Greetings from Timbi Madina

First, let me apologize for the long break between updates. The last day before coming to my site last month I planned to write - only I discovered that day that all the internet connection in the city went down, so much for planning and good intentions. With that said, I anticipate having slightly regular internet access (maybe 2x per month) soon and look forward to better communication between Guinea and the rest of the world.

So...What is it like here?

In reality it has been a lot of what I've expected. That being Guinea is a desparatly poor cou8ntyer that has a lot going against it and will require a lot of change before it can substantially increase its standard of living. This observation fortunatly goes hand in hand with the creative means of thriving displayed by the Guinean people. Where I found areas of concern; lack of public services and inefficient business practices, they had systems in place to make sure that what needed to happen always happened. As many of you know, I"m interested in continuing my education in the field of Internaional dev. when I return to the states, so it's with the eye of a practitioner, or future policy maker that I've been assessing my community.

I have spent my fist month at site focusing on getting to know my community here in Timbi. I am fortunate to have had a great volunteer here before me who familiarized the community to the work of a Small Enterprise Dev. (sed) PC volunteer as well as provided some insite into an American lifestlye. During my site visit he was able to introduce me to key people, many of whom I now visit with on a regular basis. The concept of visiting people and spending time together with people is deeply engrained into the culture. I can tell that I'm adjusting well when I find myself considering that a successful day of work means spending several hours visting with friends and families around the city.

I am also beginning to do more ‘real’ work. I teach English classes at the local high school (about 2 km from my house) on mon and tues mornings. My class had an English teacher for 3 months of the last year, then an absence until I cam. I enjoy teaching them and they are a motivated group of students. It’s usually about 15 students in the class, between the ages of 17 and 23, five of them girls. They all have their final bac exam (the fist step towards getting accepted into University) mid june, so they’re trying to absorb as much as possible. The school system here is very structured and students are tested almost line by line based off the governments schedule for each subject. Since it’s a year long schedule and I’ll have the students for only a month I’m trying to organize and cut out the repetition. I guess I’m optimistic in thinking that if the students learn the material they should be able to apply it to the highly structured exam and still do well.

Other than my Eng class I am organizing introductory meeting with area groupments (similar to a US Agric. Co-op). Details about what my role will be in this context are not very clear right now, but I’ts coming along. Also in the works is a weekly adult evening eng class – probably with a business theme, that I hope to begin this summer with my neighboring sed volunteer, Reid. This summer I also hope to outline the plans for a youth business club that could begin next school year. My immediate plans are to do a community survey with Reid to assess community businesses as well as to find interested and motivated adults for my eng class.

Another outlet of activity for me here has been an unexpected one. There are two American missionary families that also live in Timbi. There is a small 10-12 person bible study every Sunday morning in the building just across my courtyard. There is also a message given on holidays (i.e. we had a message followed by a huge lunch on Easter a few weeks ago) and when there is a visiting Guinean pastor (from Pita). Where as I live in a small house in the middle of town with no running water, and outside latrine, and electricity whenever the city decided to turn it on – the missionary families have what we call a ‘mini america’, complete with refridgerator, TV, DVD player, lazy boy…well you know the sense. Both the missionary families and the other Christian Guineans (most of who are from the Forest region) make up a wonderful network of people that I can pray with and further discuss what it means to be a Christian in a predominantly Muslim society.

Besides my work of visting members of the community, bible studies, and planning I have also been exploring the area around timbi. I ride my bike around 20-30 km a week (min.) in order to visit groupements and my volunteer neighbors Ashley, Reid and Tor. Thus far I’ve visited a few local waterfalls and hosted a few dinner parties…a good break from everyday life here.

I hope this updates everyone a little about what I’ve been working on here. As I settle into a more routined lifestyle I should get better at timely replys to messages via email as well as hand written letters. Picture updating will also hopefully happen soon. There is a possibility of me using internet in my town but as everyone here likes to say seeda-seeda, petit a petit, or little by little.

Take care, I love you and miss you all, please keep me updated on what’s happening in your lives. ~amy