Happy Thanksgiving!

First, the bad news - I forgot the cable to upload photos. You will have to just wait another couple weeks!

The good news is that Thanksgiving 2007 was amazing. So amazing that we all forgot to take photos. There is not a single photograph capturing the moment of joy I felt when the 4 turkeys and 2 PIGS arrived yesterday. It was just amazingly delicious. We were all so full - a food coma doesn't even begin to explain it.

I made quite a few dishes - cranberry sauce (made from the dried ones), apple pie, scalloped potatoes and pistachio pudding (thanks to Cam's mom's package...) We had so much delicious food - hard to do in a country where there are only 2 grocery stores and the ingredients for anything are always hard to find! All the volunteers came to Conakry except one and we just had such a nice day.

Camilo and I were hoping to go to Forecariah today, but we have a meeting with our Country Director so we are putting the trip off until post-Egypt. The new group arrives Dec. 5th and we won't be allowed in Forecariah while they are there (PC rules), so we are going to try and make it happen while they are at a workshop when we return from Egypt.

Life in Timbi continues as normal. Still no electricity, but the father of the guy who owns the house came by and said he'd look into it. Might be a couple months! Camilo and I made lovely birthday paella on Tuesday (complete with birthday candles) and we even managed to get some photos of it, so I'll try and get them posted soon.

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving!

I'm in love with my house

Omg my house is amazing. You won't be able to see it until I post the picture over Tgiving, but it's so great. And the annoying men have finally backed off.

A word about teaching in Guinea...

Most of my kids are relatively intelligent. They speak French better than they write it, I'm correcting their written French on the board often, not a great sign! But they are pretty good and try and most really want to pass the test to go to University. I have a couple married girls who are just waiting until they finish so they can meet their husbands in Spain or Portugal. That's a whole other issue that I'll write about another day.

But my teaching is so hot and cold. I'm teaching the 2 13th grade classes and one 12th grade. My 13th graders show up for class, make an effort even when they make mistakes and practically everyone attends the review sessions. They make me happy. On Wednesday I had a review for one of my 13th grade classes and they wrote about pictures I'd taken from my Newsweeks in the present continuous. They were all into it and I was so thrilled that they were making such an effort. A bunch of them even have dictionaries and borrowed pictures to try and write their own texts at home. Love them!

But my 12th graders are duds. I don't expect them to be as strong at the 13th grade, but they are such duds!!!!! It's like the lights are on but nobody's home. Even when I explain in French they are all staring at me with a look that can only be written as "Duuuuuuuuhh," it's so frustrating that I just want to slap some sense into all of them! And only 4-6 kids are at the review sessions, which is irritating. I'm not sure what to do, it sucks for them because none of their other teachers showerd up for the first 4 weeks of school and they are all out of learning practice. But, as I told them, I am not a magician. If they don't make an effort they are going to fail out of school and have to find crappy jobs working in the market and making babies. And they are too smart for that. I think. I'm not going to give up on them, I just have to suck it up and recognize that there's only so much I can do.

Luckily, I'm in Labe for the weekend and plan on drinking a beer and eating a pizza tonight. I'll be able to think much more clearly then.

Oh, I had the most exciting Monday ever! I got to school and heard that Americans from the World Bank were in Timbi. I was understandably skeptical, but everyone was so insistent! I went to the office of this Potato Federation (Timbi's potatoes are famous here) and there were lots of people waiting around in their fancy clothes. I made friends with a retired guy from a neighboring town and he said the WB people had gone to look at this potato holder and they'd be back soon. I waited almost 3 hours! It was so Guinean of me, just to wait and hope with no real information. But then they showed up! And it was an Indian man and an American woman who both work in DC and were here visiting...they were really nice and friendly and the woman was a former PCV in Cameroon. She promised me that I'm gaining a skill set that wil someday be worth American dollars, which is a relief to both me and my parents! We ate delicious food and I made a bunch of contacts and it was just the best day ever.

I'm headed back to Timbi to teach Monday and Tuesday before going to Conakry on Wednesday. To get to Conakry, Cam and I will get up early and take a car to the highway, about 20km. Since there's no cell phone service, we will wait there until the PC car shows up to pick us up. Yes, we will sit along the highway and wait. I am slowly but surely becoming a patient person...I'll update again in Conakry!

Back in the Swing of Things

I've been such a super volunteer lately. (I'm patting myself on the back as I write this) My classes are going well and I love having small classes. We've already started review sessions and most of the kids are showing up, which makes me insanely happy. They might just learn English this year!

Thursday I am moving to the new house. Per the usual here, it's been a bit tricky. The car broke down in Conakry. Then there was a staff retreat. Etc. But Boiro and Ousmane are coming on Thursday to help me move and I'm excited - it's great timing too, since the guys who were living in my house just got back. One of them came by last night to get something...guess what? Not the eggs or the flip flops or any of the other crap. A GPS system. How a guy living in Timbi Madina got his hands on a GPS system is anyone's guess. The people here have more money than virtually anywhere, there are lots of remittances and quite a few people who have been to Europe and America.

I was reminded the other day why I don't ride motos here...besides that it's illegal and grounds for admin separation from PC. One of my friends stopped by and said he was going to visit Jacqui in Ninguelande (14 km away) and asked if I wanted to go. I told him, for about the 10th time, that I don't use motos because I'm scared. He laughed at me and sped off. Jacqui showed up in Timbi that next day really upset because he'd gotten into an accident 6 km from her site and his eye was all busted and 2 teeth are missing and he has tons of cuts. I cannot express how happy I am that I was not on that moto and also that he wasn't killed. I went to see him again yesterday and he looks much better, but it's not like dental care here is anything to write home about, they'll send us to Dakar just to get a filling, so I have no idea what he'll do about the teeth. Gold ones, perhaps?

Our new group is arriving in early December. We are all so excited! It's a little lonely here with only 14 PCVs. I'll even have a neighbor just a couple kilometers down the road.

I'm trying to think of what else interesting is going on. Seems like life is just clipping along at a nice pace - I'm definitely making more of an effort to make friends this time around and am spending precious little time in my house. I haven't even used my hammock since school started! My French is finally improving and I found a temporary tutor. Actually, let me tell you about this kid...

His name is Beckham. Or that's what everyone calls him. He's one of the 11-20 percent of Terminale students who passed the test to go to University this year. It was 11 or 20 that passed that test and 11 or 20 who passed the test to get to high school, I forget the order. Anyway, he told me that he makes necklaces to sell to earn extra money so he can pay for lodging at University. It's 6 days before he's supposed to arrive and the Ministry hasn't announced who is going where yet. At any rate, he's the first 20 something unmarried guy who hasn't asked me for a visa or a white wife or money. He actually told me that he'd like to get married, but he thinks it's hard here because there's no equality between men and women. He'd like to travel all around the world and see what there is to offer before coming back here and making music and helping people. Basically, it's kids like him who make me glad I'm here. I've hired him as my French tutor and am paying him way more than I need to (almost a dollar an hour!) just because he's so motivated and wants to work. The government will give him 60,000 each month for rent and food and books, about 12 dollars. His father is dead and his mom lives far away, near Camilo. Anyway, he's a hard worker and that's the kind of behavior I want to reinforce! Plus I do need French help.

I talked to my mom recently and told her that the young men here have been really bugging me. The other day a guy asked me to go out with him and I told him no and that I was married. He said, "I didn't ask if you were married. That doesn't bother me." It's so sad that the guys are such idiots because everyone else is so nice and helpful! But I told my Censeur at school and he told me to start taking down their names and he'll send someone to their houses to yell at them! He even said that if it doesn't stop he'll get a soldier to stay at my house. Clearly that's unnecessary, but it made me feel good that he was willing to pull out all the stops...when Camilo comes I'm going to parade him around town. That worked wonders last year in Mamou.

In closing, I cannot even begin to describe how happy I am to be back. I'm so glad I took a chance that the program would reopen and am excited about getting a bunch of projects off the ground - a world map on a building at school, girls' review sessions, Girls' Conference, etc. It's a good time to be a PC Guinea volunteer. Plus I'm glad that we got our raise and I can use olive oil whenever I want without worrying about running out of money.