Observations Continue

Officially, the observation period is over. However I am certain observations will continue forever. I know enough to know I'll be learning something new about how things are here every day I'm here. Following the observation period was another round of training where we discussed in details techniques and ideas we could implement now that we have some possible project ideas in mind. We also compared notes on what we learned about our communities. It was great to see everyone in my group and catch up.

Now we can begin working! I say this with sarcasm because work is a loose term for us. It isn't exactly what most people back home think of as work. In some senses, most volunteers have already begun working during the observation period. Work here entails any project idea we may feel compelled to pursue. Pursuing the idea can include any number of things, but in general, it includes locating resources (be those people or objects or information) and having conversations with people trying to get them on board with the project. I did not begin any projects during my observation period. I tried to gather as much information as possible, through formal and informal meetings. I have a few ideas for projects that I will now begin putting together. In planning these projects, I could very well discover that they're not feasible for one reason or another. My major idea is to help the cyber cafe my partner organization sinks money into each month reach autonomy. One way to reach this goal is to give computer literacy trainings. There is a great demand for this. It would be very exciting to help people acquire these skills that could assist them in their work or in their search for employment. At this point, I'm working with my organization who has already begun working on this project with their donor organization. We'll continue discussions in order to plan out the project. Another idea is to support an organization for the promotion of nutrition. They do work with a tree called Moringa that we learned about in training. I will help the organization prepare and give presentations on the tree and it's virtues. It is very nutritious and can fight malnutrition. Unfortunately, not many people in the community are aware of it and how to use it. Further projects would include support I'll give my partner organization. They give business trainings on many topics we discussed during training. I'll compare my notes with their models as they go about designing their trainings.

I've recently passed the six month anniversary of my arrival in Guinea. I feel I've made it over a significant hump. There were tough times, but I feel much more comfortable in general. I also believe it was tough enough that I would never choose to experience something like that again, at least not for a while. I now have friends, know some areas of my community, built relationships with my host family, and in general have a great deal of support. Equally as important, I've developed a number of coping mechanisms. I have ways of handling issues and that makes a huge difference. Overall, after being here and striving to learn about this country, I've grown an attachment to it. So every day there are things I don't like and ways I get past it and things I do like very much.

An island off the coast of Guinea. Some of the group treated ourselves to a trip following our training.

It is now mango season, which means people without won't go hungry for the time being. For me, I have a delicious mango whenever I fancy one, as my family has a number of grafted mango trees in their front yard.

A waterfall near my city. It's only a trickle now compared to what it will be at the height of the rainy season, so I'm told.

Answers to Questions

I sent a bunch of answers to some questions I received and figured it couldn't hurt to post these in case there are others wondering the same things.

The city I'll be living in is huge - 140,000 people if I remember correctly, maybe it's the size of Burlington. There are plenty of people who speak French. All schools nation-wide are taught in French because there are so many local languages. Anyone who has attended school speaks French, so a lot of people in my city do because there are many schools there and anyone who has moved there from somewhere else did so probably because they were educated enough to find work here. There is the occasional person who speaks English. They learn this at school as well, but only for a fraction of their school time and not so well either. Many many people will ask me to teach them English. My host sister is in private school where they're taught English much better and earlier on in their school career. I've already started working on vocab with her.

I'm in an apartment with 2 rooms and a bathroom in a 2 story house. The family is like a host family for me. They try to do everything for me. They are so, so nice to me. The family has resovoirs in their back yard which contain all of the water they collect when the water does run. They share this with me. This water comes from a treatment center so it's safe to put in my water filter and to use for bathing.

The job is whatever I want it to be. I am partnered up with an NGO, but I select the projects I'd like to work on. For the next 3 months, I'll be observing my community to learn as much as I can about it. During this time, I will try to find out what the community needs most and from there I can start to formulate ideas for projects. My NGO partner does business trainings. They want me to help them with trainings, computers, and English. I can pick what I want to do, so who knows what I'll be doing. I met people at my NGO and they are really nice. My counterpart seems very motivated which is fortunate. Coming from America, often there can be mismatches in terms of work ethic. Again, I select which projects to undertake, so I may find a community member with whom I want to work with on something, so I don't know yet who I'll be working with.

There's the dry season and the rainy season. The rains should start in May/June and last til Oct/Nov. It's been warm - in the 90's with humidity. There were a few days where it felt cold - maybe 80's or 70's. That was about it for the winter, I think it starts warming up again. It's also humid which makes things sticky.

The standards here are different in terms of clothes. As long as I'm in something clean and pressed, I'm formal. I will also wear clothes I have made here. These are always formal by the standards here. They are often skirts with a top (all tailored) made from brightly patterned fabric. I will be moving in to my city next week. I'll be there for the whole 2 years.

Visuals from Training

The kitchen at my host family's house in our training city. During meal preparations, sauce is usually cooked in a big pot on the right and rice in a big pot on the right. They jam sticks in from all three sides to get a roaring fire going. Amazingly, the dried roof never catches fire, at least from what I observed.

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This is a view of the street from the front yard of my host family's house. There's a pretty serious rutt in the road, not uncommon in this country. The ground is just so dry. I washed my shoes well for the goodbye ceremony, as my host mother insisted, but only 10 feet from the house and my shoes and feet were dirty all over again. Oh well.

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This is the duck living with my host family to keep my sister healthy. She told me she faints sometimes, perhaps epilepsy? I've received this sister's name and so has the duck. My sister is [her name] #1, I'm [her name] #2, and the duck is #3. The duck is not often treated so nicely by children here, so I tried to counteract this by being super nice to the duck. Not sure how much success I had with this. But my family definitely made a lot of jokes at my expense. So I succeeded at something! For example, when I pulled out the camera to take pictures of my family, they insisted I take some of the duck too. Of course I agreed!

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This is a view of the well.

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This is the jerry can with a cutout often used to retrieve water from the wells.

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This is a pineapple field on a beautiful farm we toured in a rural district of my city.

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Isn't it just paradise? We've dubbed it Hanali - from Puff the Magic Dragon.

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This is a view from where we held our workshop with our counterparts. You can get a sense for the houses. This is a hilly region of the country. It was also rather chilly in the mornings here, perhaps in the 60's.

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More views from the workshop site.

Training is over

We've completed our training and left the training site for good yesterday. It wrapped up with a goodbye ceremony during which we thanked our host families and city officials for taking such good care of us. I was one of a few people to give a speech in a local language. I was so nervous, but it seemed to have gone well. I'm learning the local language that my host family speaks, so I wanted to do the speech as a way to thank them.

We have our swearing in ceremony tomorrow where we become volunteers. A few days of traveling and then I move in to my site. A little nervewracking, but it will be nice to have my own space and to unpack my bags for good. My apartment is in a family's house, so it's like having a host family again. They are so friendly and nice to me, so I know I won't be lonely if I don't want to be.

I've updated the mailing post (my first post, so you'll have to click View Old Posts to see it) to include a list of requests for packages. This is for those who were wondering, because by all means, I am so happy to receive packages. And letters are wonderful as well! It's so great to hear about home and to know how much amazing support I have. I really appreciate it, thank you!

Learning Environment

This is the market in Forecariah which is open every day until around 5ish. We head here during our lunch break to buy food, snacks, laundry soap, fabric, tailoring services, etc. We also have a business (mine is a pharmacy) in this area that we visit to study and ask questions.

Our business advising classes are in an opening under some big mango trees. There are no walls, no air conditioning. Some of the distractions include children shouting Fote!, dogs with fairly eaten up ears, hens kicking dirt and leaves to find food for their chicks in tow, a child nearby with an electronic toy (a strange sight in Guinea), motorcycles roaring by, etc. It's different. Not a bad place though because there is shade. Our language class is at a friend of our instructor's house. We just sit in plastic chairs with flip chart paper taped to a wall in front of us.

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Trip to the Market

The road we took to the market:

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One heat source we observed was charcoal. Here's an iron powered by charcoal:

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French bread sold on the side of the road:

French bread sold from the top of this guy's head:

The vegetable area of the market which reminds me of a farmer's market:

We went out to the market yesterday to aquire fixings for our dinner last night. On account of the holiday, the staff were all off and we were left to fend for ourselves. The Country Director opened his pool to us in the afternoon, which was so very nice. It is definitely swimming weather here.

The market was crowded, winding paths with stalls selling jewelry, hair accessories, fabric, food, shoes. Everything was closing up by 10am for the holiday. There was also an area mostly dedicated to food with vegetables on tables (as seen above) and butchers chopping chickens and fish, lots of fish.

One thing of note while we were out the entire time was that almost nobody begged for money. We passed only a few people in a row who were begging from everyone. The people were so happy to say hello to us and did not want anything in return from our attention. Greetings are super important here. It's fun to go around saying hi and how are you? to everyone as if everyone is your friend.

In some of those pictures, you can see the trash littered about. There are two options for garbage disposal here - burn it or bury it. The air often smells of burning trash. The streets are often littered with trash. Welcome to a developing nation.

This is my last post for a while. We leave shortly for our homestays.

It's beautiful here

Here is a view on my way to the computer room. There are gorgeous flowers, palm trees, and so much green here. The walls of the compound have colorful murals of Guinean scenes. We are steps from the beach. This morning we went for a run. The air is coolest at the hour we go (6:30), but people burn trash all the time here. So the air is smokey in places. There are fewer cars, so there is less of a diesel smell. We pass some people. There are stray dogs, but they're not treated like pets here. They have diseases, most likely, so we shouldn't touch them. They are also not used to being pet, I would guess. We walked to the beach after the run. It's beautiful. Unfortunately, sewage and trash is put directly in the water, so it is not safe to enter the water at all. We are at the base of the peninsula it seems, so there are not big waves. Oh, if it were cleaned up, it would be amazing. At any rate, it is so beautiful here. I'll have to get a sunset shot, but take a look at the other blogs from people in my group and you may find one.

This may be my last entry for a while. Tomorrow we leave for our homestays in another city. We'll train in language, technical, and cross-cultural areas. We're very excited.