Death in the [host] Family

[This is from December 2012]

I was lying in bed at night, in that state of half sleep/half consciousness, when I heard the wailing start. At first I thought I was dreaming, but then it got louder and louder and I woke up and listened. The wailing was very loud now, it was clear that many people were crying, and that they were coming to our house. I knew immediately it was a death. There is no sound on Earth worse than the sound of Guinean women grieving the loss of someone. I got myself up and went to the door, but hesitated, worried about who could have died in the family so unexpectedly. When I opened my door I found all of my family crying on the porch, while our neighbors were amassing at our house, wailing very loudly. I asked my host sister who died and she informed that it was another daughter of my host parents. She lived in Boke and had been sick for a few days. I had met her on several occasions and two of her children are living at our house. After saying my condolences to everyone and sitting on the porch for a while I went back to bed. The next day I stayed home from school to be with my family while tons of people came to visit. My students from this year and last year all came to my house together to give their condolences to me and the family. It was an unexpected and very sad death, especially since she had many young children.

Why have I attended so many more funerals than weddings or baptisms here?

 Salematou bara so. Allah xa a kanta.

Village soccer battle

[This is from December 2012]

One of the closest PCVs to me, Brittany, and I organized a friendly match between my girls soccer team and a girls team that she created. It was a Peace Corps battle with a lot at stake (our pride, mostly).

We took a dilapidated van out to Brittany's village about an hour and a half away, on a long and bumpy road into the bush.

The game was more or less like any other match we played, with the exception of a visit by the devil who apparently attacked our goalie after a goal was scored on her. After the goal was scored she fell over and started rolling around and flailing her arms. Thankfully there was an exorcist in the audience who identified that there was a snake in her belly and was able to call it out (???).

Second half was less bizarre, with fewer demonic interventions. Long story short, we came out with a victory: 3-1.

 The two teams with coaches and Brittany and I

 Starting line up

Pre-game pep talk

 The soccer field

Goal post: not in great shape

The first rains

The scent of fresh rain is the same everywhere in the world. The smell of clean air, life, hope, prosperity and a force that, combined with the sun, will create the things that will nourish us for the rest of the year.

The scent of fresh rain…is very quickly overtaken by the smell of the year’s raw sewage which is overflowing latrines, sweeping up the piles of garbage and flooding the streets.

It was good while it lasted.

Extension

Hello World!

Internet has been rough lately, mostly bacuse the internet place I used to go to stopped working and the only other internet cafe within many, many hours of me has a terrible connection. I used to post whenever I happened to be in Conaky, but lately with political instability (Guinea is preparing to have it's first ever democratic legiaslative elections on June 30th), our travel to Conkary has been highly restricted.

Yet here I am, in the computer lab of the Conakry Peace Corps house. I'm here for a medical evaluation that I have to do in order to officially (drum roll....) extend my serive for one year!! I'm going to stay in my same site and work at my same school. Since I'm extending I get a month of home leave which I'm taking at the end of June. I'm crossing my fingers that the elections will happen peacefully and that PCVs won't be affected...

So, keeo your eyes peeled for some wayyy over due blog posts of things that happened quite some time ago but wasn't able to post.

 Local dancing/drumming group rehearsal near my house

 A map of Guinea that my new site mate Alexis and I painted on our primary school

Marching band of middle/high school students

Malaria Matangaké

April is Peace Corps Malaria month – that is, a month dedicated to malaria prevention (not the month when all PCVs get malaria!).  Malaria is the number one single cause of death in Guinea and the entire population lives in high- transmission zones. People also have all sorts of misconceptions about malaria. For example, they say that if you eat mangoes after mango season you’ll get malaria. Malaria prevention is not difficult; it’s just a matter of people understanding how malaria is transmitted and taking steps to eliminate mosquitoes and mosquito bites. Soon it will be rainy season, which means there will be lots of standing water around, and thus lots of mosquito breeding. This is why myself, with thousands of other PCVs across Africa are dedicating our resources towards malaria prevention this month. In addition to the daily activities that people have been doing this month, the PCVs in my region decided that we would have a mass effort to sensitize as many people we could in one single day, at my site.

                At first it seemed like a daunting task to plan a single day packed with malaria activities that 13 PCVS could all do together. However, after talking to some people in my community about it, they gave me suggestions and I realized how motivated my community was to host PCVs and to facilitate their work. The community stepped up and practically did all the work themselves. In the end, it was teachers, students, government officials, representatives of the health center, a theater group, a drumming group, soccer teams, and our local marching band who pulled together to make this day one of the most impactful and memorable days of my Peace Corp service.  We reached out to 735 students, visited 81 homes, hung 21 previously unhung nets, and informed over 500 community members who came to our malaria themed soccer match.

In the morning, everyone met at my house and we headed to the school together;  a  parade of Fotes! At school we went into each classroom and played a malaria trivia game with the students, followed by a malaria skit. By noon we had visited each of the 12 classes that were in session that day. We headed back to my house, where my family had made riz gras for everyone, with meat that was very graciously donated by my community to welcome the other PCVs. At the same time, 15 of my students from last year, now in Terminale, had been asked to come and help us to do community sensitizations. The students came on time (a miracle!) and motivated. They started sharing relevant malaria vocabulary in their local languages and practiced telling each other in Susu and Pulaar about malaria. We then split up into groups of two Guineans and two Americans and had a competition to see who could visit the most homes and hang up the most mosquito nets in the different neighborhoods of my site. I was astonished by the initiative that the students took, going right up to any women or families that were outside their houses and explaining in their local languages all about malaria. They showed the families pictures and convinced everyone who had an unhung mosquito net to hang it up. I was SO proud of my students; taking what they’ve learned in class and sharing the knowledge they have with their community members. After 2 hours we regrouped at my house to tally up the work we did: we were able to see hundreds of people in their homes.

Immediately afterwards, we got dressed up in our soccer jerseys to play a mini soccer game against a co-ed team of the soccer coaches of my village and my soccer girls at our cultural center. Tons of people showed up, mostly to watch the white people play soccer. Our local journalist reported the game and interjected lots of information about malaria. A representative of our health center talked about the impact of malaria and a theater group performed a malaria skit in Susu for halftime. The game ended 1-1 and then went to penalty kicks. No one scored until we were down to our last player, who, incredulously, scored. The crowd stormed the field, screaming, dancing and cheering for us. Then everyone broke out into dance with the traditional drummers. And that’s how we ended a great day.

Girls Conference

First off, a HUGE thank you to everyone who donated to our fund for the girls’ outdoor leadership conference and made this dream come true. We just got back a few days ago and it was a huge success. 

My principal and I had made announcements to all the 8-10^th grade classes about the conference. I put out an application form and received 22 great applications. Our school was allotted 3 spots for the conference, so I had to narrow it down. We ended up interviewing the ten best candidates and then I picked the best 3. When I announced the 3 girls that were selected they were absolutely elated. None of them had ever traveled much farther than our prefecture, let alone to another region. All three of them were Peuhl and neither they or their parents had never been to the Fouta Djallon (the homeland of the Peuhls). The voyage to see another region of guinea was half the excitement about the conference. As word spread about the conference, all sorts of people were asking me about it and were so proud that some of our students had this opportunity. 

The voyage from our village to Doucki is a day and a half long. The girls didn’t hesitate to tell everyone they came in contact with that they were on a voyage to the Fouta. Other passengers in our taxi were excited for the girls as well. It was smooth sailing, until the windy, mountainous roads got to one of the girls and she got carsick…all over the rest of us. There was a moment of shock, but everyone took it in stride and they all started laughing. Our expert chauffeur pulled over next to a stream so we could all wash ourselves off while he washed his car. We continued on and eventually made it to Mamou were we spent the night. Despite the mess we made in the chauffer’s car, he offered to pick us up the next morning and drive us to our next destination, Pita. Before we headed out the next morning, the chauffeur took us to a boutique so we could buy plastic bags, one for  each of us – which was a good call since another girl got carsick on the way. Despite being carsick, the girls listened intently as the chauffeur pointed out landmarks on the way and explained the geography of the area. The girls wrote down in their notebooks the name of every sous-prefecture, river or other landmark we passed. We made it to Pita and found a car going to the village of Doucki. All in all, we left our village at 8am on Thursday and arrived at Doucki at 3pm on Friday. 

Shortly after our arrival, PCVs Sarah and Juliette arrived with their students. We started the conference with a hike out to Lion’s Rock with our Guide Hassan. The girls reveled in the vast, mountainous landscape. At the top of Lions Rock, we shouted out words and heard the echo from the rocks across the valley. Many of the girls had never heard an echo before (!). After we returned to our “base,” we had a session about gender roles in Guinean culture. We ate a hefty meal of rice and “Mafe hacko bantaara” – manioc leaf sauce and then went to bed. The girls split up in threes and stayed in huts. The next morning we talked about the importance of the environment, how to protect it, and the rate of decomposition of certain objects. Then we went on a long hike into a rocky, forested ravine full of vines. The girls got to climb around and swing on the vines and climb the rocks. Afterwards we did a session about health in which we talked about malaria, HIV, family planning and nutrition. This was followed by a session on how to be a good communicator. We did one final hike in the evening where we walked to the edge of the plateau which overlooks a huge and beautiful valley. Throughout all our hikes the girls had noted certain plants which they saw an abundance of with respect to their villages – most namely a plant whose stem is fibrous and used as a traditional toothbrush. The girls picked lots of them to bring back as souvenirs for their families. That night we had a session about setting goals for the future and making plans to achieve them. Then we had a candle-lighting ceremony where each girl said what her goals were. No one wanted to go to bed the last night, so we stayed up playing games and teaching the girls American camp songs. The next morning we had a final session about how to present what the girls learned to their peers, exchanged phone numbers, received certificates and said goodbye. 

We had a long trip home, but thankfully no one got sick. We made it back on Monday night; everyone tired from the trip, but excited to share their experience with their friends and family. I think the girls will remember this for the rest of their lives – Not just the information they learned during the sessions, but how they learned to appreciate the environment and the natural beauty of their country and the friendships they formed among themselves.

 

Dry Season: Round 2

First off, sorry it’s been awhile since I’ve posted. The internet has been too slow to load blog posts recently.

We’re full swing into the dry season now, which means that it is very dusty and things are starting to accumulate a layer of brown dust, including my body. The wells are also getting low, especially our own. The other day when I pulled up the bucket from the well a frog jumped out. That’s when you know your well is too low. Now I have to get my water at the pump. The pump is great because the water is super clean – it comes from a solar powered water tower at the edge of the village that draws water from very deep underground. It doesn’t work much during the rainy season because there isn’t enough sun, but it doesn’t matter since there’s an abundance of pretty clean water during the rainy season. However, it has been cloudy recently and thus the power has been weak at the pump and the water just dribbles out. When I am able to fill my buckets at the pump I prioritize that water for my filter, and end up taking showers and washing my clothes with the brown, froggy well water. Other than the water issues, dry season isn’t so bad. My laundry dries in the sun in about an hour! Oranges and bananas are aplenty, and soon we’ll have mangoes again. Though, for some reason or another there has been abundance of insects in my house, including a tarantula-like spider that I found yesterday. I say tarantula-like because, though it very much resembled a tarantula (giant, hairy, fangs…), it moved much faster than a tarantula (!!). The mice are back too, trying to eat the delicious goodies from my care packages, and a pack of bush rats has started nesting outside of my bedroom window. Ahhh, the life!