Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Gambia
So I just got back from the Gambia today and it was awesome. We had an amazing time! Gambia is so unbelievably different than Guinea. It's so clean. And they have real roads. It's beautiful there. We stayed at a resort on the beach and basically we just relaxed, swam, and ate a lot. We also went on a hike outside of Banjul, went to a drum show, got a drumming lesson on the beach, and went dancing. It was great! So right now I'm fixing to go to Forecariah to train the new group. Hope all is well!
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Girls Conference
Hey all! I'm in Mamou this week for Girls Conference. We left Momebey 8 to a 5 seat car and made it here without any complications (like wheels falling off, that sort of thing). It's now day 2 and things are going great! It has been a lot better than Lifeskills, the workshop I was here for last time. So far we have talked about public speaking, a trip to the health center to talk about nutrition, and relationships with men. The girl I brought has been vocal and just all around great.
I hope everyone had a great fourth. Mine was spent dancing to Michael Jackson and lighting matches (you know, in place of fireworks) and eating some "good" food. While I was in Conakry at that time, I booked flights for Gambia! I'm going there in the middle of August with Rachel. I'm very excited about that.
Things at site are going well. It's weird that I'm not teaching, but I've still been working at the health center with the doctor. Also Madame Bah has decided to start up a boutique so I've been helping her with that.
So I just finished a great book called The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. It's about this missionary family that was in the Congo during the 1960s, but a lot of things that were said in it I could totally relate to, so I decided to type out some of the things that made me think of Guinea and since I have such a hard time putting things into words, I thought this would help.
This is what one of the daughters in the book said about clothing:
"Women are expected to wear just one style of garment and no other. But the men, now that is a course of a different color. They dress up every different way in the world: some have long shirts made from the same flowery African cloth that is attired by the women....Others wear American-style buttoned shirts and shorts in drab, stained colors. A few of the smaller men even go gallivanting around in little undershirts decorated with childish prints, and nobody seems to notice the joke...As for the accessories, I hardly know where to begin. Sandals made of car tires are popular. So are antique wing tips curling up at the toes, black rubber galoshes unbuckled and flapping open, or bright pink plastic thongs, or bare feet-any of these can go with any of the before-mentioned outfits. Sunglasses, plain glasses, hats, no hats, likewise. Perhaps even a knit woolen cap with a ball on top, or a woman's bright yellow beret-I have witnessed all these wonders and more. The attitude toward clothing seems to be: if you have it, why not wear it? Some men go about their daily business prepared for the unexpected tropical snowstorm, it seems, while others wear shockingly little-a pair of shorts only. When you look around, it appears that every man here was fixing to go to a different party, and then suddenly they all got plunkered here together."
This book is just so amazing, here is one about food.
"And food, that was another song and dance. Finding it, learning its name, cutting or pounding or dashing its brains to make it into something my family would tolerate. For a long time I could not work out how all the other families were getting by. There seemed to be no food to speak of, even on a market day when everybody came around to make the tallest possible pile of what they had...Yes, I could see there was charcoal for cooking it, and shriveled red pili-pili peppers for spicing it, and calabash bowls to put it in, but where was the it, whatever it was? What on earth did they eat? At length I learned the answer: a gluey paste called fufu. It comes from a stupendoub tuber, which the women cultivate and dig from the round, soak in the river, dry in the sun, pound to white powder in hollowed-out logs, and boil. It's called manioc...It has the nutrional value of a brown paper bag, with the added bonus of trace amounts of cyanide. Yet it fills the stomach. It cooks up into the sort of tasteless mass one might induce an American child to try once, after a long round of pulled-up noses and double-dog dares."
This is one is in reference to how they conduct village meetings.
"I can just picture the parliament room: a hundredy-some-odd Tata Ndus in pointy hats and no-glass glasses all flicking flies away with animal-tail magic wands in the sweltering heat, pretending to ignore each other. It will probably take them one hundred years just to decide which person gets to sit where."
This is how I feel when I try to explainwhat I see here and what I do here.
"Since the day we arrived, Mother has nagged us to write letters home to our classmates at Bethlehem High, and not one of us has done it yet. We're still wondering, Where do you start? "This morning I got up..." I'd begin, but not, "This morning I pulled back the moquito netting that's tucked in tight around our beds because mosquitoes here give you malaria, a disease that runs in your blood which nearly everyone has anyway but they don't go to the doctor for it because there are worse things like sleeping sickeness..., and anyway there's really no doctor nor money to pay one, so people just hope for the good luck of getting old because then they'll be treasured, and meanwhile they go on with their business because they have children they love and songs to sing while they work, and..." And you wouldn't even get as far as breakfast before running out of paper. You'd have to explain the words, and then the words for the words."
Okay, I just thought I would share that with you. This book is by far the best book I've read in country or maybe ever. Love you guys all and miss you like you wouldn't believe!
I hope everyone had a great fourth. Mine was spent dancing to Michael Jackson and lighting matches (you know, in place of fireworks) and eating some "good" food. While I was in Conakry at that time, I booked flights for Gambia! I'm going there in the middle of August with Rachel. I'm very excited about that.
Things at site are going well. It's weird that I'm not teaching, but I've still been working at the health center with the doctor. Also Madame Bah has decided to start up a boutique so I've been helping her with that.
So I just finished a great book called The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. It's about this missionary family that was in the Congo during the 1960s, but a lot of things that were said in it I could totally relate to, so I decided to type out some of the things that made me think of Guinea and since I have such a hard time putting things into words, I thought this would help.
This is what one of the daughters in the book said about clothing:
"Women are expected to wear just one style of garment and no other. But the men, now that is a course of a different color. They dress up every different way in the world: some have long shirts made from the same flowery African cloth that is attired by the women....Others wear American-style buttoned shirts and shorts in drab, stained colors. A few of the smaller men even go gallivanting around in little undershirts decorated with childish prints, and nobody seems to notice the joke...As for the accessories, I hardly know where to begin. Sandals made of car tires are popular. So are antique wing tips curling up at the toes, black rubber galoshes unbuckled and flapping open, or bright pink plastic thongs, or bare feet-any of these can go with any of the before-mentioned outfits. Sunglasses, plain glasses, hats, no hats, likewise. Perhaps even a knit woolen cap with a ball on top, or a woman's bright yellow beret-I have witnessed all these wonders and more. The attitude toward clothing seems to be: if you have it, why not wear it? Some men go about their daily business prepared for the unexpected tropical snowstorm, it seems, while others wear shockingly little-a pair of shorts only. When you look around, it appears that every man here was fixing to go to a different party, and then suddenly they all got plunkered here together."
This book is just so amazing, here is one about food.
"And food, that was another song and dance. Finding it, learning its name, cutting or pounding or dashing its brains to make it into something my family would tolerate. For a long time I could not work out how all the other families were getting by. There seemed to be no food to speak of, even on a market day when everybody came around to make the tallest possible pile of what they had...Yes, I could see there was charcoal for cooking it, and shriveled red pili-pili peppers for spicing it, and calabash bowls to put it in, but where was the it, whatever it was? What on earth did they eat? At length I learned the answer: a gluey paste called fufu. It comes from a stupendoub tuber, which the women cultivate and dig from the round, soak in the river, dry in the sun, pound to white powder in hollowed-out logs, and boil. It's called manioc...It has the nutrional value of a brown paper bag, with the added bonus of trace amounts of cyanide. Yet it fills the stomach. It cooks up into the sort of tasteless mass one might induce an American child to try once, after a long round of pulled-up noses and double-dog dares."
This is one is in reference to how they conduct village meetings.
"I can just picture the parliament room: a hundredy-some-odd Tata Ndus in pointy hats and no-glass glasses all flicking flies away with animal-tail magic wands in the sweltering heat, pretending to ignore each other. It will probably take them one hundred years just to decide which person gets to sit where."
This is how I feel when I try to explainwhat I see here and what I do here.
"Since the day we arrived, Mother has nagged us to write letters home to our classmates at Bethlehem High, and not one of us has done it yet. We're still wondering, Where do you start? "This morning I got up..." I'd begin, but not, "This morning I pulled back the moquito netting that's tucked in tight around our beds because mosquitoes here give you malaria, a disease that runs in your blood which nearly everyone has anyway but they don't go to the doctor for it because there are worse things like sleeping sickeness..., and anyway there's really no doctor nor money to pay one, so people just hope for the good luck of getting old because then they'll be treasured, and meanwhile they go on with their business because they have children they love and songs to sing while they work, and..." And you wouldn't even get as far as breakfast before running out of paper. You'd have to explain the words, and then the words for the words."
Okay, I just thought I would share that with you. This book is by far the best book I've read in country or maybe ever. Love you guys all and miss you like you wouldn't believe!
Monday, June 22, 2009
Summer vacay
Bonjour all! So I finished school two Saturdays ago with my compositions for my 7th grade class and then all last week I continued to teach the 10th graders for there test is coming up next month. I left site this past Saturday which was really sad. I really didn't want to leave, especially since a lot of my students and friends are going to be leaving Mombeya for the summer or for good. Right now I'm in Mamou for a workshop/seminar type thing to work with our counterparts at site in areas regarding health such as HIV/AIDS and such. It should be interesting and I look forward to it except I have another infection on my foot from a mosquito bite and might be leaving to Conarky tomorrow. I've been in contact with my doctor in Conakry and he is sending me meds and choses comme ca for me and if I'm not any better by tomorrow I'll go. I really hope it does not come to that. It was better this morning. Yesterday it was sooo swollen and red and not pretty. I took pictures!
After this workshop in Mamou, I hope to attend, I'm going to Conakry for the weekend and then to Forecoriah for another training. That training will be for when the new group of teachers comes in this July. So that should be pretty exciting except I'll be in Forecoriah where the weather is awful and I'll be gone from my site for over two weeks. Some of my students and Madame Bah have been calling me everyday. It's been nice. I miss them!
So things are going great! I'll keep you updated on my foot which will be fine. Love you guys all and in less than 6 months I'll be home for Christmas!
After this workshop in Mamou, I hope to attend, I'm going to Conakry for the weekend and then to Forecoriah for another training. That training will be for when the new group of teachers comes in this July. So that should be pretty exciting except I'll be in Forecoriah where the weather is awful and I'll be gone from my site for over two weeks. Some of my students and Madame Bah have been calling me everyday. It's been nice. I miss them!
So things are going great! I'll keep you updated on my foot which will be fine. Love you guys all and in less than 6 months I'll be home for Christmas!
Friday, May 29, 2009
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.
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.
Friday, May 15, 2009
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!
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!
Monday, April 6, 2009
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!
Happy Easter!
Friday, March 20, 2009
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
