Winding Down the Second Semester

It is hard to believe that the first school year here in Guinea is wrapping up. The year has gone by fast and as with every school year, the end makes me reflect on the things I’d like to do differently for the next year and what was a success. The difference is that I find myself reflecting on these things in terms of school as well as in day-to-day village life. As much as I try to integrate into the community, I find myself making mistakes all the time, and more so now than before, I realize what it means to integrate as an American in a small West African village. My vision of what I thought it would be and what it is has many discrepancies.

One success has been English class. I have three classes; one is for my “honors” seventh graders (the 20 students that have good attendance and complete their homework), one for the ninth and tenth graders, and one for the teachers in the primary school and middle school. The English class was something the students and teachers started asking for when I arrived in September; their eagerness to learn has not faded and I hope it continues in the next school year as well. In Guinea, English as a Foreign Language begins in the eleventh grade, however many of the better jobs in the cities require some English. I hope, especially for my seventh graders, they have some sort of advantage when they get to high school. Being in the village seems to be an automatic disadvantage for many reasons; hopefully they’ll have a substantial English background by the time they get to high school.

The most enjoyable class for me has been, surprisingly for me, the course with the other teachers. I spent the first few months being so intimidated by initiating conversation with them since my French was so weak. It’s too bad I wasn’t a little braver because I’ve learned what a dynamic group of people my fellow teachers are. In Guinea, if you are a teacher, you get assigned to a school. You can try to request a city or bribe your way into a position, but most end up where they are assigned. For the teachers of my village, this means they have to leave their husbands, wives, and children in the cities of Conakry, Mamou, or Labe in order to come to the village. As you can imagine, this is not a coveted assignment. Among all the teachers, there are four houses most of them live in - one with the women, the others with the men. None of the teachers are originally from my village or any village nearby for that matter, some did not speak Pular (our local language) when they arrived in the village since they are originally from other parts of Guinea.

Most have been in Kourou for three to six years so far. Being non-villagers makes them somewhat of outsiders to the villagers. Within the village, everyone is family for the most part. I don’t think their exclusion is intended; they simply aren’t part of the family. Since they are all in the same situation, they have become sort of a family with each other – they all get along for the most part but fight like siblings. Lots of love, lots of dysfunctionality. They all share a common desire to get out of Kourou and teach in a city; that fate is left to the government. But since they’re all here, they both embrace it and complain about it everyday.

There are twelve that come on a regular basis to class. Imagine you and eleven of your friends in class together where you inevitably will make lots of mistakes since you are speaking a foreign language. They laugh at each other, laugh at themselves, and we all have a really fun time. My experience with French thus far has not been my favorite part of this experience; I do not enjoy always feeling inadequate or incapable of truly functioning within the community. And I don’t like always feeling so vulnerable. Being with them two nights a week were they open themselves up to making mistakes has made me a little more comfortable with being a novice myself. I am very grateful for their patience.

Since Christmas, I feel like I’ve become more comfortable with village life and as I type this today, I can say I really enjoy it and it is making the Peace Corps experience one I am glad to be involved in. In September, I was so excited to cook for myself, disappointed that I did not have phone service, concerned about how I would get to the internet, and constantly questioning what the heck I was doing with myself here. But as I’ve adapted to life here, I’m finding that I’m finally really happy with the decision to be here. The way to really adapt was to give up cooking for myself. Once that happened, everything seemed to fall into place. Sitting around the fires, watching my host family prepare the meal has made my local language much better. Eating with the family for lunch and dinner has diminished loneliness. The cooking and eating all of my meals Guinean style has opened others up to being more comfortable with me too. They see me eating as they do, cooking with them, and that’s all it really takes for people to then be okay with the American. I know I’m also getting to know people better as time goes on as well, but I feel like food has been the catalyst for acceptance. And as for the phone and internet, to tell you the truth, being off the grid is not so bad. A new phone service came to my village and I’m not so disappointed anymore that it doesn’t reach my house although glad I no longer have to climb the mountain to get service.

Towards the end of the school year, I started to visit students at their homes to meet their parents. One village is an hour’s walk away (and these students aren’t the furthest from school!) For me, the intrigue of this village is that all of my students from this village tend to be the hardest workers and brightest ones. This village has a primary school so I wanted to see what was going on here that was different from the primary school in my village. After spending time with the parents and eating lots and lots of food, I got a chance to talk with the teacher that taught these students fifth and sixth grade. His demeanor was very optimistic and happy to be a teacher. He told me about how he runs his classroom, how he gives his students work to do at home, and most importantly, accountability. I left this village that evening with fifty mangos, twenty avocados, peanuts, dried manioc, and a live chicken as gifts from the mothers of the students. It was a very fun day and gave me new insight on primary school attitudes.

As for being a Peace Corps volunteer, there is a pretty good chance that if I wasn’t here, my students would not have math class (the other two middle schools in the area can’t get someone to come to the village to teach. Like I mentioned earlier, no one wants to come to the village.) I can say I’m “doing” that – teaching math and English. But as for the rest of what I “do,” I’m not quite sure what to put on the list. I’m involved in lots of cultural exchange. I am an American that is different than the American faces Guineans associate with Americans – the celebrities. I hope my American values of education, gender equity, and hard work have made some sort of impact on the students and villagers. The rest of what I “do” is learn. Since wanting to be a teacher, I have been so curious about public education outside of the U.S., and living in the village, teaching in the middle school, making friends with Guineans has taught me so much about this. Learning about West African culture has been so interesting and so valuable. Some of my fellow Peace Corps Volunteers are so productive with projects they’re starting – they’re lists of things their “doing” are long and interesting. As someone who has always like to have a long list of “things I do” or accomplishments, for the first time I’m finding myself taking the “less is more” approach to life. And surprisingly, I’m enjoying it. I spend a significant time during my week doing schoolwork, but for the rest of it, I spend my time among people of the village. I learn more than I give on a daily basis. I imagined myself “doing” all sorts of “things” to contribute to the community, but realize that just “being” does a lot on its own. Peace Corps as an organization has its strenghts and weaknesses, but as far as me wanting to teach in another country, it has been a great fit.

As for the summer, the next group of education volunteers is coming to town in July. I’ll be working with my boss to improve the training for this group and then directly working with the new volunteers. We have a couple of conferences this summer – one in June where we volunteers will be trained on how to give lessons on HIV/AIDS, excision, and other health-related issues. The other is in July; it is a girls’ conference when each volunteers brings a motivated girl to a week-long conference on a wide range of topics. School starts again at the end of September. Hopefully I’ll get to do some traveling around Guinea and West Africa.