Guinea, West Africa
24 November 1999
I have to tell you that my other hotmail account has been
terminated. All the messages that were sent to me were not read by me. I
just opened an account in yahoo. Please notify everybody for me if you can
my new address is
manskeguinea@yahoo.com. Sorry about that, but I didn't check my mail
recently enough.
I have accessed my email account finally in Conakry.
Conakry is a pretty cool city, with some wonderful luxuries that I cannot
get at site, like cold food such as ice cream and cold beverages (soda, of
course). I am here for Thanksgiving with many other volunteers, most of
which I haven't seen for over two months.
Well, what can I say but my Peace Corps experience is
definitely amazing so far. I am just recently starting to feel very
comfortable with my site. With my job, Environmental Education, I wasn't
very sure how to approach people, villagers, teachers, and community
officials. Instead of giving you a bland description of the last three
months, I am going to try to illustrate a typical day of my life at site
in Ditinn, Guinea.
I wake up at 6 or 7 am to the sound of the roosters
crowing or the neighbor kids crying/being yelled at. (I live in a duplex
that is directly connected to my neighbors, a family of 8 and there is a
thin metal door that connects my bedroom to their living room.) Next I
start hot water for tea on my spiffy gas stove; Then I go and take a
bucket bath with cold water. I usually don't have much of a breakfast in
the morning, bread and butter. No Froot Loops in Africa, they are not big
on breakfast here.
Then I go to the primary schools at 8 o'clock and observe
classes. I try to get to know the teachers and the students. My major
primary school is pretty large and overcrowded. There are over fifty kids
in every class. Also there are 12 classes, 2 per grade. At the
school there are 9 schoolmasters for the 12 classes. Thus, some teachers
teach classes with over 90 students. Class ends at 12:30 pm and I go home
and eat lunch and take a nap. My neighbor lady makes lunch for me every
day, rice and sauce, always. School starts again at 3 pm and
continues until 5:30pm. I come home and either read, study French,
study Pulaar, hang out with my family, hang out with my friends Thierno or
Moustapha, or do whatever I want to do.
I make dinner for myself. Yikes! It gets dark at 6:30pm,
so I have to use a lot of candles. I go to bed very early, at 8:30 or 9
pm. In the future I am going to help give an AIDS talk at the Junior
High with the Health Center on December 1 (AIDS Awareness Day). I
also have several teachers who want to do ecology clubs soon. Also there
are several opportunities to do agricultural stuff with the different
cooperatives in the area.
I will keep you updated. Sorry about this message, but I
am sort of frustrated with this so-called cybercafe.
Talk to you soon.
Mike
