Thanksgiving Year 2

This Thanksgiving I’m thankful for (in addition to the obligatoire friends and family): My Guinean host family who looks after me and enriches my Peace Corps experience in so many ways, my fellow PCVs who have become great friends, my students who are motivated and excited to learn, the kindness of strangers, Guinean hospitality, an abundant rainy season, not having scabies (like last year), and my petits who help me get water from the well, wash my clothes, kill giant spiders and do other assorted chores that make my life a million times easier.

PCVs from our region celebrated Thanksgiving in Conakry, continuing the traditions we started last year, like Stacey making a million pies. I’m thankful that we had: stoves, ovens, running water, electricity, butter, milk, apples etc…

Mary showing off the Turkey

The work of Stacey. Plus the 6 other pies...

Brittany was pretty excited about her grandmother's homemade cranberry sauce

Yummmm

Richard enjoying a heaping plate of Thanksgiving

Girls' Outdoor Leadership Conference

Fellow PCVs Sarah and Juliette and I have been planning to host a girls' leadership conference in Doucki, Guinea to teach girls leadership skills, environmental awareness and discuss women's issues in Guinea. This conference will give girls a chance to travel outside their village, meet girls from other regions and cultures, discuss women's issues, participate in team-building and leadership activities in one of Guinea's most interesting and treasured sites and motivate them to share their new knowledge and skills with their peers back in their villages. We wrote a Peace Corps Partnership grant and are now trying to raise money to host the conference. Please read our grant summary below and, if interested, go to the Peace Corps website and make a tax-deductible donation to our project.

Girls' Outdoor Leadership Conference

Peace Corps volunteers have a long tradition of organizing and running a regional Girls' Conference in Guinea. Today's societal role of women in Guinea is such that they have limited access to education and work opportunities. In this vein, this project seeks to fund a 3-day girls' Outdoor Leadership Conference at one of Guinea's natural geological sites.

Hosted by a renowned Guinean tour guide, the conference has three objectives for its participants: leadership development, environmental awareness and girls' empowerment. The guiding techniques focus strongly on listening skills, self-awareness, verbal communication, and goal-setting, all qualities of leadership that the Peace Corps wishes to encourage in female Guinean students. Girls will benefit from the direct interaction with nature through daily hikes, as well as discussions about Guinea's current environmental issues. Finally, they will engage in participatory sessions about women in Guinean society and develop personal strategies for promoting women's rights among peers.

Ten middle school-aged girls from various communities will be selected by Peace Corps volunteers for their demonstrated motivation in school and positive attitude.

The girls' respective communities will provide a small financial contribution for cost of participation. In addition, the guide's hiking complex, guide services, lodging and food will be discounted by 40% for the sake of this event. The funds from the PCPP will cover costs of transportation, the remaining venue fee, and training materials such as handouts and certificates for the participants.

A is for Afrique

Summer vacation is finally over. In one sense I’m excited to be back at school where I have a structured schedule and am constantly busy. I’m also excited for my second year of teaching, which will be completely different from my first year. For example, I’ll know that when it’s raining in the morning, all of my students will be late. I won’t be so surprised when the bats in the classroom ceiling fly out at me. I’ll know when my students are secretly trying to take pictures (with their cell phones) of me teaching to show their parents and friends later.

However, I also very much enjoyed my summer. Though it wasn’t very structured and certainly wasn’t busy, I did fill my time with, I think, worthwhile endeavors.

Planting moring seedlings in my village and painting a moringa mural at PCV Brittany's health center

Carte d’Afrique

With the help of two graduated high school students, Fatoumata and Sekou, I painted a map of Africa on one of the walls of our school. It was a fun and easy project and many other students passing the school, would stop by to paint a country. Unfortunately I didn't have the most up-to-date map, so we left Sudan as one for the time being.

Kanyi Donse Fanyi = Kindia’s good food

I attended a food security conference put on by other agroforestry volunteers in the basse cote. The conference was in Kindia, which is essentially the breadbasket of Guinea. They produce tons of fruits and vegetables and other products. During the training, which was held at a training center called Kanyi Donse Fanyi, we learned about nurseries, food drying techniques, jamming, and incorporating healthier foods into Guinean diets (beans, moringa, etc…). 

ABC

Every evening that I was in my village I would tutor the kids in my host family and neigbhors in reading and writing. The kids age from 6-15, some not in school, others in various grades of elementary school. What they all have in common is that they can’t read or write. During the summer we didn’t make enormous progress, but everyone can now recite the alphabet, write all the letters, recognize them, and sound out very simple words. I hope to continue during the school year if time permits. 

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Also, Happy Peanut Harvest!!!