The Math trainees
Stagiaires in the disco hut.
The Malinke class at swearing-in. From left to right, we have Matt, Kye, me, Mamadi, Dana, and Nicole. I have no idea what I was doing in the picture, so just ignore me.
I hated a lot of stage. It was hot. We were in class all the time. I didn't really know anyone. My host-family told me I would never be a teacher because I didn't talk enough. Math in French was daunting. And language classes quickly became torture, not in the least aided by the numerous mosquitoes that ate us alive. I had the pleasure of taking both French and Malinke with a quirky Guinean man named Mamadi.
Mamadi was a little odd. He was terrified of frogs, caterpillars, and little birds. He tried to convince us of the existance of God using the Adam's apple as proof. He checked our notebooks to make sure we were taking notes, as though we were middle schoolers and not college grads. On one such occasion, he told me that my cursive, capital 'A' was not capitalised. We argued with him about this for a while and he finally told us that we had to accept the socio-linguistic realities of West Africa. We thought this sounded like a college course and decided to list it as Linguistics 444, the 444 pronounced in Malinke as 'keme nani ani binani ani nani". Our class was quite fond of the number 'nani'. We did everything we could to make class more tolerable. We spent one entire class naming the worm in a certain stagiaire's foot Wally. Sometimes we failed to come back after the break but Mamadi always found us. We delighted in putting caterpillars on the chalkboard eraser to scare him. None of it really worked and none of us learned very much Malinke, regardless of desire.
Two emails I sent during stage:
Date: Sat, 02 Sep 2000 11:20:21 EDT
Hi Julie and everyone else (sorry, don't have time to write all the names),
Sorry, the internet was causing problems and that's all that got sent. I'd
love to send a mass email, but I can't really afford it on my budget as a
trainee. I can write lots of letters though. Senegal's great, really hot, I
eat rice and fish all the time. I'm leaving to Guinea in two weeks. I'm in
practice school right now which is lots of work. I'm teaching a class of 70
8th graders and they're wild. Lot's of fun, because I get to tell them to
shut up and humiliate them. Hope all is well for you. My email access is
pretty much ending in about two weeks, so write to me: it's Corps de la Paix
Americain, BP 1927, Conakry, Guinea. I really will write back, I've been
good at it. But I don't have most of your addresses, so I can't do it, and
don't email them to me, because I don't have a pen and paper when I check
email. Ok, so this is a really random email. By the way, you're all
invited to visit any time. Guinea is supposed to be beautiful. I think
most places are though, compared to Senegal, where it is hot, dusty, and
full of mosquitoes and puddles. Have a great end of summer.
Urska
Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2000 12:49:41 EDT
Hello everyone,
This is just to let you know that I'll be (finally) leaving to Guinea on
Sunday, provided that there aren't any more really serious border problems
with Sierra Leone that could endanger us volunteers. Training has been long
and hard so it is nice to be finally leaving Senegal. I'm going to be
living in the town of Siguiri, right near the Mali border(very hot). I'll
be teaching in a high school, and if they need me, there is a chance I might
be teaching geo and/or physics as well :). I'll have a housemate in
Siguiri, who is an English teacher. Our house has eight rooms, running
water!, electricity! (very sporadic), and a mango tree, so I'm excited. so,
that is all. I hope everyone is well. I wish I could have some cold weather
right now.
Urska