Bissi Livin’

I’ve gotten the question of what life is like here in Guinea quite a bit. How’s it different from home? I don’t even know where to begin…

First of all, Guineans are incredibly friendly. When I walk down the street (more like the dirt path), everyone I come across greets me and vice versa. “Hello, how are you? How did you sleep? How are things at your house? How’s your host-mom?” People I’ve never met ask me these things. I love it, and it’s exhausting all at the same time.

I found a host-family in Bissikrima! My mother’s name is Fanta Kaba, and she is one of the kindest women I have ever met. That’s another thing about Guineans — they are the nicest people. For every person who rips me off in the market, there’s another person who throws in an extra potato or egg when I buy something from them. But back to Mme Kaba. She’s lived in Bissikrima nearly her entire life and knows almost everyone. She takes me around to ceremonies (recently I attended a ceremony celebrating the excision of some young girls without even knowing that’s what it was for), sends me food (the stuff she knows I like such as peanut butter and fruit), cooks me food (rice and sauce), helps me with Malinke (the local language), buys me little gifts, all expecting nothing in return. Every night I eat dinner with the family. I share a bowl with Mme Kaba, her grown daughter Bintou, Bintou’s four-year-old daughter Kadi, and two other kids who live with Mme Kaba so they can go to school — four-year-old Fanta and 12-year-old(ish) Mamady. So we all sit around a big bowl of rice that’s placed on the floor. Everyone washes their hands in the same bowl that gets passed around the circle (I’m just waiting to get sick). Bintou scoops sauce (either soup, peanut, or leaf sauce) onto the rice, and we all begin eating. Everyone uses their hands except me. I get a spoon. We eat and eat until we are stuffed, and then we sit under the stars chatting.

Teaching — the main reason I’m here. I’m teaching one 8th grade and two 10th grade math classes. The classes are two hours long (but never end up longer than an hour and a half) and meet three times per week. I have 65-80 kids in each of my classes with no more than 16 girls in any class. The education system in Guinea is sub-par to put it nicely. My 10th graders, many of whom are older than 18, can’t do the most basic addition, subtraction, or times tables. How do I teach a group of students that has no foundation on which to build? It’s something I stuggle with everyday. The problem is that my 10th graders will be taking a national exam at the end of the year called the Brevet. Those who pass go on to high school. Those who don’t have ended their school career. Of the 120-150 kids who take the Brevet in my town each year, around 30-40 pass. Apparently this is above average. So teaching them the math itself is a struggle, throw in the discipline issues, and it’s nearly impossible, but I do what I can. I hold review sessions after school for the kids who are serious about trying to pass the Brevet, and there are quite a few. Any progress we make feels like a huge accomplishment.

After this weekend I’ll be headed back to site for three weeks, and then it’s CHRISTMAS We’re in the process of planning a little vacation, and I can’t tell you what it means to have something to look forward to. In any case, I’ll be at my 65655605 number starting this Sunday through Saturday 12/20. After that look for an update as to which number you can reach me at during the holidays. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to everyone who’s sent letters and packages. They are so nice to receive, and even nicer to pull out on a rough day to momentarily remove myself from Guinea. Enjoy the holidays, and watch your mail. Much love from across the Atlantic! More to come after 12/20… AND A HAPPY BELATED 50TH BIRTHDAY TO MY MOM!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello from Kankan! I’m here in the regional capital through Sunday morning (my time) to celebrate our big American holiday. YOU CAN CALL ME! My number for this week is 66711076, countrycode 224. I’m sorry to keep changing my number (it goes back to the old 65655605 starting Monday), but these are measures you have to take when you’re a celeb like me.

I’m going to make this a quick post and give a longer one later this week. So, I’ll give you a little taste of my life in Guinea with my daily routine.

• 5AM First call to prayer. If there’s electricity (which there is every other day), the call to prayer is broadcast on a speaker.
• 5:01AM If there’s electricity, all the animals in the village express their distaste at being awoken so early. Everyone — the roosters, cows, birds, dogs – voices their displeasure in the loudest possible way.
• 5:05AM Call ends; animals die down.
• 5:15AM Second call to prayer.
• 5:16AM Animals join back in.
• 5:20AM Calm.
• 5:30AM Repeat.
• 5:45AM Repeat.
• 6:15AM I finally get up and out from under my mosquito net hoping no mice or other rodents, toads, or bugs have found their way into my hut during the night.
• 6:30AM Make and eat breakfast of scrambled eggs (so far I’ve cracked open only one egg where I found a fetus instead of an egg). Take malaria meds and read months old issues of The Economist for news.
• 7:30AM Salematou, my 14 year old neighbor, comes and gets me, and we walk to school. More like we trot. It’s been cold here at night and in the morning.
• 8AM-1PM Teach. Try to avoid rodents in my mouse-infested school. Get pooped on regularly.
• 1PM Go to market and buy food for lunch/dinner. Choices are: baguette (often stale), tomatoes (often rotten), onions, garlic, eggplant, cucumber, pasta, groundnut butter.
• 1:20PM Return home and scrub my hands multiple times with antibacterial soap to get rid of any mouse feces.
• 1:45PM Grade homework, lesson plan, shoo goats and cows away from my front door.
• 3PM Run. Run away from little kids chasing after me screaming “toubabo-ni! toubabo-ni!” (“Little white person! Little white person!”). Keep in mind the kids calling me little are running around half naked and are just beginning to speak.
• 4PM Get water from pump. I go through 10L of drinking water every two days.
• 4:15PM Bucket bath.
• 5PM Eat fruit, hang out, read.
• 6PM Head over to host family’s compound. Take tea, eat dinner, hang out.
• 7:30PM Go home and hang out with my neighbor Saidou. Take tea, look at the stars.
• 9:15PM Erradicate toads and bugs from hut.
• 9:30PM Get under mosquito net, read, journal, sleep (in challah – God willing).

More this week, my friends. Until then, enjoy your turkies and good company