Good Morning from the bustling city of Conakry! I am passing through for the weekend for some medical tests and fun things like that! Nothing to serious-some of my organs just don't know how to function properly in this country! But we are sorting it all out!
So I was officially installed at my site (the small village of Noussy) two weeks ago (Friday, September 28) and I have been happily settling in since then. The day of my installation, there were many people there to welcome me with food and many handshakes. And of course, some praying! It was fairly overwhelming, but luckily there was another PCV with me for moral support! After the welcoming party was over, the Peace Corps bought all of my buckets, suitcases and of course, my bike into my house and we said a quick goodbye! A few emotions, but I felt ready to get started at site!
School "officially" started on October 3, and my principal told me to be ready to teach 9th and 10th grade math and 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th grade english. I show up early Wednesday morning, only to discover that (of course) the first week is for cleaning the school! Duh Danielle! I hung out for about an hour and then the princial calls all the students (only about 15 of the 100 total were present) into a classroom. He then proceeds to speak to them in Pular (local language) for almost an hour while swinging a stick around. As I do not speak Pular, I can only imagine that the stick was the same stick they hit the kids with. I was then introduced to the kids and they left me to talk with the 10th graders for a while. I did a quick review with them just to gauge their level and it was definitely a challenging process. It is fairly common for students here to have a low mathematics level, so I have my work cut out for me! I was able to speak with my 9th graders the next day and they are in the same position!
My village has been incredibly welcoming for the 2 weeks that I have been struggling to figure out my life! Just last week, I was presented with 5 chickens, a bag of bananas and a sack of beans! Yes, its true, I am now the owner of five awesome chickens! Hopefully the chickens will give some eggs and then when I am truly hungry, I can have chicken for dinner!
My house is almost completely set up which includes using wooden benches as shelves and stringing my killer hammock up between two windows! My village even gave me a couch and some armchairs! Living in Guinean luxury? I think so!
I am definitely loving on my village and luckily, everyone is super patient with my poor Pular skills. Hopefully the language will come more quickly once I have the basics down!
Oh and someone asked me if I see elephants or lions when I walk around! Unfortunately, there aren't those kind of wild animals around here (at least not in my village), but I do see goats, chickens, sheep and cows every single day! Not quite as exciting as a lion, but those cow horns can be pretty scary when the cow is walking right at you!
Now that I am done with training, I have had a little more down time so I will be able to respond to the great letters you have sent! As always, thanks for dropping the letters and packages in the mail! It makes me so incredibly happy to get things from home!
That's all for now! Picture update soon on facebook! Love y'all!
