The Farewell, Au Revoir!

As the final days approached it was a sense of bittersweet.  Exciting to be going to live at my site, begin teaching, create a routine, and be independent, but more sad because I was leaving "My Family".  My host mother now called me her daughter, my host brothers now considered me part of the family, and more importantly I was going to miss being around a busy house with "my family".  On the day before our final ceremony, I was told to have my bags packed at 3:00pm, everything besides my misquito net, pjs, and clothes for the next day.  My family stood and watched as I packed my bags.  My trying to get from one suitcase to another in my room, while stepping around my host brother standing in the middle of the room, watching me pull clothes of for the next day, bras, underware, etc.  He was quite inquisitive.  Then my mom came into my room and handed me a blue plastic bag and told me to open it.  It was a complete African outfit with matching sandals.  She had had an outfit made for the farewell ceremony, so I could be completely African!  It was BEAUTIFUL!  I was so touched!  Then the Peace Corps SUV pulled up and I started bringing my 20 bags to the porch, lol.  My mother just stood there looking, and my brothers looked somewhat the same.  After, I headed to the soccer field for the final game of ultimate freesbe with all the volunteers and some instructors.  I arrived home, and sat with my family for the rest of the night, I call it porch sitting.  Not much talking, but a lot of looking at nothing in the dark.  My host mom explained how sad she was for me to go and than my grandmother felt the same.  I was brought to a house to receive a letter from a neighbor who was from my new site village, and he wrote a note presenting me to the community. 

The next morning I woke up, did the dishes for the final time, showered, packed my bags, and misquito net, and went around to the local neighbors to say my goodbyes.  One of the neighbors burst into tears, and I tried my best to pull it together.  My grandmother shook my left hand instead of my right which means I have to come back and visit to shake with my right hand (the correct way to greet).  A sign of caring!  My mother kept translating for me saying my grandmother was sad and didn't want me to go.  Then I left with my host mom and two brothers, and went to the farewell ceremony.  I took some pictures with them before and durring the ceremony, then as I was leaving, I gave them an "American Hug" as I called it, and felt some tears coming.  I tried to walk away gracefully and not let them see me crying, but I lost it when I saw my mom knocking on my window in tears.  This was the frist time I had ever seen her cry.  I lost it!  She told me, I had to come back, and that when I invited her, she would try to come with "my new family".  She shook my hand with her left hand and I knew how much I meant to her and how much I was going to miss her.  I waved goodbye with tears running down my face and took off for the capital in the bus with the other volunteers.  It was like saying goodbye to my family in the USA again, but for a second time.

We arrived in the capital, unloaded our gear, picked rooms.  A few of us went on a run around, found so many fruits we had been missing; apples, pinapple, grapefruit, watermellon, etc and had to stop running so we could buy them and walked the rest of the way home so eat these fruits we had been missing.  I took a shower with running water, even had a handle for hot water, that worked, sat on a toliet to go to the bathroom, (pretty important to specify) and slept in an airconditioned bedroom with some of my new closest friends.

The next day we went downtown to withdraw money for our settling in allowance.  As I was waiting for the others a few of us decided to explore the surrounding stores.  We found a small boutique that had some America pleasures.  I bought a COLD yogurt, and a twix bar.  AMAZING.  Then that evening, was our swearing in ceremony.  We all dressed in a matching fabric, and were finally asked to raise our right hands and swear in!  It's official I am now officially a PEACE CORP VOLUNTEER!

Swearing in Outfits!

My mom and brothers

Me with the Guniean Flag!

My Host mom proud of her certificate
to have hosted her first volunteer!

I will be heading to site on Tuesday, aka will not have access to internet.  Therefore farewell again, and I will update you in a month with my new adjustments to site and an independent life in Africa!

Final Days with My Host family!

After a nice relaxing weekend, where I didn't have to lesson plan, and was able to hang out with friends and enjoy the last weekend with my host family and with all the other volunteers, I finished with the home stretch of classes in both French and the local language.  I had my final language interview to check that my French was good enough to continue on, which I believe went well.  Its quite bittersweet.

Yesterday we had a soccer game between the teachers and volunteers.  I would like to say that we (the volunteers) pulled our weight, but we are in Guinea and the teachers are born and bread to play this game.  We ended up finishing with a tie.  The best part was, because its rainy season, we got to play in the rain and for the first time in a while I was cold in Africa.  I arrived home after the game soaking wet, and got a shocking look from my host mother who told me to change.  My host brother also knocked on my door to tell me he was leaving tomorrow instead of Thursday.  I was quite sad, but he looked just as sad too.  I told him to let me know when he was ready for his gift.

He came into my room a little bit latter and I told him to get all my brothers together so I could give them their gifts.  I handed out the gift bags my mom had sent along with the gifts I requested.  Then I told them to open them!  I think I was more excited than they were.  But I found out that wasn't true!  My brothers opened up the bags and pulled out the Boston sports shirts my parents had sent, immediately pulled off their shirts that they had on, and quickly changed into their new attire.  They were astatic!  I was so excited that they like it so much!  I then told them that if they were going to wear these Boston shirts they needed to understand that they could not like NY.  Often times when they have said they wanted to come to the United States, I would ask where, and they would say, "New York".  I believed this was because NYC was the largest city in the US.  Therefore, they promised when they wore the Boston shirts, they would not like NY, because I explained the large rival between the teams.  They laughed and for the rest of the night, they came in my room thanking me a million times.  My host mother even came in and thanked me for their gifts and I could tell she was so touched.  I will be giving her a gift on the last night.  I got her a can opener, and oven mitts because they normally use a plastic bag, or old rags to pick up the lids to the boiling pans.  Hopefully she will like her gift just as much.  I've posted a pictures of my brothers below, one is missing, but you get the idea!

Thursday I will be heading to the capital.  I'll let you know how the gift giving goes, the packing, the final ceremony with our families, and the trip to the Conakry goes.  Hope all is well!

Some fun picture!

If ever I say negative things, all I have to do is look around.  Gorgeous and amazing!

Package #2 and #3

Package number 2 and 3 arrived!  Thank you Amy, mom and dad!  I can’t express the joy I had when I saw the Peace Corps SUV pull up and packages were in the back.  I was walking home with my backpack, second bag, and two packages, when all of a sudden, I saw my brothers running toward me.  They took my packages, bags, and we all ran home together.  I’m really going to miss them when I finally leave for site.  But immediately, I went to my room and opened the boxes.  I started with my parent’s box, where I saw chips ahoy cookies and immediately opened the package and began eating!  Then I saw the Boston sports shirts my parents and I decided would be a good gift for each of my brothers.  I can’t wait to give them to them and see their expressions.  Then I saw the oven mitts and can opener that I am giving to my host mom.  Currently she uses pieces of paper or a plastic bag to pick up the super hot pots.  I think she will really like it!  I almost gave them to them all last night, but then decided I should wait. 

I have to confess, I then ate some of the animal crackers and opened the next box.  Amy had sent a book I have been dying to read, Luna bars, trail mix, which I had to use all my self-restraint not to eat, and some fun letters to read.  Toilet paper, crystal light packages and many more goodies, THANK YOU! I then took the loofa my mom and dad sent me, opened a new package of Irish Spring soap and enjoyed my bucket bath, feeling so clean!  Then I went out to socialize with my family.  The rain has really started to become quite consistent.  It has rained straight now for two days.  Later I went back into my room, opened another mini-package of chips Ahoy cookies, and as I was finishing my second cookie, I heard a knock on my door.  It was my brother asking for math help.  So I went out to help him, but it was taking him so long, and he was clearly waiting for me to do all the work, so I excused myself and finished enjoying my two other cookies in my room.   How selfish!  But quite nice!  Thank you so much again.  I really really appreciate it!  Made my day!

Also, Quite a scary experience occurred today, I was sitting at the Peace Corp center when I heard this crazy death cry.  So we saw the guards run to the gate and then the other instructors start running as well.  So I went to the gate and looked out and saw a women hysterically crying and a crowd of people.  Neighbors and really anyone that was close just surrounding the yard.  I asked what was going on, and a boy had fallen in the well.  He was playing on the top of the well and the cover broke and he fell down into the water.  Someone had to jump in and get him, thankfully its rainy season so the water level was high, but he was barely breathing, and the family was just completely emotional.  Rightfully so.  Next thing I saw was a man holding the little boy; the boy was probably 2 or 3 years olds.  His body looked limp, but a car showed up and he was brought to the hospital.  We found of later in the day that he survived.  But how horrible!  The other horrible thing was that as everyone was surrounding the boy, the well was still uncovered and easy for the same accident to have occurred again.  Sorry for all the updates,  I just figured pretty soon I wont be able to post as much, so enjoy!

An attempt to be in America again!

Bonjour tout le monde!  How’s everyone doing?  I have 8 days left till I take off from living with my host family and will be cooking on my own, and finally have a place to call “My Home”.  Really excited to be able to relax, and not have to have people feel like they need to entertain me.  I’ve been keeping to myself at night and feel guilty for not hanging out with my family more, but I think I have burnt myself out!  But I do have some good stories for you!

Last Sunday, I told my host family I would cook them an American meal.  So that morning I work up, and my host brother went to the market with me to help me get the food and supplies.  I decided to make eggplant sandwiches, with a side salad.  As I was cutting up the eggplants my other host brother who was in charge on monitoring me said, “you need to peel the skin too” I said “No that’s the best part!”  He proceeding in telling me in Africa they do not eat the skin.  Good thing he told me otherwise my family would not have been eating the meal at all. 

I asked him to help me start a fire, which he used a plastic bag to start it, which made me cringe.  So I poured the oiled in the pot, the only way they cook here, and pretty much deep fried the eggplant then drained as much oil as I could.  I crushed up my garlic, onions, and magi cube (sort of like seasoning) in the typical African standing pot, and hit it with the large wooden stick to grind and mix it all up.  Then added it to the eggplant and let it simmer. 

Then I made a cucumber, avocado, and potato salad with a little bit of onion, oil, and seasoning.  Then I prepared my host mother a sandwich and side of salad.  The eggplants were cooked a little longer than my liking, but boy did they taste good.  Before my host mom even finished her bit, she said, “Yummm” so I had to laugh not sure if she was being for real or not.  Then my host brothers started filtering in one by one.  I wasn’t sure if they really liked it or not, cause they kept laughing, then when they went back for seconds I realized they really did like it. 

I went back to my room to work on lesson planning for class on Monday, and I felt a cold spot on the back of my legs/ bum.  I stood up and realized that I had two LARGE matching holes in my skirt.  So I guess that would clarify why my brothers were laughing.  I then thought to myself, “No that’s service with a smile” How embarrassing!  I also found out my grandmother could not eat the sandwich because she doesn’t have any teeth, therefore can’t eat bread, but she did like the eggplant and salad.  Then the funniest part was, my older host brother came in, and said “Yannaty, How do make this American meal, I’m confused?”  So I went out with him, and prepared the sandwich, which he raved about after.  The rest of the night, all my brothers kept saying, “C’était un bon repas! Merci beaucoup!”  (That was a great meal, thank you so much!”  Then asked if they could visit me at my site for another meal.  So appreciative!  I was glad it went over well.

On to the next story.  After my class on Monday, I had three girls come up to me at the end of the class and say, “Mme Stephanie, Êtes-vous mariée? (Are you married)  I said, “why do you ask?”  They said because here, we get married young, is it the same in the states?  I then asked them if they were all married hoping to prove a point that there was no need to ask the question because we were the same.  They said they were all engaged.  This is at the age of 16 -18 years old.  They showed me, and I had to state that no I was not married.  Immediately following they said, I’ll introduce you to my brother.  “No thank you” was my response. Haha

Hope you got a good laugh, also last night my host brothers had me film them dancing to African music, which consisted on each one having a 3 minute solo. haha  Wish I could post the video!  Talk to you all soon!

My Kitchen/ where I wash the dishes each morning!

The Devil

I had a monumental moment in class the other day.  I went in and started with a rules poster, then gave a large speech about how I was not happy with how the previous classes went.  After this lecture, the kids were amazing, which made me feel better than I would be able to handle a difficult class.  A girl came up to me in the middle of teaching and mumbled something so I said yes, which I later found out she needed to leave the classroom, because "she saw the Devil".  Yes you read that correctly.  I guess that is a common occurrence here for young girls, and the "devil" is a really well dressed man that no one else can see but the young girl.  So I guess while she was in the class, the devil walked in and came to her, hence why she had to leave, and then had to be held down by the professors because she was really upset and hysterical.  Quite creepy.  I asked my host brothers about this, and they said that as long as I stay in loud places, and with many other people, the devil should leave me alone.  Thats helpful seeing I will be at site soon, by myself.

I finished my second week of practice school, and gave exams at the end where many of my students did a wonderful job, so either I did a good job teaching, or they were very smart and already knew the material.  Also, today we had a cultural fair where the instructors brought authentic African clothes, cooked African meals, brought African tools and instruments, and showed the different religions in the country.

I have only a week and a half left, then I will be heading to the capital to swear in, and head to site afterwards.  I have already learned and seen so much here that I am excited to continue on and learn more, educated students, and work on secondary projects.

I have one not so good story... the other day I was working on my lesson plan when I heard this deathly cry outside my window.  I looked outside and there was a mom beating her daughter on the ground.  It was the worst noise I have ever heard.  Then the little girl got up and started to run, and the mother grabbed rocks and started throwing them at her.  Some cultural activities I am still not use to, nor do I think I will every get used to that.

Tomorrow marks September 11th, and I just wanted to send my love to all.  Chat soon.

On to the Second Week!

I finished my first week of practice school and had to give an exam on Friday.  My first class which I posted a picture of below of, did pretty well, and I was excited to give the results back to them, which I will be doing tomorrow.  My second-class, aka the call from hell, did not.  I wonder why?  I handed back the exams today and they were all pretty surprised.  So hopefully that will be a wake up call for them, but at the same point, I remember being in junior high school and thinking it was fun to piss the professor off, which the have successfully completed that mission, even though I am trying not to show it when I get angry; which for me is quite difficult. 

This weekend was a lot of fun as well.  On Saturday I was a little to confident in myself and thought that instead of taking the bus to the waterfall I would ride my bike with a few of the other volunteers.  STUPID IDEA!  I found out just how out of shape you can get, when your not running every day or going to the gym.  At one point I started to get dizzy on my bike and the poor other kid trying to be nice and stay behind with me had to stop.  He adjusted my seat, and I blamed my poor performance on the height of the seat, lol.  But seriously, we were biking in over 85-degree weather, in direct sunlight, up hills both ways… lol I’m just out of shape!  The waterfall was amazing especially because I was sweating like a fat big by the time I finally made it to the waterfall.  Thankfully I did beat the bus, so the other volunteers didn’t know I had been dragging ass the whole way.  To top it off, our new country director came to the waterfall as well and brought brownies; can you tell she’s American!  I don’t even enjoy brownies, but I was not refusing after that bike ride, seeing my legs felt like jello and I had belly button sweat!

After working on my lesson plans back at the bureau I returned home, to my host mother having a huge dinner waiting for me, then I went for a walk with my brother to see all the people dancing in the street to celebrate the end of Ramadan.   I’m starting to think this “fete de Ramadan” is sort of like what my girlfriends and I did in college, make your birthday last the whole week, so you had an excuse for every craving or idea to go out.  I did refuse to go to the club with my brother, which I later found out, the next day, that he was upset with me, when he said, “Je ne suis pas d’accord avec toi pas ce que tu as refuse d’aller au boite avec moi” (I’m angry with you because you refused to go to the club with me)  Oh well.  Then on Sunday I went on another bike ride, did some yoga as a wake up call after my out of shape bike ride, went home and cooked dinner with my host mom.  She made just me, meat and potatoes, cause she said it was like home for me!  Everyone else ate rice and fish sauce, how spoiled am I. 

I only have 15 days left here before I will be leaving for site!  Also I found out I will be living in the house I was shown and fell in love with; with an outdoor shower and latrine, corn field to pick from, tomatoes plants, and a place to relax and not be on guard 24/7.  Oh the luxuries!

Hope you all enjoyed Labor Day!  And Nicole good luck at Columbia, so excited for you!!!!  Also hoped your enjoyed the man-jamas below and African get ups!

Just some pictures for fun!