Thursday, May 28, 2009

Finally, another entry!

Hi all! I'm sorry that I haven't been online in awhile, but now the good thing is I've got lots to talk about. We just went to Doucki for three days of hiking with Andrew and friends, and Federico and Tim. I will get pictures up in a couple of weeks when we are in Conakry, but it was the most beautiful place I've seen so far in Guinea. All the carrying buckets of water and what-not has apparently done wonders for my upper body strength because I could hoist myself up vines and rock walls no problem! You would have all been impressed. Doucki was incredible; we stayed with Hassan, who runs the show, in huts and were provided meals and excellent company on the hikes. It was absolutely amazing and I can't wait to get pictures up for you!

Now I'll brief you on life since our last stay in Conakry. My girls' club did their theatre night at the end of April, and that was an experience. What I had in mind and what the girls had in mind were apparently two completely different things. I pictured everyone arriving, the girls performing their two theatres and then everyone leaving. The girls pictured 7 hours of dancing, with performances by high school and university dance groups with a little theatre on the side. Apparently, the girls version is quite typical for a night of theatre in Guinea, but it did through me off a little bit. It was supposed to start at 7. The girls all were there by 7:45. They walked by me dressed in nice clothing and two minutes later walked by me again having taken off the nice clothing to reveal a group of very skantily clad teenagers. I didn't even know they made skirts that short or shirts that revealing in Guinea. I had to laugh, because it reminded me of myself a little bit, "Oh yeah Mom and Dad, this is what I'm wearing tonight" until getting to the dance and changing. (Not that I'd do that.) But now I've moved to the other side of the situation, where I felt like their mom. I caught myself saying, "You absolutely cannot wear that when you do the theatre" and I had to smile a little to myself because that sounds exactly something Mom would have said to me. But needless to say they did NOT wear that for the theatre. All in all, it was a success. Lots of people (~200) showed up to support the girls and they very obviously felt a huge sense of accomplishment because they pulled it off.

I have to write a small memorial to our wonderful dog. You've all seen pictures of Sophie from facebook by now, and I've got to say that we probably got more attached to her in seven months then I've ever been to a dog before. We got her a month after we had been at site. We had some friends, but I wouldn't have called us inegrated into the community by any stretch of the imagination. We had a wonderful three week old puppy to keep us occupied and make the bad days seem not so bad. At the beginning of May we decided to get her spayed, since the only veteranary school in Guinea is in our area. I talked extensively with the deans of the university about how the procedure would go, how they would use anestesia and disenfect instruments. Both doctors had done the same surgery at least 20 times and to me it seemed not that much different from doing it at home. Also, the older students would get to watch, which was a big plus for me since they don't often have demonstrations. I will spare you details of the surgery, but it did not go well. She lived for three days afterward and finally passed away. Its been incredibly difficult, both losing one of our best friends and trying to mourn her loss in a country where dogs are pretty much on par with rats for us at home. I had some students laugh at me, to which I responded with several lectures on the importance of cultural acceptance. For the most part, I do have to say that people did really try to understand. They couldn't, but they tried to empathize. Our neighbors helped us bury her and I had a lot of students (especially all of my girls' club that got to know Sophie) come up to me and tell me that they were sorry. That's defintely been the lowest point of our service and (knock on wood) it will be. But since she will defintely not be remembered by most Guineans, I wanted to write a small tribute to her on here. She made adjusting to site exponentially easier and she will always have a very special place in my heart.

In happier news, we have finished teaching and when we get back we will be giving compositions (final exams). We will finish up with those with just enough time to head off to Conakry and go to South Africa with Tom and Susan! I'm getting so excited for that trip, I can't believe its been almost 11 months since I've seen you all. Plans are starting to come together for our teachers' conference in November. Emily and I met with an NGO we will be working with in Mamou and they are pretty incredible. It is completely Guinean started and run, and they do work with trying to incorporate demonstrations and experiments into science classes and have developed lesson plans with commentary and practice problems for all other classes. The main obstacle right now is that they have no money to work with (which is almost always the main obstacle.) I'm hoping that we can do some work with them next year too and work on getting them the means to share their materials with other middle schools in Guinea.

I already have to wrap this up because I'm finishing up budget proposals, but I will get another blog up in two weeks when I go to Conakry. Until then, take care and I'll talk to you all soon!!

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