Your mail was missent to Boroko, Papua New Guinea

and I thought the postoffice worker in Australia is more competent, hmmm...

I finally got a Christmas card sent from Australia, but because it detoured to Papua New Guinea first, I just got it the other day. and a good laugh seeing the stamp indicating it was missent.

"Live in the layers, not on the litter"

As I am writing a long letter of reflexion to a good friend on the choices that we make in life, especially those unconventional ones, me in my 30 years, her in her 60 years. I am once again invoking the poem that inspired me to make those unconventional choices, never be afraid of and cesse to find the hidden layers of life and of oneself. Click on the title of the post will take you to the posts archived in May 2005, scroll down to the May 8th, you will see the poem that I love so much. I am sad to find that the poet has died a couple of years ago (I had already began my service) at age of 100. May his soul rest in peace.

I have walked through many lives, some of them my own,
(of course, for me I have yet many lives to live through, many lives waiting for me transform myself into)

and I am not who I was, though some principle of being abides, from which I struggle not to stray.
(The experience that I have had in the past couple of years have been intense that make this verse so close to my heart, I feel exactly like this verse)

When I look behind, as I am compelled to look before I can gather strength to proceed on my journey, I see the milestones dwindling toward the horizon
(Soon, I, too, will finish a milestone in my life, and more than ever I need to gathering enough strength to proceed forward, however unknown to me how my life will evolve.)

...

no doubt the next chapterin my book of transformationsis already written. I am not done with my changes.

eh Africa from BNN (Bonnie's News Network)

Last a couple of week, the economic capital of Cameroon, Douala, had some strikes and riots due to the ever rising cost of living and the current president's intention to change the constitution to be able to run another term. More 100 people died. President Biya has been in power since 1982, he said that a current constitutional limit on a third elected mandate "sits badly with the very idea of democratic choice." - you are to judge

Last a couple of week, also at Bobo-Dioulasso, the second largest city in Burkina Faso, there were also strikes and riots due to rising cost of living.

Recently, Chad has their problem of rebel charging all the way to the capital and forced the president Idrisse Déby at his palace for a few days. More than 400 people have died.

Zimbabwe is having their presidentialy election at the end of month, with current president Mugabe running for a 6th term. He has held this position since 1980.

Algerian president is also talking about changing their constitution so he can run for president again.

Of course you heard about problem in Kenya. I have to say that I am surprised that it got resolved like it did, with the history of ethnic strifes that paralyze this continent. God forbid ethnic riots will ever erupt here in Guinea, which it is not out of realm of possibilities.

A few photos

The baby in our family. So so cute!

Our well.

Looking down at our well, where I get my water to wash dishes and to shower. Sometime a frog will come up with the bucket that we use to draw water.

We had some problem with the electric generator that is donated to the library, and this is the first time I see the inside of an alternator. I have to teach the conversion of mechanical energy to electrical energy by a rotating a magnet inside a ring of magnet (the dark gray part on the inside) that is wrap by a thick layer of copper wire, the "winding". The induced magnetic field creats an electric field. It is physics amusing. I just wish that I understood electricity better while I was at school, it was quite hard for me, but I am learning it more and more now as I have to teach it.


It was taken after the fête marking the end of Ramadan. My host sister on my right and my host mom on my left. We just came back from the mosque and it's time to party.


They are the german doctors and educators that come to my village once a year to work at the hospital and elementary school that helped to build. Really nice people and I came to know them quite well. Our common struggle to help out the people here had made a strong bond between us. I hate to think it won't be easy to see them anymore after I leave my village, but I will have someone to visit in Germany!

Monika, the community elected leader for the rural development, and I taking a photo with the pictures that the Germans have donated to the library.

My host mom in the Bamako basin that I got her from Mali. Basin is a special shiny and hard paper like fabric.

Kids picking peanuts.
Sifting sand.

Adding height to a partition wall. This is our computer room.


Reparing opening joints between walls and roof.


Two of my best girl students.

A day in the village by the elementary school.

A boy in my family.


Time to distribute the meal.


Our first Imam (the highest religious leader in our village) holding a prayer rug that one of my old coworker from Weidlinger asked me to donate to the mosque.

It's good for you to drink 10 oranges a day!

I might be down to drinking only 1 L of water a day, but I am up on my orange juice intake! I average about 10-15 oranges a day. Of course not all in one seating. Mostly 4 at a time. I peel off the yellow part with a knife (like skinning an apple), expose the white middle skin, cut off the top like a lid, and sucking in the most delicious, natural and sweet juice ever. And my goat and sheep friends always gather around me waiting to be fed with orange peels. Everyone is happy!

Can you guess how many oranges I have here in the photo? It is all free and brought over by various kids and they just picked them off the trees at their home.

My letter to the ressortissants (the wealthy people from my village)

Cher Monsieur,

Je n’ai pas de doute que ce message vous parvienne. Je vous en souhaite donc meilleure réception. Je vous espère en meilleure santé.

Vous ne me connaissez que peu ou pas. Les uns pour avoir peut être, entendu parler de moi ; les autres pour m’avoir effectivement rencontrée en de nombreuses occasions (fête, mariage, et…) dans le village. Qu’a cela ne tienne.

Je m’appelle Bonnie Jiang Alias Aminata Diallo. Je suis volontaire du Corps de la Paix (américain) exerçant les fonctions de professeur (de physique), au Collège de Bodié depuis l’an 2005.

Des le début de mon service, à Bodié, j’ai été désagréablement frappé par le bas niveau, en français, de nombreux élèves du collège malgré leurs années d’apprentissage à l’école. J’ai trouvé là un grave contraste puisque le français est la langue de culture en République de Guinée. Ignorer cette matière rend les élèves incapables de saisir l’essentiel des matières enseignées. Il est vrai que durant des années, le manque de livres s’est fait douloureusement sentir en Guinée. Conséquence, absence du goût de la lecture chez les élèves notamment, non accès à des informations utiles avec tout ce que cela engendre.

De la m’est venu à l’idée de me procurer de livres et autres documents écrits pour tout age, auprès d’amis aux Etats-Unis. Je n’étais pas tout de suite, certaine que mon appelle aurais eu un écho. Mais voila que j’ai été entendue par certains, connaissant l’importance du livre et aimant eux même la lecture. Ainsi, l’embryon d’une bibliothèque communautaire a germé, à Bodié, non sans d’utile efforts fournis pour l’obtention des livres et destination à Bodié, pour la mise sur pied d’un comité de gestion de la bibliothèque. Tout cela par la grâce de Dieu. C’est par cet effort collectif des membres très actifs du Comité de Gestion, appuyé par les autorités locales, de tous les niveaux, que nous avons trouvés le local devaut abrité la bibliothèque et nous l’avons aménagé. Elle occupe l’ancienne salle de conférence de la CRD. Les maigres meubles qui s’y trouvent ont été confectionnés à partir d’anciennes tables bancs récupérées et quelques bois achetés au commerce. Quelques briques cédées par la CRD ont servi pour continuer en hauteur un mûr de séparation.

La malheureuse grève du début de l’an 2007 vint. J’ai dû alors passé un temps transitoire à Bamako (République du Mali) à cause de la suspension momentanée des activités de notre bureau en Guinée. C’est pendant cette période que notre Bibliothèque a commencé de recevoir quelques lecteurs.

A la prise de nos activités en Guinée, je me suis retrouvée avec joies à Bodié. Avec ou sans ses événements survenus en Guinée (Janvier/Février 2007), j’avais sollicité auprès de notre bureau la prolongation de mon contrat à Bodié pour poursuivre mon œuvre : la pérennité de la Bibliothèque Communautaire de Bodié.

Aujourd’hui nos comptons de 5 à 10 et plus lecteurs quotidiens. Dieu merci. Pour ceci et pour cela, je vous invite à visiter notre Bibliothèque pendant votre bref séjour à Bodié. Encourager nos enfants à fréquenter notre Bibliothèque.

Le livre constitue la nourriture pour l’esprit. Il n’est pas à démontrer que notre pays la Guinée regorge d’immenses potentialités matérielles et humaines. Formons, formons bien ces potentialités humaines que sont nos enfants pour que les richesses qui sont les leurs soient sainement exploitées et judicieusement gérées. Donnons de la connaissance à nos enfants. Permettez moi de vous citer une expression américaine : Knowledge is Power – Connaissance est Puissance. Plus d’enfants instruits moins nous enregistrons de délinquants moins nos foyers connaîtront de conflits sociaux… Les informations nourrissent également l’esprit. L’esprit bien nourrit apporte le développement et des changements positifs et durables auxquels nous espérons.

Je m’adresse à vous et me tourne vers vous pour vous prier de nous accorder votre modeste assistance pour nous soutenir, pour développer et perpétuer notre Bibliothèque Communautaire.
Votre apport peut s’exprimer différemment (en livres, en documents, en argent, en appareils de projection rétroprojecteur dispositif, en appareil vidéo, en matériel informatique, en meubles…)

Recevez par anticipation mes meilleurs vœux de bonheur, de santé et de succès pour l’an 2008.

Avec l’espoir que ce message trouvera chez vous touts sa signification, je vous prie d’accepter l’expression de mes meilleurs sentiments. Bonne fête !

The future is again very uncertain!

I once again feel like I am running out of time. There is never enough time to do everything there is to do. February is almost over. I still crazily think sometimes, maybe I should stay on. But the people which I am trying to help will need to learn to be independent and take over what I started with, such is the philosophy of Peace Corps, not to have them think that foreign aid and aid workers so indispensable. I like to quote what Charles de Gaulle once said when some people said that he is so indispensable, "The graveyard is filled with many indispensable people." The wheel of life will still turn, the world will continue to evolve after we die. The best we can do is to live a responsible life and not to waste the life that we have been given to, to experience all its joys and hardships, all the layers of life.

I am a bit scared to leave this large family of mine (my village) to go off to work in a city, where I will inevitably feel the loneliness when one lacks family (which I didn’t experience living in a small village) would feel.

So my life is ever so uncertain again in a few months. Where will I go next, call home? What will I do as work? Will I be able to support myself? and love? Certainly, I have been loved by the people that I have come to know, and friends back at home, and have not quite felt the need of love between a man and a woman as I was consumed with adjusting to a new life and work, but now that I am more or less adjusted, the century old question pops up...

I have definitely a few years of instability ahead of me and moving around perhaps. It is actually going to be more difficult than going into Peace Corps, where for the most part, things are put in place and there is a great team of support staffs and fellow PCVs. Now, I will leave this Peace Corps family and my village to go off on my own, at a mutual age of 34, still I can’t help to be scared and apprehensive, but I hope that I am well trained and have grown more daring in the past few years to embark on this journey of no return on my own. One thing I read over and over what other volunteers felt after having completed their service, is they felt that there is nothing that they can’t do if they set their heart to do it, Peace Corps service has give them the confidence and perseverance that’s hard to build elsewhere. Many people have fear of developing countries, the Dark Continent, because they don’t know how things work here, because they don’t know what the culture is like, they’ve read things but never personally experienced it, so they think it is so difficult. But the truth of the matter is, it is not knowing who creates fear who stops one to realize his/her full potential. So I need to base on everything I learned to take the next set of calculated risks to expand on my knowledge on things that I don’t know, and let my experiences evolve further.

Positions that I am currently holding:

* Physics teacher (grade 7th – 10th, total of 300+ students)
* Math tutor (after school, grade 10th)
* English teacher (after school)
* Librarian
* “CEO” of the library management team
* “CFO” of the library management team
* Competition host
* Trainer for computer training
* Organizer of the girls’ club

Yes, I am having a little hard time keeping track of everything I have to do. But I wouldn’t be me if I don’t try to do everything all at once.

Holiday of Sacrifice / Feast of lamb (they call it Tabaski in West Africa, in Arabic it is Eid al-Adha) of 2007 fell in the month of December last year. It is a tradition that many people from my village who now live in the cities, some even moved to the U.S. or Europe, would come back to see their families and celebrate probably the biggest holiday for Muslims. About 20 among them are relatively rich and contribute back to their community in some shape or form. Every year, there is a town meeting with them after the holiday to discuss the development plan for the village in the next coming year. I therefore profited this occasion and wrote a very long letter to call on them to help their community by helping improve the library that I helped to put together.

I didn’t really know what to expect after I left over 10 copies of this letter with the president of rural development to distribute at the said meeting. 3 weeks into January, the president of village rural development surprised me with a donation of one of the person that came to the meeting. One computer (with the latest upright flat screen monitor), one printer, one portable generator, 3 books, and 500 000 FG (roughly $115 with the current exchange rate), all trusted to me. Apparently he was very touched by my letter (which I have included the French version below, English translation to come). To me, his contribution mark as one of my success in this library project. The hardest thing to do is to get people to help them themselves, get people who have “made it” to contribute back to their community in a meaningful way, instead of always waiting for handout from foreigners. Of course this contribution would not have been possible if we didn’t have a basic library put in place, but I am still very proud that my effort and my letter was convincing enough to have their own people to contribute to the educational development of their children. I had people from my old company in NYC asking me if they can contribute something to my village after I made a presentation to them last year when I was at home, but I didn’t want to bring in anymore outside money to my village, it was time that their own “made it” people to contribute to this library.

So, with this donation, we had to prepare a computer room inside the library. Inevitably, this drastically increased my workload. Rest assured that I am not working alone on managing this library, but I am essentially the CEO and CFO here. The donor only trust me with the money, since this large amount of money left with any local villager will definitely be personally pocket some. We had a lot of work to repair the room, to make it secure, anti-break-in, etc. before we can install the computer inside, so we hold weekly meeting with the 5 member management team to talk about our progress, tasks to complete. I try to delegate as many tasks as I can to others, because all we are doing are for them for their community, but inevitably I end up doing more than everyone else. I am more motivated than them no doubt, also I don’t have to worry about making ends meet, and thirdly I don’t have any family affairs to worry about. No husbands, no kids, no parents nearby, no family problems (and if there is any, I don’t know about it just yet). I understand as development worker our philosophy is to motivate the locals and get them to be the owner of these projects to carry out as many task as possible. And I am trying the best I can to get them to contribute their time and effort voluntarily without being paid. But look at how many people in the States, with no worry of eating well everyday or having decent cloth to wear, still they won’t take time out to do volunteer work. The kind of volunteer work that help the part of society if it is left to fend for themselves, will cause more problems in the society in the long run, therefore when people voluntarily to, for example, help delinquent children in a inner city community to learn ways to have a productive life, he helps to make his own community a safer place, and he benefits from it also. It might not be apparent, but there is an indirect benefit for everyone when we devote some of time in volunteer work. I digress.

So it is a real balance work to push, to motivate my team to share the tasks, to get them to come up with ideas, to evaluate, to praise them accordingly, but not be too demanding of them at the same time knowing that each one of them have their own job as teachers, have kids to put in schools, ailing parents to care for, a garden or a small farm to tend to generate more income for their family and various social affaires to attend (unless our American culture, once we are immersed in our work, we forget our social/family obligations). I ask myself everyday am I doing too much myself, or am I asking too much of them (especially when we chat about problems they face in their families, etc.). Am I doing it right so when I leave this library will continue? I don’t have the answer. It is way harder than telling my kids, if x+3=7, x has to be 4.

So I am a little frustrated with people who criticize development worker who are not getting the locals to do enough work themselves. The reality on the ground is so much more complex, the actual life condition of people which we are trying to help is hard for them to do the kind of volunteer work that many well off Americans aren’t even willing to do without getting paid.

My team isn’t perfect, and it took a few rounds for me to finalize on the team that I am currently working with. I think I am pretty lucky to have this team to collaborate with me, because without them none of this library would have been possible.

* The oldest member is a professor in French at the school I teach in, who I would say is the most forward thinking intellectual in this locality (even though he is older than most), very intelligent, well educated and writes well. Every important letters that I write, do not go out without being corrected by him. I am happy to say that I have attain a level in French that he is no longer correcting my grammar, but more my style of writing, to get me to write more eloquently even poetically when it is necessary. I have so much work to do in that regard. So I write my journal now only in French. I asked him how I can write better, he says to read, read and read. I have every intention to do that, but I lack time. (I digress again.)
I get him to share with us as much as ideas as possible at every meeting and encourage other members to expand and develop these ideas. So most of time, I just facilitate the meetings.

* The other 3 members can’t give many ideas and lack experience in managing a library, but they are good with getting the work done if you tell them what and how to do, and motivated enough to learn with me to organize a library. I told them frankly that lot of what I am trying to do, I have never done it but I used many libraries in my life and have enough life/work experiences that give me enough bases to work off on. We are here together to learn and grow. One of them is a new teacher who hasn’t gotten married yet, so he has a little more time and energy than others to get more involved.

So while I am overseeing a renovation project at the library, I am also spending a lot of time improving my lessons at schools instead used my old lesson plans and giving more homework and quizzes than ever to my students, ending up with over 150 papers to correct a week, and holding various activities at the library in the afternoons. We haven’t started the computer training yet, but soon and it will be interesting. Couple of things I started doing is competition/game that is kind like jeopardy and girls’ club. I hosted our first competition last week at the library to quiz kids’ knowledge on the 16 countries that participated in the African Cup 2008, things like their geography, culture, current events, and sports. Kids really love it and said the competition made them more interested in listening to the radio on current events. One question is the region of Darfour is located in which country, and no one knew. I hope to organize more competitions like this in the months to come, over many subjects. Every Friday afternoon at the library is our weekly girls’ club meeting. We’ve had 2 meetings so far, with average attendance of 25 girls. Too many in my opinion. These girls can be so loud and rowdy. The theme of this club is to encourage girls to become tomorrow’s leaders in various capacities, and three fundamental things to work on to prepare them to become leaders: health, heart and mind. Without good health, we can’t do anything, therefore we talk about how to keep one healthy; without strong will and high self esteem, we can’t succeed, so we learn to build a strong heart; without a curious mind and knowledgeable mind, we can’t succeed as well, so we learn how to build ___ mind. At the start of every meeting, we first do an interesting game that’s interactive and calls on one to reflect. Then it is group or individual work and everyone presents afterwards. I am pushing them to talk in front of others, to present their thoughts and ideas even if it is one or two sentence. We are making very baby steps, (and I am sure I was once very timid like them, and still can be at times), but I hope all these baby steps will amount to something for some of them in the long run. I didn’t become the person I am today in one day. They are just starting off, and some are already doing amazingly well. Maybe, just maybe, a few of these girls will one day hold important posts in their country and make many positive contributions in their society. That is a wish of a teacher.

Fear

I am scared of dark, the total blackness. The first night I slept in my hut, it was total darkness absolute. I think I must have turned back on my headlamp and left it on so I could fall asleep. Obviously I couldn’t do that every night, surprisingly I got used to the total darkness night after night and rather like it now.

I was scared of spiders, ants, and caterpillars (especially caterpillars), they give me the creeps. But you can’t keep them out, keep them from falling off your thatch roof, and keep them scaling up and down of your mud wall, so slowly they became my “roommates”. They mind their own business while I do with mine, the best roommates you can have because we leave each other alone, and no conflict arises if neither one of us provoke one and other. I learned to manage my fear of these little critters, and find out that really there is no reason to be scared of them after all.

I was scared of biking alone in the isolated rural area of this strange country, for hours I see nothing but trees, mountains, cows and goats, hear nothing but singing of the birds, occasionally pass some villagers, or another traveler on a motorcycle. I was scared that I can’t scale these mountains on a bike. Never would I have wanted to try mountain biking when I was in the states. But when you don’t have any other alternative, you learn to deal with the situation, especially with the fears that you built up yourself in your head before you know what actually lay ahead. So the first time is extreme grueling physically, but the second time, the third time, then the tenth time, it became more of a routine. I bitch and moan only for the sake of it. And the fear of being a single woman biking through wilderness intercepted by small villages for more than half of a day, which went away also after awhile. I think some of villagers kind of know me by now given the number of times I have made this trip. The best thing to do is greet them, greet them and greet them in their language. I remember not believing an old volunteer telling me that she felt comfortable to just knock on the door of a stranger’s house to stay for the night, if her bike broke down. Two and half years later, I would do the same thing – knock on the door of stranger, if I don’t think I can make it back to my village that day.

Fear comes from not knowing, fear comes from not getting to know and analyze your obstacles. So I learned to take calculated risk to get to know the obstacles that lay ahead, be it physical or mental, and eventually reduce the unnecessary fear that I built up so much in my own head.

Test your knowledge in geography, language, culture, sport and current events of Africa

A couple of weeks ago, I organized a competition (oral, plus point for good answer, minus point for bad answer) for my students at the library on their knowledge in geography, language, culture, current events and sport of the 16 countries that recently participated in African Cup of Nation 2008 (Coupe de Nation 2008). Kids really loved it and it made them more interested in current events of their continent.

The 16 countries are:
Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, Sudan, Cameroon, Angola, Zambia, Namibia, and South Africa.

So, how well would you do if you participated in this competition? To test your knowledge, continue below (although I doubt most of you can answer the sport questions):

mentally place all these 16 countries on the african continent (I passed a blank map to the 5 groups of contestants to fill out).

10 Points questions:
1. What is the capital of Senegal?
2. Bamako is the capital of which country?
3. Which country has 2/3 of world reserve in bauxite (mineral used to produce aluminum)?
4. Mt. Nimba is located in which country?
5. The Niger River starts in which country?
6. Which two countries played at the opening match?
7. Which two countries played the championship match?
8. At which level Guinea was eliminated from the African Cup of Nation 2008?
9. In which country we find Pyramids?
10. What is the capital of Ghana?
11. What is the capital of Cameroon?

20 Points questions:
12. Which of the 16 countries are what we called Maghreb Countries?
13. Which country has won African Cup of Nation 6 times?
14. Which country will host African Cup of Nation in 2010?
15. Which country will host World Cup Soccer in 2010?
16. Which of the 16 countries border Guinea?
17. Which of the 16 countries are located in West Africa?
18. Which of the 16 countries are located in Central Africa?
19. Which of the 16 countries are located in East Africa?
20. Which of the 16 countries are located in South Africa?
21. Which of the 16 countries are located in North Africa?

30 Points questions:
22. Which of the 16 countries where their official language is Arabic?
23. Which of the 16 countries belong to the League of Arab?
24. Nelson Mandela is the ex-President of which country?

40 Points questions:
25. The region of Darfur is located in which country? (The only question that my none of my kids knew the answer to)
26. Which country is closest to Europe?
27. Which country is closest to the Middle-East?
28. Which of the 16 countries are French speaking?
29. Which of the 16 countries are English speaking?
30. Which of the 16 countries are neither French speaking nor English speaking?