The rain is finally upon us. Goodbye sweltering heat, lifeless plains and water shortages. Hello mangos (by the bucket-full), green foliage and bugs, insects and mosquitoes. I’m happy to say I survived the hottest month of the year and even happier to bid it farewell.
I can’t believe it’s already been 5 months since I left North Carolina. 5 months! I often feel like the days pass slowly, but the time passes fast. A weird feeling, but in the moment I find myself saying ‘’It’s only 11 o’clock!?” but looking back and thinking where the heck has time gone and what do I have to show for it.
This past month has been quite fun. I got in contact with a former US Olympian who is doing humanitarian work in Guinea and he agreed to sponsor both of my sports teams. Ron Freeman: gold and bronze medalist in track and field and a really nice guy. I’ve also been regularly teaching English which has given me an appreciation for what my mom spent her life doing. It’s not easy preparing a lesson, keeping children engaged and having high energy; but it’s fun. The children are intrigued by my accent and seem to enjoy the games and activities we do. I’m sure some of you could imagine my teaching style (quite different from rudimentary style found in most Guinean classrooms). Most classes I break into song and dance and am always floating around the class trying to get students to participate (not always successfully). Needless to say, teaching is exhausting.
After our last monthly regional visit one of the other volunteers came back for a brief visit of my village. A couple of my friends agreed to take us to one of the local waterfalls and barrages that they Chinese built. It doubles as a hydroelectric plant that sends power to some of the local towns and villages (not mine). The fall was magnificent – and it was during dry season. Two rivers converge at the top of the fall. On one end the river crashes down huge, displaced boulders sunk down between two giant rock walls. The other side is much calmer with a small 4 meter waterfall in the distance and the water slowly snakes its way to the fall weaving between rocks. Because it was dry season we actually walked on part of the waterfall – the pool at the top shrank to the size of a small creek. The fall itself is about a football field high and we actually got to lay over the edge to look down into the pool at the bottom.
The trip, however, wasn’t all sunshine and roses. Before we even got into the village where the waterfall is we stopped at a police checkpoint(which is in and of itself normal). When we stopped, we were greeted by a shirtless ‘policeman’ wobbling towards us with a near-empty bottle of whiskey. He wanted us to pay in order to enter which was ridiculous considering he was just going to pocket the money. We sat and argued with him for the better half of 10 minutes (in which I surprised myself at how well I can argue in French). Finally, I resorted to calling the Peace Corps security coordinator who laid down the law and we finally passed (for free). I joked with my buddy that we should have just blown past the dude and not think twice since he was probably too drunk to fire a gun. Obviously we didn’t want to test my theory which is why we argued with him for what seemed like forever.
One night I went with Thierno Hassane (my best friend in country whom people say we look alike because we’re together so much) to watch one of our buddies fire the bricks. In Guinea, if you want to build a brick house that means someone has to make the bricks. In order to do this you need a good source of clay mud – preferably close to a water source. Mix the clay with water, slop it into a wooden brick mold then set it in the sun to dry. After the sun bakes it for days (and they’ve made all the bricks) they stack them into what looks like 4 chimneys connected together. At the base are openings to slide in wood and they light a fire to finish off the process. The bricks go for about a dime each.
That same night after I left at about 12:30am I headed back to my house in a light drizzle. I was pretty tired and looking forward to hitting the sack. When I walked up to the door that lets us in to our courtyard it wouldn’t open. I thought to myself that this was odd – we never latch the door closed because we never know if there is someone not back for the night yet. Anyways, I tried for a couple minutes to try and reach through a small hole to slide the latch over but couldn’t quite get it. I surveyed my options and figured climbing over wasn’t an option. I probably would have taken down part of the wall considering how big I am and the fact that dilute the cement mix with sand here. I knocked, called, banged, threw rocks and yelled at my neighbor’s window, but no such luck. All I could do was laugh. I knew it wasn’t on purpose and getting upset would just make the situation worse. Luckily I had just left Thierno Hassane so I called him up and said I needed to crash at his place. And so it was – my first Guinean sleep over.
Oh yeah, I finally saw my first snake and scorpion. In the same week!
Peace be with all. Shane
