Back to School

December 18, 2013

(I apologize for the delay, but I have not had internet access since leaving Conakry on December 6.  Thus, this post includes several different topics of my life in Guinea.)

Back to School

My French teacher Charlotte

Life for a Peace Corps Trainee (PCT) is very well structured, no matter what country you might be posted.  Language classes, technical training, cultural education, safety and public health trainings, take up most of our weekdays. In order to keep everyone engaged and attentive, Peace Corps has learned to make these educational classes fun and interactive.  We do this through a lot of role-playing and group participation exercises.  By the end of the day, many of us are pretty well fatigued and ready to go home, though some PCTs are still interested in spending a night on the town. (Most PCTs are young college graduates… and they do what you would expect them to do… )

Thus, you have the beauty of the home stay.  Living with a host family who takes care of (most) of your basic living needs, along with a “petit” living allowance by the Peace Corps, relieves most of the stress of living in a foreign land.  We are given a private room, and are treated as an honored guest of the family.  (More on this later.)  Only when Peace Corps staff is confident that we can survive on our own… in a remote village… where English is not spoken at all... will they clear us to start the development work we came here to do.  The time frame for this to happen is 10 short weeks. 

I have been in Dubreka for two weeks, and am slowly getting used to the way of life here.  I am now comfortable with shopping at the local market on my own without holding the hand of a PCV who’s been here a year.   Everyone right now is anxiously awaiting his or her site assignments, which takes place on December 24.  Once we know where in Guinea we will be living for the next two years, we can start learning the local language.  As most of our communication will be in this local language while at our site, this will become a focal point for learning following Christmas festivities.

December 22, 2013

Small packages

It can be a bit confusing at first… seeing a single clove of garlic for sale at the local street market.  If I were back in the United States, I would think, “Who would do such a thing?”  But in Guinea, life is different.  Many, if not most things here come in small packages. I suppose that the street vendors buy in “bulk”, and then repackage their products in small plastic bags for resale.  Part of the reason is that things don’t last long without a temperature approaching refrigeration. A five pound sack of potatoes wouldn’t last 2 weeks before starting to rot in the 100 degree heat.  The other reason is that people are really, really poor here, and most can only afford to buy food for the current day, and at most for the current week.  Even if they could afford to purchase food supplies in “bulk” quantities, it would probably be eaten by a variety of pests.  So it can be a small challenge to find a “normal” size of anything here, especially for a “rich American” who wants to introduce his host family to the deliciousness of banana bread.

Adoption Ceremony

December 6, 2013

Today we arrive at a conference hall in Dubreka, where the place is buzzing with people.  Leaving our luggage in the vans, we enter the building and see rows of chairs lined in front of a stage. Our adoption is a simple affair, with each host family being called to the front, followed by their respective PCT adoptee.  There is lots of dancing and the music that plays before and after our adoption is WAY, WAY, TOO LOUD.  We all partake in a traditional Guinean meal of white rice and sauce before collecting our luggage and leaving with our host families.  We will spend the weekend with them before returning for class at the Peace Corps training center in Dubreka on Monday.

My family made sure I new some French for thinggs in my bedroom

My host family lives a long 25 minute walk away from the training site, and are practicing Muslims.   85-90 percent of Guinea is Muslim, along with a small percentage of Christians and traditional African religions.  Some families are more devout than others, so not all of the community wears the traditional dress all of the time.  I have three brothers, age 19, 14 and 13, and two sisters, age 15 and 5.  My aunt lives with the family as well, along with her three daughters, age 13, 7 and 1. The family owns several chickens that roam inside and outside the family compound.  Typically, domesticated animals roam free here so that they can forage for food during the day. Sadly, they don’t own any goats, though many Guineans do have them.

My mother is widowed, having lost her husband in traffic accident a couple of years ago.   Her husband’s name was Ibraham.  Shortly after arriving and while I am unpacking, I am given my new name.  All of us PCTs are given African names by our new hosts, and we can choose to keep them or take a new one once we arrive at our village in February.

The name I am given is Ibraham.

Welcome ot Guinea

June 6, 2013

I have made it safe to Guinea with all of my fellow volunteers and thus far nothing disastrous has happened.  We are all still having normal bowel movements, but that will probably change within the next couple weeks.  Though there have been groups of volunteers in the past who have completed their entire assignment, there have been no individuals who have made it through without getting sick at least once, even with following every single recommendation from the Peace Corps Medical Office (PCMO).

Speaking of the PCMO, (and the rest of the staff), they really want us to succeed here.  Despite the belief by some that the Peace Corps is a waste of time and resources, most people in the Peace Corps, administrative and volunteers, feel that they are making a difference.  The support so far from the staff has been tremendous, and we are all busy getting prepared to be elevated to Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs), which happens the beginning of February. 

Preparing ourselves for the challenges of being a PCV not only includes learning and getting training in our area of expertise (as it relates to Guinea), but also language training.  The official language of Guinea is French, yet there are at least 4 other major languages spoken in the country.  The African language we will end up learning depends on where we will be posted once our training is complete.  In addition, everyone must learn a survival level of Susu, which is the language of our host families during training.  Most of us will likely also learn a second African language for life with in our host site. So when I return to the States in 2+ years, I could know five language… fluent in three (English, French, and yet to be determined African language), and have notions of two (Spanish, Susu).

It is a bit overwhelming to have to learn new language skills, and I already understand and empathize with those that decide to “early terminate” (the technical term for quitting your service early).  Though my French language skills still need a lot of improving, I already feel that the French have it easy (with their language). There are sounds in Susu that I am not yet used to creating.   Of course, learning the local languages is the foundation for creating success in your village, and so it is a major focal point in our pre-service training.

 

The Peace Corps headquarters in Guinea is in Conakry, the capital city.  It is where we have been living since arriving, and is situated right next to a beach, but the prevalence of garbage in the water  (and on the beach) presents a health risk.  I hear, though, that Peace Corps will be taking us to a suitable (meaning clean) beach later in our training for a day of rest and relaxation.  In addition, the streets are very dirty and dilapidated.  It’s not a place where a white person from America should be without a decent size group of his friends, and even then, it’s not recommended, especially if you don’t speak the local language.  Visiting the local market to pick up food for dinner, I was reminded of how real this is… Yes, this is what the third world really like… As I passed through the market with my fellow PC trainees (PCT), one vendor tried to sell me a live chicken.  Problem was, they he had only roosters.  Sorry, but I need a few hens first! 

This is very different from the street markets where I was in France just few weeks before. Of course, France also has grocery stores.  In Guinea, these street markets are the only source for purchasing food and daily necessities.  I can also understand why getting sick is not a matter of “if,” but “when”.  A public health department doesn’t exist here in Guinea, and food (including meat) that doesn’t sell one day is kept until it does.  (That’s the impression that I and others have when walking through these markets).  Fish, and whatever has grown on the fish since it was caught, is the main source of protein here in Guinea.  I have never been a huge fan of either.  It’s going to take some getting used to, as I will be living with a host family during training, and sharing in the family meals.  To the local Guinean, this state of affairs is completely normal.  I, however, can’t wait to get to my site and have more freedom to harvest my own supper.

Tomorrow the group leaves Conakry for Dubreka, a town 2 hours away.  Once in Dubreka, we will be placed with a host family, who will take care of our basic living needs (housing, meals, and bucket baths) while we continue our training.

Some pictures of Guinea, all from the safety of Peace Corps headquarters:

Of course, the Peace Corp logo:

A picture of the building where we stayed for the first week:

An ocean view from the roof of PC HQ:

A  view of Conakry, the capital of Guinea:

and finallly, a mural one of the inner walls of Peace Corps headquarters:

 

 

The Precipice of a Major Life Event...

The Precipice of a Major Life Event... 

(modified from orginal post)

I am sitting in the Hampton Inn in Philadelphia going over a few last items before I leave the United States for a couple years.  I have just started my journey as a Peace Corps trainee, and with every successful completion of the next step comes a new title.  First it was Peace Corps nominee, then Peace Corps invitee, and now Peace Corps trainee.  It seems ages ago when I first applied, and it was (2008).  But a family illness postponed my first attempt, and after a year in Hawaii gaining additional skills (working on a goat farm) for life abroad, I re-applied in December 2012.  But the story doesn’t start in 2008. That was when I first acted on my dream.

I had first heard of the Peace Corps in college, and it became something I immediately wanted to do: life abroad in an exotic or foreign location, living a more simple life, but definitely making a difference.  With my natural knack for creativity and problem solving, an appreciation and interest in other cultures, and a desire to help others, I knew that it was something would excel at.  But after college I found myself working at a restaurant that I really loved, and the years went by quickly, much quicker that I realized. It was only after exploring the dining scenes in Chicago and Virginia in the most recent past that I decided that I was really ready for a change, and I pursued the dream that I had put on the shelf years before.

So now I find myself on the precipice of a major life event: 2+ years of living abroad in a third world country.  I am sure that there are poorer countries out there than Guinea (Haiti and Zimbabwe come to mind), but that’s not really important.  What is important is that the country that I have been assigned to needs as much assistance and direction as the country that happens to be on the bottom of the list in any given year.  I should note that Peace Corps volunteers do not get to choose their country of service.  As noted prominently in the Peace Corps application literature and training materials, “Core Expectation #3” is to: ”Serve where the Peace Corps ask you to go, under conditions of hardship, if necessary, and with the flexibility needed for effective service”.

Regardless of which country I have been assigned to, the problems that I may encounter are those that we have all heard about and that exist in our own country to some degree: government corruption and mismanagement, lack of access to effective education, lack of quality health care, and sub optimal farming practices.   (Though it is easy to forget that we are all human and prone to errors in our behavior and judgment.) Combine that with the challenges of integrating into a foreign country and you have a recipe for a difficult and challenging assignment, especially considering that the typical Peace Corps assignment is two short years, (though you can extend your stay in the same location for an additional year.)  Contrast that with the life of a stereotypical missionary who has a lifetime of making a difference in their community.  Two years is not that much time to create long lasting success. 

Most of us newly minted Peace Corps trainees realize that the hard work is yet to come.  First, we must all survive training.  The first day was today, in Philadelphia.  Mostly, today was about orientation and reviewing the Peace Corps mission and core expectations.   Of course, we also spent a good part of the day getting to know one another, as we will be depending on each other a lot over the next two years, especially for emotional support.  Tomorrow, December 2, we fly to Conakry, Guinea to begin training in earnest.  When I say survive training, I am referencing the adjustment that a volunteer goes through in terms of learning a new language, assimilating into a foreign culture and adjusting to a new diet.  All of these can be a shock to a volunteer and some unfortunately don’t make it.  On rare occasions, 100% of an invited class completes their full term.

In the months to come, I will do my best to portray life in Guinea as accurately as I can.  I should mention that because this site is open to public viewing, it will be censored to avoid unintentionally offending anyone or any organization.  For a more complete portrayal of life in Guinea, you can subscribe to my email list that I have created for those not connected to Facebook.  Mostly, this list will differ from Facebook in the pictures I can share (not that any will be offensive, but there are restrictions on what I can post publicly.)

Oh, one last thing I almost forgot.  Tomorrow is my birthday!