Once Upon A Spelling Bee

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity of participating in a volunteer-organized and country-wide spelling bee. Across Guinea, hundreds of middle school students competed against each other to qualify for spelling bees at both regional and national levels. While my students came nowhere close to winning their regional bee, it was a really good experience for them to get out of their isolated village and see a little bit of the country. I had a lot of fun not only hosting the bee at my school, but helping my kids prepare to compete regionally. It's something that I hope will become a Peace Corps Guinea tradition!

In the French language, as far as I know, there isn't exactly a word for Spelling Bee. The word that was given to me, “concours d'orthographe” was misunderstood, and understandably so, by the administration to mean “writing competition.” So the day of the bee arrived. Out of the 285 students at my school, 30 decided to participate. Out of those thirty, about seventy-five percent were students from the grades that I teach. For each of the grades, the French teacher had composed a subject and wrote that on the board. 7^th grade had to complete sentences with a or à, 8^th grade had to determine the prefix and the root of each given word, and 9^th and 10^th grade had to correctly conjugate the past participle for the given sentences. The results of the first round were quickly announced. Anyone that received a passing grade got to go on to the second round, which I explained was to be a spelling bee. The administration told me that they understood, but when the day of the bee arrived, they had actually prepared a dictation! This time I was able to stop them before the dictation took place and we finally had a real spelling bee.

Once the real spelling bee started, I was appalled by how it went down. The name of the student was read, and the student would stand up. The word was read, and they were given the chance to spell it. Not only were there many problems with students spelling synonyms, but plural words were frequently given without context. In English it is different because we actually pronounce the “s” as the end of words. In French, that “s” is silent, making it really hard on the kids. If that wasn't bad enough, they had to spell with all the accents and call them by the correct name. When a student would spell the word incorrectly, the director of studies would say “You were wrong. You are eliminated. Thanks. Go home.” Just like that! No, good job, good effort, or anything that I've heard after losing something. I guess it was short and to the point, but the kids had a lot riding on this and were so disappointed when they messed up. Throughout the bee, I was so nervous for all of the kids I knew. It didn't take long until we were down to three kids, one of my 9^th graders and two of my 10^th graders. They battled it out for awhile until one kid, Amadou finally secured first place. Labilé and Yaya battled for a while until Yaya triumphed. My heart broke when I saw Labilé's face. He was so disappointed and was on the verge of tears. When Guineans are actually trying to do something, they put great importance on winning. They don't want to face the shame later on if they lose.

So that was that. I now had two weeks to get these kids ready for regionals, where they'd be in unknown territory, competing with kids from urban areas and much better schools. We spent every other night of the next two weeks studying at my house...and they seemed to be ready for the big day.

I didn't notice how quiet and nervous the kids were until we'd arrived. It was very adorable and fellow volunteer, Liz, did everything she could to help them relax. We all ate rice together and then spent the afternoon playing spoons, which they picked up very quickly, and had a blast playing. Before too long, my kids left with the kids who were hosting them. While talking with Liz, she pointed out that they seemed to feel most comfortable when I was around. “You are the only taste of home they have” she explained, which is ironic, because I'm the only strange thing “au village”.

All throughout the next morning, volunteers from the region started arriving. All the students sat around NOT talking, instead using their time to study for the bee. Finally, around 3pm, we headed for the bee! They had set up chairs, tables, and a sound system in the town's cultural center. There was a bigger crown anyone expected, and it was clear that all the kids were really nervous, and some appeared to be on the verge of tears. After all the judges were introduced, and the rules were announced, and it got underway. There were 2 phases. In phase 1, they would go around three times, and if they got two out of three words correct, they could continue to phase 2, which was more like a traditional bee. Here I was, like a parent nervous for my kids. Sadly, they did really poorly. They tried, but got zero out of the three words right. It's hard to say why. A lot of it was nerves, and some of it was not understanding the words and spelling synonyms instead. It was pretty tragic, because every other kid there got the two words right, sauf mes élèves. The rest of the bee didn't take long, because the students were eliminated quickly. The winners were two kids from a private school, which is kind of unfair if you ask me. All the other kids were from public school.

All of the losers were really depressed and almost in tears. My kids asked if they could go straight back to the village instead of going to the volleyball game and trip to the night club we had planned for them. It was already six, and way to late to head back to my village, so thankfully I was able to talk them into staying. The volleyball game was awesome. Our team was really bad, but it was still a blast. I'm looking forward to trying to teach my kids volleyball back at school.

So that was Guinea's first spelling bee! While my students didn't win, I still think it was a good experience for them. They really got a reality check. Not only did they get to see a little more of the country, they learned that even though they are numbers 1 and 2 in our school, they are going to have to work hard because they won't always be on top. It was also a reality check for me! It's going to be really hard getting my kids ready for the real world. I'm really nervous about the end-of-the-year test my 10 graders will take. I'll be a nervous wreck that whole week and until the results come out. I care about these kids more than I thought would be possible!