School

Part of my 55 person Terminale class from the first year. This is the first class I ever taught and thus they are dear to me (especially because they usually behaved). There were only two girls in the class and one got married after a few months and supposedly was going to finish school in Conakry. I don't know if she ever did. In this picture, we have Faya MBemba Kondiano on the very left. Alexei Kourouma in wearing the baseball cap. In the middle of the group is Lancei Diakite, who was also one of my friends, along with Lancei Conde, at the bottom. Most of these students were my age or older (ie. early 20's). Three of them actually made it into university and most of them passed the Bacc, which made me very happy. Our first year, we taught at Lycee Roi Hassan II, which was up on the hill, about a 15 minute bike ride away. The school was new and aside from the cement blackboards that ate chalk in 11e SS, in nice condition. However, the high school outgrew the buildings in the three years that it was there so the following year, the school moved back down to Lycee Kankou Moussa and part of the college moved up to the lycee. Kankou Moussa was a 5 minute walk up the street from us which was very convenient. The classrooms were in worse condition, many with tiny blackboards or wooden columns in the middle of the room. Our 12e SS class was so packed that there were no aisles and students climbed over the desks to get to the back of the classroom. There was hardly any room up at front as well. Not surprisingly, I was almost happy when 1/3 of the class decided to stop showing up.

The long walk to school past our house every morning. In the afternoon, the stream reversed, but they walked on the other side of the street. College pupils are in beige, the lycee pupils where blue and white. Thus they referred to themselves as 'bleus-blancs'.

Some of the teachers sitting on the bench outside the direction during the break. From right to left, we have M. Diallo, M. Oumar (the chemistry teacher), M. Camara (French teacher who proposed to me the second day of school), Issac Diallo (the physics teacher who wanted to marry Kristin), and two more.

Every morning, there was a flag raising ceremony during which one of the grades sang the national anthem. Periodically, the Censeur would decide the anthem hadn't been sung loudly enough and the procedure was repeated. Moving or talking during flag raising was also against the rules. Everyone was supposed to be present but as is clear from the picture, that usually wasn't the case. The start of school was very fluid with students wandering in 15-30 minutes late. During cold season, even the teachers agreed that school should start later because of the 'sever cold'.

On the left is Madame le Proviseur, also known as Saran Camara. She was cute, sometimes. Having a female proviseur was quite unusual. She had quite deep PUP connections, which helped.

On the right is Monsieur le Censeur, N'Faly Alpha Sidibe, but frequently called M. Alpha. To the right is the French teacher. I can't remember what the teacher on the left taught. It might have been Geography.

Journal Entry

Dec. 13, 2001

Still no water. I slept poorly and wish I didn't have to teach. But it is my last day. Thank god. How nice, school is closed because of Ramadan.
Just when I was having one of those warm, fuzzy Guinea moments, everything goes wrong. We went over to Nana's and found her very upset. Turns out, her husband beat her yesterday. She showed us the marks. She wants to leave with Fanta and we want to help her, but we're worried about her husband. He's the one who put the Bin Laden stickers on the car. And in our presence, the men said, "Les americains ne sont pas bons." It was purely for our benefit - they sait it loudly and clearly in French. If they already feel that way, one can just imagine how hleping Nana run away would be taken. I don't even know what to do.

Another email sent from Bamako.

Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2001 13:50:23 -0800 (PST)
If this email seems incoherent, please forgive me, I'm really tired. I spent 8 hours in a very bumpy, dusty bush taxi today, which held no fewer than 11 adults plus one child with very bony elbows (they were in my back). It is now 21.30, which is very late by my standards, but one has to consider that I do get up at 5.30. On to other things.

I do not know if you have been getting any of my mail, since I no longer get any mail, thanks to the anthrax scare, etc. I suppose I should appreciate that they are routing are mail through the embassy now, except that I can hardly believe the embassy can find any anthrax in our letters without opening them, nor do I feel any such threat here. It is very frustrating to be cut off from the rest of the world (well, at least the people I care about-I have plenty of access to the news, thanks to my trusty shortwave radio). It's a sign that I've been in Guinea too long since I know the names of all the BBC reporters. There are actually lots of signs that I've been in Guinea too long. But I won't elaborate. It has to do with eating rice and sauce for breakfast and being able to identify the "in" fabric.

I've actually been pretty busy these last few months, since I'm teaching 16 hours this years. I started off with 12 but took on the Terminale class when I found out they had no teacher. Naturally, they are very appreciative and make it a habit of regularly skipping class en masse. However, I have taken the attitude that they are only hurting themselves and if that is what they want to do, then I won't argue with them. But every time they skip is one less review session that I am willing to hold with them when exam time comes. Actually, I do enjoy teaching the 10 of them that do come to class. Meanwhile, I am up to 120 im my 12th grade class. Yes, that is 120. But they are a lot of fun as well. And I think I am making headway. I taught the class last year, and this year, I have noticed that there is a lot less cheating on tests. Which means, either they have learned not to cheat or they have become far more adept and I can no longer catch them. If it is the latter, I can still pretend the former, so that makes me happy. I'm not going to talk about my 11th graders because they make me very unhappy at the moment. They have fundamental problems with math (ie. 0-2=2). I just graded a test I gave them which had three very simple fraction calculations, which most of the class got wrong. I am not exaggerating when I tell you that I had to grade 20 papers before two people answered 1-1/4 correctly. Isn't that elementary school math? The class also has a number of Bin Laden supporters, which is also quite upsetting.

Speaking of Bin Laden, Guinea was at first very supportive of the US. But in the last few weeks, I have seen very open Bin Laden support (unfortunately by people we thought we were friends with) and one can buy t-shirts, stickers, etc. supporting him in the market place. There has definately been an increase of anti-American sentiment and it is a bit disconcerting. Meanwhile, everyone in Guinea still wants to move to the US. I don't blame them. There have been a lot of political problems of late: a referendum to increase the number of terms the president can serve, rioting in Conakry, student strikes. I think people are starting to get fed up.

But on to happier topics. We have a new pet in our household-a cat named Souba who is supposed to kill mice. She's still a kitten, but she's started in on the insects under explicit instructions that is she fails to kill mice, she'll be out on the street. She's actually a pain in the neck, because she likes to meow incessantly at six in the morning until I feed her. And the dog is having jealousy issues. we have also taken up gardening (vegetables_). For the record, watching plants grow is actually exciting (well, if you live in Guinea with nothing better to do). I see that I am running out of time, so I should wrap up. Actually, I have a question that has been bothering me: HOw many times have you ever asked to be excused from class so that you can spit? Because this happens to me all the time (I don't spit, my students do). It is really bizarre.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Urska-who is very happy to be out of Guinea, even if it is only Mali.

A small part of my 120 person 12e class my second year. Due to the teacher's strike and various random school closings for the referendum and polio vaccinations, we didn't have enough time to teach the syllabus, so I gave extra classes after school. As a result, none of them are wearing uniforms. This picture was taken after the last class. This class was full of trouble-makers but because it was the second year I was teaching them, I didn't have too many problems.

Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 05:13:53

Hi Frances,
I haven't gotten any mail from you, but no one is getting any mail. But, Mike told me I did have a package, but he forgot to bring it, so perhaps it is yours. I'm not going home for the holidays, but as you know, I am meeting my parents in Morocco, so they should brng your letter. I sent you some pictures and bissap-did you get it? WE've been wandering around Bamako today running errands. Well, I had none, I just accompanied Kristin and Mike, since I had nothing today. OUr main goal is Bamako is food, so we had Italian food for dinner yesterday, I really nice breakfast at the Relax today and Indian is planned for tonight. We're skipping lunch to make room for dinner. I'm leaving Saturday at three in the morning. Isn't that crazy? ... When I get back from vacation, I'll only have 6 months left of Peace Corps, and that is really exciting. I'm really ready to leave Africa. Anyway, hope you're well. I send my greetings to everyone.
Urska

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