Living in "The Layers" - Bonnie's Peace Corps Exp. in Guinea et Mali et now Beyond PC

getting tired of fireworks?!

2009-01-27T22:46:00.013+08:00

Happy happy 牛 year!

a week before the new year, fireworks go off here and there sometimes, made me want to run out every time and follow the sound to its source

the night before new year's day, fireworks set off continuously from 8pm, till past midnight, with the highpoint from midnight to 1am, by many families who bought their own fireworks,

families after families drove up with trunk load of fireworks to the designated spots, some couldn't even close their trunks

there were fireworks being set off in all four directions from where I was standing

the neighborhood sounded and looked at a battleground, with thick air of sulfur floating at the height of street lamps

the lingering fireworks lasted till almost 3am

then came the"ceasefire" for the most part of the first day of the new year

then it started all over again, the first night, then the second night, sure it will go on for the rest of the week
how did people get so rich, have so much money to burn off???

Out to the Northeast, Harbin

2009-01-23T00:09:00.009+08:00

Interior finish work is pretty much done on my parents' apartment, but I don't want to leave until they are moved in there, so I opt for a trip to Harbin, the "ice city" of China, known for its annual ice and snow sculptures festivals that last for 2 months and russian architectures, something I have wanted to see since I was little. Of course Harbin is cold enough in the winter, when people talk about temperature, they say 9 or 15 or 20 C, but it is always minus, so they just skipped it. Needless to say, I dressed up myself and ended up looking like a bear with all these clothes.

The ice are taken from the frozen river that run through the city and many life-size buildings like churches, chateaus, pagodas are built out of thes ice blocks every winter for the Ice Sculptures Festival that last about 2 months. Great to view at night, when colorful lights embedded in them are lit up, a true winter wonderland.

The snow sculptures festival is newer and has smaller sculptures and are more artistic. They are great to see during the day against the blue sky.

Clicking on the title will take you to more pictures.

a collage of chinese traditional dances

2009-01-19T01:24:00.001+08:00

by many women in my dance classes

Hardware vs. Software

2009-01-11T21:14:00.000+08:00

Beijing might be full of hardwares - nice buildings, efficient transportation systems, public bathrooms everywhere, products of all sorts you would want (may not be able to afford), but the softwares still can't catch up with the ever popping hardwares.

So, what I do I mean by software - behaviors, how we treat others
people still spit wherever (I would show you a picture, but I don't want to gross you out), I grimce at every sound of someone loudly clear his throat then followed by a hearty spit;

I stand at the middle of the door of a subway train, when the door opens at the station, there will always be someone right in front me thinking that he/she will get on the train fastest that way;

I can't shake the habit of letting at least one other passenger to get on the bus before me, the result, I often end up being the last one getting on ;

One screams loudly "waiter" with a tone of a commander, I still can't get myself to do that, so I often wait for one that pass by which can take a while;

"No smoking" signs are everywhere in restaurants, but just like many laws and regulations, they are there, but we don't follow, because there aren't enough agents to reinforce these laws, and let alone agents to prosecute law breakers;

many people in the service industries treat foreigners better;

we still have a great need to show off our richess with cars, everything we carry that people can see;

strange, my memory of software of this city seem to be better when I was growing up here, or at least we were droned about it all the time (slogans and propagandas of a socialist country influenced by our confucius philosophy), so one would think that twenty years later, there would see much more improvement. But I wonder that 80's and after, we focused much more on economic growth therefore results of all these nice hardwares, but left no time and energy to worry much about softwares. So are softwares something we can only think about when average citizens attain middle class? or when the population reduce back down? Population in Beijing, in China, sure has increased tremendously in the last twenty years.

Being someone of 70's generation, I am confused with what I see now compare to what I was taught when I was little - the socialist dogma, to now most things are about money, how to make them with little or no social conscience (just think about the contaminated milk powder, the unsafe mines, and money paid to reporters so they won't report all the mining accidents) and how much one has. The socialist dogma still exists, the slogans and propaganda are still heard, the governement still control the medias to disperse praises of the one and only party, how they follow the socialist dogma, yet things on the ground say much different stories.

Imagine that so many people are overjoyed of your death

2008-12-23T12:14:00.007+08:00

It's like a RPCV Guinea reunion on gmail and facebook, everyone has his/her status express the joy, the shock, the disbelief, the skeptism of unknown future, following the annoncement of death of General Lansana Conté. Eh Allah! 40 jours de deuil (je pense plustot c'est la célébration de sa mort!) et la lutte de pourvoir commence?! The people going to suffer even more...

Of course part of us wonder if he has been dead for sometime, and his inner circle has finally decided to let out the news. In anycase, and let's hope for some positive changes!

I am hoping for a MIRACLE!

There are also NGOs in China, not just companies trying to make money

2008-12-22T16:31:00.012+08:00

Since I can't fill up all my time with babysitting the construction workers at my parents apt, shopping for unimaginable amount of building materials big and small, trying to find some friends and hang out with them (quite hard when one lives so far and doesn't work), and of course drowning myself in the internet, I found a couple of NGOs (not for profit organizations) to volunteer at.

Is a NGO started by an university student who learned about AIDS orphans in Henan. A province south of Yellow River. Apperantly this is a rather poor province, in the late 90s, lots of people sold blood to state hospitals to make money, and the blood weren't checked before given to patients who needed blood transfusion, the consequences you can imagine. The founder started first an orphan school in Henan, but was shot down several times by the state and finally he couldn't continue the school in Henan.
So he came back to Beijing and started 东珍(Dongzhen) to educate young people on HIV/AIDS.

Here is a postcard (what does it remind you of?), that I have helped to pass out on the streets. It was the first time for me to hand out stuff on the streets.

Here is a market shopping bag by the NGO as well. There are quite some creative people here in China!

There are also NGOs in China, not just companies trying to make money

2008-12-22T14:27:00.000+08:00

The other one is Jane Goodall Institute Roots and Shoots program to educate young people on environmental protection. Of course this isn't a chinese born and grown NGO, but nevertheless it is a NGO thriving in China. I was told that NGOs focusing on environmental protection work out the best in China.

A public lecture by Dr. Jane Goodall at Beijing University.

Here is picture taken of Jane at a holiday fundraiser in Beijing. Poor thing, she is spending so much time and energy these days traveling all over the world to raise funding for the environmental projects of the institute. I wonder if she sometimes just want to go back to the forest and sit by her chimpanze friends for some reall quite and simple time.

Even it is 天寒地冻，I still want to see you - Beijing

2008-12-21T21:13:00.000+08:00

天寒地冻 - sky cold earth frozen

My parents apt. work is taking a bit of a break right now, so I have more time to myself, and onto my second round of city seeing, eventhough, it is really really really bone chilling cold.

The lobby of the capital museum

a model of old theatre house inside the museum

the bell tower where the bell used to be rang at 7pm tell people to leave the streets for their home, and at 5am to annonce that morning is starting
Inside the drum tower, where the climb is so steep, I had to walk down sideways

looking down to the rooftop of the center of Beijing where the old houses - siheyuan are preserved

St. Joseph church (over 100 years old) by the Wangfujing walking street

I want to cry; it made me laugh; then I ponder

2008-12-12T00:19:00.009+08:00

was in a bathroom washing my hand, the lady next to me left the faucet on while soaping her hands, and faucet was pouring out water, like i am crying a river inside of me for these water just going to waste...

so, we calcuated how many trees we would've cut down in 20 years, if every chinese uses one pair of disposable chopsticks a day, with the kids I am teaching Ecology-English (with the Jane Goodall Institute Roots and Shoots program) , let's see, 730 chopsticks x 1 300 000 000 x 20 = MANY chopsticks, equivalent of 7 200 000 000 trees. so, one boy said "I am just gonna use my hands!" I laughed out loud.

SO, I am a natural nature lover, always like all sorts of animals and plants. 3 years in a hut in Guinea, I even ended up liking the little bugs, even the fuzzy catipillar I use to hate, okay, I still can't stand snacks. So, it's very easy for me to care for the environment, but I wonder, I ponder, I scratch my head, how do we convince those city lovers, concret and metal lovers to care for environment where all that they like are made from the very nature I love???

Chopping Chopsticks

2008-12-05T10:22:00.005+08:00

China produces 45 billions disposable chopsticks a year, which means 25 millions trees are cut down to do it, large part of the production is shipped overseas. For me, since I am in Beijing, starting yesterday I put a pair of reusable chopsticks in my bag. But for my friends, you, overseas, that's not realistic, but what else can you to do reduce the demand?

Friend's visit to Beijing in Oct. (click on each photo to see more pix)

2008-11-09T23:04:00.011+08:00

CCTV - many chinese say it looks like a pair of pants. also many old ppl watched it being built and called in when the "legs" start to lean, saying that the constractor should check if they are building it wrong - meaning not straight

Jingshan Park - racing up the hill in this park north of Forbidden City, you get a panoranmic view of Beijing all around you, descend the hill, we found many locals dancing, singing, playing chess, discussion current issues and politics

Great Wall - 金山岭司马台, if you don't want to see wall of ppl, if you want to have really sore thighs days afterwards, come here

Summer Palace - there is no grass and very few trees in Forbidden City, so the emperor and his entourage, come here for boating, for greenary, to relax in this palace-park place

Haohai - now it is the hip yet with traditional style bar and resto area in Beijing

Forbidden City

Olympic

Where did all the time go?

2008-10-16T20:46:00.027+08:00

Can't believe I haven't updated my blog in a month. Where did all the time go? Spending too much time online, for one, (got to make up for the 3 years without internet in my hut)

Spending too much time on the bus/subway, waiting for them, waiting in traffic, everytime I go into the city.
Roundtrip is about 3 hours.

My parents chose to retire in an area that is green, far from crowded, congested and more polluted downtown Beijing.

Spending much of my time preparing for my friend's trip to Beijing, by going into the city, mapping out the routes and of course, trying out good places to eat!

Spending (recently, finally my parents are getting out of their slump) time talking to contractors who do interior finishes and shop for building materials at various super duper mega building materials stores, Home Depot really pale in comparison, how do we ever choose??? Make you want to go back to the days, where everything is arranged...

To people who is not familiar with housing in China, a brand new apt or house is not finished on the inside, no floors like hardwood, tiles or carpet, no kitchen or bathroom fixtures, just some PVC pipes sticking out of the wall or concrete floor. (Of course, old apt or house, interior finish is already done by the previous owner)

Typically, people have to spend 2-3 months to do interior finish (done by prof contractors), including shopping for all the materials, like flooring, toilets, fridge, down to door stops that need to go into the apt or house. The owner also has to watch the contractors from time to time to make sure they don't cheat you on material and quality of work. Why do you think I came to Beijing for? Just to eat??? nahhhh...

北京 (Beijing) - Paralympic, Beijing University, Beijing cityscape

2008-09-20T23:10:00.016+08:00

Click on the title above will take you to my pictures for this post

It is much harder to be in "help your parents corps" than the Peace Corps, there I am with like-minded people of my age who immediately became good friends and we dove in intense training as soon as we got to Guinea. Here, I am with my aging parents who move at a snail pace, with no friends really. It was so great to speak to a couple of friends on Skype in English. I miss speaking English, I miss speaking French.

It is not easy to help your older parents, you want to do a lot of things for them but at the same time you cannot do too much for them, because they want to feel they are still independent and can take care of themselves. So you need to be careful not to hurt their confidence and feelings. A balance act.

So, going from having a lot of do in Peace Corps, having other teachers and students as friends, and feel very useful to - mostly hanging out for the moment and no friends here, it is quite difficult for me. I would trade my comfortable environment, electricity and running water for being busy and having friends. No joke. I hope that will change soon.
(anyone up for fried ??? how do you call it in English?)

Beijing University has such a beautiful campus, a great mix of water and mountain (more like hills) that are essential in any Chinese gardens. Lots of great corners to reculate oneself into the nature to read and think. I spent so much of my childhood here because my grandparents lived on campus. It is truly my childhood playground. I saw a lot more foreigners this time on campus and also in the streets of Beijing. Many on bikes, more at ease moving in and out of traffic than me.

Speak of traffic, it is very chaotic. Too many vehicles, too many motos, too many bicycles, too many tricycles, too many pedestrians, too many people/vehicles who don't follow traffic rules and traffic lights, because if you do, you will never get anywhere. Or maybe if everyone does, we might be able to get to where we are going faster? I don't know. Maybe I am just too new, and there is a orderly chaos that I am not used to, just like things are chaotic in Guinea, but there is certain order under the surface. I need to keep remind myself always watch out for turning vehicle, they rarely yield to you like we do in NYC even when I have the right of way crossing the street.

I wonder if Beijing has the most skywalks (built for pedestrian to cross streets) than any other cities in the world. An essential structure for the city, otherwise all the pedestrians who need to cross the streets will totally paralyze the vehicular traffic.

I was at awe of many new and very modern roads and highways, and spanking new buses with fully automatic card swiping system, much like buses I saw in Norway. Haven't checked out the metro yet. Okay, there is still at least one cashier on each bus, the reason being, one, there are too many Chinese who needs to work; two, to catch dishonest riders?

Very annoyed by too many salespersons at each store, who really don't know much of the stuff the store are selling or help you with stuff (ex. bath towels) that you really don't need help with. Again, we are too populated and everyone needs to do something to make ends meet. I still remember a few years ago when I was in Shanghai, having 3 waitstaff waiting at our table while we were eating.

Overwhelmed with uncountable skyscrapers and towers that can probablly make NYC pale in comparison. In NYC, it is a lot more compact (all the builidngs are next to each other, streets are narrow), here in Beijing it is a lot more spread out between the buildings, the roads are mostly 3 lanes in each direction plus a lane dedicated to bicycles.

How is ...?

2008-09-16T14:10:00.003+08:00

How was Africa ?

I don’t know really. I was only in Guinea. I can tell you my take on that particular country but I can’t really say much about the rest of continent. Us PCVs always can't get over how funny this question seems to us. You wouldn’t ask someone who spent sometime say in Bulgaria, how was Eastern Europe? or someone who was in Uruguay for 2 years, and ask how was South America? N’est-ce pas? (right?)

How is China?

I don’t know. I am only in Beijing.

How is Asia?

I hope and I don’t think that I will get that question. Because I am finally in a more well recognized country. China is not all that is in Asia. People won’t lump Vietnam or Indonesia to China.

明月几时有？中秋节 - Mid-Autumn Festival

2008-09-15T22:46:00.013+08:00

明月几时有？把酒问清天。
不知天上宫阙，今夕是何年。
我欲乘风归去。惟恐琼楼玉宇，高处不胜寒，起舞弄清影，何似在人间。

转朱阁，低绮户，照无眠。

不应有恨，何事长向别时圆？
人有悲欢离合，月有阴晴圆缺，此事古难全。

但愿人长久，千里共婵娟。

This is one of my favorite chinese poems written by Su Dong Puo from the northern Song dynasty in the 11th century and one of the few that I can still recite by heart.

The Mid-Autumn Festial also known as Moon Festival is rather a big holiday here in China (it fell on a Sunday this year and workers get Monday off) always falls on the 15th day of 8th lunar month of the Chinese calendar, where the whole family gather together to celebrate the end of the summer harvesting season and admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon, have a feast and eat moon cakes. I kind see it like the Thanksgiving holiday in the USA where everyone in the family try to be together to celebrate and eat a lot.

We don't always have our loved ones by our side at the holidays, and this poem was written to express the sentiment of missing our loved ones.

I will attempt to translate the essentiels of the poem in English.

When I would I see the full moon? Holding up a glass of wine, I ask the heaven.
Not knowing up there in the heavenly palace, what year it is for them.

I want to ride the wind up to the heaven, but afraid of chill and loneliness up there, what heavenly palace can compare to the life on earth with my loved ones.

The moonlight is flooding into the window, which makes me very sad.

The shining moon should not have any loathing, but why it is always full when my loved ones have gone away.

People come and people go, we cannot always be together, just like there is the crescent moon and there is the full moon and there is even no moon sometimes; it has been like this since the beginning of the days, nothing we can do about.

I only wish that although we cannot always be together, my loved ones are always healthy and out of harms way; we might be thousands of miles and always apart, but we can always admire the same shining full moon.

So I wish for all my families and friends at the distant land, this holiday season and all other days - happy, safe and healthy (幸福平安).

Aloha de Hawaii

2008-09-15T13:33:00.017+08:00

Click on the title above "Aloha de Hawaii", which will take you to my Picasa wed album for Oahu, after finishing looking at these photos, click on "my photo", and it will take you back to my public gallery and you can look at pictures from other 2 islands - Maui and Big Island.

Mahalo

Abidjan (Ivory Coast or Côte d'Ivoire)

2008-07-13T22:05:00.010+08:00

Click on the title above to see more photos for this entry.

You might not think Abidjan is all that from the pictures, but for someone(me) who is from Conakry, Abidjan is very much a metropolitan city with overpasses, skyscrapers and nice neighborhood with fancy restaurants. Before the civil war broke out in Ivory Coast, Abidjan was like Paris of West Africa. Although the war didn't really hit the city, the city was not maintained for many years, therefore look a bit run down (it doesn't help it wasn't a sunny day when I was there). Ivory Coast just recently became peaceful with a brokered deal by the president of Burkina Faso to help the country to form a coalition government between Laurent Gbagbo continuing as the president and the opposition leader (rebel) as the prime minister. It was totally safe traveling along the coast of Ivory Coast, but I didn't dare going to the northern part of the country and crossing border into Guinea. They say you are suppose to get permission from the rebel to travel up country.
Anyway, I took a World Food Program flight (a UN humanitarian flight free for us PC volunteers) from Abidjan that took me to Liberia, then Sierra Leon and then back to Conakry.

Ghana - Cape Coast, Akwaaba, Elmina

2008-07-11T21:04:00.012+08:00

Click on the title above to see more pictures for this entry.

both Cape Coast and Elmina has a castle that was used for trade and slave, where most of the slaves were held before their journey on the Middle Passage. The slaves are kept in the dungeons is most inhumain conditions, packed in like sadines, sleep, pass the day, eat and defecate in the same chamber day in and day out, with a single peep hole that let in the light, while the slave traders held lavish parties in the fancy halls above ground.

Akwaaba is a small fishing village with a quaint eco-friendly lodge called Green Turtle Lodge for most of western independent travelers.

Ghana - Boat ride on Lake Volta

2008-07-08T20:47:00.008+08:00

Click on the title above to see pictures for this entry

Ghana - Tamale et Mole National Park

2008-07-05T20:35:00.013+08:00

Click on the title above to see more pictures for this entry

2 days later, I was ready to bus down to Tamale, Ghana, where a former PCV Guinea is working for a company that export shea butter. Tamale is a transit town, so I got on another bus the day after I arrived Tamale and head out to Mole National Park, a safari reserve, where I saw wild elephants 10 ft away, had some monkey snatched my bag of peanut right at the pool and saw elephants (there are lots of them) bathing in a watering hole. It was a relaxing 2 days to hike and hanging at the pool.

Burkina Faso

2008-06-30T20:06:00.011+08:00

Click on the title to see pictures for this entry

Friday, June 20th, I left Bamako for Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso. Bobo is the 2nd largest city in Burkina and the old capital of the country. Crossing the border and getting a visa there was such a breeze. They were polite, professional and efficient. Wow! I hope one day Guinea gets that way.

I didn't think much of Bobo when I was there, but looking back it was relative a quaint town. Partly due to a wonderful cute guesthouse I stayed in call "Le Zion".

One day at Bobo, then I proceed to Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso via a comfortable bus ride of 5 hours. Stayed at the PCV house there and visited some artisan villages and strolled in the center of town. There was even a nice park where people go for walks, run and dog walking. I had to ask myself where I was. Ouaga seems to be one step up from Bamako, probably due to partly its bi-annual internation african film festival held there.

Mali: Bamako, Ségou, Djenné, et Dogon Country

2008-06-24T00:02:00.005+08:00

Click on the title of this entry to view photos of "Mali - Bamako et Ségou", when finished, click on "my photo" then proceed to "Mali - Djenné", and last "Mali - Dogon Country"

Road trip

2008-06-20T08:01:00.000+08:00

I am on an about 1-month long trip to neighboring countries in west africa. Look for the thin purpleish/lavender line on the map that link the cities underlined. I am overlanding for the most parts of the trip
(Conakry - Bamako - Bobo Dioulasso - Ouagadoudou - Tamale - Accra - Abidjan),
except for the last leg from Abidjan to Conakry. Thanks to World Food Program, us Peace Corps volunteer gets to fly free with them in some countries.

So I started from Conakry on the 14th of June, a Saturday, for a direct taxi to Bamako, Mali. Got to the taxi park located in the back of Medina market around 8am. Me and a lady with her 4 6-7 years old kids and 1 1-year baby got the first few seats, woohoo, then it is sitting and waiting patiently for the car to fill up that took the rest of the day. By around 4pm that afternoon, we finally found all the passengers that we need in the stationwagon taxi: 2 for the seats next to the driver in the front, 4 adults plus a baby in the middle row (I am sitting at the far right in this row), the woman with her 5 kids in the back row that sits uncomfortably 3 adults. 90% of the baggages piling up on this poor car belong to the woman traveling with 5 kids, on top of the car and in the trunk. Have trouble close the trunk everytime because she's got so much shit. She is going to Lagos with all her kids and all these luggages. I estimate that will take her a week on the road. I think I will go insane if I was her.

Of course when the car is all filled up, we had to go over to do some minor repair on the car. I think replacing a spark plug or something. They will never spend the money to fix the car or fill up the gas, unless they collect all the money upfront and are guranteed with all the passengers on board. So I not only had to wait a whole day for the car to fill up (the car just sat there the whole day like me), then had to wait for it to get repaired and filled up with gas. Of course, by the time we finally was able to get on the road, it was close to 6pm, and the rain start to fall. It started with a heavy downpour then it teased us a bit by making us think that it was thinning out, but really it just kept on raining steadily for a very long time. I kept had to play the open the window a bit because it was getting suffocatingly hot in the car (AC taxi doesn't exist!), then close the window when I got wet enough by the rainwater coming into the car. Needless to say, I was miserable being wet and squashed with too many people in the taxi. We had to already replace a tire even before getting out of Conakry, then after we barely got out, the car stalled going up a hill and wouldn't start again. Whatelse is wonderful? Where we broke down, there was no longer cell phone reception. Well, it is not like there is AAA to call upon even if there is reception, so what does it matter. The driver got out and tried something himself, but to no avail, he cursed a bit then disappeared to somewhere. I got out of the car because it was hot staying in or getting too wet if I left the window open for too long, plus I had to find somewhere to pee. I really thought at one moment that we are stuck there, and I was never going to make out to Bamako that weekend.

The driver showed back up (maybe almost an hour later). I didn't look at my watch because I know that will frustrate me more. I am frustrated with enough trouble that I am having getting started on this trip, plus the depressing look of Conakry when the rain unmerciely pouring down flooding most streets and sewage canals.

I think it is miracle that we got on the road again. I was then drifting in and out of sleep for the rest of the night. The car kept pushing on all throughout the night. I was glad to find out that the driver wasn't a speed demon and he teamed up with 2 other cars traveling together at night, so when one car breaks down, we all stop and help the broken car out. No AAA out here, we have to count on one and other.

Thank god that the next day was a sunny day, which helped a lot with my mood. Although my butt was still wet from the wet seat, solution: find a plastic bag and sat on that.

We passed Dabola, Kankan, Siguri then onto the border, passed it with no major problem, then finally got to Bamako on Sunday evening around 7pm. Took me 2 days to go ### km. Why I don't do long distance trip in bush taxi in Guinea often.

I spent the next 4 days in Bamako hanging out with the people that run the education NGO where I worked at last year, discussed the possibility of me returning to the NGO sometime next year to develop a better science curriculum for middle school. It was too long to stay there, but I had a free private car ride to take advantage of on Friday, so it was worth it to stay an extra day.

the Departure

2008-06-13T05:40:00.049+08:00

Here is a photo journal of what has happened in the last 3 months at my village.

finished teaching all my classes, and gave final exams;
helped my 10th graders to review for their upcoming national exam to enter into high school;
found a new library director to replace me;
introduced adults and students on the concept of computer and gave some mini training in Word;
spent as much time as I could with people that I am close to;
ate a lot of juicy and yummy mangos;
listened for the very last time, heavy rain beating down on my thatched roof;
visited for the last time, students who live very far away;
gave away a lot of school supplies to good students;
distributed other belongs among people that I am close to;
made a sacrifice (see photos below);
played in farewell soccer match;
and said goodbye to my village

March: A meeting with all the "white collar" workers of the village to talk about the importance of keeping the library open after I leave, critics and suggestions to make the library function better, "unveiling" of the computer, and call for candidates for the library director position

April - May: Training students on using computer. Kids and adults alike think computer is some kind of amazing sorcier

April: Close of Service (COS) conference in April, a day at the beach Casa near Conakry
April - present: The best season of the year, mango season. They come in all different shapes, sizes, and colors, with different taste, all very YUMMY!

May: School is coming to an end, and my time here is once again up. My students profit to snap some pictures with me.

June 1: To thank the village, I decided to follow their muslim tradition and do a sacrifice, kill a mouton, and make a lot of food to offer to people. Here is what I bought to hopefully feed 150-200 ppl (of course people don't come to eat to fill themselves up):
1 bag of 50 kg of rice
10 L of peanut oil
3 kg of potatos
lots of eggplants, tomatos, onions, hot pepper and spices(most things here aren't sold by weight)
1 goat offered to me by my host mom
(estimated cost in franc guinean 400 000 + 200 000 for the goat, equivalent of around $135)

My "papa", the butcher,
and the scrificial lamb
Step 1: hold the mouton down
Step 2: bring the knife to the throat

Step 3: slit the throat of the mouton
Tomatos and potatos, 10 L of peanut oil
that will go into the sauce
One 50kg bag of rice, got to pick out those little
rocks, wouldn't want to get sued for broken teeth

The senior cooking team
The junior sous-chefs
Let's turn that big 'o pot of rice
(half of the bag is in this huge marmite)

The pot where we cook the sauce for the rice,
all the chopped up eggplants are in the bowl at the bottom left

All the firewood that my students
helped to bring for this sacrifice

Cooked rice are put in large bowls (feed about 10 people), sauces for the rice are in the smaller bowls. We made about 20 bowls of rice and sauce each.

Can't do a sacrifice without having people come to read some verse in the Koran. Each kernel of corn represent the verse that each person have read, and my host mom passed them onto me afterwards.

Hangint out with students at the sacrifice (well, more like the "party" after the sacrifice)

what is a party without some dancing,
well you can't relly see the movement or hear the music,
but we were dancing, well, more like swinging left and right

A good opportunity to snap some pictures with my guests

June 7: The day before I left my village for good, the village organized 2 soccer matches, one girls' match, one match between boys and all the civil servants (mostly teachers, mostly males)
I played for about 5 minutes on the adult team against the boys. They never passed me the ball, but I made enough people laugh, so it is all good.

One last visit to students in the far away villages

June 8: the day I left my village for good
Family photos!
Host mom, dad, their 2 daughters, 2 sons, and grandchildren
(of the course the actually family is much larger than this,
but other members aren't around)

The library management team, the new director-Oumar Baldé is in the green shirt on the left in the picture

A new beginning awaits me, another layer of life to be experienced, a new chapter with all its mystery and uncertainty, but undoubtly exciting and rewarding! I am not done with my changes!

Photos taken at city of Dalaba, early morning.

Your mail was missent to Boroko, Papua New Guinea

2008-03-09T18:51:00.006+08:00

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"

2008-03-09T16:01:00.007+08:00

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)

2008-03-08T17:05:00.003+08:00

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

2008-03-08T09:32:00.014+08:00

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!

2008-03-08T09:04:00.004+08:00

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)

2008-03-08T05:03:00.003+08:00

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!

2008-03-08T04:56:00.001+08:00

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:

2008-03-08T04:46:00.007+08:00

* 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

2008-03-08T04:42:00.002+08:00

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

2008-03-08T03:52:00.008+08:00

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?

CAN 2008

2008-01-25T03:46:00.000+08:00

CAN 2008 - Coupe d'Afrique de Nation 2008

African favorite past time is soccer, and nothing is bigger than the African Cup of Nations that takes place every two years. I am fortunate to be in Africa for two African Cups in a row. Guinea qualified both time for it, but in 2006 I think we were unfairly arbited against Senegal and couldn't advance past quarter final.

They are 16 countries qualified to play:
Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt (host and champion of CAN 2006), Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, Sudan, Cameroon, Angola, Zambia, Namibia, and South Africa.

Opening match - Guinea vs. Ghana (Sunday)

We are (now I think unfortunately) chosen to play the opening match against the host country Ghana. Ghana is southeast of us next to Ivory Coast, a much more developped country and English speaking. I have a good friend working out there, inch Allah, I will make a trip out there after COS. Back to the match, the first half, the Guinean team was tight, not with it, the Ghanians were constantly knocking at our door, and our defensive had so many holes, if it wasn't for a great guardian, and luck (the ball hit the goal post 3 times and didn't go in), Ghanians would have made 4 or 5 goals on us than just the 2 they were able to make. We scored one goal but still lost nevertheless.

We face Morocco on Thursday, a team better than Ghana in my opinion, who just beat Namibia 5 to 1. We have to win this next match to stay in the game, but it will not be easy.

Ivory Coast - Nigeria (Monday)

Tosi, if you are reading this, sorry I had to support Ivory Coast, one being they are our neighbor, two I like Droghba, a great attacker and cute, and I supported them against Egypt in the last CAN. It was such a tight final, and it came down to penalty shootout to determine the champion, match of two very good goalies. Especially the Egyptian one. A real character on the field.

The two teams (Ivory Coast - Nigeria) are pretty much at the same level, so it was a very heated game, but Ivory Coast played slightly better at this match and was much quicker. I was happy that Ivory Coast came out with a score of 2 to 1.

Egypt - Cameron (Tuesday)

Of course I wouldn't miss this game either, a match between 2 giants, Egypt has won CAN 5 times, Cameron 4 times. Egypt won CAN 2006, but it could easily have gone to Ivory Coast, and I think the fact they were on their home turf helped. The most famous player on Cameron's team is Samuel Eto'o. All my kids love him. He is what a soccer player like I remembered back in the days when I started watching world cup in 1988. I remember liking very much the physique of a soccer player, muscular but lean, not too short and not too tall, just right, great thigh muscle. Nowadays, soccer players are so much bigger and taller than before. They are some pretty bulky guys on the Egyptian team, but they still run really fast and all throughout the 90 minutes game. The Egyptian team dominated the game during the first half, making 3 goals easily, totally frustrated the Cameronians. The second half, Cameroon was able to show that they weren't 4 time champions for nothing, making 2 goals, one is a beautiful head shot by Eto'o, but it was too little too late, and Egypt came back with a 4th goal to finish the game. I supported Egypt but felt quite bad for Cameroon. Thank god that Guineans aren't in the same group as Egypt, we would probably have lost terribly. The Egyptian players have really good ball handling skills. It's a treat to watch them play.

Guinea vs. Morocco (Thursday)

I was worried about this one, because if we lost this one that would mean that's it for us, but Allah was on our side today. About 10 minutes into the first half, we got a penalty shot and made our first goal. We continue to make 2 goals with another one by penalty shot, but if you look at the game overall, Morocco dominated us, they had 60% possession during the game and was always in front of our goalpost. They were able to score 2 goals, but with some luck, Guinea won today. Unfortunately, the capitan Feindouno made a stupid move, back kicked a Moroccan player and got a red card, which means we have to play without our best player in the next game against Namibia, who has lost terribly to Morocco 1-5.

guy story

2008-01-19T03:07:00.000+08:00

I was sitting in my hut one day and a student came over with a very large man. Sorry I don't know how else to describe him. He told me that he saw me the other day and had wanted to talk to me, but thought it was rude to just to approach me on the street. So, I had to chat with him in front of a boy student who got to know what this guy was up to, but I had to be polite. It was agonizing. Then I found out that he is helping someone who I have been trying to get in touch with to help out on the library, so I went to their house to talk to the other guy. The large man came to our village to help them set up satelite dish and ask me to come back to their home at night to watch TV. hmmm, I politely said maybe knowing very well it is a no, but didn't want to be rude. Then he said if I didn't go there by 8pm, he will come over. I should've just said right there and then that I don't accept any man visiting me at night. For a long time, I didn't even let the boys in my family in my hut worried about people saying things. I didn't think he would really come to see me at night.

Of course he came right on the dot, mind you, Guinean are always late. I was like, shit. I really don't want to deal with this. I took out a flash light and sat outside of my hut with him in the dark, closing the door behind me. Tried to be polite and keep a conversation. It is hard to tell a guy off politely, let alone in a different language that I don't speak all that well of without offending him. I told him really it is not cool to come to see me at night, people can say things and I am a female teacher. I am super paranoid about not giving people anything to talk about. So, I thought I did a good job to tell him that I am not interested, then he wanted to hold my hand. I was a little freaked out. I told him that it was getting late, and I need to rest. He then wanted me to take some money. Now, that is just offensive. Certain say here if a man offers you money, it means. Shit, I don't even want to go there. Anyway, I sent him out of the door, and told myself to be more firm to tell a guy off, should something like this happen again.

Another strike? - almost...

2008-01-18T23:10:00.000+08:00

I spent the day of my birthday getting ready to go back to my site and left that same day afternoon. So, for 3 years in a row I have done absolutely nothing for my birthday, which the friends who know me well are probably somewhat shocked by it. Birthday isn't a big thing here. Most Guineans don't even know when their birthday is.

So, I got back to my site and already my kids are asking me, Madame, is there another strike? I was like what, again, already? Next day, the word of possibility of strike resuming on the 10th is looming in the air. The president just fired an important minister without consulting with the prime minister, which violate the agreement made after the strike last year and the situation in the country has not changed much since last year. The prices are just as expensive as before. Some people are not happy.

So everyday for a week, I glued to the radio whenever there is news in my part of the world, to wait for the verdict. Finally pass midnight on the 9th, the unions finally decided to give the government till March 31st to see if the situation change somewhat and the agreement made after the strike don't get violated again. So, for now, there is no strike.

I didn't know what to think while we were waiting for the verdict. I didn't want to see the momentum to study more seriously after all these talks of reform that the students have, get to put to a halt again due to strike, too much instability in kids' life aren't good. But on the other hand, we are all eager to see some changes.

snippets of my bike ride to Labé

2008-01-18T20:54:00.000+08:00

The first mountain I have to cross on my bike ride, the path is narrow and very rocky, not to mention steep, even without the rocks, I don't think I can bike up. My thighs just aren't strong enough, even though they have been repeatedly called thunder thighs by an ex-boyfriend. Let me put this way, some people can't even ride their motorcycle up. There was another guy also pushing his bike up the mountain ahead of me. He kept looked out after me to see if I needed help pushing my bike. After we crossed the mountain and came to a fork in the road, he was heading one way and me another. He took out 2 oranges and offered them to me. That was really nice.

Another stretch of road an hour later on my ride, every time I pass here, there are always some kids who run after my bike for about 10 minutes. Asking for my helmet, my bag, my bike, etc. I like joking with them since they are running on a stretch that is slowly going uphill and I don't mind having some company to go up this hill, and wouldn't mind buy them some fried dough if there is someone selling it.

Later on, two kids on a bike passing me and said "good afternoon" in French when it is only 11:30am, stopped and asked me straight out to give them some money. I just said that I had none.

So, after hauling ass for 5 hours to Labé, I only to find out that the new trainees won't come until next week. I came here to welcome them. This is Guinée, communication is hard and I will have to just turn around to haul my ass back to site to teach for 3 days, then come back to Labé again next wednesday, but hopefully in a PC ride. Inch Allah!

Reponse to the Test on Africa

2008-01-09T03:09:00.000+08:00

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

20 Points questions:
12. Which of the 16 countries are what we called Maghreb Countries? Morocco and Tunisia
13. Which country has won African Cup of Nation 6 times? Egypt (they are really good)
14. Which country will host African Cup of Nation in 2010? Angola
15. Which country will host World Cup Soccer in 2010? S. Africa
16. Which of the 16 countries border Guinea? Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast
17. Which of the 16 countries are located in West Africa? Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria
18. Which of the 16 countries are located in Central Africa? Cameroon and Angola
19. Wh ich of the 16 countries are located in East Africa? Egypt and Sudan
20. Which of the 16 countries are located in South Africa? Namibia, Zambia and S. Africa
21. Which of the 16 countries are located in North Africa? Morocco, Tunisia

30 Points questions:
22. Which of the 16 countries where their official language is Arabic? Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Sudan
23. Which of the 16 countries belong to the League of Arab? Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Sudan
24. Nelson Mandela is the ex-President of which country? S. Africa

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) Sudan
26. Which country is closest to Europe? Morocco
27. Which country is closest to the Middle-East? Egypt
28. Which of the 16 countries are French speaking? Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Benin, Cameroon (1/2 french speaking), Sudan
29. Which of the 16 countries are English speaking? Ghana, Nigeria, Namibia, Cameroon (1/2 English speaking) Zambia, S.Africa
30. Which of the 16 countries are neither French speaking nor English speaking? Angola (portugese) and Egypt

Update, update, update from Bonnie

2007-12-21T03:36:00.000+08:00

Once again everyone,

It has been so long since I have written. Here are a few highlights of the past couple of months.

Fasting is like running a marathon?
So yes, I felt a bit homesick the first week after I got back from visiting friends and family in the USA. But couple weeks of back at site, back with my other “family” made it all better. I only caught about 6 days of Ramadan at site, and then it ended. I fasted all 6 days and was getting more and more used to it, ready to do more. I equate fasting from getting up in the morning to sundown to running a marathon (though the most I have done is a half marathon, but have heard much talk about it). Around 4pm in the afternoon of a day of fast is probably like hitting 18 mile mark in the marathon, you really hit the wall, so hard to go on, so ready to give up. You are struggling so hard mentally. A lot of people came to the library to distract them from the unbearable thirst. Thirst, that was my problem. Luckily we hadn’t started school, so I didn’t have to go through talking for 4 hours and not being able to drink a single drop all day. The celebration at the end of Ramadan has always been my favorite holiday in the Muslim culture. It is really worth celebrating if you fasted for 30 days, only eating and drinking after sundown each day; give up all recreational activities for 30 days (I couldn’t even play music tapes at the library); not have sex for the month of Ramadan (although some people say that they can have sex after sundown, I can’t seem to find a consistent answer on that). I think it is a real achievement to fast for 30 days straight. Such a discipline builder.

School didn’t start until the Oct.22nd, partially because we wanted to wait till Ramadan is over. People are generally very grumpy when they are hungry and thirsty. One day I fasted in Conakry, I was about to past out at 4pm.

Vivre le changement! (Long live the reform!)
The new wind blowing out of ministry of education this year is cracking down on teachers. Teachers will be severely sanctioned if they don’t do their job well. So we’ve had many teachers’ meetings to get everyone to be very rigorous with the kids. We have to be their model to be on time and follow all the rules, and make sure the kids follow the rule. I am glad to see so far everyone has not slacked off, and I am not the only one who turns away students who are late. Though I am bit skeptical that this wind will remain strong at my school next year. Some students also like to choose what subject they like to attend (here everyone takes all the same subjects). Some will come to school in the morning but not go to their first period; instead they hang out in the bushes with their friends wait for the second period. Some students we would only see the day of semester final exam, so this year we are enforcing the - if someone has 25% or more of absence in a class, sorry, you can’t take the semester final exam. I am also bombing my students with lots of homework every single week, mostly out of their textbooks, forcing them to go pick up their textbooks and read them. Understand what they read, not just sounding out the words. If they can’t come to the library, I want them at least read some homework problems in a textbook, and learn to use the textbook to supplement the lessons I give. Of course, I suffer from having too much homework to grade, close to 200 paper to grade and comment a week, kind remind me of my engineering days checking shopping drawings (sorry to you non engineers), but it’s worth it.

Teaching, being a librarian, after class tutoring, yoga “instruction”, etc.
I crammed all my 14 hours of teaching this year in 3 days (M-W), 4 times a week in the afternoons I am at the library, when I am not teaching and not at the library, I am preparing for the lessons, grading homework (those damn homework), preparing for weekly English class for a small group of students, 2 math review sessions and holding them, plus occasionally transforming our library to a “yoga studio” to do yoga with my students, then I still have to make sure I do leave sometime to visit my students’ family (cos if you don’t they will get on your case), which has reduced drastically this year since I spent so much time at the library. So, my days are really full, but I am as usual enjoying it very much. The only downside is there are always so much things racing through in my head, but I seldom have time to reflect on how I am doing my job and trying to figure out some lessons learned.

The library is working out well. I have a handful of kids that come almost everyday, plus another random 5 kids, so daily we have about 5-10 visitors. Very encouraging. I think the fact that the air of reform is blowing in the country; and how few students passed their national exams last year really scared kids and they are trying to take studying more seriously. Also the fact that the library is something entirely new and foreign in their life helps also. Novelty.

I hold English class, math review sessions all in the library and encourage other teachers who want to review with their students to do so in the library as well, the more students are exposed to the library the better. I’ve noticed that my 7th and 8th graders come a lot more then 9th and 10th, lot more boys come than girls also. But that is starting to change a little bit. Dieu merci.

Drama at school
The principal at my school continues to be an a*#^, but I am not someone who is afraid to say the truth to his face. Ever since he came to our village, which is about a few months after I started teaching here in 2005, he has always came up with many excuses so he doesn’t have to teach or even if he is scheduled, he teaches very little in a year, on the other hand he is very on it to push different things that students have to pay which are not useful and not required by the education ministry, all to make money for himself, plus passing undeserving students to the next grade as long as he receive money. Here, it is very common for a principal to teach because we have such shortage of teachers. So, this year he has unfortunately hurt a small part on his foot and came back to school late. No, he can’t play soccer, but he can definitely get to school on his motorcycle and walk slowly to the classrooms, have a student copy the lesson on the blackboard and he explains it while sitting in a chair. We the teachers collective made a schedule so the principle teaches geography which is his specialty to 7th, 8th and 9th grades at the beginning of the year. The principal didn’t object to it at first but I think he was waiting for us get tired of waiting and assign it to someone else. We weren’t going to let him off this year. Then one day he came to school, rearrange the teaching schedule, reassigned the French teacher for 8th grade to teach geography for all grades, and 8th grader do not have French classes at all. Not at all! Can you imagine that? Here every grade must have 8 hours of French lessons a week. As it is, the students are very weak in French. What will become of them if they don’t learn French for a whole year? Unbelievable! And he changed it without discussing it with the education director of the school, and just left a note to tell us to apply it. Luckily he is the only one, who thinks dictorship still can get by, the education director sent the modified schedule right back to the principle and said no, we can’t undermine the future of our kids like that. When I supported the education director, the principal cut me off half sentence and told me it wasn’t my business, he should really watch what and how he talks to me, I threw it right back to him, telling him that education of kids is everyone’s business, that’s too bad that I take it more seriously then a national. I still get angry every time when I recount this incident.

Library, always the library, part of the reason why I came back to Guinea…
I am also trying to groom a fellow teacher (he is young, unmarried, therefore less family stuff to worry about) to help me out at the library; slowly shift more responsibility to him. I’ve also written a long letter to all the people from my village “who have made it” to reinvest back in their village by supporting the library financially. As a good Muslim, the rich should make sacrifice regularly to the poorer ones, so some people send many bags of rice yearly back the village. I hope they can direct a small portion of the money for food for the mind.

Bbbbuuuurrrr…
What else is new? It is getting colder and colder for me at site now during our winter. I put on my fleece and socks early morning and late at night.

Our family is growing!
Peace Corps Guinea family has finally got new training group after skipping 2 groups due the strike that happened early this year. So we are up to 50 now, hopefully in a year time we will be back into 100+ volunteers. There is so much to be done here.

If you made it this far, you really deserve a huge holiday wish from me. =)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Sunday is for football and spaghetti dinner...

2007-10-01T07:07:00.000+08:00

Sunday is for football and spaghetti dinner... If it wasn’t for the many African masks and statues that decorate the living room, you wouldn’t even question whether or not you are in a regular American home enjoying football games on a lazy Sunday.

I am writing to on my new laptop in my country director’s house in our Peace Corps compound. Every Sunday he welcomes volunteers to come to watch football and have some traditional spaghetti meatball dinner. I downed two icy cold Heinekens, a huge bowl of spaghetti and some garlic breads, it was delicious.

Of course after spending 2 years in Africa , I drifted much away from American football, but much closer to the other football. I was busy copying his wide selection of African music onto my laptop. I don’t know what came over me; I am shifting away from no electronic traditional Peace Corps life, to bring back a laptop, several MP3 players, and even buying a cell phone when I got back in Guinea . All of which can be charged on a weekly basis at a family in my village. The laptops are more for education purposes to selected students. The cell phone? The house phone in Conakry is basically shot, and I am tired of people (Guineans and Americans alike) not being able to reach me while I am out. Of course, now I have a cell phone, no one calls me. One interesting aspect of having a cell phone that I should point out is, here you buy a phone first, then you buy a number from a service provider, then you buy pre-paid card and enter the amount in your phone (kinda like using a calling card), when that amount runs out, you just add more money. They are smart, to make people keep buying new cards, they put an expiration date on each card (period as short as a week depending on the amount), and if a number is not used for a little too long, they will block the number. The only good thing is we don’t pay anything to receive calls. Now I don’t have any service whatsoever in my village, but there is a spot about, oh, 20km or more away where there reception. I hear that people go there sometimes to make calls. So, I am obliged to buy a whole bunch of cards to take back to my village and bike out to this special spot on a regular basis to recharge my number, avoid having it blocked. Yes, I wonder if I made a bad decision buying this stupid phone.

The humid weather in Conakry is just as suffocating as I remembered; it hits you especially bad when you just stepped out of the airplane after being in temperature controlled cabine for several hours. Most things don’t surprise me anymore about this part of the world, but I was still a little startled to see people who have connections came all the way onto the runaway to pick up passengers. Everything made through in my bags except a cd walkman, but that is really small casualty and I am not complaining. I manage to not pay (bribe) the airport staff to leave the airport. They just blatantly ask you if you have something to give them, and I just always smile and say that I don’t. Be sweet and firm all at the same time. Just like how I turn down the many marriage proposals that I get. And they don’t ask no more. Of course I wonder if tourism really takes off here, they might not let foreigners off so easily. Most foreigners that come through here work to help in some way.

Being thousands of miles away from families and friends, not so easy to communicate is depressing and compounded by having only one other volunteer here in Conakry, where before we would easily have 10 or more. Rob is the youngest of my group, and I am the oldest, with a difference of 10 years. We are the 2 of our group who are back. One thing with Peace Corps volunteers, after awhile 10 to 15 years of age difference isn’t much different than 2 or 3. Peace Corps experience matures people with an amazing speed. I think I would go crazy if I am in Conakry all by myself for a week.

It’s Ramadan, and getting ready made food is quite hard during the day. By sundown, there is hardly anyone on the street. Everyone scurries back home to eat and drink after starving all day. I feel bad cooking in the house, as the smell spills out to the courtyard and the guards know that I am eating during the day. I will fast when I get to my village, inch Allah.

So, I found out only 2 out of 45 graduating 10th graders at my middle school passed their national exam to get into high school. Usually it is 2 out of the whole class that don’t pass. They are being exceptionally strict on proctoring the exams this year, made cheating virtually impossible. Bravo! The new education minister is doing his job. The exam problems also strayed away from memorization type of questions. Of course it is not fair to test kids with questions that require them to think when the teaching method does not. While I only have about 50 incoming 7th graders compare to last year of 200 (again due to not being able to cheat), many upperclassmen have to repeat this year. It is causing quite a bit of logistic problems, resulting school not starting until October 23rd. I could’ve spent more time in the States, but I was definitely getting to a point that I was anxious to get back to work and tired of living off my parents.

I am not going back to my village until Friday because I am waiting for monthly Peace Corps rides upcountry, instead of cram into a crowded taxi with grumpy and tired passengers and driver due to Ramadan.

the missing link

2007-08-20T03:40:00.000+08:00

Toward the end of July, we were told that PC Guinea program is restarting. After much agonizing, I decided to go back to Guinea for a 3rd year. I can always go back to that education NGO in Bamako later, but will be hard to enjoy a little bit more of village life if I wait too long.
I got back to my village for about 2 weeks. People very glad to have me back and teaching again at the school.

I am taking a month of homeleave to see family and friends in the USA. It has been 2 years. Can't wait!

What I am doing in Bamako...

2007-06-30T04:41:00.000+08:00

Peace Corps Mali tried really hard to find us evacuees quite a few temporary assignments. From these options I chose to work on a program that's called "Programme de Gouvernance Partagée", Direct translation is shared governing program, more in depth explanation is this is a program that help and guide the local government at the commune level (there are about 700 of them in Mali) to better manage their problems and development issues, better budget their revenues, strive to maintain fiscal prudence and transparency, make better use of their resources and make better annual plan to improve the condition of the commune; advocate to the population to hold their local government accountable, to assume their rights and responsibility as citizens to pay taxes, vote and take part in politics. Since the revolution that took place 16 years ago in Mali that brought down the dictator, an event not too different from what happened recently in Guinea, Mali has adopted a new constitution that calls for decentralization of political power from the central government, giving more power and say to the local government to better manage their affairs, therefore the governing power is more widely shared.

But who really makes up this local government that makes decisions on for example what to do with the taxes that they collect, let it be building more schools, pay the salary for a doctor to work at the health center, invest in conditions that will favor more income generating activities for women, etc? You guessed it right; there are 90% men in all different level of government while 52% of population in Mali is women. No one knows his needs but himself, no one knows women's needs but women. You see what I am getting at? Us women can't go cry that our needs aren't taken care of if we don't go out there hold public offices and make our voices heard. On the other hand, a decentralization process that strives to widely share the governing power is never fully functioning, with such weak participation of women. So, one component of this program is to inspire women and to assist women to assume their rights and responsibilities to participate in politics, to change policies and make decisions that will now favor in improving lives of more than half of the country population. When everyone has equal access to education, health, economic activities, the whole country flourish; such is a goal that isn't easy to achieve. We can say in the U.S., women can do this and that, but don't forget how long we have struggled to come to this point, and not to forget the glass ceiling many women still face at their work, the eventuality of many women having to choose between climbing the career ladder and having children. Being ambitious is a positive thing for men but has more of a negative connation for women. For the first time we have a woman presidential candidate and we are always at the forefront to promote gender equality and democracy. Now, we are talking about in a traditional African country with Islam as the predominant religion, where man can marry up to 4 wives and it is written in the marriage contract that he is the chief of the family; where girls are still excised; where most women are still illiterate, less informed about their rights and responsibilities as a citizen, less financially capable to run for public office, their lives are heavily weighed down by taking care a large family; women face monumental obstacles to be political active. That's not to say that we don't try and things aren't starting to change. Just look at the fact that Mali had their first female presidential candidate this year. An interesting observation is that there are just as many traditional practice and mentality as I have encountered in Guinea, but there are also more forward thinking women.

I have learned a lot in the past three months and even with my mentality of politics is dirty, I realize the importance of exercising our rights and responsibilities as a citizen, be it holding a public office or vote or pay attention to what your local government is doing (especially with your tax dollars) or the local officials that you voted into the office are really representing you. Hoping to be soon working with young people again, I want to add this new dimension to the things that I talk to them about, to educate them about citizenship and roles of government. It isn't always god who makes our life the way it is, it is our silence or voicing our opinion that does.

While I enjoy learning at this new assignment, I am bored because I haven't been able to make much contribution. Very different from my work as a teacher in Guinea, where I am at the frontline interacting with kids, delivering lessons, creating and organizing activities; here I am at the central office that assists the local NGO that assists the ministry of promotion of women who conduct activities with women in Bamako. So, I am very much in the background, doing more observing and give feedback and suggestions. Since all this is quite new to me, not to mention a whole load of French vocabs to twist my tongue, I am slow at giving my 2 cents. I have felt rather frustrated a lot as not being able to contribute right off the bet like I was in Guinea. Everything is a matter of time, be it on American time or on African time, I finally was able to contribute somewhat, instead of being on the internet a lot at the office.

Just as I felt that I can be more useful at this current assignment, I am coming up again on having to make a decision on what I should do next. My 3 months temporary assignment is coming to an end.

I never thought it will be a question whether I will go back to Guinea when and if the program reopens. People at my work have grown on me, especially the woman who is in charge of promoting women's participation in politics, her passion for fighting for women's equality is infectious, and I can't help to feel when I leave I am abandoning her with this important cause. I hope she will understand that even if I don't work directly on fighting for women's rights, I will do my part somehow. So what else can possible keep me from rushing back to lush, green, more temperate Fouta Jallon (the mountainous region) of Guinea? Definitely not the thick layer of dust, the suffocating heat, the beige landscape, the cars, trucks, motos, bikes, donkey carts crowded roads, the begging children at every street corners, the fields of trash, nope, none of above.

What I liked being Guinea was I felt that I was being very useful, so through someone at USAID I met an American woman and a Malian woman duo who founded an education institute/NGO and a community school in the suburb of Bamako. Pretty much all the free time that I had last month, I was developing some demonstrations/activities for the physics curriculum for the 7th to 9th grades. Surfing through the internet to find simple and fun activities and adapt them to the material resource available here. Think of applications of these concepts that kids here can relate to, like water pumps that draws water with help of atmospheric pressure. Unfortunately, my simple rocket just kept burning up but never launched.

So, they have asked me if I would like to work as a third year volunteer if I don’t go back to Guinea. It would be very interesting to see where I can go with this possible career of marrying my engineering/science background with education in West Africa. Now that I understand a lot better how students learn here, what resources are available here, what applications familiar to kids here and related to the science that they learn, I can really do a lot to work off of many ideas that have already been developed in the U.S. and adapt them to conditions here. So students will learn by seeing, touching and experimenting, instead of copying explanations and theories into their notebook only.

We want the back pay of the salary increase promised to us from the last 9 years

2007-05-04T20:34:00.000+08:00

In the last two days, soldiers have fired shots in the air during the night in their camps in all the major cities of Guinée. A well organized protest to demand government to pay them the salary increase promised by the old government for the past 9 years. Miss fire have hurt more than 20 people, one death. Aren't the military better fed than the rest of the population? What about the salaries that civil servants effectively lost due to depreciation of guinean currency in the past few years? Franc guinean lost half of its value in 2 years, prices kept going up, salary of the civil servants were never increased.

Ciwara

2007-05-03T21:12:00.000+08:00

CIWARA : Ci = le travail ; Wara = lion

Le Ciwara, au Mali en milieu bambana, après plusieurs étapes d'initiation, récompense les plus grands travailleurs dans tous les domaines de la vie active.

Représentant une antilope, le Ciwara est donc le symbole du courage, de l'abnégation, de la sagesse, etc.

Ciwara, symbol of Mali. It represents an antilope, symbolize courage, self sacrifice, wisdom, etc.

Overwhelmed! Wow! I am in Africa.

2007-05-02T18:46:00.000+08:00

I am so overwhelmed with choices to make. Where and what I should do for my 3rd year in PC. Human factors and political climate continue to cast a huge cloud of uncertainty over my plans. Africa tests me physically with its harsh climate, but more than ever she tests me in patience, flexibility and ingenuiety. Sometime I wonder if I have what it takes to go down a less structured career path in a even less certain environment.

For a Fouta girl, Bamako is too flat, too polluted and too yellow/brown (full of dust). Didn't take me long to find the countryside with rolling hills to bike to where air is a lot fresher and I am seeing more trees. Hills here are nothing compare to the mountains of Fouta. Roads are paved. So I can go for 70-80 km in less time than a bike ride of 45km in the Fouta. It's nice again to feel the wind in my face too bad not in my hair because PCV has to absolutely wear a helmet, and it's moment like this riding down the countryside that I say to myself, "wow! I am in Africa, cycling, not a tourist rushing through the sites, didn't think I could ever do this."

(here is a picture taken on the bank of Niger River)

So many days off

2007-05-01T00:27:00.000+08:00

If you like to work in a country that there are many days off, whether due to religious reasons, national celebrations, or it is the day after presidential election, or it is because citizens won't go pick up their voter's card unless you give them a day off during the week, then you should come to Africa.

City folks of Bamako have to run around too much / work multiple jobs to make ends meet and they probablly don't think they can count on their government, so go pick up their voter's card is the last thing on their mind. It isn't structured here enough to have postal system for everyone. The government gave everyone last Wednesday off so people can go pick up their voter's card. Unfortunately the voter turn out was still low on Sunday, a whoping 25%. Then for reason unclear to me the government decide to give everyone a day off again today. Tomorrow is international worker's day (like our Labor Day), again we are off.

Mme. Sidibé Aminata Diallo

2007-04-30T21:33:00.000+08:00

For the first time in Mali history, a woman decided to run for presidency. I had a chance to meet her through a work meeting. She seemed sincere, modeste and very aware of the challenge she faces being a female candidate in a male dominated traditional african country. A university professor who has formed her political party 2 years ago who concentrates on environmental issue a lot. She said that she knows Mali isn't ready for a female president, but it's time that someone (a woman) starts trying and hope to encourage other women to follow to get more involved in politics, so women's voices will be heard, women's issues will be considered, and eventually women's needs will be taken care of.

As soon as she declared her candidacy, there were rumors that the current president had "bought" her off to run for president. Each candidate must put out 10 million FCFA (=$20000), a lot for a malien. The amount is only returned to the candidate if he/she win 5 % of the total vote. Some people say that the current president paid for her to enter, so she will agree to run against him even if other candidates decide to boycott the election. If all the oppositions boycott the election, election cannot take place with just one candidate. A transitional government will take over to reorganize another election. Speculation or non? Who knows.

I do know through talking to many average malien men with broken french on both of our sides, that there are many of them who are afraid of educated women. (as I am writing this, I am thinking how is this that much different in "developped countries", same problem exists but at a different level) Many men would rather that their wives are not educated, so they will respect their husbands more, do whatever theirs husbands ask; once a woman is educated, she will be more demanding and has too much mind of her own. So, even she might be able to bring more money to home by being more educate and has a better paying job, the men would rather that they remain the only breadwinner of the family and poorer, but have more control over their wives. The culture here is still very traditional where man are suppose to take care of woman, provide for their wives and children. But the harsh reality is that it is harder and harder for a man to be able to support many wives but still pressured to by older generation and society to marry more than one, therefore most women try to engage in whatever income generating activities they can find, make food to sell on the streets, carry a bucket of fruits on their head and walk around selling them with a baby on their back, etc. In fact, african women are working hardest to provide for their family, so their kids can eat and go to school. Many of them might not have regular professional jobs, but oh my god do they work so hard, such long hours, in such harsh harsh conditions for their children, their families. So heart wrenching...

Just a note, here woman keeps her maiden name and add her husband's name in front of their first name. (Mme. = madame)

Lansana Kouyaté

2007-04-30T18:44:00.000+08:00

With all the changes, I failed to mention that about a month ago Guinean president Lansana Conté finally under pressure from inside and outside of Guinea chosed a prime minister (PM) - Lansana Kouyaté, that majority of Guineans agree. According to the agreement signed by Conté and the union leaders, PM will be the chef of the government and can and will form a brand new government, that is to be signed off by Conté. It took almost a month since the PM assumed his post, people were starting to get worried, that the PM formed his new government composed of 19 ministers. All 19 ministers are new and mostly technical people who does not represent any political parties. None of the old ministers were retained. People breathed a sign of relief.

We still have to wait to see how things develop. Conté is still in the pictures, his entourage won't be that willing to give up their gain in this country so full of natural resources. The country is in such a mass. Reform will be long and difficulte.

Are you going to vote? Why not?

2007-04-30T18:27:00.000+08:00

Presidential election in Mail was Sunday, April 29th. When I chatted with maliens, some of them would ask me if I am going to vote, and when I say "no", they ask me why not. So, you can see there are still a lot to be done to educate people on citizenship and government.

A lot of elections are happening in my part of world this year. Mauritania just had their presidential election, and they even had two rounds where there was a debate between the last 2 candidates. Nigeria just had their presidential election, but the international community is saying there are a lot of fraudes and the oppositions contest the result. One commentator on RFI (radio francaise international) said that in many parts of africa, democracy isn't a destination we try very hard to get to, but rather a voyage. A rather long voyage indeed, a voyage where we get lost sometimes; where we take detours; where we backtrack then restart; where the plane or the train doesn't work we have to walk on foot. In June, there will be a legislative election in Mali. Togo also is suppose to have either presidential election or legislative election soon. Guinea also has legislative election scheduled, but I think the new PM has decided to reschedule it so they can properly prepare the election process. Senegal, had their presidential election in February where president Wade won a second term. He is 82 years old. Côté d'Ivoire just reached an agreement where a young rebel leader of age 35 is recently named as the new PM. Who else, la France is at their second round of their presidential election. Can you guess who I would like to win? =)

43°C = 109°F

2007-04-24T16:10:00.000+08:00

Even my guinean friends warned me about heat in Bamako. Africa is testing me again with its brutal climate, turning up the heat one more notch. You don't want to be outside between 9am to 5pm, not even if you are in the shade. You just don't want to be in this hot dry still air. I am not one who sweats a lot, but you wouldn't think of me that way here. My face can be full of sweat 5 min. after walking out of the house. My eyeglass has such a hard time staying put.

Our apartment is in concrete which absorbes a lot of heat at the end of day, making inside feels like an oven. Luckily I have AC at work, so I leave the apartment as soon as there is enough light to bike to work like around 6:15, and stay at the ACed office till I have to leave to catch the little bit of light left to bike home, to limit my time in the apartment at a minimum. Mind you there is ceiling fan in our bedrooms and living room, but most of time it just circulate the warm air inside.

Sleeping has been hard. Here what I have to do to wake up less throughout the night due to the heat.
1. shower before going to bed
2. place the bed directly under the fan without the mosqito net
3. sprinkle bedsheet with water
4. place a plastic mat over the bed
5. powder myself up with talc powder paying special attention to areas like neck, armpit, back of the knees, where your skins touch one and another, to minimize sweating throughout the night
6. lie on the bed naked and try to sleep

Djenné - Stepping back in time...

2007-04-13T22:50:00.000+08:00

After suffering a day long bus ride from Bamako, a bumpy bump pick up truck ride
then a ferry,
I got to the World Heritage site - Djenné, a island city northeast of Bamako (circled in the map above).

This guy is pushing the ferry away from the dock. The other picture shows horse carts crossing the river to get to Djenné for its weekly market. There were only 2 windows open on the roof of the bus, no AC. I never knew my behind can sweat so much. Everytime the bus slows down or stops, sweats dripped off my face.

Why stepping back in time? Why a World Heritage site? Just look at this photo.

Djenné is known for its mosque, the largest mud structure in the world! http://www.sacredsites.com/africa/mali/djenne.html

Unfortunately I just missed the annual remudding of the mosque events when I arrived at sundown, missed my chance of getting mud on my face, and possible chance of seeing the courtyard of the mosque.

At Djenné, all the houses and other building buildings are in mud or mud brick, no concrete or steel structures are allowed to preserved the unique architectural style of this heritage site. I felt like I was stepping back into a medival town. The color of the town is dried mud. There were very few trees, especially during the dry season. Thanks to the world heritage site status, thousands of tourists flood this town every year, as a result there is electricity and tap water in most compounds. A negative side effect of the flourishing tourism (here and many other touristic sites in the 3rd world) is extremely annoying kids, who call out "white people" incessantly, circle around you and stare, ask for cadeau (beg for money) and won't leave you along, the worst is touching your "white skin". A few more "worldly" kids will call out chinois (chinese) or mimick "nihao" (but sound more like hin-han) to me. It baffles me why they must calls us out when they see white people so much. The best policy is ignore them, but sometimes they just drive me over the edge and I give them really dirty look.

Things Fall Apart

2007-03-23T22:53:00.000+08:00

It's been 3 months that I haven't written, not because I didn't want to bike out over 50 km to an internet connection, or that my life has finally fall into a routine therefore not much new is happening to you, but just the opposite, I had internet connection 24/7, now I have my own office and own computer w/ internet, lots have happened - Things Fell Apart.

Part I: 2 1/2 weeks of strike / standfast at site / Pre-"Evacuation"

01/06 PCV Arabella's wedding to Hassan in Mamou.

Bella with 10 of us in her group.
Hassan walking in the crowd to join Bella.
Bella being given to the groom's family by her "mother" side.

Bella and Hassan.

01/08 Returned to my village after the holidays. The German doctors team are back again to work at the hospital they built. I spent the last 3 days of their stay in the hospital to learn about the health problems of my villagers.

Going to pester kids in my family to always wash their hands before eating. Too many kids have parasites due to dirty hands. They come to get some medicine when the white doctors come, so they are well for a few weeks, but the rest of year they don't take preventive measures and are always sick.

01/09 Didn't know at the time, but it was the last day I taught. Will I ever get to step in these classrooms and teach again?

01/10 National strike starts. It is the third national strike in less than a year. Each previous strike was suspended when the government made false promises. Continuing rising price of a 50 kg bag of rice (24 000 GF in 2004 to now 125 000 GF), an increase of 52% in gas price, and in December 2006 president Conté personally released his close associates Mamadou Sylla and Fodé Soumah who were put in prison for embezzling $22 millions from Guinea's Central Bank, have finally pushed Guinean people over the edge.

01/12 Started afternoon English class at my home.
Had some kids pestering me about English lessons for almost a year, but always got out of it. Why? Had plenty of other things to do, doubted that kids really are serious about it. Probably due to no school resulted from the strike, kids have a lot time on their hands. They actually kept coming once we started, every other day, average about 15 kids of all different grades. Got to know some girl students through this. One came to ask me if there is medicine to take to restore virginity, and what are some signs for AIDS. You better believe that I profited this opportunity to talk to her and her friends about reproductive health and HIV/AIDS. Yes, I regret not starting English class earlier. I could've reached a whole new group of kids especially girls by doing that. Lesson learned.

01/10-01/23 During the 2.5 weeks that I spent at my village while the strike went on, I religiously tuned to la Radio Française Internationale (RFI) on my shortwave radio to their african news update 3 times a day.

Once in many years in Guinea history, they are making headlines on RFI. They are many days, where the announcer will say, "It is 8h00 at Paris and 7h00 at Conakry." No more "at Dakar" or "at Bamako", but even "at Labé" (my regional capital) or "at Kankan" (regional capital highland region)

Everyday, morning, I got together with people (all men, very women can understand news in french or care to) in the center of the village listen to the recap of yesterday development of the strike, then, sit around at some shops and chat with shop keepers for a couple of hours, next, tutor Saïdou and Sadou (twin brother in 2rd grade), their sister Houssai( in 4th grade) of my family on basic math and french, then they play Legos, I listen to radio again at noon for news updates on demonstrations and resulted violence in major cities from the morning, nap a little, visit students/students visit me/give English lessons in the afternoon, get together with people (all men) at a cafe to listen to evening news updates and summary of events for the day in Guinea and discuss what we heard.

Guineans are really taking their anger and discontent to the streets this time. Current president Conté has been in power since 23 years ago, and has changed the constitution a few years ago so his term is unlimited. Everyday, there are demonstrations against the current regime that plunder the country that is so rich in natural resource, deeper and deeper into extreme poverty. Demonstrators destroyed many government buildings but also looted many storage buildings that belong to the NGOs that are here to help. One popular demand of the protesters is, "un changement radical" (a radical change meaning they want Conté to step down). Everyday there are clashes between demonstrators and police/army, led to death toll of an average of 5-10 persons per day, in many major cities in Guinea.

Every other day, I go to the house of the community worker to get the key to the office where the high frequency radio is kept (We use radio here to communicate out), and try to find out if Peace Corps is planning on evacuating us since situation is deteriorating day after day. It is very frustrating because I cannot call to Peace Corps Conakry on the radio at my village to find out where they stand, but only get to hear bits and pieces of other volunteers' conversations with Conakry through the frequency.

01/19 Cafe talk on HIV/AIDS with "high school dropout" at my village.

I suggested to an university student who gets along quite well with many young men in my village here on break that we just get together to have an informal talk on HIV/AIDS among friends.

This cafe of african village style is just a few step away from my home. Another elementary school teacher and the university student ended up moderate the dialogue, and they were quite knowledgeable,

which is great because they can continue talking to people about HIV/AIDS prevention after we are no longer there.
One thing to point out though, many people have heard about HIV/AIDS and can recite different modes of transmission and different methods of prevention, but whether many of them have changed their behavior to rigorously practice safe sex? I think the number is still very small. Behavior change takes years, in the U.S. as well. They are still people in the U.S. who doesn't believe that AIDS exists and think they are invincible.

01/22 Bloody Monday. This day was particularly bad. I think over 20 people died from various demonstrations. I have a bad feeling that Peace Corps is not going to let us stay at our site much longer.

01/23 After such a bad day yesterday, I decided to bike to Kankalabe where Toni - my nearest PCV neighbor lives. We called out on the high frequency radio there and learned that it's very likely that we both will be picked up the NEXT DAY to go to Bamako, Mali for a few weeks. They told us, just pack enough things for a couple of weeks, get ready to leave. We both were like, geeze, are we coming back? What do we tell our village? Do we say our goodbyes? What should we bring? What do we do with 90% of our stuff that we are leaving behind? Give it away or lock it up? So, I quickly bid goodbye to Toni (both hoping that we won't see each other so soon), jumped on my bike and rushed back to Bodié - my village.

Afternoon - There was a baptism of the 3rd baby of one of my 9th grade girl student. Her husband is the director of one of the elementary school in Bodié. There were many teachers there for the ceremony, so I got to say my half-assd goodbye. I basically told them that looking at the continuing deteriorating situation in Guinea, concerned about that volunteers running out money/food/medicine (especially, weekly malaria med), concerned about volunteer safety for those who are in a bigger town, concerned about gasoline reserve running low in the Conakry office and not able to get to us (no gas stations are open), as a precautionary measure, Peace Corps would like to consolidate us and take us to Bamako, Mali for some training for a few weeks while waiting for the situation return to normal working condition. Yes, none of us have worked for 2 weeks, but I was able to do more outreach type of work that I often didn't have enough time to do with my busy teaching schedule.

Informed my family.

Continued onto inform the sous-préfet (the village level government official), other important figures in the village, some other teachers, some of my students, and the university student who organised HIV/AIDS talk whose mother is on the library committee, hoping that he can help to facilitate the project during my absence.

Tried to listen to the HF radio at my site for the confirmation of evacuation to Mali, but there were a lot of statics and I couldn't hear much, but something inside of me told me that we've got to go.

Informed the member of library committee for an emergency meeting next day morning.

Evening - Finalized the organization of library books in a way that others can understand what we have done, with the rest of materials needed to finish the library renovation. For the good students from each grade and students I know well of (over 20 of them), according to their likes/dislikes and needs, I left each student a bag of stuff filled with books, school supplies that I didn't get to use, fabrics that I didn't get to make into dresses for some of my best girls students. I labeled who each bag goes to and gave a list of names to my family, and asked them to hold off on distributing them until the end of February. If I am not back by the end of February, I won't back for a long while or ever at all. I want at least the good students to own some of the books/dictionaries that we got, in case other books eventually disappear into the community. Explained to the university students how we classified the books, how to labeled books and what are the different types of books and journals we have.

Midnight and after - Back to my hut to sorted out the stuff that I will bring with me, stuff to give to my family right away, anything else I can give to my students, etc. Wrote notes to students that I didn't get to say good-bye.

Napped for a couple of hours at 4am.

01/24 - Emergency meeting with the library committee members to recap what we have done, what's left to do, what they can do while I am gone, and left with my host dad a good amount of money so they can finish the rest of repair for library room. My host dad is the president of PTA of the collège.

My really good students from 10th grade came to say goodbye. It was hard, I didn't want to spend a lot of time to say things to them as if this is the last time I will see them, afraid that will really make it final, afraid that will jinks our chance of coming back to our villages quickly. Aissata, Souadou and Kadiata (3 girls from 8th grade) just sat with me outside my hut while I waited for the PC car to come. I had no idea when it was coming, and as each hour pass I begin to wonder if I didn't hear it right, or my 6th sense is off, that they are coming today or not at all. My host mom and her children are suppose to go the garden to work, but not knowing when I will leave, they stayed back also to wait around with me. My host sister just had a baby today (I am still confused whether they were naming her after my mom or me). I didn't get to see them because they live 15 min. bike ride away. I didn't want the PC car comes and not finding me there. They could show up at any minute. And when they come, I know it will be a 2 min. throw your stuff in the car, jump in and go situation.

It is noon and PC car is still not here. They do have at least 5 people to pick up before me, but the longer I wait the more doubt that I have. I start to joke with my students and family, maybe they are not coming today, maybe they are reconsidering "pulling out", maybe I heard wrong, maybe I get to stay. I sent my students away knowing that they need to go back home to work, jokingly saying that they probably aren't coming for me today. I am hungry, so I walked out to the main street where I can get some rice and sauce and still can monitor the "traffic" coming through my village. And let me tell you, the only traffic lately has only been people on bikes, seldomly somebody goes by on a moto and even I started to look up to see who is "wasting gas" when no gas station is open. People sitting on the side of streets always look up whenever a motorized vehicle pass by. Village gasoline vendors buy gas at gas stations in the cities and put them in wine bottles to sell back in villages. Gas price has gone up quite a bit since strike started, and a lot of vendors aren't even willing to sell even someone is willing to pay the high price. It seems like this strike will not end any time soon. My host mom wanted to make me some lunch but I told her not to, didn't want her to go through so much trouble to just make me something. They can't afford to eat rice and sauce for lunch, usually just boil up some sweet potatoes or whatever else starchy tuber food that is in season.

So after I finished eating, I spent sometime chatting with the people selling on the side of streets, like it is just another day, cos 1pm passed and there is no sign of PC car. 2pm came and passed, still I am hanging around wondering if these just all has been a "boo, we got you." From noon news update, today has been rather a calm day in term of protests around country. So, I am back in my compound joking with another teacher who came to talk to my host dad, next thing you know I hear a car come by, our regional driver came in with my other PCV friends. I am like, hey I thought you guys were never going to come, and was in a state of mind since that I went through all these packing, arrangement for the library while I am gone temporarily, said half assed goodbyes, I might as well just leave for a couple of weeks and I am sure that I will come just right back. Then, one of the PCV told me that no PC country has "evacuated" (PC is still not calling it evacuation at the moment) has ever gone back. Madagascar is the only one that suspended their program for 3 months, and reopened. Chad is still closed after their evacuation last year. I broke down and started bawling in front of everyone. There were other people who came into the compound seeing the PC car drove up to my house. We quickly put my backpack in the car and locked up my hut. I reminded my family again if I don't come back in a few months, make sure they distribute the books I left to my students and make use of what I left behind. Of course I gave them all my food right away. I hope they figured out how to cook oatmeal.

I gave my host mom a huge hug while sobbing badly. She was very calm today and comforted me, saying that she knows that I will be back soon. I didn't know what to believe anymore.

We only just began to loose control of what will happen to us and getting on a month-long ride of emotional roller coaster. (to be continued...)

Part II: Strike continues / "Evacuation"

01/24 Overnight at Mamou.

01/25 Mamou - Kankan. Overnight at Kankan with 50+ PCVs at the PC regional house that normally sleeps 20.

01/26 Some of us stayed in Kankan for a day while others left for Bamako in the first group of vehicles. Kankan was calm that day and we were able to go to the market to get some food.

01/27 Kankan - Bamako. Arrived at the PC Mali training center at the outskirt of Bamako. Sharing "evacuation experience" with one and another. Some volunteers had to spend the last 2 weeks at someone else's site, therefore couldn't go back to their site to get stuff before coming to Mali; some didn't know until they saw PC car drove up. I actually had more time to arrange things.

01/29 PCVs from Conakry arrived by plane. Many of them just came back from vacationing in the U.S. when the strike started, so they all got stuck in th PC compound and was on "house arrest" for over 2 weeks. How terrible. I would go crazy. Of course none of them got to get back to their village/their house before "evacuation".
Everyone is at different places with this whole "evacuation thing". Some are rather excited about this free trip to Bamako; a rare few couldn't careless if we don't go back to Guinea; some are skeptical that we can just chill here a bit then will head back to Guinea; some are very hopeful; some are heartbroken because they had to leave their guinean boy/girl friend behind. PC Guinea was only able to bring out Guineans that are married to PCVs. Everyday, I walk around with a radio still following my routine of checking news morning, noon and evening, plus now we have internet, I check news online whenever I can. There are total of 5 computers for over 100 of us. I am on a emotional roller coaster everyday, desperately trying to find a sliver of hope from news that's getting worse and worse. I want badly to go back and can't help to hope, but somehow I knew I was being unrealistic.

01/31 Our country director Steve came to Bamako meet all 105 of us. This is the only time where all of the volunteers in Guinea are under one roof. He is still being very hopeful and gave us a pep talk. He almost got teary eyed when he hear that many of us can't wait to go back.

02/02 - 02/05 Bamako - Ségou - Bamako. Music Festival at Ségou by the Niger River. This is an annual event in its 3rd year. For us PCVs coming from Guinea, we are so impressed with the organization and quality of the festival. During the day, there are performance of local folk music and dance group, puppet shows, art galleries to go to, souvenirs shops to browse till you drop, canoe races, and at night, big shot perform on a stage set up on the water with audience dancing the night away. I really enjoyed lot of music I heard here. All malien music except one group is Tuareg whose music has some influence from Algeria. Can't imagine Guinea get so organized to do something like this. The festival is intended to bring more tourism to this part of Mali, and there were a good mix of tourists and expats that came to the festival. One word on vendors hassling you to buy things, extremely annoying. So these 3 days at the festival was kind of intended to get us forget the sad situation that brought us here. I was numb for about 3 days, then back to reality again in Bamako.

Conté agreed to name a premier minister who is allowed to form his own government and has real power. The union leader suspended the strike while waiting for the nomination. We are guessing strike suspension is to allow some food and gas shipped upcountry, so people can replenish their reserve and continue the strike if they need to. We are all very skeptical Conté will name a PM that people will accept so easily. What I don't understand is why they didn't give Conté a deadline to name the premier minister.
Why I care if there is a deadline for it, we can't sit around forever. We need things to change more quickly, so PC can decide one way or other. Some of us was ready to wait in Bamako for as long as we need so we can go back to Guinea. We even asked if we can do that even others can't wait very long. No. PC Washington can't keep over 100 volunteers in a confined compound for days on end not being productive, and they had to pay to feed and house us. We were very well fed with 3 meals a day, snacks in between, stipend of $14 per day (I was getting $3 a day in Guinea), shuttles that took us into downtown Bamako morning till late night, so we can shop/eat at nice restaurants/drink the night away. I spent most of my money on souvenirs. It was tough to be around so many PCVs in a confined area, it's like forced socialization. Of course there are some PCVs I am good friends with, but some others I found hard to relate with since they are just out of college. There also seem to be some interesting differences between PCVs teachers and PCVs working in business/health/agroforestry (we call them extensionist). The teacher PCVs tend to be more serious, spend more time at their sites, and party less.
So, this no deadline on naming a PM is worrying me. Our time is running out. We've been in Mali for 2 weeks. We can only stay here for a maximum of 1 months without working.

02/10 Not a surprise to many people that Conté nominated a close ally to be the PM. Guinean felt they just got a slap on the face. It is a Friday, and after the 2pm prayer, people took out to the streets without the union leaders giving order to resume the strike. My heart sank. There is no light at the end of the tunnel.

02/11 More demonstrations and more escalating violence. I am so pissed and I cried whenever I hear the news update.

02/12 l'Etat de Siège. Conté declared marshall law. People are banned from leaving their home between 6pm till noon the next day, everyday. Army has the power to shoot anyone who breaks this law. U.S. Embassy in Guinea ordered their non-essential personnel to leave. PC Washington took the signal to suspend our program, and that's for a minimum of 3 months.

02/16 We plunged full force into figuring out what to do with everyone. At first they only offered close of service to the group (G9) that was at the end of their service and the rest of us interrupted service. Then, PC got really considerate and we speculate that our country director rallied for us, that we have the option of transfer to Mali for 3-month temporary assignment, or transfer to other african PC country for 1-2 year assignment, or close of service and get re-instated to Guinea if the program resume in 6 months. Everyone was swarming around trying to figure out what they want to do. The transfer options were coming from other country directors and those of us who want to transfer had about 24 hours to decide. So, again, we weren't given much time. Once PC Washington decide we aren't going back to Guinea, they really wanted to get us out of sitting around and not have anything to do situation QUICK, and not have to keep paying for it. We wanted to be out of each other's hair anyway. People who were thinking of transferring to another country had a much harder time deciding. They got to think if they are willing to recommitting to different program and readjusting to a different culture, after just settled into one. They say early termination rate for this kind of transfer is 50%.

We had most of our Guinean staffs here with us through the transition period. It is so hard to watch them trying to process us out while being so consumed by the worsening situation in Guinea, worried about their family, their country, and going back to Guinea without a single volunteer. What they worked so hard on isn't there to wait for them when they go back. I wonder if they feel alone, while we can go on to do many other things, they only can go back to country that is falling apart.

02/18-02/24 PCVs swarming around doing paperwork and medical examination to get processed out. People start to leave. While we really start to get to each other, it is still hard to seeing your friends go off to all different directions, especially for those of us staying in Mali, feeling very much abandoned. I wonder if my village feel that way about me, if our guinean staffs feel that way about us. It is hard enough to be taken away from our home so abruptly, then we had to watch our family of PCVs falls apart.

02/25-03/08 Apparently it is not so easy for find some temporary lodging for us staying in Bamako to work for 3 months. Many landlords don't find such a short lease. I have to confess that I am surprise to hear there are lease here and real-estate agent, after living in a remote african village where things are structured like I am used to.

03/09 Tosi and I finally moved into our apartment.

Happy New Year!

2007-01-03T05:05:00.000+08:00

With a thick layer of dirt and my hair feeling like straw, after getting through what seemed like a million border checkpoints, we got back to the PCV house in Conakry finding again a houseful of volunteers and no open beds. Luckily, there still is water, so I took a nice hot shower and feeling all refreshed from my ride back from Freetown, Sierra Leone.

We had left on the 28th, spent a whole day in the car and got in Freetown just before it got dark, checked into the YMCA in downtown Freetown. I had changed about 100000 FG (guinean francs) into about 43000 SL (sierra leonian) at the borders, but that was just enough to pay for the hostel room for the night. There was a reliable person at the YMCA who helped us to change about $200 in the street to 600000 SL since all the banks were closed by the time we arrived. Actually changing money here in Africa are mostly done on the street where one can usually find a better rate and no service charge. The only time one is able to change FG into dollars or euros at a bank is when one can furnish an airline ticket out of Guinea and a passport, because according to the bank why would anyone need to convert their FG into dollars or euros (short of the daily devaluation of FG).

It is amazing how after 10 years of civil war, Freetown looked nicer and more structured than Conakry. For starters, there is definitely more infrastructure of roads and electricity. The "state road" on the Sierra Leone side is much wider, smoother and less pot-hole infested compare to the "state road" on the Guinea side. We also saw much much less "wild life" strolling on the road in Sierra Leone. I really meant domesticated wild life like cows, sheeps, goats and chickens. Driving in the state "highway" in Guinea, one must acquire the skills of navigating through a obstacle course of pot-holes and live-stocks on the road. In Sierra Leone, there are plenty more road signs, street signs, sidewalks and even crosswalk markings. Some establishments have actual street address like we do in the states, unlike in Conakry, where an office or private residence doesn't have a street address, just a post box number and the neighborhood it belongs. In Freetown while riding in a taxi or walking down the streets, one other PCV who is with us couldn't help awing at all the street food and a large selection of consumer products. For 4 days, we overdosed on fried chickens and fishes. They were so good, tasty fried breaded skin and tender meat, and they are everywhere. I've never seen fried chicken being sold on the streets in Conakry. And even if there is fried chicken being sold, they probably don't have much meat on them. Chickens in Guinea are scrawny. I hope that I've eaten enough meat to last me for a month.

What other things in Freetown really stood out in my mind?
1. There are tons of churches. Apparently 40% of population in Freetown is Christians, lot more than that in Conakry.
2. More young women and girls are in western clothing and more skimpy skirts that show a whole lot more legs.
3. Normal capacity of 4 passengers in a taxi, not like in Guinea, 6 passengers + the driver in a taxi.
4. Feeling that things are expensive. The price "sticker" are in the same amount except in Sierra Leonie which is 2 times more valuable than FG. So we were constantly multiplying all the prices by 2 to determine how much we would be paying in FG. I heard in Dakar, Senegal, the price is 10 times that of Conakry since CFA is much more valuable than FG. PCV in Senegal can save up to buy a ticket to go home, and us, we would be lucky to save some money to fly to Dakar which is around $250.

After spending first night in Freetown, we headed south along the coast to a beach resort that most of the expats, westerners and guinean PCVs go to, called River #2. Funny name, but it was absolutely beautiful. It was only 1 hour away from Freetown, but the trip was broken into 3 legs, with the first two legs us riding in beat up minibus with other Sierra Leonian bumping our heads and butts in the bus due to the dirt roads, then we had to wait around for over an hour at the second stop hoping some random car passing by will be willing to take us down to the resort. We ended up charter a mini-bus for the three of us and paid 10 times more than what we would pay if the bus wasn't chartered. All the hassle on the road was well worth it, though. The beach is pristine. Like the nice beach in the carribeans, but without the touristy feel and has unspoiled natural beauty. I spent a lot of time staying in the ocean and contemplating the dramatic scenery of mountains soaring into the sky.

The hotel rooms were simple but clean, and right on the beach. Each night, we went to bed listening to the soothing sound of ocean wave. There is a tiny village by the resort with people living there mostly working in the resort. We had some even better fresh off the hot oil fried chicken from this lady in the village. Yummy! The food from the restaurant of the resort is kind expensive to us poor PCVs, but I treated myself to 2 meals of oh so tender crab and baracuda. New year was rang in on the beach as well. We kept ourself warm by a bonfire and listened to dance music coming out a "disco club" in the small village.

All wonderful vacation has to come to an end, and we headed back to Freetown on New Years day. The capital was rather deserted, and we found strolling around rather easy and much more pleasant than walking in Conakry. I have acquired a hobby of buying fabrics ever since I came to Guinea, well I say hobby is because I would keep buying fabrics and can never decide what I want to make out of them. There are some type of fabric in Sierra Leone that can't be easily found in the Guinea, so we each picked up a few. Then we headed to a restaurant by a beach at one section of Freetown, and it was packed with locals enjoying the turning of new year. It was outdoors and nice, good mix of locals and expats, and I felt like I was back in southern california.

All you want to know about great eats in Guinea

2006-12-27T04:48:00.000+08:00

Now that I have been in Guinea a year, I think that I have tried most of their eats. The most important meal of the day, is of course dinner. If a family has the means, they will eat some baguette bread dipped in local brewed tea for breakfast. I rarely see my family cook lunch or eat a proper lunch. Instead they will just boil some sweet potatos when they get back from working in the field at about 2pm.

Breakfast

Every village has about 2 or 3 bakery. The bakery is a large version of brick oven that we see in some pizza restaurant close to the size of minivan. Don't get too excited, the only bread they bake is baguette, anything more fancy than that is probably too cost prohibitive and villagers can't afford to buy it. Guinean like to eat bread dipped in tea, or if they can afford it, they like to spread mayonnaise or butter over it (but that's rare for an average family to buy a bottle of mayonnaise to eat at home themselves). I know what you are thinking, eeww, mayonnaise, so unhealthy. I thought of that, too, but after checking the label and seeing the proteins listed, and considering how protein deprived they are and how little fat they get in their diet, and how much physical labor they put out daily, mayonnaise is probably good for them instead of for us Americans who sit on our ass all day, have four wheels for our legs and have all the option of food at our fingertips.

Another breakfast item that I have grown to love is guinean porridge. Guinean women make tiny flour ball size of lentil, cook them in water with sugar and lemon juice for a long time, so it becomes creamy like the consistency of runny hot cereal. It is sweet with a hint of sourness. I love to buy some fresh fried flour dough (golf ball size), break them into small pieces and put in the porridge to eat together. The taste reminds me of chinese fried bread stick in hot soybean milk that I grew up eating. Most of time the porridge is made with cassava (yuca in spanish, manioc in french) flour, sometimes rice flour or corn flour. A new varity that has hit our market is rice porridge mixed with peanuts. My new favorite.

So, that's the two types of local breakfast you would find people in the village eat, there is a third type of breakfast with all local ingredients, but you will only find it at the white person's house (yes, that's me, all non-blacks are consider white to guineans), that's baguette with fresh grinded organic non-sugar added local peanut butter and local made honey, simply divine. But, I can't seem to get the local to agree with me on the taste, all us volunteers love it. It is probably too much of a luxury to eat peanut butter this way for guineans.

When you are in a big town, then you can find omelet sandwich also for breakfast which is scrambled eggs with onions and tomatos sandwiched in a baguette.

Lunch & Dinner
There are three main "dishes": Rice w/ sauce, Toa, and Fonio that you will find being prepared in guinean daily life.

Rice w/ sauce: one stable in guineans diet and can be found at home or in restaurant. There are peanut sauce, leaf sauce, eggplant sauce, okra sauce, bean sauce, and soup sauce. The sauce are poured over a bowl of rice and depend on the portion of rice, it can be served to 1 or 10 person. Almost all the sauce has the common ingredient of dried fish, maggie cube (the equivalent of a mixture of chicken bouillion and seasoning of instant noodle), onions and tomatos.

Peanut sauce of course, is based on locally made peanut butter, if one doesn't skimp on the peanut butter, it is very delicious.

Leaf sauce are typically made with cassava leaf, according to "Where There is No Doctors"(a book us volunteer take to our village for self diagnose, a very handy book at times, othertimes, it just make me think I have all kinds of diseases), is a great source of protein. I find the texture of cassava leaf grainy and dry, not a personal favorite. Then there is sweet potato leaf sauce, added with a little bit of okra to make the texture a bit slimmy and smooth, which is much easier to swallow. I take sweet potato leaf sauce over cassava leaf sauce anyday. The last is boroboro (let's just call it guinean wild spinach) leaf sauce. It is a barely edible grass that pop out everywhere. My host mom only cook it when she doesn't have 5 cents to buy other leaves, and of course when you can't afford the better leaves, you are usaully low on dried fish and seasoning, so needless to say, I've never had a good boroboro leaf sauce. Although I like cooking it with tomatos and eggs the few times I had instant noodles.

The leaves are chopped to really tiny fine piece and boiled for a long time with other ingredients before it is ready. Guinean kitchen knives are so dull, like our butter knife, so it is no danger to guinean when they hold a bundle of leaves in the hand and chopping it in their palm. Guineans don't use chopping board. Their palm is their chopping board.

Eggplant and Okra sauce are done in a similar way like leave sauce where vegetables are chopped to very small pieces and cooked for a long time until it is mushy. It is also a more expensive sauce to make, probably why I never find them in "restaurants". Toward the summer, I've started to make these two types of sauce once a week for my family. Yep, you guess it, they are my favorite sauce for my rice.

Toa: before I can explain to you what a toa is, I should explain to you what cassava is. Cassava is a woody shrub with starchy tuberous root. Very important carbohydrate staple to Guineans, especailly with the ever increasing prices for rice. The leaves like I've said before can make leaf sauce. The root has a brown tree bark like skin, and the inside is kind like sugar cane. The guineans eat it raw, or after it has been cooked in water. They also dry a lot of them, so later on they can grind them to flour to eat it throughout the year. Flour are milled by pounding a baseball bat sized pestle into a waist high wooden mortar.

I tried many times to do it at my village, they always laugh and think it is the funniest thing that a white person is doing hard manual labor. The pestle is not light. It weighs somewhere between 10 to 15 lbs. Try to lift that up and down for an hour many days a week. No wonder everyone here is very muscular. They never let me do it for too long because to them I can never do it perfectly and they don't want me to roughen my hands. Okay, back to Toa, Guineans cook cassava flour with water to a thick liquid rice pudding like consistency and eat it with peanut butter based watery sauce. The whole thing is sandy color. I never seem to get enough sauce to wash down toa, not a easy thing to swallow. It taste as bad as it sounds, except when the sauce is made with a lot of peanut butter which is rare. I am eating toa at least 3 times a day now, as rice is getting harder and harder for my family to afford. Toa also is not found in "restaurants", my guess is they are too cheap to be sold.

Fonio: I like this even less than toa. It is usually dry and kind of sandy. Fonio is a really small millet that is first painstakingly removed from the plant by stumping on it, then the husk is seperated by pounding the grain in the mortar. Since the the grain of fonio isn't much larger than that of sand, it is really hard to get all the husks out.

Another meal that is usually reserved for special guests, but can be highly lethal to those who have not developed a strong stomach to all the unknown foreign bacterias, is the locally produced cottage cheese over corn meal or rice with a pinch of salt or sugar (in my case when I visited my students in far away villages).

Snacks: besides cheaped candies and gums from china and stale cookies from really I never cared to find out where, I prefer the local snacks like fried flour dough of ping-pong ball size, roasted peanut, broiled peanut, fried sweet potato, fried plantain, homemade caramel candy, and roasted corn.

Beverage: Bissup rocks! made from hibiscus flower, mostly sweet with a hint of sourness. It comes in a plastic bag half size of a sandwich bag, cinched with knot on top. Sink your teeth to a corner of the bag and suck, and when you are done, you will say, "ah, got to get another one!" There is also drinkable yogurt in a bag. It is not as sweet as yogurt in America and taste much more original. There is also ginger juice drink in a plastic bag. It is basically just ginger boiled in water added with sugar.

Fruits:
I am in the middle of orange season. My host sister picked about 50 oranges to for me to bring to Conakry. I guess that's what they do when they go to the city. Well, for a good reason, here 5 oranges can cost 2 000 FG (guinea franc), and they aren't even all that sweet, where at my village, 5 nicely riped orange cost only 500 FG. Voici, la difference! Another very important point to make is, here, we drink our orange not eat them. The green or yellow hard skin of an orange is peeled off like you would to an apple,leaving the white interior softer skin, then you would slice off a small piece on top, exposing the "meaty" part of orange, then you just suck on it, siphoning all the juice out of it,
the cows and goats love the what's left of the orange after you've drank all the juice out, they tend to stand near you and "stare" you while you are drinking an orange. Voila, how we get fresh squeezed orange juice at our side of the world. 100% natural, fresh squeeze (by you) and absolutely no sugar added! (not to mention sugar is expensive here).

Mango season rolls in around June. There are so many mangos then, like the oranges in the orange season, many suffer the feat of falling off their trees and rot on the road.

some random photos

2006-12-26T06:39:00.000+08:00

My kids preparing afternoon tea.

A corner of the room I use to do revision with my students.

Handmade and handcrafted stool from my village.

Local artists performing at an opening ceremony.

A cute lizard.

The 10am morning prayer at the mosquee to close a month long lent of Ramadan at my village.

My mosquee going get-up. A picture with one of my student after the prayer.

Our school bell, an used car rim hung off a tree that we hit with a metal bar. Can be quite loud.

Flag raising every morning. Students typically sing national anthem while flag is raised.
My morning hot porridge ladies. I used to go to the lady on the very left. But the second one on the left started to make this rice porridge mixed with peanut, delicious, so I am now her loyal customer.

Sunday morning at the center of our village. My village is a sous-prefecture, equivalent of our county I guess. Some people are waiting to have their luggages packed up and leave to go to Conakry, some people came to send packages like sac of tomatoes, sac of peanuts, goats, chickens, etc. and letters with the drivers, so their relatives in Conakry can receive them. Their version of FedEx.

Here are some photos to explain the progress on the library

2006-12-26T06:08:00.000+08:00

Exterieur view of the portion of the building that we'll install the library. The rest of the building to the left is the office of the sous-prefet. The sous-prefet is like a county commissioner.

The entrance to the room that we'll install the library.

Interieur view of the room that we'll install the library. This room was the former conference room for the Association of Rural Community Developpment.

Interieur view of the room after some parts of the wall have been patched, the metal bars that have been installed in the rear window to prevent break-in, the first set of furniture that we ordered to have made.

Christmas day at a tropical paradise

2006-12-26T05:15:00.000+08:00

So, you thought that I am torturing myself here in Guinea? Think again. Just an hour boar ride away from Conakry, I leave the run down capital of a west african country, and stepped into a tropical paradise, an island called Roum. I was glad that I just decided that I will forget work for a day, and hang out on a island beach with 17 other volunteers. The island is just an hour away by a large woonden canoe like boat equipped with a motor, and far enough to transport you to a beautiful and relaxing spot. The sand was so fine. I had hard time wash them off when I got back. There is a hotel with a nice outdoor restaurant, but actually thank to that Guinea isn't that popular to tourists, the beach was crowded at all. There were few other expats and rich guineans enjoying a day at the beach.

and here is a baby chimpanze that someone brought with them to the beach.
and here is a guy who is drumming at the beach.

Season Greetings!

2006-12-25T09:19:00.000+08:00

Oh! My watch just announced (well, beeped) that it is midnight, so Christmas day has started for me. I got in Conakry about 5 hours ago, about 7pm. The earliest that I have made in here. We left about 9:30 this morning from my village. I found a house full of volunteers much to my dismay, with every single bed taken, but it is expected. I will just have to be content with sleeping on the couch for a couple of days, until people start clearing out of here. Conakry is just like what I remembered, hot and humid, and I am loving being in the air-conditioned house.

I grabbed a quick hot shower, to wash off a layer of red dust that accumulated on me from my trip. Then head out with a few other volunteers to a Christmas party at an embassy worker's house. As it turned out, the wife is the assistant ambassdor and her husband is the country director for USAID in Guinea. We were the last group that showed up at their house, avoided awkward gathering with other embassy workers and expats (a relief to me). The last time I went to a gathering hosted by embassy people, we the PCVs felt like the poor distant relatives to the rich expats. I only decided to go this time for the free food. There were lots of delicious finger foods and I got to eat a good amount of meat (hmm, yum.) I hope they didn't mind us mostly just went there to eat.

The week between Christmas to the 2nd of January is a break for school in Guinea. To be honest, I really didn't want to leave my site. There is a village that is about an hour bike ride away where some of my 8th graders come from. I have been there a couple of times last year, but would really like to go back to see more students' families again this year. There are quite a few smart and hardworking 8th graders from there. Running around for the library project has given me little time this year to just go to a student's house and hang out. This week off could've been a perfect time for me to do some visits to my students near and far. The fete of Tabaski also falls on the 31st of December, also known as the fete of Mouton, the biggest fete for the muslims. I am missing that as well at my site. Granted it is nothing nearly exciting like our Christmas, and we eat nothing nearly sumputous like Thankgiving dinner, but I enjoy saluating families and seeing many happy faces around. Thirdly is that the Germans are coming to stay for three weeks, and I am missing the first two weeks of their stay. So, you might ask what I am doing in Conakry then. Because I thought I probably should do some traveling instead of staying at my site all the time. I guess it is a good thing that I wish I could be at my site right now, and I wish I could celebrate with my friends and families at site for Tabaski. Anyway, I am going with a few PCVs to Freetown from the 28th of Dec. to the 2nd of Jan. then I will be back in Conakry to finish off my application for teaching english in France program. I also have a long shopping list and todo list for Conakry. The carpenters have a deadline of Jan. 7th to finish off the last set of furnitures and hopefully, we can open the library in mid-Jan. Inch Allah!

Merry Chirstmas, Happy New Year, Joyeux Noel, Bonne Annee, Bonne Fete, etc. etc. etc.!!!

motivation to do more

2006-12-25T09:18:00.000+08:00

Hi Everyone,

Good Saturday morning!

I am heading back to my site for a week, then I will head down to Conakry to go to Freetown for a few days, Inch' Allah. Still no definite word on whether there is a strike or when, how should I plan according, but no frustrations or problems of mine compare to that of my guinean friend. An intelligent young woman who has a lot of potentials that I met last year. I haven’t had many interactions with her, but I felt certain connection with her with the few talks that I had with her. I am glad she trusted me enough to tell me that she has known that she is HIV positive for a few years. I would not have suspected at all, given how positive she is, how hopeful she is about the whole thing, and how she always carried on so optimistically. It really hits me hard to learn about it. I know it’s not the end of the world for her, but we know there is a certain time limit. She is really good about taking her medicine on time and taking care of her health is her number one priority. I am just simply amazed by her positive attitude giving how HIV/AIDS is viewed here, how limited information people have on it, how basic the health care system, how difficult life already is, how expensive to eat well in order to stay healthy. It is so much harder for a person who is HIV positive living in the third world country than in the U.S. The difficulties of staying physically healthy and psychologically healthy so they won’t die eventually from diseases like malaria, tuberculosis because their immune system is slowly destroyed by HIV. She is also formed an NGO with other guineans who are HIV positive, to do sensiblisation on HIV/AIDS, willing to put themselves out there to tell people that HIV/AIDS exist, how to prevent from being infected, people who are infected can still live a long life if they take care of themselves, etc. Lots of courage, vraiment! So, I am going to continue to give her emotional support, but not pity, and will look for ways to collaborate with her and her NGO, to help get the message across. I feel guilty for not doing enough during the past year on talking to people about HIV/AIDS, partially due to lack of time, but hoping to work on that as well in the last 6 months that’s left for me (6 months, if I can’t do a third year in my village).

Well, until next time, folks.

Bonnie

update in Dec.

2006-12-25T09:13:00.000+08:00

I am back to Labe for a few days get some money and communicate with other PCVs about holidays plans. I am torn between going to Freetown (Sierra Leon ) for a few days with other PCVs and stay at my site since the Germans are coming the same time our trip is planned. Hopefully they will still be at my village when I get back after the New Year’s. I also have to go town to Conakry to get my application for Teaching English in France Program squared away. So, I will be down in Conakry around Christmas till end of the first week of January. Just found out that one girl in our group just got engaged to a Guinean that she has been dating, and the wedding is the first weekend of January in Mamou. Lightening speed. Wow! As for me, I get plenty of marriage proposals so I can take them to the States, but nothing serious. Sorry, no juicy stuff from me.

Okay, so the Teaching English in France program is a back up if my wish to do a third year cannot realize due to whatever reason, especially if something goes down in Guinea . The unions are talking with the government again about a possible strike which might potentially affect our vacation plans. So, we’ll see.

Here are some stuff I wrote since I got to Labe . Lots of random thoughts.

Happy holidays everyone! Sorry that I am lazy about getting greeting card out to you, but I miss you all and wishing you a joyous time with your loved ones!

It is so nice to sit on a double bed in a simple and clean hotel room, typing this on a laptop.
Saving it on a flash memory, so tomorrow I can upload it at the internet cafe, not have to pay the time to type it up there, also with a cell phone next to me, life is good. Thank goodness for technology.

There is winter in Africa ...
Is winter coming to you in full force? It sure is here in the fouta region of Guinea . The last week of Nov. and first week of Dec., the nights and mornings have been so COLD for sleeping in an uninsulated house or hut with a thin wool blanket or lack there of. Most of people in my village live in a brick house with metal tin roof. The roof is pitched up in the middle forming a triangle to allow rainwater to drain off. Where the tin roof come down and meets the wall, often times there are many gaps between the sheet metal and top of the wall. The windows and doors are mostly wooden that have warped over times and the frames are often not well done, so again there are gaps in the windows and doors. I also doubt many family have thick blanket to fend off the cold that “attack” us during December and January. I don’t know if this year is colder than last year, or I am just getting more use to the heat and not so much the cold. Probably the later. I tell my colleague that I am going to die when I go back to northeastern U.S. , can’t take the cold no more.

Of course my hut is worse than a tin-roofed brick house (at least I think) to fend off the chilly nights and mornings. I would wear 3-4 layers on top, 2 layers of pants and socks, double up my thin blanket with extra sheets that I have to sleep at night. It was hard to get up in the morning. When I go to my 8 o’clock class, I would slip a pair of pants under my skirt, wear my fleece over my top, white socks on two feet, slip on the flip-flops, and I feel like japanese woman (mostly due to white socks and flip-flops and force to trot small steps becase of long and restricting skirt). I probably should have a taken a picture of my funny outfit, to show you how unfashionable that Bonnie has became.

Well, it is definitely not as cold here as it is for you guys in the States, but people here don’t have the appropriate infrastructure or clothing for the cold weather. Because it is only cold at night and in the morning, and for a couple of months, people try to get by without buying warm clothing or blankets, simply can’t afford it. I ended up giving my family two pairs of socks that I hardly wear. I see so many kids riding bikes to school in the morning without gloves, hands getting so cold. Some kids ride almost an hour to school. Then there are elementary school boys whose uniform is short sleeve shirt and short. I wish I can give every kids fleece, pants, socks, gloves and hats. I got a cold ever since the last time I came to Labe for Thanksgiving dinner, and is finally getting over it now. Everyday I go into a classroom, the most prominent noise is kids coughing. I have to repeatedly tell them to cover their mouths when they cough, so we don’t all repeatedly fall sick. Sometimes I just feel like I should spend the money allocated for the library on buying warm clothing for the kids. (Sigh... am I doing the right thing with this library when there are so many other basic needs not satisfied in the community.)

Of course during the day between 10am and 5pm when sun is out, it gets warm or almost hot again, but it is chilly in my hut during the day, so I am not in my hut very much during the day this month. My lips also is chapped, and the lip balm that I brought with me finally found its use. Amazing what a year in Africa does to me.

“What, they are women???”
Peace Corps Washington sent two senior inspectors from the Inspector General office (an independent office to evaluate peace corps programs) to Guinea in the last couple of weeks. They randomly chose about 30-40 volunteers and I was on the list. So of course, I had to inform all the important people in the community about this visit. When I told my principal that there are two women coming, he said, “Ils sont les femmes?” (They are women?) I was as shocked by his question as he was shocked by two women inspectors. (Oh, geeze)

“Is that all the bricks that you will make?” said, the president of community rural developpment, who is also the history teacher at our college.

Reading between the lines, he really meant, “can’t you make more bricks for us or give us more free stuff?”. I must give you a little bit of the background on why I am picking on his statement. So, if you have read my previous posts, you might recall that there is a Guinean doctor who left our village to work in Germany for over 20 years. He came back with his family, and through help by his former german colleagues (also doctors), together they built an elementary school and a hospital in the village. The german come every year to see the kids that go to that school and treat patients, and I met them and talked to them quite a bit last year. They were concerned with overcrowdness of our college with an every increasing population of students, and they say it is because my 3 pages of observations and comments to them, that they decided to donate money to the college to add one classrooms, but as it turned out there are enough money for two classrooms. We are in the progress of building them. The germans are coming again toward the end of the year for two weeks to visit and see patients. I feel that here when some people receive too many generous supports, they begin to think that they are always entitled to free aid; that other “rich” people owe it to them. An attitude dangerous and hard to combate.

By Wednesday, I need a break, etc.
Teaching 7 classes, 18 hours a week is taking a toll on me. I teach Monday through Thursday, 4hours every morning, plus Saturday for 2 hours. By Wednesday, I wish I can take a break. I was really glad to get out of my site this time, largely due to that I am running low on cash, and for some reason I am craving for some comfort/luxury food, cold soda, carrots, just needed to treat myself a little. I’ve also started doing revision with my 10th graders on physics and math after school. I am also giving them a lot of math homeworks to prepare them for both math and physics.

Seeda seeda - Petit a petit - little by little
(I wonder if the french really use the expression of “petit a petit”, meaning little by little)

Remember I said that I had a hard time connecting with my female students? I am glad to report that I have found a small group of girls among the 8th graders who are quite motivated, outgoing and like to hang out with me. We have been getting together to organize books for the library. We have made a master list of all the books we want to put in the library, about 500 of them. Then, we grouped all the information books by their subject matter according to the junior dewey system, which means, for exemple all the history and geography books are labled 900 and on the lable there is color code as well to make it easier for younger readers to identify books. We are now on labeling the fiction books, by indicating on the spine, letter “F” and the first letter of the author’s last name. Hopefully, by next week all the books will be labled. I should also hopefully go back with a brand new library stamp, so we can stamp every single book as well. Then we will make a shelf catelog. Also in the last month, we’ve installed the metal anti-theft bars for the windows, which resembles metal bars at a prison cell a bit, but it is a common practice to do here. We have repainted windows and doors. The carpenter has made two books shelfs, 2 tables and 2 benches. I had to stop asking him to make more furnitures because I had go to Labe to get money. So, we are moving along, albeit slowly.

Frustrations
Transportation and communication is such a bitch here. I will say it again, I will say it over and over. So hard to plan a trip down to Conakry , coordinate with others when nothing is for sure. That was my biggest complain to the inspector general. But, what can they do.

around Thanksgiving

2006-12-25T09:09:00.000+08:00

Hi Guys,

How is shopping today? Got a lot good deals? and how was "Turkey" day? Bien mange??? (that's means did you eat well?)

I will be having our Thanksgiving dinner today in about 3 hours with other volunteers who came to Labe. Just rode in this morning around 11am. It is my 4th trip coming to Labe on a bike. It is never easy, but much less tiring and with very little after affect. Most of volunteers came in yesterday, so cooking was well underway when I got to the volunteer house. PC Washington send us a turkey, we bought some fish and chicken on our own, so I am sure it will be a good feast. I just hope it won't burn a hole in my pocket. To my dismay, the check for living allowance coming from PC Washington has not arrive to Conakry, so we haven't gotten paid for the next cycle. To be honest, I came to Labe more to take out all my money, so I can pay for the repair work for the room where we will install the library and the necessary furnitures. The repairs have started, and I like to get everything done in December. Feel a bit guilty, but I also want to pick up some "luxury" food item like cookies, cocao powder, oat meal, and also some more pretty fabric, but money isn't in the bank yet. Darn! I will have to come back to Labe with the mailrun truck in a week and half to get my money. That way, I ride in a PC vehicle to Labe, and just have to bike back to my site (which is an easier ride, :).

I just got an email from my country director that donation to my library project (for repairs and furniture) that we posted through Peace Corps Partnership has been fully funded. Wow! I haven't yet figured out who funded it, but thank you whoever you are. I really wasn't counting on that getting funded after I drained many pockets of yours (my good friends), just thought there might be some other good doers out there. I was just going to fund the repairs and furnitures out of my living and transportation allowance. Since I can't get much at my village and I bike as much as can to avoid taxis, I don't use as much of my allowance as other volunteers. Anyway, that just mean we can make the library even prettier, and we can buy more supplies for the activities that we can do at the library. Horray!

Teaching the second year might be easier, but I am finding being overwhelmed at times with keeping track the progress of all my 7 classes, and the progress of particular students, and displine problems. I am also drilling on my 10th graders on math exercises, to bring their ability level to the level required to study 10th grade physics. Afternoon are mostly spent on items on the todo list for the library. Another french teacher is very motivated to help me with the library, and he is taking care of the coordination of repairs and furniture making, while I shell out money. He has came up with many economic ideas, but I still have to wonder sometimes if he is pocketing a little bit of the money I am paying to the carpenter or the mason. But then I thought about it, he is doing a lot of legwork and talking for me, and why should he do it for free when he doesn't get paid enough for being a teacher, and life is so difficult for them.

I better get back to the house for our Thanksgiving feast, but not before I thank you all for keeping in touch, donating to my library project and keeping me in your thoughts.

I hope you are all having a great Thanksgiving weekend with your loved ones!

From another of your loved ones who could not make it to your table this time,

Bonnie

Back to teaching again...

2006-11-14T06:38:00.000+08:00

I returned to my site in the middle of Ramadan which was during the first week of October. After had been "harassed" so many times last year why I don't fast, I decided to try to fast for a few days, that means no eating or drinking from 5am to 7pm. The exact morning cut off time is always unclear for me, some say 4:30am, other say 5:30am, whatever, in any case, one should not eat or drink from the first prayer of the day (around 5:30am) to the last prayer at sundown. Luckily the week I choose to fast was a little bit unseasonably cool and with moisture in the air, but not enough to feel humid. Some day I got up at 4am to eat a little, so I can last till sundown which is around 7pm, but I often had a hard time to fall back to sleep after swallowing down some peanut butter (the only thing that's tasty to eat and require no time to prepare at 4 in the morning, also a bit like a energy bar that keeps me going for the rest of day). Other day I just got by without getting up early to eat to have enough sleep, those days I barely made it. Not eating during daylight was surprisingly easy, but not drinking water got harder as soon as midday hits and last all the afternoon, a real test of displine and self-control for me. When I fasted though, it felt so good to break the fast with my family or students' families, because I went the same thing with them during the day. Well, of course I stayed in my cool hut as much as could in the afternoon while the villagers, my students are out in the hot sun harvesting.

So, I can proudly tell you that I fasted for 6 days in the month of Ramadan. The week after the week I fasted, it turned hot again and my mouth was on fire everyday after talking for 4 hours at school, needless to say, I drank water when teaching seriously got going again. I still didn’t eat breakfast or lunch, just drank water and had some fruits here and there.

So, Guinea is number one in something. According to BBC, la Guinee is the number one most corrupted country in the world. I will leave you with your reactions...

Moving on, we finally decided on a location for the library. An old large conference room for the community developpment organization. A few work need to be done to clean it up and make it more secure to prevent theft. A bit of the logistics and timing nightmare, since most of the materials are found in the cities, it is not like I can call up so and so, order it, have it to send to us. Sometimes I have to rely on other guineans from my village to find out the price when they going to the city, but have to worry about the price he quotes me is a little bit more than actual, so he can pocket some. Whole new set of frustrations getting a project done. Sometimes I ask myself why did I get myself into all this. But I am determined to get this going, Inch Allah! (I think that’s another way to say “god willing”)

Teaching on the other hand, is so MUCH BETTER the second year around. Confidence in teaching in french, confidence in knowing my materials, and better insights on where students tend to have difficulties and target them. I am enjoying teaching more than ever. Except that this year I have 7 classes, which means 18 hours. The lesson for 7th grade I have to repeat 3 times a week, since there are three 7th grades, 2 times for 8th grades since there are two 8th grades. And if we had enough teachers, we really should divide 7th grades into 4 classes. Oh dear. They passed way too many 6th graders onto 7th grade this year. A direct result of “universal education”, quantity over quality. Also, I have been assigned to the 10th grade to be their equivalent of homeroom teacher. So, I am quite busy at school in term of teaching and some administrative work.

My time to prepare lesson after school has drastically reduced since it is my second year, of course there are improvements I make here and there, but I can teach sometimes just off the top of my head. Which is turn out better sometimes, as inspiration comes during lessons as I see how my students are following my lessons and how well they understand.

Annual girl’s conference in December is postponed due to budget issues. Sad...

Re-Adjusting & month long vacation in northern Europe

2006-09-30T23:55:00.000+08:00

I think it is only fitting, that I use this famous painting byNorwegian painter Munch, to show you how I felt and still feeling sometimes, when returned to Guinea after spending 2 weeks in Norway and 2 weeks in its neighboring Scandinavian countries.

Oh, the cool weather, the clean streets, the incredible efficient, comfortable, reliable, convenient and extensive public transportation network of buses and trains, dentless solid one color spanking new vehicles, beautiful consumer products for your every possible needs(or should I say wants) in your life, drinkable tap water, ice cubes, proper buildings, proper restaurants and cafes... I can go on forever. La Guinee is anything but...

I feel more shocked this time around. I think the difference between Conakry and say Stockholm or Oslo is greater then the difference between Conakry and New York for me. It must have something to do with the fact that I lived in NYC for 6 years, and have seen many different neighborhoods. Its cityscape runs the whole gamut of social-economic conditions. Where when one is a tourist at a place, one tend to see the most presentable parts of that city. But I would still say, that NYC public transit still have much catching up to do to their northern European counterparts.

Now onto a quick rundown of my month long vacation in Europe.

First I spent a day and night in the quaint and artsy neighborhood Montmartre, in a hostel situated behind la Basilique de Sacre Coeur. It is not touristy at all in this part of Montmatre. One can enjoy a quite stroll through beautiful parisian streets admire flower adorned balconies, sidewalk cafes, colorful sidewalk fruits and vegetable stands like a local. I sat in a small park behind the church and took this picture, the back of Sacre Coeur soaring into the blue sky with white fluffy clouds gently brushing by. The weather was just right, the breeze was just refreshing, the sound of water from the fountain in the park was just soothing, and I am awestruck at have experienced the two extreme worlds in less than 12 hours. Apparently the area around the church is very populated with west Africans, and during some of my walks, I heard a lot of Pular, the local language spoken in my village. I felt certain closeness, and I greeted random strangers in Pular and got a lot of smiles and warm greetings in return. Yeah, I was much more comfortable speaking broken Pular to Guineans I found in Paris, then speaking broken french to parisians. Guineans are so warm to people who try to speak their mother tongue, regardless how badly one's pronunciation is. Here, it is the effort that counts. One of the reason why I enjoy my time in Guinea despite of the ever deteriorating physical, economical and political condition of the country. I enjoyed some crepes, salmon spinach cuiche, and of course a tasty meal of sushi (not because Paris is known for sushi, but because it will be the cheaper place to eat it compare to the rest of stops on my trip).

Next, I flew to Copenhagen via Amsterdam. One day I will visit Amsterdam instead of just its airport. Spent a night in a at least 10 stories high old office building turned into a modern IKEA inspired hostel that has more than 1000 beds. My 3 danish roommates from the countryside were here to hang out in the city for the weekend. My parents flew in the next day as scheduled. It's so wonderful to see them. While on the surface they seemed just like I remembered, but I can tell that my dad has slowed down quite a bit from the last time I saw him. As I am writing this now, I feel that the month I spent with them was not enough. Copenhagen is a really flat, with wide streets to accommodate the main mode of transportation - bicycles. Old, young, in jeans, in suit, in dress, going to work, going to stores, all by bicycles. There are still buses and metros, but they love getting around on bikes. I rented a bike for day, a wonderful way to discover the city, in particular to Christiania, originally found by communist hippies, partially self-governing neighborhood of about 850 residents, where the people have developed their own set of rules, completely independent of the Danish government. It is kinda like the equivalent of american trailer park with grafittis all over the place.

3 days later, we crossed from Danmark to Malmo, Sweden via the Oresund Bridge, the second longest suspension bridge in the world (at 1,624 meters long) on the train, meandering along the western coastline of Sweden before entering the capital of Norway, Oslo. Oslo is a lot more compact then Copenhagen(CPH), with narrower streets, and therefore much less bicycles. It is also greener and more hilly. Like CPH, Oslo has its share of pedestrian streets, royal palaces, stately european buildings, bustling waterfront, but I think because it is build on rolling hills and has smaller streets, the cityscape is softer and cozier to that of CPH.

My mom parted from my dad and I after spending 2 days in Oslo, she headed west to Bergen where my brother and sister-in-law recently moved to in Norway to fulfill her "duty" of a new grandmother. Her very first grandchild at an age of 73, needless to say, she is elated. My dad and I, headed in the opposite direction by train, re-enter into Sweden to its majestic capital, Stockholm (STK). STK is made up of 5 to 6 large islands interconnected by many old style bridges. Thank to the varying elevation of the islands, the view across the city is rather dramatic. STK seems larger, more metropolitan, more majestic, more well heeled than the previous two capitals I have visited. It also has a greater mixture of old and modern architecture. It's great to stroll on the cobble stone path in the old town and window shop, or sit on the grass in many small parks along the waterfront. Both my dad and I (two engineering "nerd") really enjoyed the VASA museum, where a well kept 17th century ship is on display. VASA was one of the greatest warship at her time, but sank on its maiden voyage. Apparently the counterweight was too little to keep it stable to the slightest wind. It's not so much that a beautiful large wooden ship (220 feet long, 170 feet tall) was built so long ago, but it is the engineering feat that lifted this ship 100 ft from the sea bottom while keeping the ship intact and brought it to land, that interested us and impressed us.

Continuing westward, we took a overnight cruise to Helsinki. We had a buffet dinner on the ship. I ate a lot of salmons, smoked, raw, cooked, and about 4 or was it 5 heaping plates of food plus desert. Just like anyone who came from impoverished Africa would have done, or someone who makes about $2 a day traveling in countries that cost of living is at least 20% higher than the U.S., plus being in her 30's still have her parents pay for food and lodging because she makes only $2 a day. Needless to say, while I really enjoyed spending time with my parents and visiting new places, I felt very strained financially and therefore mentally. Needless to say, my stomach did not feel very good at all after stuffing myself that night. I ate much less on our return cruise.

Helsinki was more of a transit town for us. A relative newer city without old architecture. It felt more eastern european to me, perhaps partially because the weather was mostly cloudy and rainy while we were there. We took a day trip to see Tallinn, capital of Estonia by boat crossing the Baltic sea. Tallinn is a wonderful surprise. The old town is ornate but not tacky. (here is a picture of me in front of a cathedral). The city has a large area (25% of city area) of forest, green space that date many centuries back, and left untouched, very natural. Along the waterfront, there are many stylish modern houses or apartments, with the kind of design that can go into Architecture Digest.

The next couple of days were by ship and by train backtracking to Oslo, then continuing westward to Bergen, the former capital of Norway. The train from Oslo to Bergen is about 6-7 hours, with the view on the way in the last two hours very dramatic. Rivers cutting through soaring glaciers creating deep valley - the fjords, and countless waterfalls of all different shapes and forms. The train track meander through mountains, twisting and turning, made me rather sick at the end.

Bergen is a beautiful seaside town. Somehow, my brother always manages to live in a place that's off the mountains and by the water, a beautiful combination. My brother's apartment is somewhere half way on the mountain. While the straight distance from the waterfront to his home is short, the uphill climb makes it much longer. The terrain does keep one in shape through.
Most sightseeing places in Bergen are with walking distance, like the fishman's market, the old wooden houses, the pedestrian shopping area, the museums. There is also a tram that takes people to the mountain top for a panoramic view of downtown Bergen (see picture on the right), and do a lot of hiking.

My niece is really cute! I love kissing her soft cheek. My niece's chinese name is Yucheng, meaning rainy city, named after Bergen (the rainy city of Norway). We were fortunately though enjoyed almost a week of sunny days.
It was also unseasonably warm. The vibe at Bergen felt very relaxing. Because it usually gets a lot of rain, when it is sunny, people just leave work early in the afternoon and flock to the sidewalk cafes. Norway seems to be far from the fast paced NYC life. Here, people are well taken care by the government because it is rich in crude oil, there seems to be a large number of middle class, and the difference between rich and poor are much smaller than U.S. or Guinea.

It was a last minute decision, but a great one, Winnie came to meet me in Bergen. We were able to do some more active trip together that I couldn't have done with my parents, or my brother and sister-in-law. Life is much centered around the baby for them these days. It is also a tough transition period for my brother, new country, new job, new language (although he uses english at his work and simple daily life), new baby, - C'est difficile! A phrase we use often here in Guinea. We, thank to the wonderful cob-web like train/bus network in Norway, went to a small village of 200 people, Solvorn in the Sogne Fjords. We stayed at a small b&b, borrowed their bikes and bike along the fjord, hiked to a tall waterfall, visited a wooden church built in the 1100, and ate a lot of apples along the road. The last time I saw lake water this clear, this blue was in the high plateau of Tibet. It is so gorgeous out here. My pictures don't do it justice.

Unfortunately, every vacation and gathering must come to an end, so we will treasure it more and wait for the next one with eagerness. I reorganized all the wonderful toys that Winnie, Michael and Qi bought, and some food that my parents brought over from the U.S. into one big huge suitcase. I owe Winnie big, lugging such a heavy suitcase over to me. She is amazing, always able to work a lot and still have time for friends. Again, thank to all my wonderful friends: Fenyee, Winnie, Kay, Martin, Helen, Qi, Mark, Huston, Cindy, Sam, Tracy, Nicole and Barbaros, for donating money to help shipping many wonderful french books to me from the U.S., and had enough left over to purchase educational games and toys; Michael for bringing back the books from Canada, packaging them and sending them to me; and Ravi for contributing his effort in the west coast on collecting books and sending them to me. I could not have done it alone. Merci, Merci, Merci!!!

I spent the last day there with my family while Winnie toured around Bergen on her own. Got to eat more of my mom's great cooking that I miss so much and unable to reproduce due to lack of ingredients and skills.

Winnie and I took an overnight train together back to Oslo where she flew back to the U.S., and I continued onto CPH to catch my flight to Paris, then onto Conakry. My suitcase weighed 11 kg (22 lbs) over the limit. It costs 16 euro for each additional kg. It would've costed more than what we spent on the toys. So I went to a corner in the airport (it was not crowded that day), went through every packaging, threw out all the cartons, and boxes, stuffed all the heavy stuff in my carry-on, got the weight down to 1 kg over the limit, which they didn't bother to charge me. Phew! 1 day later, I was back in hot, humid, sewage ridden, shanty town Conakry, feeling very frustrated about how I can get myself and all these books and toys back to my site. I've since slowly eased into C'est la vie mood and take things as they go again. It will be all better when I get back to my village where life is much simpler and cheaper, where I am the happiest. I am only staying here longer than I wanted to in hope to catch a free and safer ride back to site.

That's it for now, folks. More later, soon, I hope.

Day 390 - It has been ONE YEAR!!! Yeah! Only got one year left... oh, no...

2006-08-13T08:03:00.000+08:00

It has been ONE YEAR!!! Yeah! Only got one year left... oh, no...

Time really flies. I only have one year left to apply all that I have learned and came to understand about my kids, my community, and the Guinean culture. Really, I don't think that I understand them all that well still and only good solid understanding will come if I really taken on the local language. I guess I will have to work on that next year. Really looking forward to improve my teaching method and class management skill in my second year, and help my next 10th graders to pass their national exam. The new 10th graders have been my favorite class in the college. Hoping to set up a library in my village, but operate it more like a community center at same time, where I will hold art and craft sessions, game sessions, story hours. Very exciting idea, I just hope it will work out. Never know until I try, right? Other idea is working with one of my Guinean counterpart who is a woman on HIV/AIDS sensibilization in the village. I am glad that I was able to find a woman who is fairly competent in French to go to an AIDS training with me, and we can go back to better inform the women in our community, the less informed half of the population. I am not looking forward though, having to start thinking what I am going to do, where I am going to go after my 2 years here. Not willing to commit to any long-term career at this point.

Anyway, last time I had a real update was about my trip to the forest region of Guinea during school "spring break", which is almost 4 months ago. I am getting too old to remember much of what happened when I got back to my site. Let's see...

I think kids never got out of the being out on vacation mood after "spring break", plus with school year coming close to the end, the kids are definitely showing the signs of tired of going to school. Even my 9th grader, which is my best class, is acting up. I hit a few days of feeling really lousy about being here, not being useful and unappreciated. Then it all got better when a few of my 10th graders came to ask me to help them study for physics and math portion of the brevet (national entrance exam) to high school from college. It was only 3-4 kids (all boys) out a class of 60, but I was very glad that they had the initiative to ask me. It was actually much better that they were a small group, so I could pay individual attention to each one, and explain to each one what he didn’t understand in class. Even a group of 4 kids made me felt a bit overwhelming at times, because I would be going through the solution with one kid, and the other ones would be calling “madame, madame” trying to get me to see their answers, so I had to joggle between them. Reviewing with them made me realize how I should improve my approach to teach some of the topics, and what are some concepts that are really difficult for them. Again, I am feeling the strong negative impact on the quality of education due to large classroom from just trying to help a group of 4 kids understand things that they already have seen in school. Of course, kids do not study what they were taught each day when they get home makes the problem worse.

I have been trying to work with my host sister who is a 4th grader so she can actually distinguish for example the letter “i” from letter “q”, after a month of working 1 hour almost everyday, I think she could finally tell the letters apart. I then moved on to getting her to write simple words like “je (I)”, “tu (you)”, “fille (girl)”, etc. I tried so many tricks and gave out candies to award her when she does well, but eventually at the end my effort failed miserably. For one thing she has no desire to learn, even when I make her write a simple sentence 50 times, she would forget how to write all the words the next day. Of course I am not trained to teach kids to build their literacy skills, and even after being here for a year, I still have not become as patient as one thinks I would be. I think I’ve gotten more patient than before, but apparent not enough to work with some Guinean kids. Anyway, I was too eager to see results and got very frustrated at the end when I saw how little progress she was making. My host mom and dad even beat her when they saw how upset I was with her, and tried to make her continue studying with me, but I think they were more concerned with me not being happy with her than she does not want to learn. Sad. Of course, I was the only one who is real sad at the end that she is still illiterate, wishing that maybe if I was just little bit more patient, I could still be tutoring her now. At the end, I feel that I failed to help her, but of course everyone else in the family eventually just think it is no big deal that she can’t read. I am beginning to think that I should give up on trying to get the kids who don’t want to study to like studying, and just concentrate on the few that does to help them to realize their potential. But then I keep going back and forth on it, there is always this little voice keep saying, “Maybe some kids will change”. So I guess the best strategy in my second year is still try but not to expect any changes, and concentrate more efforts on the good kids. Quality over quantity.

Have I already said once how kids are really sick of school by the end of the year?

It’s a miracle that I was able to finish my program for physics for all my grades, despite of all the holidays and strikes that caused school closing. I even did some reviews with my 10th grade before the final exams. But I am sure that I taught a little to fast for Guinean students. I am going have to slow down next year.

It’s always a funny sight in the village a week before the semester exams. Normally, a lot of my students like to stroll up and down the “main drag” after 4pm, when they have finished most of their chores at home, and it isn’t so hot outside. All the sudden, the week before their exams, they all got their notebooks with them when they go out for a walk. Especially the kids who don’t care to study, all got their notebooks with them, hoping to cram some stuff in their head while strolling down the street socializing with their friends. Very idiotic to me.

We scheduled the brevet blanc for the 10th graders before giving the final exam to the 7th-9th. The brevet is the national entrance exam that 10th grader of the college has to take in order to go to high school. The brevet blanc is kind like PSAT for SAT. Most 10th graders were not ready at all and I am not surprised. Most of them were all waiting for the last minute to prepare for an entrance exam that can ask questions from any grade in their college program. Some of them were also hoping to cheat during the brevet, and the fact that some kids (mostly found in the cities) buy their way into high school, does not help the morale.

Anticipating the national workers strike of unlimited time (see my previous entry), the minister of education asked us to give final exams while brevet blanc is still going on. So, I was “lucky” to proctor some exams this time around. It is more tiring than teaching a roomful of bad kids. You have to be alert every single second, be suspicious of every single small move that a student make, and don’t give them any benefit of doubt. And that’s with one student per table and two teachers proctor a room, of course it is rare the other teacher is as vigilant as an American teacher. So essentially I was watching the kids on my own. I was a total mean bitch. The students are always glad when they don’t have me proctor their exams. And I wish that I can be in all the classrooms at the same time to catch all the cheaters. The 7th and 8th graders were the worst when it comes to how much they try to cheat by bringing cheat sheets or write stuff on their body or cloth. The girls take on the two extreme, either they really study properly or they cheat their way through each test. We had to continue the final exams after the strike was over, and I was happy to tell my principal that I had to go to Conakry to take care some business, so I won’t proctor the rest of the exams. I think it is a common consensus that we (my fellow PCVs) hate to proctor exams because the kids cheat so much and we tend to be the only who call them on it.

I really struggled with deciding on whether I should spend a month of summer vacation at site or do some traveling in Guinea or to its neighboring countries. Yes, I planned a mini girls conference the first week of July at site, but of course with anything you plan with Guineans especially with kids, there is always a good chance they will be flaky about it. Also everyone keeps saying that all the students leave the village to stay with their relatives in the city during the summer, so I was really worried that I would be bored for the month July if I spent it at site. But I decided to take a chance and stayed back.

The mini girls conference went okay. 7 girls out 11 that signed up consistently came for 3 days. I talked to them a lot about reproductive health concerning women, like why woman has period since their mothers never talk to them about it and they have a very negative view on woman’s period, the whole pregnancy process, how to eat to be healthy with what one can find in the village, and of course what is HIV/AIDS and how one can protect him/herself against it. I felt bad though that this is a time in the year that every family who has a field are planting their crop in the morning before it gets too hot in the day, and girls work in the field, too. I took these girls away from planting their food for 3 days. 3 days might sounds little to you, but if you see how little some of my kids have to eat sometimes and how expensive things are getting for them, you will understand how every day and every labor counts.

I realized at some point during the year that even if some kids have a dictionary (very few, maybe 15 students out 350 students in my school that have a dictionary at home), most of them don’t know how to use it. So, I incorporated some words searching contest in the conference to get my girls to be comfortable using a dictionary. Such an important tool that is so scarce in a village. Of course the problem with the kids is their vocabulary is so limited, they probably have to look up the definitions of words in the definition of the original word they looked up. That is how it was for me when I started to learn English, and I would just get so frustrated with looking up words and not understand their definitions.

The next three weeks in July, I had nothing planned, just hanging out. But it turned out to be pretty busy for me due to some wonderful books that I got from the States. I haven’t officially started the library yet, but was just experimenting with a few books (about 40 children books with beautiful color images) to see how the kids like them. I had about 5-10 kids who came regularly to my hut in the afternoon after working in field in the morning, hung out with me for awhile, read through some small books and check some others out to their home. They really loved these books. The children books were quite suitable for most of them, since they are not used to reading and the pictures keep them interested and help them to understand what they’ve read. I also inherited a coloring books from a PCV who is leaving, and everyone love it, cos they’ve never done it before. They were all ecstatic because they can take the colorful drawings home. Then there is a jigsaw puzzle in one of the book, and kids played with it over and over, 10 years old kids or 17 years old kids. Again, they’ve never played something like this before; it is such joy for me to see how much fun they are having. Which brings me to think about finding/collecting games that are fun and help kids learn things at the same time.

So here is what I am envisioning for the community library that I will help to set up next year. By the time I get back to my site after vacation, all the books that my wonderful friends in the States have helped me to collect will have arrived at my site. It is not sure whether there is a building ready to house the library in the village center, but we can set up the library temporarily in a decent size room next to my hut. Eventually though we will find a permanent home for the library that is in a more public space in the community. We are not setting up the library at the college, because the school is far from where most people live, students don't have time to use the library during school, and after school is finished, they will never go back to school to use the library. Since library is rather a new concept to them, locating it centrally is the key. There is a good and simple book we have here on how to set up a library that gave me many good tips. For example, I will ask some key educated people in the village and some of my students to form a library committee on deciding how we will set up and run the library, in hoping this will give them more sense of ownership of the library. Once they feel that they own it and are proud of it, hopefully they will continue to use it when I am gone. A big concern of mine is whether this library will continue when I am gone. I will also get my students to help me catalog all the books and set them up in the library, along with making posters and drawings to make the library more inviting. I think the kids will learn something out of this, have more exposure to different kind of books, have fun and feel useful at the same time. Then once the library is set up and running, we will introduce the library by giving tours to the community, show them what a library is for and how it functions. I am also hoping to operate it more like a library/community center, some place that kids come to have fun, holding arts/crafts sessions, story time sessions, game time, life skill education on health issues with concentration on HIV/AIDS. I foresee that both college and elementary school students will come, and hope the library will open their eyes to a wider world. Honestly, I am equally excited about doing all this next year as well as scared that I won't do a good job. It's not going to be an easy task and I don't know how much support my community really will give me. Library project is the type of development work that doesn't bring bread on the table or cure the sick, but has long term impact on improving literacy and education, but most people in the village can't think that way.

So the last week at site before I left for Conakry, was the week that Guinea rescheduled Brevet for the college students. Thank goodness that all the national exams were all rescheduled, so we barely avoided repeating the year. The brevet is organized in different testing centers in each region of Guinea. Each testing center covers about 10 colleges in its surrounding areas. So, all the kids who is taking the test and not live in the village where the test center is have to find a ride to get to the testing center and find someone there to stay with. Kids that have a bike took on a few hours ride, and those who didn't had to shell out money for the bush taxi. The brevet lasted 6 days, with one day off in between. Each day has 2 subjects in the morning, except the last day just one subject. The subjects that the college students (middle school students) are tested on French (writing composition and reading comprehension), math, history, geography, biology, physics, chemistry and civic.

Physics were scheduled the second day of the testing week, so I got on my bike and took a 2 hours ride to the testing center in the morning of the first day. I thought I might as well see how brevet is run and see if my students need some last minute help. I was surprised to see that the brevet wasn't proctored all that strictly. It has something to do with the fact that the proctors come from the colleges where these students go, and each school want to have a higher number of students passing than the other schools, so if a proctor find that he has some of his own students in the classroom he is assigned to, he is probably quite lenient with them. Also, there were teachers and non-test takers somehow smuggled out test questions and papers, and were answering outside testing center, then tried to smuggle the testing paper with perfect answers back into the room. Unbelievable. I could only watch and unable to do anything about it. My students were all very glad to see me and asked me to hold a review sessions for them in the afternoon. Last minute cramming. They had two weeks before the brevet knowing that I was still hanging out in the village, and no one came to ask me any questions. I was thinking, if they haven’t reviewed anything by now, none of this last minute stuff would help. I reviewed with them a little bit anyway, but it really was a joke. Why? I had a roomful of over 100 kids, my kids and students from other colleges here for the brevet. Mass education doesn’t work. I later learned that some hoped that the teachers would luckily review some problems very similar to what will be asked the next day. Sad. I had dinner with the delegate sent by the ministry of education who runs the brevet at our testing center, and of course our conversion focused mostly on why the so few kids nowadays care about school. They all say it is mostly caused by lack of jobs; kids find themselves still need their parents to support them after finishing university; low pay for the teachers, therefore teachers no longer have passion for teaching, and are reflected on how well the kids learn.

Oh my principal really irked me the next day because he complained that he didn’t find me the night before the physics exam. He was selected to proctor the brevet as well. Although he didn’t say it out in the open, I understood that he had wanted to talk to me about how I can help our students by answering the physics problems and smuggle them into room for the kids during the test. Such nerve! Of course I wasn’t going to have anything to do with that. I was allowed in the testing center even though it is normally not allowed (thanks to all my socializing with the delegate the night before), so I just saw the exam questions, wished my kids good luck silently, and rode back to my site. The principal wants me to do that just so he can have a higher number of students who pass the brevet and that will make him look good. During the two weeks before the brevet, he had called two meetings with the 10th graders. Each time he started off by saying don’t cheat because brevet is proctored strictly and you will get caught, then he proceeded to say if you want to cheat, here are some tips, then he said that you should help your fellow classmate if you know the answer and they don’t, adding on if you act selfishly you will be punished by god. All that so students can help him look good in front of his boss. This reminds me the early years when China first gained independence, the village chiefs would falsely report harvest result to the government to make them look good. People can be starving, but on paper they have plenty to eat.

Okay, I know that I am not done reporting to you, and I shouldn’t have waited so long to update my blog, but I am tired and feeling rather uninspired, so I will continue next time.

Day 365 - Strike, back again?

2006-06-29T21:28:00.000+08:00

So, I have resurfaced again after being at my site for more than 2 months since the last time I was gone. It was time to figure out what I am going to do for the summer, talk to mom and dad, and enjoy some icy cold yogurt and some really authentic Chinese food.

But first of all, it has been a year! It's scary how time has flown by so fast. I have learned a lot and have all sorts of ideas for what I want to do next year. BUT, a big "but" I am writing here, is really how next year will play out. I know I am skipping some stuff that has happened in the past two months, but I want to talk about the latest social political crisis here in Guinea. For the second time, all the white-collar workers had a strike again 2 weeks ago, and this time it was for unlimited time rather than the 5-days strike we had back in February. The ever-increasing gas prices set by the government is making already high priced basic goods even more unaffordable. It's better to keep bottles and bottles of petrol than money that is devaluing rapidly daily. In the villages, where there is no gas station, gasoline is sold in wine bottle kind of bottles. A year ago, a dollar gives 4000 guinean francs, now it can give you 5000 guinean francs. The workers are finally tired of being told each time that situation will change, but all are just words without any real changes. So, it came to an unlimited strike until we can see real changes. The timing coincided with the week of national exams for graduating seniors in high school, an exam required before they can take the entrance exam for attending university. After a year of preparing themselves, the students of course were very pissed that their effort might be wasted. The students in various cities protested and had confrontations with the police; even secretary general Kofi Annan spoke up to the uncalled for death (11 dead, over 80 wounded in 2-days period) that came from these student protests.

We the volunteers were asked to stay at our villages as soon as the strike was announced, where things are quite and safer for us than in a city. It was peaceful in the village, but you can feel this somber mood looming in the air, no one knows whatï¿∏s going to happen. What happens if strike last for months on end, and rice which is imported in our village runs out, how are people going to survive; are the kids going to take their final exams, going to take the tests to enter next school level; so many unknowns. My radio was almost attached to my ear, so I can get some idea how things are going. Am I going to be evacuated? Is my Peace Corps service ending already? Am I not going to be able to help some of my favorite 9th graders next year to prepare them to go onto high school? Am I not going to realize all the ideas I have for next year? Are all the efforts of my friends gathering books for my library project going down the drain? Am I not going to be able to say proper goodbye to all the wonderful people I have came to know? Do I have to go back to U.S. already? Can I get transferred to another country? Uncertainty was eating inside of us, of course my problems were much smaller compare to my fellow villagers, who have to worry about their basic livelihood like feeding their family.

I was torn. On one hand, I supported the unlimited strike in hope that situation will improve for Guineans which will probably means that us volunteers are out of here; on the other hand, I canï¿∏t bear to leave what I came to love to do so much here.

The government and the union continued to talk during the strike, and after a little over a week, the union leaders decided to suspend the strike, give the government a chance to decrease their gain in the oil prices, so the transport costs will not be so high. The union will not fix the dates of the three major national exams: elementary school to middle school, middle school to high school, and high school to university, unless the prices are lowered. The deadline of re-programming all the national exams are this Friday, and if the union is not satisfied with the government's response, exams will not be held, we will have an "annee blanche", that means it was a year wasted, all grades have to repeat. Not just the seniors, but all grades. Can you imagine how pissed will the students be? The ball is in the government's court now. I can't imagine that the students will let this go easily. So, uncertainty again is looming in the air. In a country where it is so hard to push real quality education, I can't imagine having to teach the same kids the same program a second time around.

With this uncertainty I am heading back to my site tomorrow. I have a girls conference/summer camp scheduled with my kids next week, after that I am just going to hang out in my village for three weeks before coming back to Conakry to train the next group of volunteers. At one point two weeks ago, I was wondering if the new group is still coming. We are getting 30 new education volunteers compare to 16 of us that came last year, half of the 30 were originally headed to Chad, but got re-routed due to political instability there. I am still wondering if all these plans will realize, but I am glad I am getting back to my site before if there is another strike. Being in Conakry will mean being on house arrest in the Peace Corps house because stepping out of the compound can be unsafe. At my site, I can at least hang out with my family, friends and students, and watch the rest of World Cup games. Soccer players these days are so much bigger than twenty years ago.

Hope you are all well, and I will fill you in on all the holes in my time at site (hopefully) in a month time.

Bonnie

Day 286 - So, what have I been up to? You ask. Where do I start?

2006-04-11T22:31:00.000+08:00

Hi Everyone,

It has been almost 3 months since I last posted something on this blog. I hope you are all doing well. I hope spring is back in full force, greeting you with its warm air, blue sky and blossom everywhere, cheering you up after a grey winter as it always did for me.

Here in Guinea, we are still in the dry season, where when the sun is out, nobody wants to be out. It even feel stifling in my hut after sundown. We can go through a month without seeing a sliver of cloud in the sky, just the ever grueling sun. It finally rained once a week ago after about 2-3 months of no precipitation. The sound of stormy wind rushing through leaves never sounded so good to me, and I couldn’t get enough of the smell of the fresh moist air after the rain. I am sure all the plants agree with me.

So, what have I been up to? You ask. Where do I start?

I believe the last post was put up when I was in Conakry after IST (In-service training in Dalaba), and that was at the end of January. I had thought that I was going to write you again when I am in Senegal, but I didn’t end up going. I know it isn’t like me to pass up an opportunity to go and see new places. But I really didn’t want to break up my stay at the site into so many fragments after coming back from Conakry. If I went on the Senegal trip, I would have taught 2 weeks at the site in Feb, gone to Senegal for a week and half, teach another 2 weeks, gone to Boys Conference in Mamou for another week, then back at the site again. As it is, I am already behind on some of my classes with all sorts of school closing that pop up all the time It just didn’t feel right going off to Senegal this year. Besides there was a boy soccer tournament going on in Feb at my college, and an opening ceremony of a new hospital built by a partnership of Guinean-German NGO. I didn’t want to miss all the exciting events at my site.

The boys soccer games were much more exciting and dynamic than the girls’ and it lasted for almost 4 weeks. Each grade had a team and each team played with the other teams 2 games each. Despite of having over 100 boys in our 7th grade, they just couldn’t find 11 players to hold down the field, they never won a single game, and after they were shot out by the 9th grade in a match lost at 0-7, they gave up on the tournament mid-way. The 10th grade had quite a few good players, but had a bad lineup in one of their early matches that cost them dearly, despite of later winnings, when we added up the score, they just didn’t have enough to make to the final. The 9th grade team is just simply a solid good team, consistent in their performance, no surprise they made it to the final playing against the 8th grade team which is a fun, dynamic and energetic bunch. The 9th grade won by penalty point in the final game and took home the trophy.

I had wanted to write a blurb about what shoes the kids wear here to play soccer when I wrote about the girls soccer games, but I can’t remember if I did or not, so excuse me if I am repeating myself. It is no wonder why the africans can play so much better when they go out to the developing world with all the nicely trimmed field, best shoes and all. Here, they wear plastic sandle with strap with or without socks, run around in full force in a dirt field overgrown with short stuby shrub, dodgging goats or cows at times. But the kids have so much fun playing neverthless, and I love seeing the soccer ball taking flight in air against the blue sky, as it makes its way across the vast field.

I was pretty upset when Guinea lost to Senegal during the quarter final game in the African Cup of Nations 2006 held in Egypt, at the end of Jan into the first week of Feb. I doubt many of you have heard of it in the U.S., but it is like the Olympic game to the africans here. There is a video club in my village that bought right to broadcast the games, so I got to watch quite a few games with Guinean team. The whole village was almost in mourning and outraged at the lose of game to Senegal. Many of my kids felt that the referees weren’t being fair and might have been bought out by the Senegalese.

To close out the boys soccer tournament, the principal proposed a school fair during the day with the theme to elect Miss College 2006, which really turned out like a school performance put up by students. The election of Miss was really cheesy, it was simply just a beauty contest. The principal thought it is a way to emancipate girls, give them confidence, but the way he trained the girls (yes, he was the coach) to walk, to look, were all very unnatural. But at least he had a few students citing poems on encouraging girls to go to school, a few dance groups (the style is like the kids dancing to rap music in the U.S.), and I was in charge of working with a group of kids to perform a small theatre piece. I was against the beauty contest, but there was no way for me to go against the principal, at least the election is supplemented with other performances by students which is done here for the first time. The boy I took to Boys Conference with and I expanded a theme of a sensiblization we had done at the conference, a theme on drug where a father spend all his money on drugs and leave his family to starve. I got quite a few kids interested in doing it, and they were all natural and got really into it. I hope we can continue with this theatre group.

The boys conference was just like the girls conference, talking about all the important issues facing the young generation and how they can empower themselves, and spread the positive messages to their friends back at home. The atmosphere of the boys conference is different to girls conference, in term of the mindset of boys are much more forward thinking and more interested in improving their future. One other volunteer said it the best that the goal of Girls Conference is to instill confidence in them, where the goal of Boys Conference is help them to direct their confidence and to encourage them to become leaders in the future. I am much more happy with the choice of candidate this time than the girl I have selected for Girls Conference. I interviewed 3 boys before selecting a boy who is quite good in French and well respected by his peers, in fact he is the one who always correct my french (stuff I write on the board) during classes. No, I don’t mind at all when they correct me. I always tell them we can learn from each other.

I still feel more comfortable around my boys students than girls students when they are in a group. With girls I feel more pressured having to speak their local language and inadequate when I can’t, but with boys I feel they are more forgiving and they can also speak better in French. Also, I have more things to talk to boys about where with girls, they don’t have much interest discussing state of the country and problemes outside of their home.

So despite of me wanting to stay back to teach and gave up on Senegal trip in Feb, the workers of Guinea decided to strike for a week after my supposed Senegal trip. Eventhough I didn’t teach for a week, but with the opening of the new hospital in the village, I had enough excitment to stay. The new hospital is a continuation of a joint effort between a guinean doctor who had worked in Germany for many years and returned to Guinea, and his old German colleagues to improve his village. They formed a small NGO in Germany, and have worked here since 6 years ago, already opened up an elementary school, and a factory to make flour or process rice, and now a hospital. It’s amazing what they have done and all the hard work they have put in. They were able to collect a lot of school supplies, toys and old bicycles in Germany, monetary donations that helped them to pay for shipping all the material. The NGO founded by a small group of 6 or 7 doctors who has their regular full time jobs and take on this NGO work as a second job. I am amazed at what they have accomplished and admired their dedication despite of their disappointment when they see how little the kids really learn at the school. They were here the week of the strike and I talked to them quite a lot and helped out getting the hospital ready for the opening ceremony. We were talking mostly in English and French, and we exchanged many “growing pains” on trying to make a difference here. It’s great that they built a school and a hospital, but the lack of human resource is still such a big problem. As of right now, they still haven’t found a doctor and a nurse who is willing to come to the countryside to work. Plenty of doctors and nurses are looking for jobs in Conakry, but none is willing to come to a village. The class size is still too big for the kids to learn well.

An appaling exemple is one of my host sister who is a 4th grader at their elementary school, I was astonished to find out she can’t even write out all 26 letters of the alphabet. How did she even passed onto higher grade year after year I don’t even know. She can recite all the letters, but put the sound of a letter with writing is very difficult. With their first lanuage is more of a spoken lanuage, not written much, they grow up with seeing so few things in writting, except at school, not having the habit of studying at home and having parents who are illiterate, so many factors contribute to a single problem. I have started to work with her and two other first graders in my host family on simple ABC, but even I find that I don’t always have time everyday to work with them or not knowing the best way to teach them, so they will remember things.

So yes, us development workers face so much frustration and disappointment, but little result, so little that sometimes hard to justify with the effort and finance we have put in, that’s just the harsh reality. I remember questioning all the effectiveness and methods used by the developpment agencies when I was back in the U.S., but I have learned that finding a good solution is very hard, especially when it comes to changing peoples’ thinking, we have to constantly adjust to the local situation, mentality, difficulties, going through many trials and tribulations. Like not every marriage works out, but we neverthless try.

So the strike was very organized and parallyzed the country for 5 days in Feb. I think the government and the union finally reached an agreement and the union will hold another strike if the government doesn’t follow up. The last day of the strike, I was visiting some of my students who live about an hour away from school, and all the sudden a Peace Corps vehicule came, took me back my hut, grab a few things, “evacuated” me and two other my neighbor PCVs to our regional capital. There were some incidents going on in Conakry, and since we don’t have radio contact in our sites, the PC office decided to come collect us just in case. Of course, the alert was lifted the day after.

Teaching continue as usual, except I am having a stand off with my 8th graders. My problematic class. I finally walked out on them before the “spring break”, and not sure if I will continue teaching them for the rest of the semester. I don’t know what is with this group of 8th graders, a few bad apples really spoil the whole class. They are scared now that I really will abandon 8th grade and ask me to reconsider, but I am going to have to think of something to really punish the undisplined kids out 80 students in my 8th grade. I will keep you posted.

The “spring break” or Easter break (since we follow the French school system) is from the 4th of April to the 11th of the April, and then Ash Wednesday is a holiday to them, 17th of April is Easter Monday another holiday, so really we have 2 weeks off from school. For the first time, I felt that I needed to get out of my village, it was finally time. So as we have talked about, my neighbor PCV and I headed out to the forest region in Guinea, which is the southeastern part of the country that borders Sierre Leone, Liberia and Ivory Coast. A region once was off limit to traveling when it was flooded with refugees resulted from civil wars in the neighboring countries. PC Guinea is still evaluating the current condition to decide whether we will reopen posts out there soon.

It took us 2 days and a 3rd day morning just to get to the regional capital of forest region, N’Zerekore from Labe. The distance between the two cities is only about 700 Km, which is about 500 miles. Normally in the states, with good road, unweighed down car, a day should cover the journey, but such isn’t the case in Guinea. Each of the first two days we got to the taxi station, bought our tickets at the 8am in the morning, we didn’t leave until 1 or 2pm in the afternoon, because we have to wait around for other passengers to fill up the car. There is no such thing as reserve ahead of time, or a car leave at a certain time with or without enough passenger. A car will not leave unless it is filled, which usually takes 5 or 6 hours after you’ve got to the taxi station. Once they got enough passengers, they load up the top of the car with 3 feet high of baggages, sometimes strap live chickens and goats along with it, if they can’t fit in the trunk. I have yet to see a cow, but that might just because it is too much trouble to lift a cow over a car. A corpse in coffin can also be sent on top of a taxi or minibus along with baggages. So, tons of baggages, with at least 9 people in a car that is made for 6 people plus a driver really can’t go very fast up and down the pothole ridden mountaineous roads. After the car is loaded up, the driver will go get gas and make a few last minute repairs before heading out, and that takes another hour. It gets me why they don’t do it before, but I stop asking some of the questions. Once we got on the road, we usually stop at least 5 times, to fix here and there on the car. The cars are so beat up by the bad road, and unbelievable amount of weight it has to carry compare to our standard, they needs constant repair along the way. The worst stuffed ride we had was in a station wagon, with 3 ladies and 4 small kids in the back seats; 2 really fat ladies, me and a man in the middle seat; the driver in his seat, a man stradled the gear shift, my neighbor PCV and another man with his son in his lap in the front; 4 live goats piled up on top of each other behind the rear seats; and of course tons of baggage on top of the car. The whole 10 hours ride I sat at the edge of the seat not able to lean back, so people next to me can fit. Now, you understand why I travel with my bike as much as I can, and not eager to go anywhere here because the way they stuff you up in a bush taxi.

So would I recommend the forest region, hmm, that’s hard to answer, yes, if you can afford to hire a driver and a good car (preferably 4x4) to go wherever you want to go, but if you can only afford the bush taxi ride like the rest guineans, I am not too sure. The problem for me is there is no basic tourisme set up and activities for people to do (I wasn’t about to just walk in some jungle on my own), and in someway, the pain of getting out there is just not worth it. There are plenty of potential to develop tourism, but Guinea isn’t ready for it and it wasn’t worth developping it during last 10-15 years of civil war in the neighboring countries. The landscape isn’t that much different from my region, except with more bigger trees and tall palm trees. I guess the region was more impressive before the influx of refugees and subsequent result of deforestation. But it was neverthless nice to get out to other parts of Guinea, experience what other guineans go throught however hard it is, ate lots of ice cream and yogurt in N’Zerekore, having fried fish and plantain, buying up lots of traditional masks, and splurged on a really nice resort type hotel the last day there. A hotel used mostly by NGO workers, equipped with a european style restaurant, a large outdoor pool and a classy dance club. So, we treated ourselves the last day there before heading back to reality. The trip also drained a big hole in my pocket, with the cost of transport that takes up 1/3 of my expense, the other 1/3 is on souvenirs. The money I spent in one week on vacation can last me about 8 months in my village. Yes, I feel quite guilty when they are people in my village only eat one meal a day. I really don’t know how I should think sometimes.

So, I should be heading back to the village in a couple of days, and probably will stay there till the end of school year which is probably end of May, or sometimes in June, nobody really knows for sure.

So, keep well and until next time...

Day 193 - Oh, please let me catch that chicken...

2006-01-09T07:31:00.000+08:00

Oh, please let me catch that chicken...

I have to rate this one as one of the top funny moment of my time Guinee so far. Today I visited some students and their families who live about 30 min. bike ride away. I not only came back w/ 20 some oranges, but also a chicken. I tried really hard to refuse the chicken that one of my student's grandfather offered, because I know meat isn't in great abundance here, but it was one of those situations where it would be rude to decline. So I rode back with a chicken dangling upside-down off the handle bar. I stopped briefly to take a few pictures, but the darn thing somehow turned itself right side up and jumped off the handle bar still with its two feet tied up together. He then proceeded into the bushes off to the side of the road. You can imagine how panicked I felt. If I bought the chicken but lost it, okay, I am unlucky, but this one is a gift. Luckily there were four passerbies seeing my panicky gesturing an escaping chicken, all set out into the bush to round him up. Eventually they rounded him toward me and I caught him. The rest of the way, I just held the chicken by its two feet and rode home. Can't afford to let him escape again.

„The Fete of Tabaski ˆ (l'Aïd-el-Adha or Aïd-el-Kebir)" (fete means festival)

The Fete of Tabaski is biggest of three fetes here in Guinea, where if each family can, they should sacrifice a sheep and share the meats with fellow villagers. The saying goes that God has demanded Abraham to sacrifice his only son to God, but when the axe came down, he sees a dead sheep on the ground, and his son is alive standing next to him. God sees Abraham's true devotion and granted his son to stay alive. The fete takes place th e 7th of the 12th month in the lunar calendar. Thank to the new principal with his seriousness to keeping school open as many days as possible, our school was only closed for 3 days instead of 1 week. The day before, the day of and the day after the fete. Again, people who can afford it make new clothes for the fete, girls getting their hair braided; boys got their head shaved. The day of the fete is again with everyone going to the large open ground for the morning prayer, then followed by visiting family and relatives in the village to wish everyone a good fete. Kids are again swarming around the main intersection asking for „sanmifo", pocket change kids usually get from adults during the holidays.; The extra entertainment this time is a local artist troupe with percussions, guitars and local drum called „Tamtam" outdoors in the afternoon. People will just gather around them and dance. They played again at the dance party at the dance club that night, and it was quite nice to hear live jazzy kind of music. It's been awhile.

A side note, so I would love to buy a drum and learn to play when I have free time at site, but I've been told by the counterpart who always worked with PCVs, that it is not a good idea. I think it has something to do with that it is always man who plays drum, and sometimes they play it to call the spirits, and that just not something women are allowed to do. I am quite surprised to hear how he strongly advise me not to play it at my site knowing that he is quite forward thinking compare to many other villagers. I guess I will just have to wait for now.

„Uncelebrated holidays"

As I was telling you in my last blog that was written on Christmas Eve, I decided to stay at my site for Christmas. I did the same thing for New Year's Eve. The last week of December was the yearly „end of the year one-week break" for all schools, so I didn't continue teaching, but did hold review sessions for high school entrance exam in the afternoon at my house for whoever wanted to come. I was surprised to have 5 students showing up for it. Of course, they are the students who pay a lot of attention already in class. New Year's eve happened to fall on a Saturday, where there is the weekly dance party at my site, so I went with one of my female student. People here just don't celebrate the beginning of a new year. Then 3 days late was my birthday which was a work day for me, other than cooking a little bit of fancy meal for myself, I didn't do anything else. I was too busy to invite students over and cook and eat with everyone.

I did cook with help of my host brother who is a 8th grader a week later during the Fete of Tabaski. We made two sauces and rice and had some students over. One sauce is Mafi Tiga, which is the peanut sauce. It is made with peanut butter, crushed dried fish, a small can of tomato paste, onions, salt, maggie, and stewed for a long time until a thin layer of oil appears on top of the sauce. People pour a couple of ladle of that over rice and that's a meal. The other sauce is soup sauce, which is almost always with some kind of meat. So, that's when I gave death sentence to the chicken I got. The kids of my family slit its throat, plugged its hair, and cleaned it out. You wouldn't find a teenager or a kid under 10 years old who knows how to do it in the states, but here in Guinea, they learn it from very young. I just watched, because I really didn't want to get my hands dirty. Here cooking is a group effort, because we have to do everything from scratch, and plus the kids don't have anything else to occupy themselves with. When there is food, everyone love to sit around and watch. When I cook outside, I will get an audience of 4 or 5 kids from my family or not, and I'd better make sure I have extra to share, otherwise it just doesn't feel right. So, back to the soup sauce, I started with lightly browning the chicken pieces in oil with onion, then add water, tomato paste, maggie, other veggie that's good for stewing if one can afford it, in our case was potato and tomato. Then we just left it over the fire for almost an hour. At the same time we also cooked up 2 large po t of rice. All these cooking took the whole morning. After we ate in the family, we just offer a bowl of rice and some sauce to whoever came by. The pot Guinean use a lot is a large cast iron pot.

„Explanation of prices here"

People back in the U.S. always ask if I need any money or I can afford things. I feel very comfortable at my site. I can most things I need and they aren't expensive. After a few months at site and back to Conakry again, even though I have the money to buy some of the things, I cannot bring myself to buy them. Because the price difference between locally grown food and imported food are just so drastically different. I broke down and bought a large can of peach (my favorite canned fruit) and it cost almost 7000 GF. I've been feeling guilty ever since, because that's enough money to pay for rice and all the condiments to make a peanut butter sauce or leaf sauce for my family of 8 at the site. So, although there are a lot of western products I can buy here, I can no longer justify buying them.

„Soccer"

Despite of the low turn out of girls, attendance for the training, we were able to gather enough girls to complete a two-week tournament, which ended last Saturday. It almost didn't happen because my principal from day one wasn't too supportive of just a soccer tournament for the girls without the boys‚ soccer tournament happen at the same time. He is very serious with straightening out the school but when it comes to girls empowering type of activities, I don't think he fully comprehends the need of them.

During the tournament, I run into some problems with girls showing up late for game or love to dispute the rulings in the field, or try to substitute players from outside of the school to play for the college. I was a bit annoyed and feeling that girls whether wanted to play or not, behaved in a way that they aren't appreciative of the effort we put in to organize this tournament. My co-originator Saidou who worked with the last volunteer was more patient, calm and forgiving than I am. He is still a university student, here on break. I could learn to be more patient like him. He also did more work than I to make this tournament happen, partly because he has more experience, also we as PCV are suppose to assist Guinean to help themselves, not just doing things for them, so I was very happy to stay in the background and follow his lead. We gave out prizes to the winning team and held a dance party to close the tournament the night of the final. The money we made at party was perfect to reimburse the cost we each incurred to run the tournament. Another funny moment is when we had to count out the money of the ticket sale (I was in charge of selling tickets) for the party, we did it in the bush by the club, squatting down in the moonlight, with a couple of flashlights, laid out wads of money on a handkerchief, counted the money and divided it between the DJs and organizers. I felt like we were like drug dealer making some deals in the shadow. Pretty funny. This is doing business Guinean style in the village, no offices, no electricity.

So it has been exciting to follow the African Cup of Nations soccer tournament that is held in Egypt. So far Guinea won 2 games and will play Tunisia next, and qualified for quarterfinal. I hope I can watch at least one more game with Guinea when I get back to the site. I just love the energy people have for this game. Every game Guinea plays is like a super bowl game.

„Miscellaneous"

So our inter-service training coincided with semester final exam perfectly, which is why I can come to Conakry to have a mini vacation and not have to worry about missing classes. The days leading up to the training was hectic with finishing up the tournament and write out 4 exams for physics. The way they arrange kids to avoid cheating is sit two students of different grades at each table. We have too many kids and not enough teachers, tables and classrooms to do one student per table. For 7th graders, we have over 200 of them, so they are split up into 5 classrooms. So for 7th gr ade, I have to handwrite out the exam 5 times for each of the teacher who proctors the exam to copy it on the board. No, we don't have copy machine here to provide a copy to each student. It was a pain because I had to do similar thing for the other grades.

I wonder how much the kids have cheated though, because they can still try to sneak in cheat sheets or write out stuff on their cloth and body. My neighbor PCV said that for some exam they took over an hour just to „frisk" students for cheat sheets and settle everyone into their seats before starting the exam.

A few elementary schools in my sous-prefecture receive food from World Food Program where they provide lunch to kids and give 2 bottles of oil to girls in 4th-6th grade. Oil is expensive and they are hoping by giving oil to girls will help keep girls in school. Unfortunately the teachers in one school have been stealing food from the students and were found out by the parents. The teachers are mad that they are found out and taking it out on the kids. The kids in my family go to that school, so I am pissed off as well. How is the condition ever going to change here if people steal from their next generation? I am hoping to assist the WFP in my site to monitor the schools periodically, to avoid things like this from happening again. Which bring me to think how much there is to do here and how little time I have left, just a year and half. Some might think it is a lot of time, but things move so slowly here, so a year and half isn't very long to see the fruit of your labor. I am not ruling out the possibility of staying for a 3rd year and get some experience in working with NGOs.

I've got a lot of work ahead of besides teaching, like continuing HIV/AIDS education and reaching out to parents to educate them on importance of school and what they can do to help us. So I will leave you here and report to you again soon.

Take care all!

Bonnie

Day 178 - Christmas Eve

2005-12-24T13:40:00.000+08:00

Even though we don't really celebrate Christmas in my family in the states, I still can't help wishing a bit that I am back in the U.S. enjoying the holiday season with my loved ones. I guess I am finally feeling a little homesick, wishing that I can spend a few days w/ my family. I wonder if I'm conditioned by the holiday to feel that way or what! So yes, I feel a bit of a looser for writing a letter on the eve of Christmas in my hut at my village. I could've gone to my neighbor volunteer's site and celebrate w/ her and the missionary family at her site, but because we had a mock soccer match for the girls, and I'm the main organizer for getting girls to play soccer, I didn't feel that I could leave. We have been training for a week, and it's always dark when we finish playing. It would not have been safe to ride out an hour away to my neighbor's site. perhaps I will pay her a visit tomorrow. It's only about an hour or so to her, and if it isn't for the mountain that lie b/w her and I, I can probably make it in 45 min. I have been biking in the morning when I can for an hour to an hour and half. This month it is quite chilly in the morning. If I go out biking at 8am, I would wish that I have gloves. I go out to bike around 9am and I make sure I wear sneaker and socks, instead of my tevas which has been shoes to teach in, walk around in, dance in, the all purpose sandals. By the time I get back, it is around 10ish and the sun is just starting to beat on us. By noon time, I don't want to go out, because the sun is once again showing off her power. Kids don't come out to play very much until 4:30 in the afternoon when sun isn't as strong. The sunset is always around 6:45pm here. I have to say it feels strange writing time american way, as I'm very used to think and speak military time.

I believe my last blog ended right before Girls conference. So I pick it up from there. The conference went very well. Almost all the girls were very eager to participate and we found them to be especially interested in HIV/AIDS, excision and depigmentation sessions. Things that are not really talked about in villages. It's also nice to see girls who aren't afraid to speak their mind, who can speak better french, not worried about there are boys to laugh at them. It also had been a great bonding experience for the girls to exchange ideas w/ girls in other areas. I wish we could afford to bring more girls to the conference to empower them but like always, finance is always difficult. There was a great short theatre piece on why African should not use product to lighten their skin. It spoke of when dark skin is lightened, it loses its defense capability to strong sunlight and the usage of skin lighting product is also a sign of African being ashamed of their natural skin color hence their heritage. I was glad to know that my girl decided not to use the product any more after the conference.

Based on their questions on HIV/AIDS, I can see the great need to educate people still on this issue in the developing country. Given that even people in the U.S. is still ashamed of talking about it , a cause of disease that is sexually transmitted, and you try to educate people in a village about it in a very underdeveloped country where religion seems to dictate a lot of society norms; where people still believe in witches and talk of a lot of superstitions (like for example if you hurt your knee but you let a twin to touch your knee, it will heal); where some girls want to play soccer but their mothers forbid them to play because she doesn't want her daughter to wear pants or shorts; where some people believe is god who choses who will receive HIV, people don't get it from other people; where the health center in the village isn't equipped to do HIV testing; where spending money on transport to a city to test HIV seems extravagant, don't even have enough money to eat sometimes; where there is people believe that is white people who made up the whole thing to scare Africans; where women have much less say in the matter of sex and share their husband w/ other wives; so you say why can't you just tell them the truth, yes I will but whether people will believe me and follow my guidance that isn't up to me. The traditional thinking, the conservatism, the lack of modern and well funded medical facility, the inequality between men and women, the poverty the life is hard enough I don't have time to worry about HIV, the "it can't happen to me", it is not easy to alert everyone the severity of HIV/AIDS. Think about how long it took americans to face up to it, and still we aren't comfortable with it from time to time. I hate to bring religion up once again, but it dictates the degree of conservatism in one's culture, and it can be a road block sometimes, also in cases we have seen in the U.S. At least, in U.S. we have separation of church and state.

Although I can't quite formulate precisely the problems and their causes one find in an under-developed African country yet, I am definitely gaining a much better understanding of why the slowness of development here. An understanding that I couldn't have gained if I just stayed in the U.S. and read about it. I guess that's why we say experience is the best teacher. I'm also glad to come here at a more mutual age being able to reflect more on things observed.

Excision is another problem of traditional practice that is inhumane and unsanitary for women. The Guinean government has a national campaign to eradicate excision, but the practice is so traditional, it is still going on in some parts of the country. Luckily, it has been found that it has no religion basis at all. Excision is the clipping of clitoris, or that plus stitching the vagina close on young girls only leaving the hole for urination, which is called infibulation (I don't know of it is the same word in English). In case of infibulation, the girl can gain a great dowry for her family and after she gets married, stitch is taken off when she is ready to have sex with her husband. It is debatable how much of this is practiced in Guinea. All of these cutting for excision is done by someone who always does this with a household knife not at a hospital, there is no anesthetic, no proper way to clean the wounds or knife and the same knife can cut one girl after another, so there is a great chance of infection and contamination of blood which open doors to HIV transmission. Above all, this practice isn't necessary and has no benefit to girls/women at all. I think my girl is excised and she finally found out how unnecessary it had been.

The girls also got a chance to visit some professional women the last day of conference to see with their own eyes that there are women working alongside of men in the office.

Coming back from girls conference felt a bit strange, in the way that I didn't really feel like I was coming home. Perhaps it was because this time I was gone a bit too long. Just when I thought I am getting back to teach to keep getting involved in the village, I found out that the equivalent of "winter" vacation starts 2 days after I got back. It was suppose to be the last week of Dec., but maybe because of the municipal election, the education ministry decided to start it early, so there won't be huge crowd of kids at school at election time.

At first, I felt very disappointed and defeated, here I am all eager, ready to continue teaching and made my mind up to stay at my village to stay through Christmas and New Year's, but there is no school. How can I help someone who doesn't want my help? Yes, I thought for a few hours about packing up my bag and head out to Conakry and maybe join the others who is going to Sierra Leone for New Years. But partly because I didn't want to deal w/ getting around in a taxi in this country, partly thinking I'll finally have sometime to read, I decided I'm sure I'll find something to keep me busy.

So I did and I have found things to keep busy and no I don't yet have time to crack open my books. I ended up teaching the 10th graders 3 times last week. I told them that they didn't have to come, but it is them who will take high school entrance exam next year, and we are very behind on our 10th grade program because school keeps closing for this reason or that. I was pleasantly surprised most of students showed up for my lessons. Yes, most students lack the discipline to study by themselves and their illiterate parents don't know how to help them or too busy to.

We also started training girls to play soccer. Last year the old volunteer had organized a girls soccer match w/ the neighboring high school where there is another volunteer. Since I only just got here, I figure it will be simpler to organize a tournament b/w classes in my village, since playing match at a village 17km away poses lots of logistic problems. But I wasn't prepared to face another problem, the problem of girl's mothers or fathers refuse to let their girls to play because she will need to wear shorts. One mother won't even accept if her daughter wears pants w/ a oversized T-Shirt to cover her butt. So right now I don't know if indeed the tournament can be realized, because we need 8 girls from each grade to play. Some grades only have 10 girls!

I tried to talk to some girls to tell them sports is good for their health, their spirit, it helps to liberate women in this society, but old thinking is deep and not all girls are willing to go against their parents. *Sigh*.

But the girls who have been playing this past week are really getting better and every time I watch them play, I want to setup a tournament for the ones who plays. Not everyone wants to be helped, and encouraged, but for those who does, I want to do everything for them.

Next week I will start doing review w/ some 10th graders who wants to get a jump start on preparing for high school entrance exam next year. 2 hours per day. Soccer training continue next week as well. So as you can see I always manage to keep myself busy. By the way, the same coach who worked w/ the volunteer last year is helping me out. So I am mainly around for moral support and play a bit myself.

I'm excited to rent another room from my family soon. It has been difficult to receive students or other visitors just outside of my hut. Also I want to layout books, put up posters to peek interest in those students who stop by. Hard to do it in my hut, so small and with all my "earthly" belonging in sight, not very safe.

I should mentioned I watched a sacrifice in which a student family slit the throat of a goat, skin it, divided up the meat, and cleaned the internal organs and I didn't throw up, faint or cover my eyes. Okay I didn't really want to look when they slit its throat. My experience just gets more exotic isn't it? So here, it is the women who kill and clean fish and chicken, men kill and clean goat and cow.

I find it really bizarre that on one hand there is cars here, on the other hand people still go out in the bushes to look for wood for cooking and squat around a big bowl in the yard eating with hands. very strange/odd mix of modernization and primitivity.

So for those of you are stateside, it is still a few hours before christmas. Hmmm, all the good eats I'm missing. I hope everyone is well and closing the year 2005 on a good note. (It is currently 0:40am, I can hear the music from the dance club up the road. I'm glad I don't live next to it).

I've tried out making chocolate pudding. Yummy. Very easy, coca, milk and flour and cook together till it thickens and let it cool. But cocoa found here is weak, and I had to put in some chocolate I got in care package. So I'd love to receive some dark chocolate. :)

I better get some sleep. Is there a white christmas where you are? I hope Santa is good to you this year! Take care all.

- Bonnie

Day 163 - Getting Ready...

2005-12-10T10:12:00.000+08:00

I have been so bad of keeping up my journal in last 3-4 weeks. Between, the changes in our school, getting ready for girls conference, getting pulled into organizing girls soccer games at my college. I was just too lazy to write with a pen. Yes, sometimes I wish I can type up my letters, so I am determined to stay up tonight and write you all as much as I can. And please, please, let the power stay on.

The first day of girls conference went pretty well and smoothly. Most girls were very eager to participate. We have sessions on relations with men, women's roles, good study habits, to AIDS and HIV, exercision, public speaking, environmental protection and meeting with career women. The girl I brought with me is 8th grader who I see potential and but needs direction. She is also the younger sister of a 9th grader whom I am close to.

So, lots have been going on at my site.

3 weeks ago we got a new principal who came from a 8000 students college in Conakry to a 400 students college in the Fouta region. Many of my female students were very happy to hear the change. Apparently the old principal likes to insult students, don't care for my village much, since he is from a neighboring village, he never stays in the house in my village much, and not a very devote muslim. Some teachers don't like him because he isn't serious about shaping up the school and didn't work very much. Of course, I hear all these when he is leaving.

The new principal is a Sousou, and we just got another biology prof who is Malinke came out of Conakry, so add me, we are three non puehl people in my college. I like the new principal. He's cleaned up the teachers‚ office which is just a one room building. Although, he's divided up the space and hid himself with his desk behind a partition of bookshelves. I suppose it gives him more privacy and block some noises from the rest of space and command certain authority and power, but lack an open and welcoming atomsphere to the student body in my opinion. He is also made sure that we raise the flag every morning at 7:55am and have students sing the national anthym when we raised the flags. With the old principal, we did for the first week, then just stopped. The kids are getting so relaxed these days. Sometimes, only 20 or so show up for the raising of the flag. I have a feeling that they are waiting by the bushes outside the school yard and come in afterwards. Also, the new principal is pushing the teachers to get to class as soon as the flag is raised which is 8am when first period is suppose to start. I am happy for this change, so I can at least start teaching at 8:15 instead of 8:30 like with the old principal. Yes, I would stand by the door at 8am and wait about 15 min. for some late students drag their feet into the classroom. I have a feeling that the old principal really has relaxed the rules a lot with the students, so to get them back on track will not be a easy task.

We also had to combine the 2-8th grade classes into one because of lack of teachers. The chemistry teacher is taking on math for 7th grade since students only has chemistry for 2 hours a week. And the only math teacher is teaching 8th grade in addition to 9th and 10th grade. It has already been a pain to teach 8th grade sometimes, now just one big class, there isn't enough room for students to get up and come to board to answer questions. I finally warned them the other day that if they don't change their behavior I will just abandon 8th grade physics, which I can do, since I don't get paid. The 8th graders are lucky to have me. All the other grades are fine, of course there is always small problems, but 8th grades for some reason always such a difficult age. It was like this in practice school.

I took me so much energy to think every scenario possible and combat cheating for a test for 8th grade. I wish I could've spent these energy on something more worthwhile, but with the large class size and students used to cheat, I don't have any other choice. I am successful though to get them to understand multiple choice questions because the material we have been covering in 8th grade is more qualitative, except density. I also made it open book, because from an engineering background, I am more focused on application rather than memorizing theories. Besides, some students probably cracked open their notebook at home. They probably didn't even know where to look for things in the notebook. I made 2 sets of test, so 2 students sitting in the same desk can't copy off each other.

So, I don‚t know how well my 10th graders are understanding the conservation of energy, or just potential vs. kinetic energy, concepts I absolutely love, yes, yes, you are laughing at me now because I sound like a geek. But really, it is fun. I used a lot of sports exemple to demonstrate kinetic energy even including running before kicking a soccer ball in the classroom. I think I might get so caught up sometimes though of the hardcore science teaching, again because of my engineering background, forgeting that these are just middle school students. I really should just try to perk their interests. They can get more into physics in high school. The problem is the age of my middle school students can be older than the high school students of the US, so they look like they belong to high school, but they are not.

I stumbled a bit at starting one of my secondary projects. I knew it was too early to take on organizing girls soccer matches in the college, but I didn't listen to my instinct. I figured it was no big deal that I will just let my student to do most of the leg work since I was busy getting ready for girls conference, but he didn't follow the proper procedure of inform all the authorities (eventhough I have urged him to do so over and over) before posting flyers with my names (only) on it. Of course the authorities weren't too happy, but I was able to explain the situation and given that I am new and I have been intergrating fairly well in the community, I have rectified the situation and we can continue without too much problem. I am only just going to do a small scale soccer match between the different grades in my college this year. Next year I will try to set up matches to compete with females students of neighboring college or lycee. I am also hoping to set up academic competition with gifts to attract students to participate, and hoping through doing so will boost students‚ interest in learning and school. I am also hoping to work with other female teachers from elementary schools to speak in group mom meetings, to get the parents to push students to study and do their homework at home. Instead of some students copy off each other at school 10-15 minutes before the homework is due. It seems very few students really open their notebook once they get home.

I am sad that my counterpart (the vice principal of my college) has been moved to a far off village to be the principal there. I've pleaded to keep him here. He also doesn't want to go because he has a lot of young children here and the road between his new post and my village is very bad. I know it because it's on my way to Labe. Not easily accessible by vehicle. I have found him to be a such kind man and good mentor for me, but right now I have to look for others for guidence, and to help me to develop secondary projects in my village.

I am sad and frustrated that on one end that I want to push my kids to study hard to have a better future, but on the other end faced with the harsh reality that last year, government can only afford for less than 50% of students who passed university entrance exam to attend univerity. And then there is lack of jobs after university. *sigh*

Someone asked me if we will have an actual physical facility for the library. No, we don't even have bathrooms at the college and some classrooms are in the desperate needs of repair. So, I will be operating a library out of my hut probably. I just want to get some brain foods to some of my kids somehow. I don't care how I do it.

I finally made it back to the sous-prefect's home to eat on a Sunday afternoon. Of course communication with the family member other than the sous-prefect is a problem, but I always find some housework to do to pass the time while waiting for the meal to cook. This time is pounding rice with a long thick stick with a circular cross section into a wooden container. Each time the wooden stick pound the rice remove the skin a little bit. It is not a easy work but good training for upper back muscle and the triceps. The rice skins also make your skin very itchy. I am again at awe of amount of work one must do just to eat here.

So, I am looking forward to spend the week off b/w Christmas and New Years at my site, visiting more of the smaller villages and reach out to more of my students and families. And maybe I can try my luck at some baking and share them with my friends. Yes , I am getting rather attached to my friends and my kids in the village. Already, I am sad at thinking that after a year, I won't be able to see my 10th graders as they will move into cities to attend high schools. The kids can be impossible one day and so darling the next. Seeing them getting what I am talking about sometimes is a feeling so precious. Just thinking now, leaving the kids in my family after 2 years will be so difficult for me. Working and living in the US seems so foreign to me right now, eventhough I have only been away for less than 6 months. Life is so strange sometimes.

It's strange to think it is Christmas without the constant reminder of retail stores. Not to mention it is hot and there is no snow.

Thank you everyone for your letters and packages. Well, only Fen yee and Adrienne's letters have been getting through, and of course the letters in the packages. I am glad all the packages have safely made through and got into my hands. Thank you and thank you. I miss you all but not so much that I want to go back to the US. Take it as a good thing that I am loving my life here and the people here. I wonder why not more people try it out, but then again it is such an individual thing.

Day 141 - I miss my mom's cooking from time to time...

2005-11-18T09:23:00.000+08:00

Hmm, hmm, hmm, that was such a good meal. You should try it, too. Yes, I know that my taste standard probably has lowered since I came to Guinea, but I think you agree with me when you try it, too. Thank you Cindy or was it Di and Patty (I've received so many packages and I am loosing track), for providing 2 really great meals from home. One was tofu that I cooked w/ beef and tomato sauce (in a package), the other is Trader Joe's Tuna in Red Panang curry sauce which I heated up today. Yes, it's quick and de-li-cious! I also stir fried local wild spinach called boroboro, eggplants, onions and garlic, added a little soysauce and sugar, and voila, it was a feast! I figure I won't be here for Thanksgiving, so I will treat myself a little early.

That's the thing w/ the food I got from US, I always want to save them, because I can't buy them here. Believe it or not, Cindy also sent me a can of fois gras, which has been sitting in the trunks for about 5 months now, perhaps I will break into it for my 32th birthday. Holy shit, can't believe I am moving another year into the 30's, but I am feeling young as ever and always feel like there is spring under my feet.

Oh, I miss my mom's cooking from time to time. She is amazing, can cook up such a feast. I've got a lot of seeds now, but I have to wait till rainy season to plant them. Although I might be able to plant some in a garden that my student has. I can't wait to grow things and share them with people in my village. Also hoping to bake some cookies for my kids for my 1 week off between Christmas and New Year's.

Things that made me smile yesterday:

A market lady called out my name (Aminata) because she knows I like guava, but has been disappointed that it has been hard to find. She saved them just to sell them to me.

My student's mom said if I don't go to her home to eat lunch everyday, she will personally come over and drag me there to eat. (of course, I can't free load there everyday.)

My counterpart who is also like a vice principal of my college, after hearing that I went to look for him twice, came over after dark and took me to drop off 2 letters w/ another person (the 3rd Guinean who lives in the US) who is heading back to the US. He also walked me back eventhough it is the road that's busy at night and I know it well.

Sitting w/ students and locals at the one and only main intersection in our village flipping through the special edition of National Geographics on Katrina. (Thanks Qi for sending me the picture magazine.) Explaining what happened with nature and people, sharing knowledge outside of the classroom. Now, whenever I go to a student's home, I always bring a couple copies of National Geographics. I can flip through them w/ little kids in the family. My students‚ always say, "but we can't read English", but I say "a picture is worth a thousand words".

The 2 days workers' strike passed peacefully. Of course it didn't change a thing. Perhaps a month long strike would make some impact. I passed time by visiting students, other professors and catch up on writing.

So, the second time around biking to Labe for Thanksgiving was a breeze compare to the first. We also were able to "hit" the bank and lose ourselves in the market. I couldn't get myself out of the fabric section of the market. Was also hoping to buy some paint to brighten up my wall. Two volunteers cooked up a storm in the Labe PC house. We had 3 type of birds, turkey, chicken and guinea fowl(sp?), haven't had these much meat in a month. Then there were 8 kinds of desert. Needless to say, I couldn't walk or sit down afterwards. We headed back to site on Sunday and I was able to then bike back my site after parting with my neighbor. So, it is like this. Between me and my neighbor PCV is 17 km, then from her site to Labe is another 45 km, so on the return trip, I rest a little after the first 45km, then biked back to my site the same day, cos I got to teach the next day.

Day 139 - Things you only do or get use to or see in Guinee...

2005-11-15T13:49:00.000+08:00

Things you only do or get use to or see in Guinee...

Eating out of a huge bowl, just the section in front of you, and being the only person using a spoon.

Cooking outside in the yard with a big iron pot propped over 3 large stones, and it isn't bbq.

Forever having at least one kid staring at you or touch your hair as if you are from a different planet.

Forever have my female students asking me for my hair when I get it cut.

Forever having at least one baby cry when he/she sees you.

Paying more for a clove of garlic than 4-5 tomatos.

Eating outside on the ground.

Eating mostly rice or other form of starch w/ sauce. 2nd, 3rd, or 4th dishes, are you kidding me? (sauce got a lot of things mix in).

Recycle H2O, like soapy using H2O left over from the 1st load of laundry to soak the 2nd load, and I don't even need to pump H2O and go far to get it like.

Pee in a container in the middle of night in my room because I really don't want to get out of my hut into the darkness and elements.

Being able see at night w/ only stars & moon.

Being able to see stars.

Getting excited to see airplanes in the sky and inform my little sisters & brothers.

Say "Crunch" (in French "Croquei") peanut not eating (manger) peanut.

Cutting veggies in your hand. Cutting board you say, well, want to send me one?

Greet in Pular, talk in French, think in Frenangalis, dream in???

Getting lower class kids confused calling you monsieur not madame, because there are very few females teachers and kids' french level is low.

Someone always put out a stool for you to sit when you go visit.

To show you respect, people will hold right elbow w/ left hand when shaking your hand.

Never eat w/ left hand, Guinean use that one to clean themselves after using the toilette. Toilet paper is for porto (White ppl).

Find dead spiders in the room and not care a bit.

Either wash dishes right away or put away in an air tight bucket.

Hold hands w/ female students and still not feel comfortable about it.

Feet getting really dirty everyday. Paved roads in the village? Right...

Seeing Guinean walking outside barefoot in dirt, bushes, stones and wonder how they do it, and seeing them scrubbing it down w/ hard bristle brush.

"Attacked" by flies swarming out of the latrine because I was stupid enough to cover it weeks later after I started using it.

Being laughed at in class when you speak Pular but kids are amused, so it's all good.

Seeing women w/ their breasts exposed even when they are not feeding babies. (Don't know if male volunteers share this or not).

Seeing Guinean wearing winter jacket when they ride motorcycle early in the morning in Nov.-Jan.

Throw trash wherever you like, hesitating less and less.

Having people telling you stay on little longer even though you've been sitting there for an hour and just listen to other people talking in their local language.

Writing so much to you all till my hands hurt.

Bike 60km out not because I need to get out my village, but talk to my parents on the phone.

Getting so excited for mailrun day (Yep, that's this morning for me). Why isn't the "truck" here yet?!

Getting used to little kids saying "give me the book" and not feel they are being rude, cos they just learning to speak French.

Not eat much meat when other offer them to you, cos as it is you free load a lot when visiting families, and meat is expensive.

Seeing switches and outlet in some families homes and being surprised each time.

Seeing little kids (6 or 7) dancing provocatively by our standard or hip hop style and wondering where did they learn all these?

Being able to recognize different veggie and fruit plant, even cotton.

Saving every bit of scrap paper, card board, cans, bottles, strings, odds & ends for things you might want to make for school.

Having audience from other classed because some teachers didn't show.

Playing the family name joke. My case is "Diallo" vs "Balde/Bah". More half of people in my village has the last name is Balde/Bah, so when people learn that my Guinean last name is Diallo, they always say I should change it to Balde/Bah, cos Diallos are the thieves. All good fun of course.

Always get asked do you have tomato/potato or lots of other food in the U.S.?

Love the smell of cloth dried in the sun, not liking the texture cos it isn't soft.

Thinking headlamps is #1 necessity for Peace Corps.

Seeing people chew a certain stick that has natural teeth cleaning ingredient.

Being able to pick beautiful flowers as you wish in the wild to decorate your house.

Stop to watch little kids bath, play in the river and say hi.

Seeing men carry lady handbags.

Having market ladies give you a little extra and you give them a little of your other purchase.

Not have to worry about being late. There is no rush here.