A Week of Not So Good Health

Hello to all! I am in CONAKRY on VACATION! I will be sleeping in AC tonight, I have been drinking cold drinks, I’m using relatively decent internet, and tomorrow I’m going to eat both ice cream and pizza. It’s almost too much to take in. All of this is following a rough last week.

It began Wednesday at school when I started feeling feverish. I walked the 15-minute walk home from school in 120 degree heat without sweating a drop. In fact I felt cold. When I took my temperature, it was at 103, so I spent the afternoon trying to sleep it off. I woke up and realized my fever had gone up even with ibuprofen, so I started reading my health manuel and realized I had all the symptoms of malaria. After a short bit of hysteria (because I’m on a malaria prophylaxis where if I get malaria twice, I’m out of PC, and as difficult as it can be here, I’m just not ready to leave this place), I started to take action.

If we think we have malaria, we have to make slides and then start some intense medication, which we carry with us at all times. The slides involve pricking your finger and dripping blood onto two separate slides (and then drying them without any insects getting in them). So that’s a fun activity when you’re feeling awful and running a high fever. It was about 9PM, and I was in my hut alternating betweening swearing up a storm and bawling. My neighbors were sitting outside, asking from time to time if I was okay. After many jabs and a lot of finger squeezing, I got enough blood to complete the slides and sent them to Conakry with a bushtaxi the following day to be examined by our lab tech here and started the medication in the meantime. Turns out I didn’t have malaria, thank goodness. Just a very bad bacterial infection, which quite a few other Haute PCVs also came down with after our weekend in Kankan. Being sick here makes you realize how isolated and alone you are. I alternated laying on my floor and my bed for three days straight in my hut, feverish, alone, with no one to take care of me but me. I’m a lucky volunteer in that I have cell phone service and can communicate with the doctor. But I made it, as did all the other sick PCVs this past week.

I also had a fun incident accompanying Paul to the hospital in Dabola after he took a bad spill on his bike Saturday. I’ll save that story for another time, but I truly understand why we are never to use the Guinean health system (the disposable gloves drying on the filthy sink with mosquitoes festering in them was one clue). I will say that my students were so sweet when I was sick this week. Wednesday, when I cut class a little short because I wasn’t feeling well, a couple of them followed me home to make sure I made it okay (without me even realizing it until they asked me if I could make the last little stretch alone). For the rest of the week I had multiple students coming to my hut everyday to see how I was doing, and I think every single one of them wished me a good recovery at one point or another. More on Guinean kindness later this week…

Tomorrow, after I’ve enjoyed some more of the luxuries Conakry has to offer, I will try to upload some pictures. In the meantime, take care and enjoy the last day of March

I Have a Friend!

Hello everyone! I hope all is well at home. The news we hear most often here is how awful the economy is, so hopefully you are making it through the hard times okay. I’m still in Kankan and thought I’d put up a quick post while I have time.

As a female, it’s really hard to find friends in the village. Very few women are educated in Guinea, and school is where Guineans learn to speak French, so that makes communication rather difficult because I don’t speak the local languages (or at least nothing more than the greetings and very basic phrases). On top of that, the women who are educated generally live in bigger towns not au village. So I have my female students who speak French, but my relationships with them are more along the lines of mentor/mentee than friendship. And then that’s it. I have a couple male friends, but generally there’s some kind of underlying motive with men here, so I tend to keep my distance.

But, when Ben came down Wednesday evening to go to Kankan, he told me he had found me a friend! Her name is Fatoumata Barry, she’s 24 years old and has already finished university (that is young to have already graduated college, lots of times Guineas are graduating high school around that age). She just moved to Bissikrima but was up in Dialakoro for work purposes. Ben happened to meet her, and she told him how she doesn’t have any friends in Bissikrima. So now I have a friend! Ben introduced us Wednesday evening, and she and I have a friend date for Sunday afternoon when I get back to Bissikrima. She’s going to show me where she lives. She’s working for the community organizer in Bissikrima, so hopefully she’ll be here for the rest of my service. She speaks beautiful French and seemed very kind (like all Guinean women).

I know this sounds ridiculous, but that’s one of the hardest parts about being here is not having females to chat with, so this is super exciting.

Other than finding a new friend, not a whole lot has been going on. I’ve been keeping busy with school and my girls group has started off pretty well. We play volleyball Thursday afternoons at 4:30 (in 130 degreee heat) and usually hang out at my hut Friday afternoons listening to music and doing some kind of little activity — coloring, making friendship bracelets, doing oragami, etc. I think we all really enjoy it. I’ve been seeing my new PCV neighbors every weekend, and it’s been so nice to have some new Americans to talk with. In a week and a half I’ll be in Conakry and hopefully we’ll head to Sierra Leone April 5th, but we have just started hearing reports of unrest there, so our trip might be canceled again, in which case we’ll go to Dakar, Senegal. We’ve been getting so excited for this trip (it’s what’s getting me through this freaking hot weather), and we all need a little break from Guinea. School is supposed to end sometime in May. Or June. Who really knows. That’s the way it goes here.

That’s all the news for now, but like I said, I’ll post new pictures in Conakry in a couple weeks. I’ve been cooking with my neighbor Salematou on the days when we don’t have school, so I’ve got some great pics from that. Take care and happy Spring

A Few Fast Facts

Hi everyone! I’m in Kankan for the weekend to celebrate St Paddy’s day and hang out with other PCVs. In less than two weeks I will be in Conakry in AC! I will do a few posts in Conakry including plenty of pictures. For now I’ll give you a few quick facts about life in Guinea.

Highest temp I’ve seen: 142 degrees farenheit

Low that same morning: 70

Average daily high lately: about 140 in the sun and 107 in the shade

Average temperature at bedtime: 94

Average temp where I start to feel chilly: 90

Average temp where it’s too cold to sleep: 72 (but it’s been weeks since I’ve seen anything below 80)

Number of liters of water I drink/day: about 7

Number of miles in an average bike trip I do to see my PCV neighbors: 30

Average number of kids in any given class I teach: 52

Average hours of electricity I have during the rainy season: 12/day

Average hours I have now: 0 (the river is dry so the dam can’t generate power)

Average time spent on laundry/week: 1 hour

Average number of things I wash: 10

Number of outfits I wear in a week: 2

Average number of times/day a Guinean gives me something (oranges, peanuts, bread, eggs, cold drinks, etc): 2, they are so generous even though they have so little

Most interesting gift a Guinean has given me: maxipads

Number of times/day I apply sunscreen: at least 2

Kind of food I eat: carbs — bread, rice, and fruit

Times per week I deep soak my feet: 3 (they get filthy without sidewalks)

Number of times it’s rained since 10/31: once, very lightly

Average amount of water I use in a bucket bath: 6L

Average bedtime: 9:30PM

What is now “sleeping in” for me: 5:52AM

Type of mattress I sleep on: straw (there are foam and straw mattresses in Guinea) and I love it

PCVs here take Guinean names, mine: Aissiatou Keita

There are about 10 first names for each gender and 20 last names in total in this country. It makes it easier to remember peoples’ names.

It can be kind of scary to go out to use the bathroom at night (snakes), so you can buy special buckets to use as a toilet during the night and rinse out in the morning.

Price of 5 bananas, 2 mangos, and 6 oranges I bought last Sun: 45 cents

It’s a real compliment to be called fat here. When my neighbors saw pictures of me from when I first got here, they complimented me on how fat I was. When you come back to your village after a trip, they tell you you look fatter.

Work women do: daily sweeping, cooking (on a wood fire), washing clothes, getting water, cleaning the children, cleaning the house, selling things at the market for money.

What men do here: make tea. Oh, and order the women around. I may be a little negative, but I’m having some real gender issues here currently.

French is the national language but not many people speak it, particularly those who never attended school. They speak Malinke and Pular in Bissikrima. It can make communication pretty difficult.

There are “video clubs” where they have generators and satellites. They show movies and soccer matches for about 30 cents. That is where I watched the inaguration in January.

Okay the internet is running out… More in a couple weeks. Take care all! And as the Guineans say: Portez-vous bien (wear yourself well)!