YAY, the rainy season has arrived

So I am on a French computer, so I apologize in advance for my mistakes. Im in Labe this week to work on things for Girls Conference which is at the of July. Girls Conference is a chance for volunteers to bring a girl from their site for a weekend trip to be with other young girls and to learn about their rights, talk about their relationships, and really to make them feel empowered. I have a girl, one of my students, in mind that I would like to take. This time we have many Guinean women who have jobs coming to talk to these young girls. I think it will be good for them to see what they can become. Its been a tough couple of weeks at site in terms of the way I have seen woman be treated. It is extremely sad and disturbing and its been hard for me to deal with. Ive been looking for outlets and ways to handle the things I witness and hear.
Besides that, things are going just dandy. I continue to work with the doctor and have had the chance of being with extremely young mothers who are giving birth. Talking with them has really opened my eyes on the way women live. Along with that, I get to hold newborn babies all the time, and really who doesnt like that? Ive also been playing soccer with my girl students. They must think Im good because I always get picked first and I always hear them say in Pular, Madame is coming when Im running after the ball. If only my soccer coaches who always kept me on the bench could see me now!
Rachel came to visit the other day along with the country director of the Peace Corps. When Rachel and I are together we speak English, of course, and we can talk about anything because nobody understands us. When they arrived I was just finishing up my English class so the director was talking to my principle right next to Rachel and I. Not considering the fact that the director speaks English, Rachel turns to me and asks why Im wearing a bra. I helpfully tell her that our director does indeed understand us and that we cant talk about everything we want, I respond because theyre big. Sometimes we just have no tact.
My host mother, who is actually a year younger than me and has two kids, is doing well and her baby boy is the cutest baby Ive ever seen. He is just so happy, but he always seems to pee on me. Whenever she hands him to me, Im always like hes going to pee on me, isnt he? She finds that amusing and then he usually does. She then washes my skirt, so its nice if one of my skirts is dirty and needs to be wash I just wear it over there and Im almost guaranteed a clean skirt in two to three days. That way I dont have to wait till laundry time which I do once every month because its such a pain to do. Its a day affair, esp with the rainy season here. The rainy season has been nice. I now sleep with sweatpants and a sweatshirt. Its great. So this blog is kind of filled with random thoughts. I apologize. I usually write out something, but I just have been so busy, which I love. I wake up at 7 and usually Im at the hospital till 11, one time till 4 am. Ive even stopped writing in my journal. Im sure my mom will be upset to hear about that. Ooops. Well love you all and miss you.

DDR

Hello all! It's been awhile since I've been on a computer. I've almost forgotten how to use one. Luckily, right now, I'm not on a French computer, but I do apologize for all the e-mails I sent out yesterday. To decode those e-mails know that q=a, z=w, '=m, 1=! so yea, good luck with that! Anyway, things have been going well at site. Teaching is going well and is coming to an end, though I don't know the exact date. However, I am getting sad that this year is ending, because my students are all so great and I'm going to miss them this summer. A lot of them take off during the vacay and go to Conakry or Labe. It amazes me how attached I've become to my students and the thought of them leaving, especially the tenth graders, brings tears to my eyes. I never thought with such a language and culture barrier that I would form such relationships.
The jerseys arrived in Mombeya on Sunday and the two girls soccer teams have been practicing every night. It's so fun to watch and at times, very funny. I have another teacher who is helping me coach them. He's pretty outrageous himself.
The other weekend, I attended a concert in Mombeya with two of my PC friends, Rachel and Conor. It was hilarous. We were basically laughing the whole time and dancing like crazy. I saw many of my students copying the outrageous moves we threw out. The band on stage, in Pular, even said that theses white people can dance. Like they ever should have doubted us in the first place, right?!
I still am working with the doctor and I'm still seeing some pretty interesting things. And the other week,I again found myself light-headed which led to me being violently ill. Don't worry, I was fine! During the break, I will be working more so with the doctor and I also hope to do some traveling.
Thanks again to all who have sent me letters, packages, and emails! I greatly appreciate them. Love and miss you guys and will be home in 7 months for X-mas!

Rhom

Bonjour bonjour! I'm in Conakry on "vacay" for spring break. It's been great to see all my friends here and the ride here wasn't bad either, my car kept all 4 of its wheels on this time. Yesterday I took a boat (or a huge canoe with a motor) to an island to spend the day on the beach. This canoe had boards missing and water kept seeping through. A guy had to use a big bucket to scoop water out throughout this 45 min. trip. It was very exciting and kind of scary. While we were traveling at massive speeds of 10 mph, we saw many old, abandon ships along the way. The beach was amazing and even "clean". We grilled hot dogs and had some fish and spent the whole day riding the waves. I'm in Conakry until tomorrow morning, but I just wanted to write a quick blog. Things are still going well at site. I did lose my phone service, apparently they turned the antenna in Labe so the other side of Labe now has service. This morning I went to the US Embassy. I'm working on getting a well for my school, so we will see how that goes. I hope all is well with you guys. I miss you!!
Happy Easter!

These past three weeks have gone by so fast. I have been super busy, it's been great! The weather here has changed drastically. I went from wearing leggings, sweatpants, two pairs of socks, a t-shirt, long-sleeve tee, and a hooded sweatshirt to bed to wearing only a tank top. Granted in January and February, it was probably in the low 70's, but now, wow, is it hot. During the afternoon, I literally sweat through my clothes-it's very sexy.
But most afternoons I spend with the doctor of my village. He's great and I've been helping him out around the clinic. I also assist him on trips to the bush to aid in deliveries and around other clinics; and I thought I lived in the bush.
Man, have I seen some pretty crazy things. I even once got so light-headed that I had to sit down and put my head between my legs. The doctor asked if I was scared and I just told him that we do things differently in the states. I will spare you the details, but I'll tell you a quick story that happened last week. The doctor and I were working at a clinic in Lahoya when a man came in and said his wife was in labor. However, the doctor still needed to see other patients, one being a woman well into her 50's who had given birth a year ago through a C-section. So after he literally took out a wire from one of the three skin protrusions below her bell button, we were off. Well, we got there too late. The young woman had already given birth with the help of her mother. There was blood all over the hut florr and the woman was huddled in the corner while the baby was on the bed. The baby girl wasn't breathing so the doctor did a bunch of things, including holding the baby upside down, to get her circulation going. After he gave her CPR, she was fine and able to breath. It was quite the experience and I'm very grateful she was okay.
It has been so great working with the doctor. He is very patient with me and my French and he explains everything. Classes are going well. I've been getting nervous about preping my tenth grade class for the Brevet, a test they have to take before they go on to high school (-like). My English classes are very entertaining. For weeks they have been begging me to sing the Star Spangled Banner. I have come up with many excuses not to like I'm sick, my voice is gone, but this last week we were chased out of the classroom by a swarm of bees. It was like a scene right out of a scary movie. My favorite part of English class is when I let them ask me questions. They have to say "how do you say____ in English?" Well, after some students asked what girlfriend and boyfriend and pregnant were, I had a kid tell me "me girlfriend she no pregnant". I about lost it. I told him that's good, because we don't need anymore Thiernos running around. He is one of those kids ho is a troublemaker, but you can't help but like. He's very smart and does well in class, he wants to become a doctor.
I can only imagine what I sounded like (and still do) when I started learning French. I guess my most embarrassing story regarding my ability to speak French happened in October. I was talking to my tutor about how bad the roads are here- there really not roads- and he was asking me what my preferred mode of transportation was. I thought about how carsick I get here and how biking up a mountain isn't my favorite hobby and then I remembered reading about how some Peace Corps countries get horses so I said le chien. Thinking I had said something brilliant, I continued on why mentioning they were big and strong. It wasn't until later (after I also said if I could be any animal, I would be a chien), when Rachel (who was also there during my chien stories like how I use to ride les chiens when I was younger) and it came to me and I asked her was I talking about dogs? And she said, "more so than anything else." I asked her why noone had stopped me and she said they thought I was being serious. We laughed for days.
So things are still going very well. I really enjoy my girls club. This past week we talked about the relationship between STD's and HIV/AIDs. Anyway, I hope all is well with you guys and I miss you all very much! LOVES.

Mombeya's Clinic

So I said I would try and blog everytime I got to a computer. Not a lot has happened in the last two weeks. I'm still teaching English twice a week after school, and I also started an English class for adults on Monday nights. This past week, during my girl's club, we talked about the realities and myths of HIV/AIDS. It went really well and I think the girls feel a little bit more informed. Also, Hy-Vee has donated jerseys and bags for the girls soccer team, so thank you Hy-Vee!
My principal's wife had her baby last Friday and Rachel and I went to the hospital/clinic in Mombeya to visit the baby girl. She was adorable and they called her a port; she really did look white! The doctor there wants me to work at this clinic with him and I said of course. For some reason, he wanted to take my blood pressure and weigh me. All this when he had a roomful of patients waiting. My blood pressure was low and I explained to him that I was in a food coma as I had just had two lunches, one from my host mother and the other from a sacrifice for the teachers of Mombeya. Which also, I explained, might be the reason I weighed so much! He then asked me if I wanted to watch him take the extra finger off this new born baby. Uh yea I would. So I helped hold down the baby while he cut the circulation off the extension flab of the pinkie with some string. Then he just snipped it right off. I was fairly impressed on how sterile and efficient he was.
So I've been pretty busy and things have been going well. Miss and love you all!

Another hitchhiker? Pick them up!

Wow, it's been a long time. I am so sorry. I really am going to try and blog more often (goal: blog every time I get to a computer). So a lot has happened since I last blogged, so I guess I will quickly summarize what has been going on with me here. During the month of November, I continued to teach and I can't tell you how much I love my students. They are so respectful and helpful, which from the stories I have hear from other volunteers, this is rare. I am very lucky in that sense. Also during November, my friend Rachem and I took a five hour bike ride (literally up a rocky mountain) to Labe. Rachel and I have trouble finding transportation in and out of our villages so I find myself riding my bike a lot, especially to Rachel's site where there are a couple missionary families who feed us well! This bike trip was quite the experience and I have to say the ride back was like a walk in the park. After Labe, we continued on in a bush taxi to Mali-Yembering to visit our friends. These villages are in the northern Fouta and are beautiful. It gets the coldest there, and in fact, during the month of January, beaucoup de cows died because of it and the "government" of Guinea was contacted. We all came together and celebrated Thanksgiving in Labe. It didn't really feel like Thanksgiving-I mean it was like 90 degrees, but the food was great and I got to spend it with my friends who really have become my family.
During the month of December, I barely got any sleep as I was so excited to go home for Christmas. However, my trip to Conakry to catch my flight was an adventure in itself. I biked to Rachel's site to leave in a bush taxi "early" Sunday morning. The mini-van-like taxi finally left around 10; however, we didn't get very far when my driver was pulled over and a fight broke out. Apparently, my driver was suppose to be driving a different car, but he took this van, which was packed with about 17 people with baggage packed high on the top and on top of that were more people, because a porto (white person) was in it. Finally, the fight was settled and we were off. I shared the passenger seat with one other person. Whenever I ride in a bush taxi, I am in the most uncomfortable and distorted positions. We weren't even half-way there when we were going down a slight incline and the wheel fell off. After we screeched to a stop, we all got out and they tried to put the wheel back on. That didn't work. So there I was, on the side of the road, it was about 4 in the afternoon, and I still had a long way to go. After about an hour and a half on the side of the road, I started getting nervous and I started pacing, thinking about my options. There wasn't any phone service, I was about 45 minutes away from the closest village, and I was being attacked by bugs. I started wondering what my chances were for hitchhiking and whether I could just put my hand out and wave someone down. As I'm contemplating all this, I see this guy drive by and he is by himself (usually all cars are loaded with people). I decided not to do anything; however, lucky for me, he came back 5 minutes later and asked if I was going to Conakry and offered me a ride. So I went from sitting in the hot sun and a crowded taxi to an air conditioned truck. I explained to him that my French was bad, but that I was so grateful he picked me up. It turned out he could speak English so this Cuban man took me all the way to the Peace Corp office free of charge, while also paying for my dinner. And how was home? Amazing! It was so good to see all my family and many of my friends. And the food wasn't too bad either! Thanks to all who came and saw me. I am so grateful for that trip home.
I made it back to Guinea safely, despite all the political drama and change here. We are now only on alert status which means I can continue doing what I came here to do. I am very glad things happened as "peacefully" as they did and that I wasn't here for the coup. Last month I attended a week long seminar in Mamou. Before I left, I went with my sous-prefet, who is also my host dad, to a small village 20 minutes from Mombeya. I was told that the US ambassador was going to be there. As soon as I stepped out of the car a video phone was on me. The people there formed two lines (think the movie Grease) and the sous-prefet, some doctors, and I (the only porto there) walked in between these lines where people were yelling and cheering. I was then seated up front and presented as the US ambassador, a representative of the US Embassy and apparently, I gave a large sum of money for them to build a hospital. I'm sure my mouth just dropped; however, I couldn't help but laugh. I was really just a face to them that represented this aide. So after we blessed the land they were going to build on and they gave me some nice indigo tissue, we had a huge feast and I even got to eat fries! Back to the seminar in Mamou. It was a great time. It was the first time my whole group was together again and it was so great to see everyone. The seminar was so we could get an idea for our secondary projects. I have started two thus far. I teach English now, twice a week. They love it! I wish they were as enthusiastic about learning chemistry as they are about learning English. This past week I had my first girl's club, which was available to all the girl's in my school. We went over the type of things they wanted to talk about and next week we are talking about HIV/AIDs. I'm also doing some hunting for soccer jerseys for the girls. And last night, I got the chance to talk to our SED APCD about the possibility of getting a well for the school. So I am very excited about all these projects.
Everything is going very well. I really love Mombeya and the people there. Also, my French is getting better and I've been able to communicate more with my students. I have even started learning some Pular so I can greet the older women in my village. They think it's hilarous when I try and speak Pular. I also got a cat last month. His name is Caty. He is very cute and he loves eating those huge lizards, so it's been nice having him around. My host mom finally had her baby. A boy, who they call my husband. He is adorable. And some other excited news: I have reception at my house now so that's been great. So my new number (yet again) is 62978615.
Thanks to everyone for staying in touch with me by e-mails, mail, and phone calls. I love hearing from all you guys. Anyway, I love and miss you all very much and I promise I will be better at blogging.

So I lost my number so I have a new one. It's 011224 63823518. Sorry I keep switching my number! Anyway, I'm in Labe for the weekend. We are celebrating Halloween. My friend Rachel and I bought soccer jerseys and socks, along with jellies, because that's what Guineans wear to play soccer. Should be a good time. Mombeya is going well. My tutor was very helpful and classes finally started October 20th after only one strike. So I've been teaching for two weeks and it's going great. I write down everything I say to insure "success"; however, my students have the hardest time understanding things even when it's right there presented to them on the board. I teach four classes and in my 7eme class, I have about 75 students. 75 students who just stare at me and hardly respond, it's a good time. I am enjoying it. The other day they were making fun of my french when I turned my back to write on the board so I turned around and started talking in English. Their mouths dropped and they were shocked. I just stood up there and talked for about 5 minutes until we all started laughing. We then had a quick English lesson on what I was drinking, lemonade, and how to make it. My house is still coming along slowly. I ordered shelves and drawers so I can finally unpack; still living out of my suitcases. I return to Mombeya Sunday, don't know how quite yet, so that should be interesting. Anyway, I'm home in less than two months...can't wait! Love and miss you guys all!!