An Update from the Bush

Waahh my life has been filling up and feeling ever so busy lately. But first, I hope this finds you all well at home. It’s summer already! School is out or nearly out. Gosh, has time been flying there like it has been here?

So, as I said last weekend, one of my smartest girls is pregnant. She’s 17, and she and this boy in her class have been kindy touchy feely lately, or at least they were four months ago. And now she’s pregnant. I was so upset I couldn’t function for a couple days. There are a very few number of girls in school (most of whom I think they keep only because someone to do the sweeping). Of the few that are in school, there are far fewer that are smart and hard-working. And now I’ve lost one of those girls because she’s not going to be able to continue going to school with a baby. One of my counterparts was explaining the pregnancy rules to me, and he said that there is some woman who’s a higher-up in the education department, and she’s rather revolutionary and recently changed the rules. If you’re pregnant and married, they will now let you continue to attend school. Wow, how generous. So, as soon as this girl starts to show, she’s supposed to be kicked out. Any day now… Oh, and my last smart 8th grade girl just got married off, so she’s done with school. These girls are like 14 and their parents are marrying them off to 30+ year-old men. GAH!

While we’re on the topic of women, my principal and disciplinarian will often kick girls out of my class for not sweeping. Well, I’d had it, and so I went to them very calmly the other day (even though I was ready to burst), and said, “So I noticed you kicked Soaudou and Binta out of class.” Principal: “Yes, they didn’t sweep.” Me: “Right, but I noticed that you didn’t kick out any of the boys, and they didn’t sweep.” Principal: “I’ve told you that’s not how we do it here.” Me: “It’s not fair the girls do all the work and the boys do nothing. They need to share the work.” Principal: “The boys do other work.” Me: “Really? What? I’ve never seen them do any work.” Principal: “They make the fence surrounding our schoolyard and cultivate the land in it.” Me: “What fence are you talking about? We have no fence. There are no crops being cultivated in our schoolyard.” Principal: “Well, they’re going to start this soon. And anyway, you’re only saying this because you’re a girl.” UM HELLO?!?! You’re damn right I’m saying it because I’m a girl. I told him I’d be making the sweeping charts for my classes next year, and I will not teach anyone who doesn’t help with work around the classroom. He said, “We’ll see.” GRRR!

While we’re on the subject of my principal and disciplinarian… an example of corruption in Guinea. They knew I was going to Dabola to do some work for the group I’ve started working with on the computers (this is a couple weeks ago). They asked if I could type some stuff up for them. I said sure if I had time. Then they said I could make photocopies of it afterwards, and I said, “We’ll see.” So, they send a kid over to my hut with a sheet and a note that says, “Make 150 photocopies of this.” There was nothing to type. So I stopped by school on my way to Dabola and asked for photocopy money. Now, they’ve collected 5000GF from each 10th grader (a dollar, which is a LOT of money here, especially for a 10th grader). My principal has walked into my classrooms and started yelling at my kids about how he has to go to Dabola all the time for their Brevet admin stuff, and he has to pay for the gas, so they all better pay up: 5000GF. So they did. But, surprise surprise, they had no money for photocopies. The collected over $150, and now all of it’s missing. And then they had the gall to ask me, the white girl, to pay for it. I said no way and left.

And one more corruption story before I cut off my rambling. My neighbor Bailo was like, “Madame, if I got ahold of this years math Brevet questions and gave them to you, you’d spend like a week doing them for us on the chalkboard right? Until we had them all memorized?” “Um, no, Bailo, that’s called cheating.” “Well, what would you do if I got ahold of the questions and gave them to you?” “Burn them.” Bailo gasped in horror. Cheating is frequent and completely accepted in the schools here. It’s infuriating. But corruption and cheating, it’s so engrained in the culture. Bailo and his friends who were hanging out when we were discussing this, none of them view that as cheating.

Okay, last story because I almost peed my pants watching this scene and I want to share it. On Thursday afternoon we got a nice, big storm, and while it was trickling off, I was sitting outside with Salematou and Saidou. Guineans are incredibly afraid of the cold. They act like it’s going to kill them. And by cold I mean mid-high 70s. Anyway, it was 75 degrees, and this little kid is wearing this winter jacket — one of those jackets with the faux fur lining around the hood. The jacket is zipped all the way up so and the hood is on, so just their eyes and nose are visible, and it’s also a little bit too small, kind of reminded me off Ralphie’s little brother in his snowsuit in “A Christmas Story” when he can’t move his arms. In any case, this little kid goes steaming, rocking back and forth from side to side because he can’t move his arms, by in front of us, all bundled up in this jacket, but wearing shorts. That’s it. I couldn’t stop laughing, and even Salematou and Saidou were chuckling a little bit.

I don’t know the next time I’ll be updating… maybe Thursday? Maybe not until after the 22nd. In any case, the big math competition is June 20 — so keep Bissikrima in your thoughts that day Take care, all. Miss you!

A Post from 5/11 (the internet went down…are we surprised?)

**If you’re sending me a letter, will you please send it (or at least a copy of it) to my home address (you can email my mom for it, sharonv@visi.com)? Letters don’t tend to come through as well as packages, and since my mom is wonderful enough to send me plenty of packages, it shouldn’t take too long to get to me (and this way we can rest assured it WILL get to me). Also, a big thank you to my mom, Jackie, Lor, Aunt Sue, and Aunt Lori for sending me packages/letters that I got on the May mailrun. MERCI!**

Hey guys! I’m in Dabola again to type up some funding proposals for a group of teachers I’ve been working with in Bisskrima, and while I’m here, I figured I’d post.

Since I’ve gotten here (10 months ago…), Guineans all over the country have told me that the rains can start again anytime after April 15. Well, today is May 11, and we have yet to see a drop in Bissikrima. We’ve still been hitting highs in the 130s daily. Ugh, although sleeping outside has cured all my insomnia ills. BUT, I found out why it hasn’t rained yet. It’s the bricks you see. The guys who make the bricks, well, their bricks aren’t done drying, and the rain will ruin them. So apparently the rain holds off until the bricks are dry. Two independent and educated sources have told me this in the past week. Guineans are incredibly superstitious and have some funny quirks – like they hate when people whistle because whistling summons the devil (Ben’s a whistler, and they gave him hell for it when we first got here). You always have to put your right shoe on before your left shoe or it’s bad luck. The devil can also be found in baobob tress, so you have to be careful around those. Hmmm….

On Saturday, I was hanging out at Mme Kaba’s and I saw these kids in her compound playing with a large fish – an ugly bottom dweller. They were holding it, dropping it in the sand, washing it off, etc. They eventually put him in a bowl and brought him over for Mme Kaba and myself to admire. “Um, so are you putting that in the sauce today?” I asked her. She laughed, “No, no. We pulled him up out of the well this morning.” WHAT?! “Wait, you pulled that fish out of your well, the well that’s right over there, today? How did he get in there?” I was so confused. “Oh, we put him in there. He keeps it clean,” she informed me. That’s the first I’ve heard of keeping a fish in a well to keep the well clean. She also proceeded to show me the unopened bottle of “product” (bleach I assume) that she says she puts in the well every three days to kill bacteria. I read the instructions on the bottle, and it says to put a capful in a 20L bidone (jerrican) and let it sit for 20 minutes before drinking. It’s not like Mme can’t read. I don’t know why she blatantly ignores the directions (or why she keeps a fish in her well for that matter), but she’s not alone. A lot of my students tell me they drink well water at home, but, they add, they treat their wells with “products” (again, bleach I assume). They get these bottles of bleach for free from NGOs, but then they don’t use them properly, even with the instructions right there.

In school news, I had a little incident with a girl in my 10th grade A class. She came up to me while everyone was working on exercises and gave me a list of girls’ names that she wanted me to give to the disciplinarian. She said I had to kick those girls out of class right away because they hadn’t been sweeping. Yah right! “No way. You can kick them out after my class. Sit down and do the exercises,” I told her. By the way, I’ve only seen this girl a handful of times all year and not one of those times was she herself sweeping. The next day, the disciplinarian enters my class, reads off some girls’ names and tells them to leave. “M. Bah, does this have anything to do with sweeping?” I asked him. “Yes. These girls haven’t swept,” he told me. “Well, I haven’t seen any of the boys sweeping. Why aren’t you kicking them out?” “That’s just not how we do things here in Africa,” he informed me. All the teachers are my school are always talking about gender inequality here, how much harder women work, and how it’s time to change that. Then they turn around and do things like this. We argued a little bit before he decided to let the girls stay, I think mostly because he didn’t want an argument, not because he wants to start working towards equality. AGH! It can be so frustrating! But I suppose if I were a Guinean man and could sit around on my booty all day watching women do all the work, well, I wouldn’t really want to give it up either.

Anyway, Hunter and I have our math competition next weekend. We made up the questions Friday night under the full moon since there’s no way you’re going to be before midnight when the moon’s nearing full. The kids in the village stay up til all hours banging on pots, empty cans, wheelbarrows, anything they can get their hands on. My students know we’ve already made up the questions, and they are really worried Hunter is going to give his students the answers. I guess that’s because cheating and corruption are so rampant here. Luckily, I don’t think we have to worry too much about Hunter. Hopefully next weekend doesn’t end in complete chaos, but I won’t be surprised if it does. I’ll try to come back and post the weekend of the 23rd.

I hope you all are doing well back in the States. For the next couple weeks (hopefully just days, but really who knows?), I’ll be sitting in Bissikrima, waiting for the bricks to dry… Take care!

PS It rained, no poured, the very night I wrote this post (5/11). We’ve had three big storms since, and things have cooled off slightly although it’s awfully humid. In any case, the real rains, the rainy season itself, should be arriving as June rolls in and school finishes up.

**The post after this is more recent, due to internet troubles etc, etc, this one got posted second and not first. C’est la vie en Guinee (that’s life in Guinea)!

Quick Update!

So this is going to be rather quick, but I just wanted to update about the math competition. It went perfectly, so smoothly it was almost unbelievable. We had an accusation of cheating from each team in the very first two rounds (which, really, we should have expected), but other than that, everything went off without a hitch. The kids had spent lots of time practicing and reviewing, and it actually showed. They had a fabulous time and thanked me the entire 45 minute ride home. I had the local radio station announce the results and the students’ names, and all the teachers at school and the principal thanked me profusely. The principal actually proceeded to give me a huge speech about how important the competition was and went around to all eight classes announcing the results (which had just been announced the previous night on the radio literally everyone listens to). In any case, it was such a success that we’re planning another one, this time in Bissikrima, and this time we’re inviting six schools. So far four are in (the two in Bisskrima, Dialakoro, and Cissela), and next Friday I’ll return to Dabola to invite the last two. So that is what’s keeping me busy currently — that and the end of the school year and work with the group Youth and Friends Association of Bissikrima (we’re hoping to get money to do sensitizations at the schools).
I recently found out one of my best students is pregnant, and I’ll write about that next time (which should be next Saturday when I have a required trip to Kankan). I hope you are all having a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend and a good time kicking off summer. Much love from Guinea!