august 6th

Wednesday, August 6th

Tonight the "courant," or electritcity, is on, so I had a chance to recharge my computer. It has to be plugged into a voltage regulator that my family has their freezer plugged into, and after a month of living with them, I finally felt ready to inconvience them for a couple of hours and ask them to use the regulator. My host sisters and I watched Amalie while it charged...it was my way of practicing French for the night. I didn't put the subtitles on :) It was a nice way to relax and my host siblings loved it. Little Aminata fell asleep; she falls asleep everynight on the couch or on her dad's prayer mat and no one can wake her up - she's a girl after my own heart.

The courant comes on every few nights. The way you I know it is has been turned on is all of the "petits," or little kids, start cheering and dancing in the streets - they all then proceed to pile into the nearest house that has a television and watch one of the two channels - one is usually Guinean programming (news, other random shows) and the other is a DVD being played - Ttianic in French, some random Jennifer Love Hewitt movie I've never seen, or random Indian films. One night, after nights of bucket baths by flashlight, I was in the bathroom and heard the kids cheering - I flicked on the lights and started cheering with them.

My days are spent in school from 8 to 5 everyday. We have 4 different types of classes - language, technical language (math language), peace corps information (medical sessions on topics such as malaria, dental health, safety sessions, etc.), and cultural sessions. Everyday is a little different, some days seem longer than others. Today, I had 3 French classes and 1 math language class. Then, at 5pm, we novice French speakers have an extra French tutoring session that is one-on-one. I then come home and work on French homework orlesson plans. We are just practicing now; my lessons have to be scripted word for word, which drives me insane. Phrases like "take out your notebooks and try this example" or "what is a 3 digit number divisible by 2" take forever to figure out. We also learn the methods Guineans do math - long division is the one I still need to practice. Subtraction of 2 or three digit numbers is also unique. Guinean education all comes from the French system. I'm learning more about the Guinean education system is and have a better idea of goals to set for myself in teaching in the schools.

On Friday, we received our site assignments. We officially become Peace Corps Voluteers on September 26th, and a couple of days after that we all move to different villages in Guinea. We are all together until then in this village that we are training in. There are four regions of Guinea - each with its own unique characteristics, and each with its own local language. The French is for the classroom only. A couple of weeks ago, we were able to request which region we wanted. I requested the Fouta - the region of Guinea in the mountains. I hear about how beautiful this region is - very tropical and has rivers and waterfalls and many paths to explore. AND is becomes quite cool in the winter. Cool enough to see your breath in the mornings. My host family is from the Fouta origianlly so they have been talking it up big time. There were only 3 of the 9 math placements in the Fouta and I got one of them! My village is near Mamoa, a pretty major town with a bustling market and internet! So this is definitely the longest internet-free stretch of time I'll go through.

We took a field trip this weekend to the Cascades. We could swim in the falls and we did so for hours. It was so beautiful and a much needed get-away. For some, training isn't so bad - they're fluent in French and then teaching English. For many of us math and science people, we're nowhere near fluent and then have a whole set of technical terms and verbs to learn - we feel like we're always studying. I think the falls were extra special for us!

Everday is a new adventure and some days I can't believe I'm really here. The hardest part is being so disconnected from the rest of Guinea and the rest of the world. There is no post office to send letters, definitely no internet, and making calls is expensive. The news I hear is in French...sometimes I hear "Obama" in the midst of lots of words I don't understand and wonder what the latest news is. There isn't a newspaper or any sort of publications. The days are marked by whether or not the courant is on, and time is marked by the 5 prayers of the Muslims. Other than that, there is no difference between a Wednesday and a Sunday.

Another speical "treat" has been the Catholic Church here. There are about 100 people that attend the mass each week. It is in French of course, but my friend Jo once said something to the effect that no matter where you go, Catholic Mass is the same, so the language doesn't matter. It still feels like home. The music at Mass was really great - drums and a tamborine and a choir. The priest is French and travels to a few churches here in Guinea. It sounds like the chances of there being a church near my village are slim so I'll enjoy this while it lasts!