Christmas

THE Christmas Update!

Seasons Greetings to all! I hope that the Christmas season has proven a time of joy and happiness without undo stress. Here in Guinea the season is hardly known of. Only in the largest cities is there any commercial mention of the upcoming holiday and that is limited to a few window decorations (many of which are displayed year round).

Since the end of November the Fouta region where I live has been deep into the winter months. When the temperature drops into the low 50s at night I bundle up in wool socks, fleece pants, a pull-over and seek refuge indoors. I know, 50 degrees isn’t really that cold, but it still gets up to the 90s during the day, so it’s the contrast that is hard to take. Another contrast is the lack of rain. Since it’s gotten colder the rain has also ceased. It’s back to very dusty biking conditions! It’s to the extreme that I’m considering buying a medical/dental type face mask so that I can actually breathe after a car or truck passes my bike on the dirt roads.

The changing seasons also mark the beginning of a new school year here, and with that I have become busy with activity. I teach an English class at a private, Senegalese, middle school with Dee (one of the missionaries who also live in Timbi) on Tuesday mornings. She plans the lessons for the 7th grade while I do most of the planning and teaching for the 8th graders. They’re a good group of students and eager to learn. We found it surprising that many of the students don’t understand Pular (the local language). I assume that it’s because many have moved from different parts of the country or even from neighboring countries, forcing them to rely on their common language of French.

Wednesday afternoons I have started teaching a business class to high school students. This class is taught from my own curriculum, and thus far is (I think) being well received by the students – even in my far from perfect French. Teaching entrepreneurship here really gives me a sense of purpose. In this former communist country the application and analyses of rhetoric is not seen as a necessary element to education. This means that the ‘out of the box’ entrepreneurial thinking that creates businesses in the US, i.e. non-civil jobs, is a missing component to the professional landscape here. Therefore, in teaching entrepreneurial skills I, at least in theory, am helping to provide a missing factor in their professional and industry development.

Just last week I introduced the idea of a feasibility study to my class. This being, a tool used to determine if a business idea is one that could actually succeed (be profitable). My underlying goal is that the students come up with a business plan for a service that will clean up the downtown market area. Perhaps you could tell from the pictures taken during my parents visit, but this town is dirty! And it’s not just because all the roads are dirt ones! An aside to this: I want to give a general thank you for those who have put up money for the realization of this project and I’ll keep you informed on how the plans are going.

My third ‘academic year project’ concerns younger students of the community. Relying on my good relations – frequently stopping by their homes/ schools and greeting them – with the teachers of the area, I have begun a reading program. Since elementary schools don’t have class on Thursdays, I chose Thursday afternoons as a time where interested teachers could invite interested students to come to the local library and get more practice reading. The idea of the program is simple – kids coming to the library to read – but in this society there are more hurdles to leap. 1. The library is rarely open 2. Parents are often uneducated themselves and thus don’t encourage their kids to read 3. Books are rarely personally owned by someone, so the leisure activity of reading is practiced by only a handful of educated people in the community … I am sure the list goes on, deeper than even I realize, but that is why I’m hoping that at least by showing my support for books, the library, and reading…maybe a few kids will catch on to the idea.

But don’t worry that I’ve begun a 9-5 or something crazy like that. I still enjoy a schedule of regular biking trips around the region and baking fests with my closest neighbors!

In the coming year a new group of 13 business volunteers as well as several public health and agroforestry volunteers will arrive on January 13th. There is talk of national teacher strikes beginning again along with the 2nd semester of school…so it could be an eventful introduction to the country for them. I will be back in Forecariah planning their training curriculum from the 2nd to 12th of January along with one other business volunteer and Guinean trainers. Each sector of work (health, agfo) also sends two representatives to plan their sessions and my closest neighbors, Tor & Ashley, were also selected…so a circuit party moved back to our old training site of Forecariah!

Many volunteers are packing up for vacation here. Some to meet up with family in Europe, others traveling in Africa, and still others returning back to the States. I’ll be heading to Conakry sometime soon and probably meeting up with a friend from home (Derek – who I visited in Ghana) just after Christmas. We have plans to visit the Islands just off the coast of Conakry. I’ve heard they’re beautiful, and I’m ready for some beach relaxing and ocean swimming. Not exactly a traditional white Wisconsin Christmas…but when away from home I feel its better not to pretend, and rather to take advantage of what I do have here!

That’s it! THE Christmas update! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year’s to everyone!!

Take care & Take some time to enjoy this festive season,

Amy