zot in Niger bush camels

Last night was one of the hottest nights ever I think, or if less hot than some dry season nights, was both hot and humid, and neither Mary nor I slept much. Usually if it is a hot sunny day the clouds roll in at night and the rains cools things off, but there was no such rain last night. Worse, the electricity was turned off all night, so the fan I bought (did I mention I bought a fan?) was pretty useless to cool us off.

Today I am meeting with a different groupement to discuss how we might work together, and after that I have to go around and tell a bunch of people about the entrepreneurial peer educator group I am trying to start, which is having its first meeting (inshallah) next Monday evening. My APCD will be here and will sit in on the meeting, and I used that to try and encourage my organization to actually give a damn and invite some people.

And my English class will be starting in the evening the Tuesday after I return from Conakry to see Mary off, and is independent of APIC, so hopefully will actually happen. All of this resulted from me dropping by the bureau yesterday to discuss finding a building. If the building works out (is actually open) and people show up, then we will be good to go.

Having current certainly changes what I can and can’t do. Yesterday I spent some time on my computer and got Apache web server running and now I can look at web sites that I have downloaded onto my computer while I am not connected to the internet. This is primarily for law schools and any other things I might consider doing after Peace Corps, since I don’t plan on making the trip to Conakry often and I have to pay to use the internet here. This way I can just download the web site for a school and look at it at my leisure.

Yesterday we got out some of the coloring supplies (thanks mom!) and tried to color with Bintu and Papa and some other kids. The result was rather depressing and has me trying to remember my very young childhood. I’ve mentioned before that school here is very repitition based, and it is amazing how early it takes root. We wanted the kids to color whatever they wanted, but Bintu just copied what Mary was drawing, and some other kids started using the paper and crayons to right numbers over and over. Papa, who is three, was young enough to just make lines on paper, but even his lines were in rows as if he was trying to write numbers.

So what do we do in the states to encourage kids to make scribbles, stick crayons up their nose, and otherwise experiment? How do we treat them at a very young age that differs from how they treat kids here? And what can I do to encourage creativity when the kids are trying desperately to please me by drawing exactly what they think I want them to draw? How do I encourage creativity among teenagers and adults in both an business and an artistic setting? How about in the girl’s math club I want to start? I have always hated classes that were repitition based, and enjoyed much more opportunities to learn by doing, to explore on my own, to find tease out answers, and I want any classes I hold to be along that same approach, but I am going to have to find a way to reconcile the fact that the participants will invariably think that the best way to do well is to copy as precisely as possible.

Work is proceeding maddeningly slowly. A few weeks ago I had a meeting with my ONG to do a plan of action for the next three months, and left pretty excited about what we were going to do. Unfortunately none of what we planned actually happened because everyone is too busy, which has left me wondering whether they want or need my help at all. So finally last Wednesday I sat down with Roger, my homologue, and we scrapped the whole plan and said I was able to do what I want until they have time to actually work with me. Its not an optimal solution, but at least I will just be able to pursue my own thing instead of scheduling a lot of time and then having nothing work.

And on that note, I’m hoping to have my first business group meeting next Monday. I need to find a place to hold it still, but I am not anticipating that that will be a problem. Also, since I have free time again, I might try to do a world map project this week, if I can get permission to use the wall of the Maison de Jeune building. Otherwise I have a meeting Friday to discuss how a honey-producing groupement manages their money, and will meet with a few other people this week to try and get projects going. I might also start teaching an English class once a week. I was supposed to be doing this specially for APIC, but they flaked, so now I am just going to offer a weekly class, and I am going to make it hard enough that people have to actually put some time in, and if I get a few motivated students that will be great, and otherwise I will drop it.

Cece and I have agreed to start doing an exchange class in which I will teach a him and a few of his friends English and he will teach me Malinke. We start this week and hopefully it will work out. I am still searching for a French tutor to meet with once a week. Once the year is finished I want to switch to studying Arabic, so I need to get that set up soon.

I am excited about my own projects, but pretty frustrated with APIC and their lack of motivation. Why did they request a volunteer if they aren’t willing to make time to work with me? The president has been pretty supportive, which is great, but he does more meeting and fundraising than coordinating, and so it is Roger that is an issue now. We will see how it works out, but I am feeling the fear again of not having accomplished anything during my two years (On a personal level I have accomplished a lot, but I would like to leave feeling like I actually contributed something, its just that its so hard to get projects going here).

Well we were supposed to spend the weekend in Guekedou, but when we finally got there, after a harrowing taxi ride at ridiculous speeds, we found the hotel was rather more expensive than we planned, and it didn’t really seem worth it to stay, so we only spent one night. Much of that afternoon was spent playing Risk, though Mary has been feeling sick, probably from something she ate at some point, and so she was out of commission. We were there with a few other volunteers as well and I ate some excellent steak and fries (the alternative being chicken and fries, but I don’t get much red meat, so I grab the chance when I can).

The next morning a few of us walked around Guekedou for a little while, thinking of going to the Liberian border, but instead running into a nice customs agent who was convinced that Guinea has more oil reserves than Nigeria, and left us with a jibe about the US’ loss to Brazil in the Confederate League soccer. We also got questioned by the local commisariat because we had failed to present ourselves there to explain our purpose, but they were very nice and we promised to do so next time (not likely, since there should be volunteers in Guekedou the next time we visit).

Actually we were going to rent the cheapest rooms, but the hotel seemed reluctant to let us rent rooms without air conditioning and electricity. Of course, in our houses none of us have air conditioning and only a few of us have electricity, so were weren’t concerned, but they dropped the price on the more expensive room to a level we were willing to pay and we sprang for them. The manager said it was because of my Obama tote bag, but they didn’t exactly have a lot of customers either. Of course, they also turned off the power at about midnight, which led to one of the hottest and most humid nights I have experienced in Guinea, and while I was eventually able to sleep Mary had a rough time.

The forest region is very beautiful and somehow even greener than it is around Faranah, which should be impossible but isn’t. Hopefully I will be able to attach some pictures that Mary took of the surrounding countryside.