Preparing for the New Volunteers

Since getting back to Guinea in June, I've been working with fellow PCVs on planning sessions for the new volunteers. They will be arriving on Wednesday and we want their summer to be as productive and smooth as possible. All of us education volunteers know what went well last year and what needed work, so everyone has been pitching in ideas on how to improve things.

Last week, a group of us were at the training site and had a chance to really work side-by-side with our Guinean counterparts. Working with Guineans has been a valuable learning experience. Writing objectives, planning lessons, etc. is not new to me, and I want to just type and write and cross each session off the list of things to do - just keep cranking things out, even if it means working later than the usual hours. That's not exactly how Guineans work. But it was good for me to be forced to take time to really discuss as a group about how we are going to do things and gain new perspective on how Guineans view training teachers and their approach to teaching. Slowing down the pace is something I've been getting better at, yet once I was thrown back into the opportunity to write curriculum on my laptop, I just wanted to move as efficiently as possible.

Going back to the training site also meant getting a chance to see my host family from training which was a really wonderful reunion. Everyone is healthy and happy; the two older girls just took their exams to enter University. It was such a joy to see them again and I look forward to having some time with them this summer.