one more from the good ol' USA

over the past two days, i've learned a lot about what the heck i got myself into.  i thought i'd share a few details.

1) the flight from JFK to Dakar, Senegal is 8 hours and 15 minutes.  from Senegal to Guinea is 1 hour and 15 minutes.

2) there are 25 of us total in the education program.  we're either math, physics, chem, or TEFL (teaching english as a foreign language.)  and......i'm the oldest one in our group.  the median age of a PCV (peace corps volunteer) is 27 ; our group is pretty much fresh out of college.  not quite sure where all these late 20-somethings are.  but i love the enthusiasm.  no one has been in a classroom (with the exception of a couple that have done student teaching.)  there are a few that have worked a couple of years.  i've negotiated a couple of deals - i'll teach you how to teach, you teach me french.  and there is one fellow clevelander (solon.)

3) we'll learn french and a local language.  we're in school M - F but have saturdays and sundays to....study french.  that's what i'll be doing with my free time!

4) we also have a couple of classes on how to take care of a bike.  how to fix a flat, etc.  

5) although guinea looks so small on the map of africa, it is just a little smaller than oregon. (FYI - oregon is the 9th biggest state in the US.  yeah miss hainley.)

everything else we've been hearing seems like common sense.  things like - don't walk home alone late at night or be sure to take your malaria medicine.  my dominican republic students will appreciate this...the trainers made a big deal about the yarn we tied on all of our bags so when we are in baggage claim in guinea, it will be easy to identify our bags; they both still have their yarn and say some of the PCVs from the 60's and 70's say they still have their yarn on their luggage.  (although luggage from the 60's has to be pretty worn out...but i'll believe them for the sake of the story.)  i tied my yarn (which is the same blue color as my cross i wear) on with my hot pink ribbon from our most recent dominican trip.  i wish i would have left the ones from the other years!

next post will be from AFRICA.