Dylan is Burkina Bound

So after an emotional 3 weeks in Mali, I have discovered my new placement. Dylan is going to Tenkodogo, Burkina Faso. I will be teaching IT at the local high school to students in grades 6-12.

A little about Tenkodogo, or at least what I know. I am taking a full 360 from lush Tormelin steamy jungles to the hot savannah. My town is also not a town, it is a sprawling city, a regional capital. There are 40,000+ people in my city, and there is even an airport according to Google Maps. That's not saying much of course, but it's exciting nevertheless.

Burkina, no doubt about it, is hot. Perhaps one of the hottest countries in the world. While I'm not the biggest fan of saunas, I am very excited of my job, and the prospect of being so close to many bordering countries. Ghana, Togo, and Benin are all within a day's drive. I'm hoping to take a trip to Benin for New Year's because I now have a buddy being placed there as well. Beaches there are supposed to be top notch.

Oh and the last big thing, Burkina Faso is a stable country, a nice change from the political turmoil in Guinea.

While I will deeply miss Guinea and all of the good friends that I made during my 3 months over there, I'm excited to start anew in Burkina and make a new set of friends. Hell if there is one thing that I know I can do, it's make the most of any situation. This will be a challenge, but a good life experience all the same.

Oh and for everyone out there. I will be changing the URL to dylaninburkina.blogspot.com in the next couple of weeks. Need to give you folks time to adjust (and me as well).

Consolidation, Mali, and My Future

Well folks the last time I wrote a decent blog entry it was full of exciting news. I was just sworn in as a volunteer, I had passed my language level to an international standard of intermediate high, and I was preparing for what I hoped to be a fun filled service of two years.

Well now the situation has changed. Due to the recent tragic violence in Conakry, where 157 people have been confirmed dead with many more missing according to recent reports, I, and about 95 other Peace Corps Guinea Volunteers have been consolidated in Mali. Before I talk anything about my situation, I would like to say a few words about what happened in Guinea. For those who don’t know, Guinea is now run by a military captain named Mussah Dadiss Camara. Without being political, Dadiss has not backed down from running for president in next year’s supposed elections. The international community has put continued pressure on Dadiss, but not until the recent events on September 28th.

157 people confirmed dead in a stadium in an attack carried out by the Guinean military. The people gathered there were protesting the CNDD (the party of the military). I have no idea what led to the violence, I have heard many different stories, but the violence is completely unwarranted. Since that day Guinea is no longer a blurb in the Africa page on BBC but a headline on NPR and media organizations all over the world. Before coming here I never knew what this country was, now the whole world knows.

I spent one fairly uneventful week at site that actually ended up being a lot of fun. I taught a kid to play chess, kids to play ultimate Frisbee, and failed misarbely at teaching dominoes. Dominoes boggles my mind because the game is so damn easy, but whatever. I thought after the kid learned chess, dominoes would be a cake walk. Got lots of terrific food and enjoyed being the talk of the town for a good 6 days.

Coolest story I had at site. One day I hopped on my bike and did some awesome mountain biking throughout the jungles around my site. I ride up to the side of a huge mountain, and sure enough there is a guy in a hut just chilling. I ask him if I can climb this mountain, and not only does he say yes, he guides me up. The view from the top was just incredible and it gave me one of those “holy shit I’m in Africa” feelings you get from time to time. Truly fanstastic and I hope to one day perhaps visit that cliff again.

Bamako, Mali is a remarkable city. The city is known for music and night life and is coined the capital of West African tunes. I though it was Dakar, but after being in Bamako it’s easy to believe why Bamako takes the cake. I went to a movie the other night in a working movie theater, swam in a nice swimming pool, and went to a sweet bar with good beer. Wonderful city I must say.

Two good stories for everyone.

The Border Crossing:
The border crossing into Mali was a very interesting experience, if for the sole reason it showed two completely different mentalities. For one, getting to the border took 35 hours in a bus packed with 25 people. We arrived at the border at 9pm where we met a Regional Security Officer with the US Embassy. This man got stuff done.

As Peace Corps Volunteers we are very used to sitting, waiting, and letting the day go by. We tend to take things in stride because we have to. Trying to speed up the village life is a waste of time so we must adapt to adopting village time and working accordingly. As you can imagine, the RSO had a very different mentality. This guy had a schedule, and was not about to compromise it with a bunch of crazy Peace Corps Voluneers. Within 30 25 Volunteers were able to make it through 5 military barrages without Visas (and in a different story without Passports). A remarkable accomplishment I must say. We were a bunch of “deer in headlights.”

Sorry story is not so entertaining. Just ask any PCV about their mentalities and the story will be far more entertaining.

Another good story:

Mali vs. Sudan, Africa Cup of Nations Qualifier. Yeah. I was there. That officially checks that off the list. What a match man. I sat in the upper deck above the midline with a slew of Malian drummers. They were loud and proud.

Africans take the game so seriously. Every call made at least 20 men in my section were up making the sign for the appropriate call or complaining about how a man was open and was missed by the man with the ball. Imagine a DC United game, with the Barra Brava, except that is the whole stadium. These guys are nuts man, and they do it all without alcohol. In fact, half time is prayer time, so everyone leaves to pray for the 15 minute break before returning to their seats. Riot police surround every section and heavily armed guards surround the stadium in case of any turmoil. It’s very intense.

The match remained 0-0 right up until the final minute, when Mali scored. That is when the party started. People went beserk with happiness, so crazy in fact that some guy picked me up out of my seat and waved me around. I thought I was going over the wall into the lower deck in which case I would not be writing to you right now. That did not happen, and I can safely say that I am still here today. 1-0 Mali over Sudan, and with the victory Mali has now qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations. What an excellent match.

I bring this to a close because it is getting ridiculously hot and I’m getting quite lazy with regards to typing. I do not have any information on what will be happening to my Peace Corps service. I cannot say yet whether or not we will return to Guinea or if I will transfer to another country. I have mentally checked out of Guinea so I am fully prepared to transferred if I am given the option. We have also been given the option to close service with full benefits, but I personally would like to continue as a Volunteer. I will be sure to keep everyone informed.

Oh and I changed my name. Mamadou Djoubate is now Mamadou Soumah.

Dylan is in....Bamako?

Yes that's right. With all the tragedy that has occured in Conakry over the next few days, I, and the rest of Peace Corps Guinea have been consolidated in Bamako, Mali. I am perfectly safe and sound and in fact living it up in the Peace Corps Mali training facility. It's almost like summer camp I have to say. We played basketball, drank Coca Cola, and get this, I played Settlers of Catan for 3 hours this afternoon! Not a bad consoladation I must say.

Anyway all we have is 30 minute time slots because all 90+ of us need to use these comps, so I just really wanted to say I am safe and sound and everything is great here. In fact, we are going to the Mali-Sudan world cup qualifier on Sunday!

Dylan is a New Volunteer

Saturday, September 26, 2009

It has been almost a month since I last posted and well, as usual, lots of changes have occurred in my life. Let’s start things off with the most major and important of changes.

Dylan is no longer a Stagiere, or Trainee. Official job title now toute la monde: Volunteer. If you ask me, it’s rather hilarious to think of Volunteer being an official job position. 6 months ago that concept was bizarre. 3 months ago (when I first landed here) all I wanted to be was a Volunteer. Now, as of Friday the 25th, I have achieved just that. A Volunteer, for all of you non Peace Corps folks, is actually a very prestigious position, especially here in Guinea. We are well respected in many parts of the world because of the nature of what we do.

I am education Volunteer in Guinea. Teachers in Guinea, before all the corruption became rampant, used to be one of the few positions highly respected in village. Teachers now do not get paid very much, so they must live off of bribes from students. I do not blame them in the least, I mean people have to eat right? But the problem is that students now do not have the same respect anymore for teachers. Volunteer teachers, are an exception. We don’t accept bribes, beat children, or take part in any activity that endanger our roles here as Peace Corps Volunteers. We simply bring our American values of education and free-thought, and must mix it into a Guinean education system adopted from the French. A difficult task, but one that is extremely rewarding.

The Swearing-In Ceremony was a lovely ceremony, complete with the best food I have had in country. We were proudly sworn in by the Chef d’Affairs in Guinea (currently the USA does not have an ambassador in country so the man who acts as such was in charge of swearing us in). His speech was very moving, and you could tell by the power of his words that he truly believed in the spirit of the Peace Corps and what we all represent. It was very funny though, being surrounded by officials wearing standard business attire, while we all word colorful boubous made for the occasion. One of these days I will have photos up of the event when the internet is actually working.

The last month was practice school. Practice school was really our first real interaction with teaching in the Guinean system, or for someone like me, teaching at all. We had to work our asses off, and teaching in French makes it only that much harder. To all the teachers in the world, I have a newfound respect for your job. You guys are some of the hardest working people I know. Hell I only teach for 12 hours a week (but in French), I can’t imagine having to do 5-6 classes a day for 8 hours.

It was a very challenging experience, but it was great to really begin using my French in a more academic setting. I still talk like a 6 year old which the kids all make fun of, but at least I know my math, which gives me some respect in the class. I also grew out a nice beard, and I told kids I was in between the age of 35 and 67. Beards help with that a whole lot.

But time to end the Forecharia chapter, and begin my life in Tormelin. Training is over. Tomorrow I will depart to Boke to take care of some general moving in shopping (yeah we got a fat brick of cash to buy stuff) and then it’s off to my house. I have not seen anything yet. Being at site is what the Peace Corps is all about. I will be alone for the first time, living in a house in the jungle, speaking French and Susu only. There are a couple of volunteers within 30km of me, so I will have that English option, but generally it will be me struggling for awhile until I have a good grasp of the language.

From what I hear, the first 3 months at site are the toughest, most grueling months of your entire service. Training is difficult because of all the cultural changes, diet changes, and getting used to pooping in a latrine. Site is a different change, where for the first time you must learn to live on your own. We no longer have a schedule, there is nobody telling us what to do, nobody to speak English with. It requires a lot of self-motivation to get through, a lot of humility, and a whole lot of determination. But everyone says, that after those first 3 months, you will be very rewarded and fall in love with your site. So here’s hoping for just that.

A little about my future:

I get one trip every month to my regional capital. As of now I am not sure if it will be Boke or Conakry, but I’m willing to bet that I will be splitting time between the two since I am between both. I have perfect cell phone service at my site, so anybody can call me anytime. My mail runs are now going to be the first Friday of every month, so if you send something to me in the middle of October for example, expect that I won’t get it until the first Friday in December (assuming it takes 2 weeks to get here).

Anyway I am off to celebrate the last night with many of my folks whom I won’t see til Christmas. Wish me well on the beginning of my new journey!

Tormelin

Hey everyone,
Just wanted to let you all know that things are good and I am ok. I saw my site and I have to say it's amazing. It's big enough for anybody wanting to come visit, and it's surrounded by caves, jungles, and mountains. A perfect place for a little 2 week vacation if I do say so myself. Anyway I don't have much time today, but I'm back in Forecharia getting ready to start practice school, the final 3 week phase of training before I am officially a volunteer. All is well here and I will try and have a much more detailed blog post when I'm back in Conakry at the end of September.

Some quick notes before I head out.
-Beer on tap in Fria does exist
-There is ice cream in Fria too for dirt cheap
-If anyone is going to South Africa for World Cup 2010, please let me know. I am desperate to get started on booking this trip, but I need to know if anyone is going and would like to attend/split costs of matches, hotel rooms, etc.


Peace

Mamadou is in Mamou

Well it’s been about two weeks since I last wrote a blog entry so I guess it’s time for another. Not much news to report since Conakry, no intersting stories like last time. I have, however, been my typical self, a roller coaster of emotions. I kind of flipped out this week, but it’s more or less do to the fact that my entire world exist of 16 other people than myself. I love everyone to death, but sometimes I just need my space. On top of that, my family was serving me absolute disgusting food that I just could not take.
So what have I been doing to destress and eat better? Well I will answer the second question first because the solution is easier. Since I was unsure of the best way to go about improving my meals, I approached my cross culture director and he told me to talk to my host brother about the issue, who I’m very close with. He simply asked me what I would like, and presto, I had the best dinner in Guinea that night. Easy as pie, food issues solved. All I really needed was variety, and that has been given.
Now on to the more difficult issue of how to deal with stress. Training is stressful. No joke about it. On top of taking 4 hours of French class, and 4 hours of education training, you are quickly forced to adapt to a new culture, new diet, and a host of other issues that come with it. And again, with the lack of access to the outside world, your whole world is 16 other people. So naturally, I get stressed.
I have picked up yoga has a side activity, as well as jogging. Since school last too long for me to join in any soccer games, I have to find ways to keep myself in shape. Yoga has quickly become a favorite activity, and while I still hate jogging, I have nothing else to do but deal with it. Somedays I hop on my bike and go on a 10 mile loop ride, but not very often. Basically if I keep up steady physical schedule, and a good diet, dealing with the other things that I can’t control is just easier.
So onto more exciting news. This week I’ll be checking out my site, Tormelin. For those who have not heard, Tormelin is in Fria, a state-type-thing if you will. The capital, if you will, Fria, is supposed to be an amazing town with ice cream and beer on tap. A cold beer, on tap, is always a welcome addition. Don’t get it very often in Guinea, or at all. So I head to Boke Sunday, then to Tormelin Tuesday, then back to Forecharia Saturday. Saturday starts the most intense part of training, practice school, but a little break will be a welcome surprise.

I have met my supervisor and he says the town is very excited to host me. I will be the third volunteer, but first since the evacuation in 2007. I’ll be teaching 8th and 9th grades to start, but I’m in charge of the math department seeing as how I am the only math teacher at my college (what the French call middle school). While my French still has a ways to go, the math trainer at Peace Corps told my supervisor that my math is superiour so I will eventually have the responsibility of guiding the 7th and 10th grade courses (which are taught by chemistry teachers). And at the end of the year, I will be responsible for holding a Breve review (Breve is the high school entrance exam) after I have more or less become adapt at French.

So exciting, but difficult times, still await. Yet I am doing everything I can to make the most of what I can.
-Dylan

The Land of Akon and Mamadou Djoubate

So if you have not all guessed, Mamadou Djoubate is me. My host family in Forecharia gave it to me the first day upon arrival, so as I travel around town, I get berated with Mamadou, Mamadou! Or Fote Fote (which is what us white people are called here) and I simply smile and forget their names 2 seconds later. When you are dealing with 6 last names and an uncountable number or first names, you tend to forget things easily. Whatever it happens, don't judge me.

Anyway, it has been three weeks since I last blogged and as you might imagine, not a thing has happened. Nope, nothing. Well actually that's completely opposite of the truth, but one would have no clue what is happening outside of Forecharia, so yes, nothing MAJOR has happened. However, lots of minor things can happen in 3 weeks and I will do my best to elaborate.

My family consists of 3 brothers, one of which was born with serious defects and is does not leave his bed. It's extremely sad, but the site of him is honestly something that I am still not fit to handle. My other brothers, however, are fantastic and they have both become terrific friends and teachers. Plus it helps that they love to play ball. If you didn't know it before, well I'll tell you again, soccer is the best way to make friends anywhere in the world. I also have 2 beautiful sisters, one older, and one younger. They make fantastic food for me though I must say rice and sauce does grow tiring.

Which leads me to my first story. Seeing as how I never really know what is going on in my house, people are always coming and going, this story should not suprise anyone. I woke up yesterday morning when my brother told me that today, my hostmom was getting remarried...TODAY. Uhhhhhh wtf! And to top it off, she was getting married to a Peace Corps office gaurd and driver. I mean I guess I should have figured something was up with the number of plastic chairs being brought to my house through the week (plastic chairs are signs of baller status here), but I guess I'm just not that good at picking up signs.

So the wedding happened while I was at training for the day and tada, I have a Peace Corps employee hostdad now! As a wedding present, I bought two cans of Fanta. I guess they enjoyed it because it they were drank and thrown out my window pretty fast. Good times you might say.

----------------------------

Today we are in Conakry, which is why I have access to the internet to begin with. Earlier today, we stopped by the National Museum of Guinea. There were some cool masks and instruments, and some awesome maps, but what was really interesting lied in the temp exhibit. Only in Guinea can you find brochures written in the Susu langauge about Kim Jong Il. That's right, thge exhibit was North Korean art. Need I say more?

Anyway I'm running out of time and I need to check some sport scores. Je suis povre, c'est pas bon.

Send me some letters slackers and let me know about life!

-Dylan