Maison II

A brief video tour of my dwelling. Questions? Comment!

or http://youtu.be/7wv7NKzgiUk

Sagesse

Powdered milk (dry) is a little bit like parmesan cheese.

Students listen better when something is on fire.

Air doesn’t weigh much (1.2 grams per liter under “normal conditions”).

“Cheval” tea is better than “El-Hella” tea (unfortunately).

Strips of inner tube are way better than bungee cords.

To get a cow to move out of the way, yell, honk, or wave your arms. Just kidding, you have to go around.

Bread with margarine, sugar, nutmeg, and cinnamon makes a pretty decent pseudo-cinnamon roll.

Students should be at school for the 7:45 flag-raising ceremony, so they arrive at 8:15, and the 8:00 class starts a bit late. Always.

Margarine is still not butter.

Not all okra have 7 sides.

The best time to look at your toes is when you are on the toilet.

Light at night in a town with no electricity comes from everywhere: stars, candles, lightning, fireflies, flashlights, motorcycle headlights.

Bean soup is easy to make and really good: Sauté onion, garlic, bay, thyme, coriander, cumin, a pinch of anise, and dried chilies together, add a half kilo of soaked beans, a couple of chopped potatoes, chunked squash, a bouillon cube, a can of tomato paste, a couple tomatoes and/or okra cut up, and then add pepper, cinnamon, paprika, salt, and plenty of water. Eat with deep-fried cornmeal donuts and a smile.

Never throw away a resealable container.

Any decent classroom should be able to be completely blacked out (no light enters).

Photos 1

Some pictures and a video, in rough chronological order (Poor quality phone takes poor quality pictures.)

One third of my host family in Dubreka: Baby Bah, Majou, and their dad, Mamadou Cissé.

Sunset in September

America is everywhere

The Ousmane Sow and Ibrahima Dieng, the best Peace Corps Regional Driver and Regional Coordinator! (Just after unloading all my gear from the car at my new house)

A tree frog on my window grating

Tostan, a regional NGO

Looking down into my site from a hillside above

Ants cross a road (video)

Termitier

Termites in this region of Africa build very unique structures. Their homes are shaped like mushrooms, with stalks up to a foot high, and wide, overhanging caps. A whole field can be dotted with these mycological lodgings. After rain the caps moisten and darken, while the stalks remain dry, further perpetuating the mushroom metaphor.

The termite mushrooms (mound does not seem an appropriate term) are constructed from dirt, sand, and saliva. Most seem to be unoccupied. I guess termites are like people: their environmental changes outlast their own lifetimes. Locals say it is bad luck to destroy the structures, and the cows and sheep seem to eat around them, so they stand proud.

Ecole Practique

Practice school is the best training that future Peace Corps Guinea teachers receive. They are in real Guinean classrooms, (half-)filled with Guinean students, writing in mostly real French, on really terrible chalkboards.

Classes begin at 8 am sharp. Students arrive between 7:50 and 8:10. There is a flag-raising ceremony, and the Guinean tricolor is hoisted up the rather unimposing pole. The principal explains again that all students are to arrive on time and refrain from mocking our accents or brandishing their cellphones. Classes begin at 8:10 or so.

I start by telling the students to sit down, as they have gotten to their feet as I crossed the threshold. I say good day, and write the date in the upper left corner of the board; day, month spelled out, and year. I have been commended in evaluations for my directed inclusion of the date. Then I divide the long rectangular chalkboard into four relatively equal portions. Guineans like structure. I write the name of the current lesson at the top, and begin.

Students sit two or three to a desk; a one-piece wood construct sort of like a church pew with a writing surface, only smaller. They take notes in pen in a cahier, a small staple-bound notebook with gridded paper and the latest pop diva or soccer star on the cover. Any and all lines must be drawn with a ruler. No problem if they don’t have one, they can borrow their neighbors’. However, when there are only 12 rulers in a class of 35, the going is slow.

Seventh graders are learning first about the states of matter. Limes are good surrogates for molecules; hold a handful tightly to indicate their arrangement in a solid, palm a couple and roll them about to show liquid behavior, and throw them around the room for a gas. They seem to understand, but the real test will be on Friday.

Tenth graders are learning about convergent lenses. Luckily, I have a medium-sized lens scavenged from an old magnifying glass. If all goes well tomorrow, we’ll light some paper on fire and talk about focal lengths. We’ll also try to flip the image of a candle over, and explain what’s happening. Unluckily, explaining the physics of light and lenses requires significant elaboration of several abstract points: two focal points, distances, a similar triangles theorem, and some not-as-straightforward-as-expected fractions. How do you explain how to divide one by one third? Remember that decimal points and commas are switched in the French system.

By the time I’m done teaching the sun is high, although the air is more humid than hot. Back at the office I plan for the next day’s lessons and reflect one what went well. Then chat for a bit the other teachers, maybe walk the six blocks to the market and get a bean sandwich or try and find someone selling mangoes. The afternoon passes slower, our shirts slowly but surely dampening as we learn Pular grammar. Apparently, there are 24 ways to say “the”.

Maison

This is the house I will live in for the next two years. It has three rooms, running water, and no electricity.

This is the road to the next village. The main road is the same, only slightly less steep.

This is the suspension of the minibus carrying 20 people and all of their stuff the 70 kilometers from the regional capital of Labe to the village (it took 6 hours and two broken and repaired wheel studs).

This is the view looking down on the village from the high ground above. It feels a bit like the Northeastern Cascades lowlands.

Jusqu’a maintenant

Guinean Francs spent on cell phone: 350000
Guinean Francs spent on cell phone credit: 10780
Mefloquine pills consumed: 4
Loads of laundry done: 3
Days when no rice consumed: 2
Liters of water consumed per day: 5
Snakes seen: 1
Hours of class per week: 36
Number of fans in the main meeting room: 0
Loaves of fresh bread eaten per week: 4
Number of children in the family: 6
Number of chairs in the family: 2
Standard number of people in a small taxi: 7
Cost of three cucumbers: $0.17
Presidential assassination attempts: 1
G-20 Peace Corps Trainees over age 24: 0
G-20 Peace Corps Trainees under age 22: 0
Number of loose stools per day required for diarrhea: 4+

Shots received: 7
Total hours of electricity at house: 11
Packages received: 0
Good days: 26