2012

Hello!

I’m back in my village from a very fun and educational time in Dubreka with the new trainees. I actually spent most of my time in Yorokoguea, a tiny village on the outskirts of Dubreka – which was relaxing and peaceful. It was neat to see what Public Health training is like – it’s very different than our educational training was. Here are some pics from Conakry/Yorokoguea:

Christmas dinner in Conakry (with Goat as the main dish)

 Some of the new trainees and Ravi, CED PCRV

 Public Health Group

 
Current agroforestry (Lacey), public health (Annie and Karen), community and economic development (Janice), and education volunteers (me).

Public Health Trainees in action!

 

The latrine in the back of the volunteer trainee house. I never thought a latrine could look so beautiful.

Went for a morning walk with Annie, PH Volunteer from Kankan, and saw some beautiful views of the mountains surrounding Dubreka.

Hi!

I arrived back in my village the weekend before class started up again, so I was able to spend all day Saturday in the fields with the women’s group. We’re in the eggplant harvesting season now, so I helped the women pick eggplant. There are only 2 men that help with the field work, but they have become my friends since they’re they only ones who speak French.

Noumouyah:

These are some of the women I work with.

Lunch time! Rice and peanut sauce

This is Nabi, one of the men that helps us. The other day another farmer stopped by and when he saw me he greeted me in French  “Hey la blanche, ca va?” and Nabi corrected him and said “Non, elle est une noire.” Apparently I’m no longer a white person, but a black person. Little kids have also gotten in the habit of calling me “foré” which also means black person in Susu. I think this is because when they were yelling “foté” I responded by saying my name isn’t white person, which they took to mean that my name is black person…oops...



After a long day of work...

This is what eggplant harvest looks like

When I got back to school I my students and I talked about our wishes for the new year. I told them that Madame Liz wants health, peace and for her students to stop cheating. My students told me they wanted health, peace, money, happiness, success on the national exam in June, less problems in Guinea,and more solutions to their problems.

Some of my (best) 12th graders and me in 2012!