Friday, April 25, 2008

It's almost IST

Believe it or not but April marked the longest time I have ever been away from home. The last time was when I studied abroad in St.Thomas for four months and I've been away from home for five months now.
So April is coming to a close and next month is our In-Srvice training for two weeks. Two weeks of lanuage and more technical training. It's exciting but also it's going to be a lot more work.
As the lanuage gets better a lot of things are becoming more clear about my job as well as about my community which is always very helpful.
Everyday I think about home. I can't help it, I can't sit down and deny that I don't miss it. I miss home a lot and many wonderful things about it. Don't get me wrong I also love it here as well.

So the other day I biked to this village about 12km away with my counterpart for a meeting about renovating a health center. I fell in love with this tiny little village even though the coordinator treated me like a retard but besides the point I got to go to the school there and meet the kids and teachers there and also visit the 'health center' and meet the health care staff. There are a lot of issues going on there I have no idea where to begin. I met with a group of about 40-50 elders who were concerned about their health care facility and everyone sounded very motivated to move forward and do something so thats what I going to help them with. But before that, we need to figure out how to get their pump fixed because they have no drinkable water.

I feel a little overwhlemed with work because I'm walking into a couple of the past volunteers projects, in a way it is good because it gives me something to do but it's also bad because people ask me questions about money and old projects that I havent heard about because I don't talk with the past volunteer. Thatd be really awesome is Peace Corps helped us get in contact.

So next week is Mamou, i'll be there for two weeks and I'm exciting, there's food so I don't have to cook. The other volunteers will be there. There's internet! I can get a present for my host family.

My host family mom is so wonderful. She is absolutely amazing. Every time I go to her house she gives the sweetest welcoming and loves to sit down and talk and will actually speak with me in french and helps me with the local language. The other day I went over for dinner and spent the whole evening learning how to say the days of the week in Pular. I still screw up Thursday but eh, it's ok. And I told her I love mangoes (I'm so excited cause it's mango season.) And every time Im there I get mangoes and she helped me learn how to peel mangoes and she makes the best rice and sauce. Every time I go there I always eat so much. She makes really really good food. I see why the past volunteer loved her. She has one daughter and two sons and a granddaughter she lives with. I become friends with her children because they are all about around the same age as well and older.

What else? I dont have any travelling plans. I can start to travel after IST, but I don't have any plans set. I'd like to visit the other regions of Guinea and see some volunteers over in Kankan. But nothing is written in stone.

If anyone wants to send me a package of spices, like maybe cinnamon or nutmeg or any kind of cooking or baking spices. It'd be greatly appreciated. I am going to build a mud oven and start baking, i hope this isn't a problem during the rainy season but I'll find out one way or another, right?

As i have probably mentioned before language is a definate barrier when trying to find female friends here. Its very apparent that most of my friends are male and many times my work puts me in a room full of men. Its very frustrating. And I always try to make people aware of their gender roles and try to ask them how come men can not make meals, but i feel like it's been going in one ear and out the other. But I am trying. The one girl who works at the health center that is about my age has started to annoy the crap out of me because EVERY time I see her she asks me for something. It'd be cool if its once and in a while but it's absolutely EVERY TIME and it's very annoying.

So someone asked me the other day when I was coming home and I said oh sometime early 2010. And they asked me if I wanted to would it be possible to come home before that. Yeah it is possible and I have thought about coming home many times. I've been away from home for five months now and there's only about 22 more to go. I really love it here and I went through a lot during training. I put a lot into this and I've made some good friends and I made a commitment and I feel like it'd be wrong to leave. There is a lot I can do here, and I hope to do as much as I can as best as I can and at least inflict some positive change within my community or be the person to inspire the change.

My email is still good but help me out and send email to my new email address at Beacongrown@gmail.com. i love getting email and letters, its lots of fun. It makes me tear up a little but also very happy. Even if it's like a funny magazine ad, you'd think I like, you should send it because there are no magazines here. Also I love mail. K. Miss ya! I have pictures but of course forgot my cord so next time there'll be lots of photos.

MISS yA!!!

Hey if you are ever just happening to visit Africa, could you let me know?? I'm in Guinea, West Africa and I'm eating lots of mangoes. lol.
FYI Mangoes cost 100 cent. (thats less than a penny in the US) And I get get a huge basket for 1000 mille, (thats less than a quarter.)

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Things are going.

Do April showers brong May flowers? I sure hope so. It's started to rain every now and then and its kinda nice because I dont like when it's ridiculously hot. So things have been going well. Things are going well if they are better than last time I posted a blog.

The other day I finally found a host family and I'm very excited to learn more about them and learn more about my community as well from them. It made me really happy when I first met my mom because she was very welcoming and very sweet and she had a good relationship with the past volunteer which is very lucky for me. And every time I go there I feel less stressed out.And she's offered to help me with my Pular which is great. It's very slow going I forget most things almost instantly. No kidding, but she is really patience with helping me cause i can't make a lot of those sounds. lol.

Work is going well as well. I'm learning alot from hands on work at the health center and working more specifically with pregnant women, which is kinda nice. I don't like being at the health center all day, i hope that i can eventually worl more within the community and with the youth.

So now my favorite thing about my village is that no matter where I turn I can usually find a welcoming friendly face. My least favorite thing is that often times I sit amongst a group of people speaking only Pular and can not understand anything because they speak so fast. But petite a petite I'm going to learn and hopefully be able to do my work at the hospitol in Pular.

March 27th

Blog entry 3/27/08

There have been many frustrations throughout the past two weeks but rather than focusing on that I’d like to note the things that were accomplished.
I have located a reliable tutor who speaks French well enough that I can work with him at least twice a week.
I built a small litter box for my kitty and potty trained her. She caught on pretty fast and the house is much cleaner now.
I have successfully gutted, scaled and cleaned a fish at least twice since writing this.
I have learned how to talk about my family in Pular. (it’s still a work in progress but progressing. Ask about moodi an.
I have NOT raised my hand to any kids despite how annoyed I get when they come to my house and stare at me and my cat. And then ask for candy or cookies and whatever they can see in house from my porch.
I have successfully learned how to wash my clothes more effectively and efficiently by hand.
And the best thing I learned recently was how to carry my 25 liter bidon full of water on my head from the pump to my house. I could probably go farther. It was uncomfortable at first but so much easier than carrying it in my hands.

My head did hurt a little bit but when I carried it with my arms my back hurt after on one trip. Now I can make more trips and quicker as well. And work? It is coming along with less irritancy than before. And the work relationship is getting better between me and the health center staff.