a whole lot longer to do there. I am a little anxious how the first month will go with getting everything to my hut and getting settled in. It‚s not like I can just rent a car and drive up to my hut and load everything in, and if I forgot to buy something, I can‚t just drive out and pick it up. I will have to try to get as much stuff as I think I will need in my regional capital since it will probably be at least a month or 2 before I get out there again. The market at my site should provide me with basic food supply though, or I can go to my neighbor‚s (15km) away for a bigger market. 

Water supply - Now I understand why some past volunteer say if they had a choice they will take running water over electricity anytime. One of the biggest reason girls get to school late is because they have to work a lot around the house in the morning to help the household prepare cooking for the rest of the day, and one big task is getting water. Sometimes the water source is far, especially during dry season, when water is scarce. People need water for everything, washing dishes, cleaning food, cooking rice, washing clothes, etc. And this scarce of water also cause people here wash their hands less.  That combined with an agricultural society, where kids are always outdoors playing in the dirt, meals are prepared out in the open aired huts, chicken running around, men coming back from working in the fields, all these activities means hands are always dirty and there are never enough water readily available to wash hands, you can see where all these lead to.

Pet? - I've decided not to get a dog or cat because of worries of insects. A lot of dogs have so many worts and open wounds on them, really not pleasant to look at. I think it is because so many flies land on dogs and dogs are always scratching themselves till they get open wounds, then the flies feed off the open wounds, so it just keeps going. It will just be too hard to keep a pet clean here to my standard and I don't want to have to worry about what to do with them when I leave for vacation. There were a lot of dogs walking around in Dubreka. They were all very docile and always kept out of way of people and cars. I think most of them don't have a home but they aren't wild either. There are enough trash around for these dogs to stay fed.

Day 072 - Practice School is Over!

Hi Everyone,

I hope everyone is doing well! I can't believe it's September already, starting of fall season for many of my friends in the US. It doesn't feel like Sept to me at all because there is no season change here between August to Sept. It is still rainy and hot! There is only 2 seasons, rainy and dry.

I've heard bits of pieces of the flood in New Orleans. Terrible news. My world shortwave radio broke a few weeks ago on me, plus I was so busy with practice school, I didn't have the means or time to keep up with the world outside of my town. I will have to buy a new one in Conakry. I hope the situation will get better soon. My Guinean brother asked me today, why does US being the world number #1 superpower still is asking for aid? I haven't been able to respond (partly due to language, but I do enjoy talking to him about politics with my broken French, and why I left all the riches in US to come to Guinee.)

Practice school is finally over. "Alah Tantu"! That's Susu phrase meaning "grace to God". I had fun, but oh boy it was so much work. I had the luck of teaching 7th and 8th graders for 2 hours a day for 2 weeks alternatively. Let's just say my voice is kind dead each day after teaching. The attention span of 7th and 8th graders is much shorter and they are still kids, so unless I keep them copying lesson the whole two hours which I hate to do, I have to shout to tell them to be quite throughout the lesson. I also had the luck of teaching the 7th grader the difference of weight vs. mass, a concept that even an adult American easily get confused. And the luck of teaching current and voltage to 8th graders, explaining to them that current is due to movement of electrons. Have I lost you yet? My dad will be proud, cos I am actually starting to like these electricities stuff that I hated so much when I was in college. One day, I made a mistake to get 7th grader measure their own body dimensions to lead into teaching the concept of volume, some kids didn't like to do it, others were talking a lot while waiting for their turn, things got so bad that the PCV trainer who observed me had to kick out 4 students just to scare them off. After that I decided to do less or smaller activities in these classes, so they don't get too loose and out of hand. I like my class to be lively and full of demonstrations and activities, but with younger kids I had to tame things down, keep them busy copying down lessons (they don't talk much when they are writing). Another thing I find funny in teaching is that the teachers love to call on kids just to read off the definitionsof things during class, and all the kids love to get a chance to read out loud in class, more chance to speak. Also they don't get a lot of attentions in general (too many kids at home perhaps), they love to read out loud or answer questions even if they have no idea what was asked. Don't remember if I sa id why I have to write out definitions and stuff, because most kids don't have textbooks, so I am their sole source of information. It is really sad how little resources these kids have here, I really shouldn't be so hard on them. (sigh) I really need to come up with a lot of strategies for teaching for the next year when I get to my site.

Speaking of getting the my site, we should all swear in as official Peace Corps Volunteers next wednesday given that we will all pass the final language interview. Which I don't think would be a problem for anyone. Woohoo! I can't wait! My Guinean mom gave me some beautiful fabric and we had a set of top and skirt made for me in guinean style for the swear in ceremony. I quite like their fashion here, it follow the similar philosophy like the traditional chinese Qipao that is so fitted, that it accentuates the woman's body, except there is no slit and it is a 2-piece. Also, I only wear shorts indoors now. I will even put on long pants when I go outside to dump some trash. I feel very naked when my knees are exposed.

I am eager to go to my site and start my actual service. We are meeting with our principal for a couple of days to plan out our school year and whatever secondary projects we would like to do, and if you know me, you know my eyes are bigger than my stomach. So I am asking you to gather any ideas you can find on the internet and send them with letters, like toastmaster clubs, after school clubs ideas, summer camp ideas, activities that will help me to enrich their school life and keep things interesting for them and without their knowing they are learning something (both related to school subject matter or lift in general). Your help is greatly appreciated!

I had a lot more to write, lots of little details, but I don't have the time or dough right now. So I will write more next time (I know Chao must rolling his eyes right now).

Thinking of all of you a lot!

Bonnie