ready for Ramadan

Tomorrow is the first day of Ramadan and I will be observing it by fasting during daylight hours. During the day, people are not even allowed to drink water or coffee or anything. They are also not allowed to fight, insult others, think angry thoughts, engage in sexual activities, smoke, or beat their children. The point of this fast, as I understand it, is to clear and cleanse your heart from all hateful and negative thoughts and feelings. It is to forgive others and to forgive yourself and also to be forgiven.
I will make a conscious effort to remember to stay peaceful and patient and full of love, even when my stomach is screaming. Daily yoga and meditation will help.
I will, however, probably continue to drink water, discreetly, because I get dehydrated very easily and I sweat a lot in Forécariah.
My family will be fasting too, along with most of the country, so I will get up at 5 in the morning with them to eat before sunrise and I will eat dinner with them at about 7 pm, just after sundown.
Tomorrow, the first day, will probably be hard because I'll be spending 7 to 9 hours in a bush taxi on the way back from Labé to Forécariah. Bush taxis are incredibly packed and stinky and uncomfortable. But I am choosing to see it in a different light: bush taxis can also be a moving meditation, like yoga! Although I will not be free to stretch my limbs, I will be able to breathe freely and feel my heart beating. If I can concentrate on these things, rather than the outer discomfort, I will be okay. After all, I am peace and patience and love!

Please send me love and good energy for the last part of my training. Practice school starts after next week, so I'll be teaching some summer school math to prepare for the real thing in October. Feel free to send letters, too!
I send you all love every day.

post site-visit note

Just got back from my site visit in Timbo. I was in a city called Mamou for a few days for a supervisor conference, and on Sunday I went to visit Timbo-- the place that will be my home for the next 2 years. I went with a current Peace Corps volunteer, whose Guinean name is Alhassane. He has been in country for a year and he is a teacher in a nearby village called Poredaka. He was kind enough to accompany me all over the Fouta. We stayed two nights in my house in Timbo. During the days, we walked all over the village so that I could meet important people (the Sous-Prefet, the police, the principal, vice principal, the Imam of the mosque, and more) and so that I could situate the important things in town (the school, the water pump, the market, etc).
The nearest water pump to my house is about a 40 minute walk. My school is about 30 minutes. In order to get cell phone service, it's an hour walk up a mountain! Of course there's no electricity either! Timbo makes Forécariah look like a big city! But it's all good; I will be getting the real deal Peace Corps experience.

In other news, I've changed my Guinean name to a Peuhl name since I'll be living amongst the Peuhls. My name was M'Balou Camara, but in Timbo, I have introduced myself as Madame Fatoumata Binta Barry. But you can call me Binta for short! And yes, although I'm not married I do prefer Madame over Mademoiselle because it shows more respect.
Everyone in Timbo called me Madame automatically because I guess Timbo has a substantial history of Peace Corps volunteers. My host family, the Bah family of Timbo, is constantly talking about one of their old volunteers, a certain Monsieur Paul, who was apparently the best volunteer ever. Their last volunteer, a girl from Arizona, left in the 2007 evacuation after serving four months. They have been awaiting a new volunteer since.
Oh and I will be teaching 9th and 10th grade math at my school! My vice principal said that the kids at my school are "difficult." But most Fouta volunteer teachers say that the kids are pretty respectful. Alhassane said that the secret is you just have to kick someone out the first day to establish dominance!
The kids are different in the Fouta. I mentioned earlier that the "petits" in Forecariah and Conakry love to chase after white people, yelling "foté! foté!" Well the Peuhl kids are much more reserved, and are not so quick to address us as "porto."

So I am about to go explore Labe, my regional capital, so I must leave you now, my faithful friends and family. I might try to get online again tomorrow, so email me! Otherwise, my address is the same, so feel free to send real mail as well.
I love you all!
On jaarama! (That means goodbye as well!)

On jaarama!

That's a greeting in Pular, the langauge I have started to learn. I have been assigned to a town called Timbo, in the Fouta Djalon region of Guinea and I will beging teaching in October, after training for another 8 weeks.

For now, I am still in Forecariah but we came to Conakry for the day to use the internet and visit a museum.
Forecariah is an interesting town. Electricity comes on randomly for a few hours every other night or so.
I eat a lot of really spicy sauce with white rice. It's seriously soooo spicy that it is hard to eat sometimes. And you know me! I LOVE spicy food. But seriously, it's too much here.

Training is tough but I find the joy in small things like yoga, Coca-Cola and avocados. The avocados are huge here. I live with a Susu family and they have named me "M'Balou Camara." The Camara family is pretty nice, but I also spend a lot of time at the neighbors' house. My trainee friend Scotty aka "Alimatou" lives next door and I visit her a lot and eat her food! It's much less spicy! Her host sister braided my hair the other day and it looks pretty good. Only took her five hours! I will send pics next time I am in Conakry when I have more time, inshallah (God willing)
It rains a lot.
Lots of spiders.
Mouse in my room.
Chickens. Goats. Cats. Dogs.

Keep in touch! I have only got two letters so far! Thanks to Aunt Sharon and Joy!
Bon. I love you all! Bye!

I gave you all the wrong number... and don't worry about Guinea in the news

So first of all, I am leaving tomorrow morning for Forecariah for my three month training. I won't have electricity (or internet, of course). So I can be reached my letters and by phone. I gave my phone number to some of you and I want you to know, if I gave you a number ending in 97, it's wrong! The correct number ends in 92!

Bon...

Also, we just saw some stuff on BBC.com about Guinea preparing for an attack from drug cartels. Don't worry about that, please. It's a lot of hype and I am very far from any of the allegedly involved borders. I will be completely out of harm's way. My biggest threats at the moment are water parasites and mosquitoes! And I am doing everything in my power to protect myself from those things :)

I will take care of myself to the best of my ability and the universe will do the rest. C'est bon!
I love you all!

c'est bon!

"C'est bon" is one of the most common expressions here. It can be used as a question, "c'est bon?" means "is that enough?" "is that okay?" "is that cool?" or "do you get it?"
Then the answer is "c'est bon!" This can mean "it's enough," "it's all good," or "I get it."

I love the way French is spoken here, with different slang and a different accent. And I love the "franglais" mix that the current volunteers use.
And yes, everything is "bon" here so far. I am having a good time learning things about malaria, politics, local language greetings, parasites, and more. Yesterday we learned how to filter and bleach our water with the Peace Corps water filters. Today we learned how to prick our fingers to make microscope slides to send to the doctor for malaria tests. We also learned some local greetings in Susu, which is the main language for this region.

This morning I did yoga on the roof of the PCV house before breakfast. It felt great to stretch after weeks of not practicing yoga. One of my fellow trainees, an awesome girl named Scotty, came up with me and learned some sun salutations and stretches.

I just had a big fat lunch of rice and meat and a red Fanta, which tasted like bubble gum. I'm tired... After our break, we're going to learn some more Susu. So peace out, everyone. I love you all.

first entry from Guinea

I am here. It's humid and beautiful and wet. The smells and the streets and the market and so many things remind me of Niger, but it is also very different and new and unique. More green. More wet. More people.

I wish I had time to sit and describe everything. It's indescribable, of course. I have that slight nausea that I pretty much always had in Niger, but nothing serious. Not dizzy anymore (for those of you who got my first email) because the medical officer gave me electrolytes and water and told me I was dizzy because of dehydration (from the airline people being stingy with water) and low blood sugar.

Just got back from the beach. Beautiful sunset. Dirty water. Dirty dog. No electricity at bar. Being called "fote" by all random Guineans. Guess what that means! Yep. "White person." I find it amusing, and not at all offensive. Much like being called "anasara" in Niger.

I won't have internet for much longer because I'm leaving for training in a few days, so snail mail me or text me. I got a Guinean cell phone... email me before the 12th for the number. Or get it from Joy.
You can text me anytime, but if you want to call, the best time is the weekends. It's 7 hours earlier here. Please text before calling to see if I can take the call. And the cheapest thing is to search online for African phone cards and find the best rate for Guinea.

I love you all!

last night in US

Today we had a long meeting/orientation with Peace Corps. I got to meet the group that I'll be traveling with. There are 17 of us, I think, and they are all pretty cool people. A high percentage of the group will be physics teachers, and there are a few chemistry teachers, physics teachers, math teachers, and English teachers. I definitely get a good vibe from all of them and I think that we'll grow to be good friends during training.

I signed up for a correspondence with an American classroom, and I requested that my good friend Taramal, who teaches in South Phoenix, be my counterpart teacher. I think it might be good for some kids at his school to see a bigger picture of the world.

Not much else interesting to say... the meeting went over anxieties, aspirations, Peace Corps policies, safety, and travel logistics.
We are meeting early tomorrow morning to go get vaccinations in Philadelphia, then we're boarding a bus to New York and we'll be flying out tomorrow evening.

For my last night in the US, I worked out in the hotel fitness center and swam on the pool on the hotel roof. Now I'm going to re-pack my stuff and go to sleep.
Next time I write, it will be from Guinea.
Goodnight, world!