August 28th Blog

What do the words palm tree, plastic bag, loose monkey, and cement brick have in common? Unfortunately all of those words summarize my most recent babysitting experience. My host mom left me with my host brothers and some random neighbor children. Within five minutes, one was climbing a palm tree, and another one had a plastic bag over his head. Once I finally got the kid down from the tree, and had the plastic bag situation under control, they all ran out into the middle of the road to chase a loose monkey (and an angry one at that). Once they returned from that adventure, Sadiki picked up a cement brick and was about to hurl it at Ousmane, I don't think I've ever reacted as quickly as I did then. Between my scream and my glare, Sadiki stopped dead in his tracks and started laughing. After that, all I could do was wait for my host mom to get back and get things back under control. Babysitting is hard, but it's even worse when you don't speak their first language and you are in a culture where yelling is perfectly normal and no one really pays attention when you do it.
Aside from that terrifying experience, I find myself with little to say. This week has been pretty demanding with all the preparation for practice school and the feedback that goes along with practice school! As per usual, my french has been fine, but I'm nowhere ready to be a Guinean teacher. Since the teaching that they are used to hasn't really helped them to think critically or even really grasp the material, I've been trying to explain things in creative ways. However, the trainers (who are Guinean) don't like when I don't teach from the book. So for now, I just have to suck it up,  teach it their way, and deal with the criticism for the next three weeks.
On a positive note (because it is always better to end with that) I bought lots of colorful fabric that I just dropped off at the tailors. I'm pretty excited for not only my first tailored outfit, but my first African one as well! I know that I'm going to look absolutely ridiculous, but I'm not too worried about it. I really apologize for the lack of motivation this week! I'm going to leave you with a list of other notable things that happened this week that didn't really work into the rest of the blog post.

- Saw the president of Guinea! His helicopter landed right behind the training center, and so almost everyone got to see him get out the helicopter and greet the wonderful residents of Dubreka
- My host brother is convinced that I'll go crazy living alone and that I will talk to myself (or to my bike which he has nicknamed Christine)
- My host brothers went on a 15 minute rant about how the toothpaste in Dubreka is more doux than the toothpaste in Conakry (yup. It was as ridiculous as it sounds)
- Exploited my first petite! I sent him to by me laundry soap
- I was so cold while sleeping last night that I dreamed it was snowing
- One night this week my host mom served me pastel colored chips with the consistency of Styrofoam that were somehow made from prawns, and peppers so hot they melted the chips on top!
- Almost got attacked by a ferrel monkey that also tried to eat my friends puppy

Hopefully the internet will work tomorrow so I can post something else. Inch'allah!