Au Village

Things have been going well since getting back from vacation.  I have been sleeping in, cooking with my neighbors, giving English lessons, and saying goodbye to some of my students.  It’s quite bittersweet for me, its exciting to get ready to start the new school year, but sad because I most likely will not see these students again. 

One of my students who passed the brevet

My first week back at site there was a large soccer tournament put on by the students who had come home from Conakry back to the village for the summer.  After hanging out for the day, it was fun to have something to look forward to each night and watch the soccer games, but the only hard part was trying to pick the team I wanted to support because my students were scattered around all the competing teams.  At the first game that I went to I walked over with the principals son and was standing on the sidelines when one of my favorite students looked over at me a huge smile on his face and smiled.  I waved and a think my smile was probably twice the size.  Throughout the game students would come over and say hi, see how summer was going, I’d ask them where they were going to be going for school and it was so nice to feel like I was finally home. 

The Teams

Opposing Team

I must note before hand that when I arrived home from vacation my house was a disaster, bat poop EVERYWHERE and mice droppings in the strangest places.  So I finally decided in my second week home, that I would do… kill the bat and mice.  As I was relaxing reading a book, I looked over and saw the bat had inched his way down the wall, so I thought this is my chance, I Grabbed my shovel and bang… missed him, then again, bang I got him but he dropped to the floor and I wasn’t sure if he was dead so I let out a huge scream.  Like normal, my neighbors yell over to me, to see what I could possibly be screaming about, and I told them a bat, they just laugh and tell me it’s not a big deal.  After putting rubber gloves on and carrying the bat by its foot and throwing him over the fence, I walked back to my house content with my work.  Next thing I know I walk into another room in my house and I see this mother and baby mouse.  I grab my shovel again… go to kill the mouse and just get his tail, I scream.  Then he runs into my charcoal bag, so I start hitting the charcoal bag with my shovel, screaming all the while.  I heard my Neighbors yell as I pulled the charcoal bag out of my house and start searching for the mouse in the bag.  I found him finally and again wearing my rubber gloves held him by his foot and threw him over the wall.  Quite a day full of adventure.  I think for the next two weeks I would hear my neighbors telling the story of me screaming in the house.  Needless to say: mission accomplished and no more poop or noise in the middle of the night.

Oumou, my neighbor

As the tournament continued on, my neighbor, Oumou decided that we should play a soccer game, so she told me which day and said to be ready.  We headed to the field together and there was no one there.  I thought to myself great, but 30 minutes later about 6 other girls show up.  We start passing the ball, but then a few guys see we are all there getting ready to play, and next thing I know there is a REF calling us to center field to tell us this is a game for fun and he expected all of us to play fair.  I’m looking around trying not to laugh because half of us are wearing sandals, and our passes were not coming nearly close to our targets.  We begin our game and I hear « Madame, tu est fatiguée ? » (Mrs. Are you tired)  We play for 30 minutes then half-time.  We all look over to the sideline and there is a huge crowd, some of my guy students are coming over to give us pep talks and talk about strategies.  The game ended, I scored one goal, and the girl I was playing with scored 2 more.  VICTORY!  It was so much fun to play with the girls even if one of my students the whole time was yelling.. « Madame attack her » After that game, I talked with some of my students who had passed the brevet and asked if we could play one last soccer game all together; boys and girls mixed together on teams.  The boys just looked at me amused and said that boys and girls were not the same strength and that it would not work.  I smiled back and said it would.  So we decided on a night.  At 3 :00pm one of my students shows up at my house to see if I’m ready.  The game is not till 5 :00pm.  I say that I am, I get changed and we walk to the field.  At 5: 30pm my students are there, we start passing the ball and next thing I know there are captains picking teams, a Ref in place, sideline Reefs, and a crowd all standing around.  We decided on 30 minute half’s, start playing (mixed teams boys and girls playing together) we are laughing as people miss kicking the ball, people are slipping in mud because it had rained earlier, boys are trying to be nice and not take the ball from us every chance they get and trying to pretend they are not getting upset when we loose the ball.  I think 2 or 3 different times my favorite student and I collided and the crowd went hysterical laughing and giving us a hard time.  But at the end of the game, I thanked all my students and took a picture.

My favorite students!!

Later than week, my neighbors had been working in their fields a few kilometers away so I finally asked if I could go with them on Friday.  They said yes, so at 8 :00am I am ready to go and there’s no motion next door.  The call me over at 9 :00am make me eat breakfast for a second time cause I had already eaten at my house, then at 9: 30am we take off for Metta, a small tiny village.  Walking there I am in awe, its so green, beautiful trees, no people, just nature.  We get there say hi to everyone and next thing I know they are building a small tepee for me so that I don’t sit in the sun.  After telling them it’s not necessary, the corn stalks were laid up against the sticks and my stool was put inside and I was placed down and told to get to work.  We worked till 2 :00pm then went and ate lunch, where I was again forced to lay down on the mat and close my eyes.  I was not tired but if I didn’t, I didn’t know if Madame Kiadiatou would grab a stick and hit me.  Lol So after pretending to sleep for 15 minutes I got back up and said I felt much better and worked till about 5: 30pm.  We walked home, went swimming in a Small river to clean off, and then crossed a wooden tree bridge which I thought for sure I was going to miss step and fall.  Overall a fun day and nice to be put to work.

This whole week, I have been receiving large amounts of food.  I don’t know if they think I am a vacuum, but one day I received a pot of rice and sauce.  I said thank you, then an hour later another pot of rice and sauce from a different neighbor.  I thought I can’t eat all this, and then another neighbor brought a pot of rice and sauce over.  I thought what am I going to do, I can’t throw this out they will know, so I called some of my students and told them to come over.  Thankfully they were more than happy to help me, but that weekend I decided I would buy tiny pots so that the rice would be limited.  Also the principal’s son is constantly bringing me fruit or meals and making sure I am eating.  He’s so nice. 

Boubacar

That Sunday I was suppose to catch a car to heading to the regional capital, but all the cars were full because students are heading back to town to get ready for school, so it looked as though I would be staying put.  I was quite relieved.  It meant I had another week with my students, and the kids I had been teaching English to were very happy when I said English would be on for this week.  Again there was a soccer tournament that week that I went to and watched the final on Saturday.  There I had made my students small little gifts, not much, just a note telling them how proud of them I was and all their hard work, that I was going to miss them, and more importantly good luck and thanked them for their patience and gave them phone credit and said to call me throughout the year.  I told them to open it at home, but like normal I saw some of them opening it right there and they smiled.  But it was true, I really was so thankful for their patience with my French and teaching ability and truly so PROUD of them.  I hope they all become what they would like to be. 

Then at the game, one of my students asked if I would come and dance at the party that night.  I said maybe, and found of later that one of my students made Oumou my neighbor promise she would bring me.  So at 8pm I told Oumou she had to come and check my outfit. ; It passed the test.  Then at 10pm we went to her house so she could change, but on our way over I stepped in a line of marching ants, which really makes you dance.  At the corner of my fence it didn’t help that the principals daughter was hiding around the corner waiting to scare us.  So as I am dancing behind trying to follow Oumou in the dark and killing the ants biting me, the principals daughter jumps around the corner, I almost have heart failure, I now have my shirt off trying to have them kill the ants biting me, their laughing thinking this is funny… needless to say it ended with my stripping down at Oumous house trying to kill them all.  After we headed to the party, it was raining a little bit, we arrived and immediately some girl grabs my hands and tells me to start dancing.  So I do, get Oumou and Fatoumata the principal’s daughter and start dancing.  At 12pm my students start showing up, and they are just in shock that I am wearing normal clothes and dancing.  Their faces were priceless.  It was so fun to just let loose and relax.  Of course not everything could go smoothly, there was a few people who must have drank to much, because next thing I know there’s a brawl, the drunk guy has pulled the electrical cords from the sound system and he is now being whipped with them… my students are protecting me or more of less laughing watching my facial expression and asking if I’m scared.  But after he was kicked out and re-entered 4 times each time causing a brawl and pause in the music we all continued dancing.  It was so interesting to me, because there were some students whom I remember from class being super sky but here they were dancing like crazy and really well.  I don’t think I saw one person whom couldn’t dance besides me there.  Lol So much fun, I made it till about 2: 30am then realized Oumou was tired and thought it would be a good time for me to head home.

The Ants go marching 1 by 1

I continued my English lessons, 5 different kids showing up at my house, students coming to say goodbye and hanging out for the afternoon, laughing at me as I grabbed the yoga ball for a chair cause I had ran out of seats with all the people there.  They were baffled by the ball, the singing card my mom had sent me and whatever other gadgets they were able to get their hands on.  Then Wednesday I caught the Peace Corps car that was installing new volunteers (one volunteer 19k from me and another 35k) at their sites and headed to the regional capital with numerous requests from various people in the village to remember to bring them back a gift.  Life’s good!

One of my favorite students (Ibrahima)

My Family

Kadiatou

Fatoumata x 2