Thanksgiving and some random stuff

So Thanksgiving was amazing, I'll post pictures at Christmas. Camilo was in charge of the turkey and it was delicious and juicy and tasty. We also had mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, stuffing, fried rice, canned chicken nuggets (surprisingly tasty...) and pumpkin and pineapple pies. Plus I made banana bars as an appetizer and they turned out well. It was delicious, but the best part was that an American guy who works in Kamsar brought something like 15 bottles of wine! Not even wine in a box, which is the normal Peace Corps Guinea wine of choice. Lest you think we are alcoholics, know this - if I spent my money on alcohol I wouldn't have money for food. That would indicate a problem. But as it is we don't really get enough money to buy alcohol, so it was a welcome surprise to get tipsy at Thanksgiving. Plus the guy is going to have funny stories to tell about his Thanksgiving ("Umm, it was so weird. I was with these poor, slightly dirty Peace Corps kids and they freaked out that I brought $8 bottles of wine...seriously. What a strange group of kids. It was like they were starving or something, they devoured their food and their bodies looked like they were lacking in protein...") Anyway, it was ridiculously fun. I left Boke at 5am and was back in Mamou by 2pm, a fricking miracle. It's nice to be back - funny, but after 9 days it is so much colder here and everything is getting brown. I've been sleeping with socks and pants and a sleeping bag, but it's still hot during the day. I wish it was like this year round! Random story number 1: I figured out what the Guinean equivalent of a lemonade stand is. On our way to Boke there were about 5 places where the military stopped us and asked us for our identification. They normally would harass white people but they leave us PC folks alone. Anyway, we came across another checkpoint, but it was just some enterprising little kids! They weren't armed or menacing or anything, but they'd strung up a string across the road and were asking people for money. We didn't give them any, but I had to admire their ingenuity. Hilarious. 2: At one of the checkpoints our driver was getting harassed. This is normally where I'm happy that I don't speak the local language, cause sometimes it's just better to be ignorant. So the military guy was really yelling at our chauffeur, but then he turned to us and started thanking us for our service to Guinea and was asking us about PC and wanted us to know that he wasn't mad at us, it was just that our chauffeur didn't have insurance. Umm, insurance? I didn't know that existed. Anyway, it was like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. At least it's comforting to know that even the scary military guys know us and like us. 3. Money. Apparently a bunch of my family members were asking my parents what I do for money here. The PC gives us money, but this past quarter it wasn't enough. My house was empty and we were given just over $100 for settling-in allowance. A gas tank and stove ate up a third of that. Anyway, I ran out of money this last time and changed over $100 to get me to this next pay period. Hopefully I won't have to do that again, it was just the expenses from setting up my house that ruined it. Annoying that we all get the same amount of money, regardless of whether your house is full or empty. Some things to know about changing money in Guinea... - it's illegal to change money on the black market. But if one were to change money, the black market is really the only place. Here's why: the Guinean franc is a virtually useless currency. The official exchange rate is just over 5,000 francs to the dollar. Theoretically, one could change money on the black market for almost 7,000 francs. Just theoretically. - there are ATMs here, but they are useless. You can only take out 200,000 francs at a time and even then you get the official government exchange rate, which is crap. - Peace Corps gives us our living allowance and vacation allowance in Guinean francs. Some people take their money out and change it to dollars, changing it back as they need it. We get screwed that our vacation allowance is given to us in Guinean francs, based off the shitty government exchange rate. Changing money to dollars is like a safeguard against the inevitable depreciation of the Guinean franc. - I should have brought more cash with me. Once I heard that there were ATMs here I figured it didn't matter how much cash I had. See point above about why that logic was flawed. A friend was coming back from surgery in the US and brought me $500, which is now sitting in Conakry in the PC safe. I should be using that money for travel and not for living expenses. People who read this who are coming to Guinea - bring cash. You can leave it in the safe in Conakry and it will be fine. - Small bone to pick with PC - we get hardly any money. Our living allowance is less than $100 a month. Ridiculous. For people in small villages it's probably okay, but I like being able to buy yogurt and salad and call Cam and whatever. In other countries people manage to save some of their living allowance. Unless one were to live like a monk here, that's not really possible. One guy I heard about in Cape Verde saved $3,000 over 2 years. That's about the amount that PC will give me to live on! That being said, I'd rather be here than Cape Verde. C'est la vie. Okay, I have a bunch more random stuff, but the internet cafe is closing, so it will have to wait. Hope you all had lovely Thanksgivings.

Thanksgiving and a little slice of America

Guinea has something like 75% of the world's bauxite reserves, but due to the political situation and lack of infrastructure it goes largely unmined. That is not true in the upper Basse Cote, where Cam's site is. We got to Boke yesterday and today came to Kamsar, a magical place. I bought Kraft Mac and Cheese, olive oil, Skittles, a bottle of wine for Thanksgiving and a bottle of Bailey's for Cam's birthday. It's amazing here - I'm glad I don't live near it cause I would be broke all the time!

We also have the confirmed arrival of the Thanksgiving turkey. It is sitting in the freezer in the Boke regional house and Cam, Ben and I almost shed tears of joy when we saw it! I'm trying to think of a traditional side dish that I can prepare using ingredients found in Guinea. Hmmm. I might end up making some rice and sauce. We tried to find cranberry sauce today but had no luck. But Thanksgiving is going to be great and I'm looking forward to talking with my family. In the spirit of being cheesy, I really do have a lot to be thankful for and am looking forward to taking a day and celebrating that.

In other cheesy news, I am following the TomKat wedding to the degree I can. Maybe it isn't a sham after all??!!

Special shout-outs go to Jeni and Arlene for the lovely packages, they really made my month!

Revolutionary Kid in my Class

So I've been meaning to write about this funny kid in my class. The first day I was asking the kids to give sentences using verbs in the past tense and he says, "Last year, I fought injustice in my classroom!" It was hilarious - even more so considering that most kids speak so little English that they can't even say "The cat is outside."

Last week we were writing stories together and he came up with "I just want the right to live as other men live." I asked him where he gets his English information, since no one has books but he seems to know such random stuff. He said he has a book on becoming a police officer in English and basically has it memorized. What a riot. I'm going to have him show me the book when I get back to Mamou.

American Overload

I'm now in Conakry after a couple weeks of American overload. First there was Lifeskills for G11 Business and Ag-Fo people. Then it was Teacher's Conference and Lifeskills for the Health people. Plus I had 3 friends stay with me one weekend. We drank some boxed wine, went to the "nightclub" (my, how my standards have changed) and had a generally good time.

My night classes are still going well and are much more fulfulling than my actual teaching. I had almost 50 girls show up for my first girls' review session - a lot of them weren't even from my classes but wanted to review anyway. I had to tell them they can't come back, cause I already have enough problems teaching to the different levels in my classes and just can't have a bunch of beginners in my class - they are too distracting and can't participate, so they were getting chatty in the back of the room. But the girls were noticeably more confident - and at one point a girl was trying to change a verb tense on the board and some girls started snickering at her and she turned around and gave them a lecture in French about how they were there to learn without the distraction of the rude boys and how the girls should show each other respect. That might not sound earth-shattering to you, but that kind of thinking just doesn't really happen here. I was amazed and touched - and am definitely going to keep up the girls' only review sessions.

Yesterday I arrived at school to find out that a teacher at a neighboring high school died and classes were canceled. I was scheduled to come to Conakry today, but went ahead and packed my things and got in a bush taxi.

Bush Taxis:

Contents of trunk: 2 chickens, my backpack, some bags of rice

Contents of back seat: me, old, old woman, girl starting University, man trying to hit on the girl

Contents of front seat: chauffeur, 2 giant men.

For those of you who have known me since high school, do you remember the '89 Oldsmobile I used to drive? It has about 200k on it and barely functioned. It was sent to Car Heaven many years ago. Now imagine that it was actually sent to Guinea, where chickens, people, furniture and a zillion other things were regularly piled on top of it and inside of it. 10 years passes. I now live in Guinea and go to the gare, only to see my old car, battered and beaten. And it's the best option of the cars available at the gare. It's ridiculous. The ride was surprisingly quick and comfortable, with no real moments of thinking we were going to go off the edge of a cliff.

Once again I was reminded about how helpful Guineans are. I got to Conakry and was trying to flag a taxi to take me to the market closest to the PC compound. There were a bunch of people all waiting to go to the same market (it involves standing almost in the traffic and signaling with a downward peace sign) and a man was asking about what I was doing in town. I explained that I taught English at a high school in Mamou and he made a big production of letting me take the next car. People here can be so nice and really are appreciative of what we do. Then I got to the compound and was going to surprise Camilo (his school is on strike so he came to Conakry yesterday and I didn't tell him that I was on the way a day early). I saw another volunteer and asked her where Cam was. She didn't know, but kindly suggested that I 1. look in a mirror and 2. take a shower. I was covered in dirt and actually had a a streak of mud running down my face. Lord. I took a shower before finding him, which made it a good surprise instead of a gross one!

We are off to eat cheeseburgers and go to the office supply store. I'll try and think of interesting things to update with later and will also try to load some pictures of my house and family in Mamou.

Malaria Dreams and Review Sessions

So I've been starting to have some weird dreams.

Dream 1: Camilo finds out he has cancer. He decides to shoot himself in the head in front of me. As soon as he does it, he realizes that it's actually someone else who has cancer and not him, but it's too late. For some reason I leave him cause I have to go somewhere with a neighbor, who is American even though we are still in Guinea. We are at a gas station and I'm buying some sodas when I realize that I forgot to check on Cam and decide to call him. He picks up the phone and then I woke up. *This is the most violent and terrible of the dreams I've had.*

Dream 2: The people at my school tell me the school is closing down. I refuse to go to a new place and decide to ET (early terminate). I get home to Toulon, Illinois and there are all these chickens and hawks in my parent's house (who don't live in Toulon...) I decide to walk to town, which is Toulon in my dream, but doesn't really look like Toulon. In order to get to town I have to pass through the main PC compound. At this point I'm really upset that I left Guinea and am trying to figure out if I can get back there. Then a bus of all my volunteer friends pulls up - they had been evacuated and were all wearing riot gear. So strange.

Dream 3: Another dream about ETing. I decided to do it and then was filling out the final paperwork in the States and decided I didn't want to quit and I was trying to explain to them that I'd just made a mistake but they wouldn't listen to me and were just trying to get me to finish the papers.

I guess the main theme of these dreams is that someone made a gigantic mistake. The thing about mephlaquine dreams that makes them so bizarre is that they are super vivid. My friends last night were teasing me that I'm the only person who has dreams about being back in America and wakes up happy to be in Guinea.

Besides the dreams, my arms and legs fall asleep really easily and I think my hair is falling out more often - both are common side effects. It's tricky, cause the other drug we can use is a low dose antibiotic, and it's not good to be on that for 2 years either. The last drug, Malarone, isn't appropriate cause it's what we take if we get malaria, so we can't use it as a preventative. Mephlaquine is on a 10 day cycle, but they ask us to take it every week cause it's hard to remember to take something every 10 days. But I've started doing it anyway, since I check my calendar every day. We'll see if that makes a difference. If not I'll start splitting the pill in half and taking it every 5 days. After that I'm just gonna have to suck it up. Even though the dreams can be scary getting malaria is even scarier!

Now I teach Mon - Wed and have review sessions Thurs - Sat. This week I had 2 review sessions for one class, one for each of my 2 others and one session just for the girls. Whew. I'm gonna have to cut it down - I'm thinking 2 sessions for the three classes and another one for the girls. In January I might add a review for the kids who know the most - they want to learn so badly that a lot of them show up to multiple classes, even though they largely know the material and I do the exact same thing. It's just so hard to teach with the different ranges - I probably teach to the middle to high level and I know the slower kids are just getting left behind. But a lot of them probably didn't pass the test to get into class anyway and their parents paid off the government to say they did, so I don't care about them too much. A lot of them don't particularly want to learn but are forced to be in school cause of their parents.

My students got a major talking-to after my walk-out last week and were angels at Thursday's review. Apparently another teacher had really complained about them as well, so now there are 4 of them a day who are responsible for writing down the names of the talkers and turning it into the principal's office. I have a feeling it's going to be much easier to teach, at least these next couple weeks!

On Friday I'm headed to Boke for a week of fun and Thanksgiving. There are rumors that a turkey might be there as well. Yum!

I walked out of my class, Brit dumps Kevin and the Dems get their shit together

What a day. Nancy Pelosi to take over the House? Yay! Britney dumps Kevin? Double yay!

Yesterday I walked out of my class. The students were just being so talkative and rude and no one was listening. A couple kids had just walked out without permission, a bunch of cell phones had gone off, and I was just sick of it all. So with 30 minutes left I put up homework on the board and walked out. I went straight to the administration. It was actually kind of funny, cause about 10 kids followed, all saying "Madame, pardon. Pardon. Pardon." And I kept on saying, "Too late for that, kids. Sorry." So I explained to the Censeur and Director des Etudes that I wasn't willing to teach kids who weren't going to be respectful. And, oh, did those kids get yelled at! I almost felt bad for them, cause the ones who wanted me to come back to class are the ones who pay attention, but c'est la vie. Apparently another teacher has already complained about them, so they got hell from the 2 men! I couldn't understand it all, but the idea was "She left her country to teach you impolite adults who act like children and we don't even pay her and you need to be better behaved or you won't have English class this year at all and if we hear her say that you are anything other than perfect you are all expelled." Or something like that.

My other 2 classes are much more respectful. It's just so hard to teach over 100 kids! I taught a make-up class yesterday and it was so easy - only about 30 or 40 kids and they were so good and tried so hard to understand. Tomorrow I'm starting my review classes, I'm having one review session for each class plus one session that's just for girls. The boys were all mad about that but they can be such jerks to the girls. Today a girl was giving an answer to a question and she answered it perfectly, but no one could hear her cause the boys just start talking amongst themselves when the girls answer. Brats! I think it will be rewarding to teach just the girls and give them some confidence. They seemed really pleased with my idea about the review session. It does mean that I have something to do 6 days a week, which is unusual for a Peace Corps Volunteer. :) Hopefully I won't be totally worn out from my whopping 20 hours of work a week!

So here's what I do pretty much every day...

8-9 a.m. - wake up. Make 2 eggs with some Laughing Cow cheese for breakfast. Squeeze about 3 or 4 oranges and a couple mandarins for some juice. Total breakfast expense? About 25 cents. I'll never be able to afford fresh-squeezed juice every day in the US, so I better enjoy it now.

9 a.m. - 2 p.m. on school days - leave for school. Teach til it's all over or until I walk out of class, whichever comes first. :)

9 a.m. to noon on non-school days - Find a book and get comfy on my hammock or do my laundry. This means that I soak it all in a soapy bucket of water, then wash it by hand, transfer it to a clean bucket of water, wring it all out and hang it up outside to dry. It's exhausting. The other day I had washed all my floors and I really thought I was going to have to go back to bed immediately. Otherwise I hang out with my family or head to town to do some shopping and hang out with my friends.

By 2 p.m. I go to my friend Madame Diallo's boutique. It's good for her cause a white girl sitting outside drums up business. It's good for me cause I get to meet all her friends and she's just the nicest, most interesting woman. In December there is a Girls' Conference here in Mamou and the girls are going to go to her boutique so she can talk about her business and how she started it and everything. She's just wonderful and has been really successful, despite having her first child at 16 and never going to school.

I'm usually home by 4 or so, after 2 stops on the way home to buy yogurt and bissap juice, which is almost better than a popsicle when it's frozen. I make some food (guacamole with homemade tortillas, lentil soup, crepes with Nutella and bananas, or some pasta), have a salad (one of the perks of living in Mamou) and do some lesson planning or reading. Then I talk to other PCVs or my parents (who could call more often...). Sometimes I exercise in my spare bedroom - I brought a jump rope, exercise ball, some resistance bands and a Pilates book. It's so hot that I do it in a sports bra and underwear, it must be hilarious to watch. Then I take a lovely bucket bath, or, if I'm really lucky, there's water and it's almost like a real shower, just with terrible water pressure. Then I read until I'm ready for bed. I sleep a lot - not even so much out of lack of something better to do, but cause it's exhausting for me to teach and to talk in French all day.

Now that I'm reading my daily activities I think it sounds a little boring, but it's really not. I'm having fun making new friends and being in the "big city." Just last week a guy from my stage, Adam, showed up at my house around 5:30.

*Note to Adam's mom: He's doing well. He talked to me about site for well over an hour after arriving. He has friends and is making an effort to meet people and integrate and I'm sure everyone loves him! He didn't have a problem finding a car to site the next morning and is safely back there. You should hear from him at Thanksgiving, or Christmas at the latest.*

He hadn't really seen anyone from our group since late September and I was happy to have him at my house. I fed him some salad since he doesn't get any at site and we talked about the challenges of being all alone in some strange place in some strange country. I have a lot of respect for my friends way the hell in the middle of nowhere. I'm pretty happy to be where the "action" is! There's a Teacher's Conference here this weekend for the science and math people, so some other English teachers are coming to stay with me so we can see our friends from training. It should be fun, maybe I'll get to see Mamou at night! I know it's a fun place to go out, but it's just not safe for me to be outside after dark alone so I'm home every night by 6 or 7 at the absolute latest. Ha. It makes me feel so old sometimes!

OMG - they just announced on cnn.com that Rumsfeld is stepping down. Anyone who knows me will know how I feel about that.

Okay, this entry is not the most scintillating reading ever, but hopefully it will make you feel a little bad for me and you'll send me something yummy and American to snack on while I'm sitting all alone in Guinea at 7 p.m...

Back in Mamou - Ramadan is overrated

So I made it back to site in time for the Ramadan fete and I have to admit that it was way overrated - everyone kept on building it up to be this big thing and it just wasn't. I ate some rice and soup sauce with chicken with my host family and then made them some pasta for dinner, which was all they ended up eating. I was a little confused, but I think that maybe they don't have any money and they couldn't afford a big meal. Who knows?? Anyway, it was a relaxing couple days and I spent a lot of quality time with the hammock I bought in Conakry.

Last Thursday my friend Kelly came to visit for the weekend - she's in a tiny village teaching at a middle school and her experience is so different from mine - it's probably similar to what PC was in the 60s. She has a radio at site but no cell phone, email, etc. She hadn't spoken English in a month, except to curse the bats that invaded her house. Ick.

I had 2 weeks off from teaching and was itching to get back to it - these kids have a lot to learn and everyone says that once the hot season rolls around in Feb - April no one wants to do anything.

A topic that maybe my mom will find of interest, in case no one else does...

Why does Guinea, one of the least developed countries in the world, have one of the lowest ET rates (early termination, when a volunteer peaces out)?

I think about this a lot, and here's what I've come up with.

1. Guineans are genuinely nice and helpful people. They have had PC around for a long time and have a lot of respect for it, and Guinea hasn't been victim to misappropriated donor funds like some countries, so there isn't a sense of entitlement or a lot of Guineans asking for money, etc.

2. Guinea is one of the last countries in the world where a person can have a PC experience like that in the 60s - living with few other Americans around and little communication alternatives. Obviously this doesn't apply to me, but even my situation is less posh than others' situations in other countries.

3. Everyone is poor, so it doesn't matter that we are. I think this might be the biggest one. Everyone here is poor. Even the rich people couldn't afford a one bedroom apartment in the Bronx. So that puts us all on the same page. Obviously there are small differences, but there isn't a rich class and there's barely a middle class. For example, if I were in Jamaica or Belize and saw a lot of wealthy tourists or expats I'd be constantly reminded that other people have money to go to expensive restaurants and TVs and cars and whatever. Here the most expensive restaurant in country has a $16 brunch. That's the most expensive food you can buy. It's easy to be happy with little when the people around you are in the same boat.

So that's why I think Guinea has such a low ET rate. We haven't lost anyone from our group, which is unusual. Hopefully we can keep it up and I haven't jinxed us!

The group coming in January is starting to get their invites - once they come I'll already be a sophomore!

I'm going to try and remember to take some pictures of my house and family and friends here to load at Thanksgiving. Keep the emails coming - it's always great to hear news from home!!